Declarative style rules for default touch behaviors

• US 10,055,388 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2015
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Rakow, Matthew A., Schreiner, Tony E., Litterell, Bradley J., Babbitt, Kevin M., Muralidhar Rao, Praveen Kumar, Rogers, Justin E., Galineau, Sylvain P., Eicholz, Arron J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vargas, Ariel Mercado
• Application Number:
  US14/680,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20150261730A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• Field of Search: 715863
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3668 Software testing software testing in telephone exchanges H04M3/242, testing of hardware G06F11/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/12 Use of codes for handling textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets

Abstract

In at least some embodiments, a mechanism is provided for web developers to request specific default behaviors, such as touch behaviors, on their webpages. In at least some implementations, a Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) rule is utilized to enable or disable manipulations such as panning, pinch zoom, and double-tap-zoom manipulations. The mechanism can be extensible to accommodate additional default behaviors that are added in the future. In various embodiments, the behaviors are declared up front and thus differ from solutions which employ an imperative model. The declarative nature of this approach allows achievement of full independence from the main thread and deciding the correct response using independent hit testing.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of improving response time for a webpage when determining a response to user gestures relative to content located on the webpage, the computer-implemented method comprising:

at a manipulation thread, receiving an input message associated with a touch input for a user gesture relative to content on a webpage, wherein the webpage comprises;

at least one dependent region in which content is processed in response to a user gesture by a user interface thread that performs full hit testing;

at least one independent region in which content is processed in response to a user gesture by an independent hit test thread;

wherein the content that is associated with the independent region is associated with hit testing of a display tree associated with the webpage;

wherein one or more declared values are associated with one or more properties for an element of the independent region; and

wherein the element is associated with the declared one or more values;

in response to the touch input, the manipulation thread sending notification of the input message associated with the touch input to an independent hit test thread rather than sending the notification to the user interface thread, wherein full hit testing by the user interface thread is bypassed for any input message associated with a touch input for the independent region; and

the independent hit thread performing hit testing for any independent regions associated with the touch input by traversing at least a portion of the display tree, and once the hit test is performed, the independent hit test thread then notifying the manipulation thread to initiate one or more default touch behaviors associated with the touch input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the default touch behaviors comprise enabling or disabling a panning manipulation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the default touch behaviors comprise enabling or disabling a pinch zoom manipulation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the default touch behaviors comprise enabling or disabling a double-zap-zoom manipulation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the properties has a value that defers a touch-action decision to a parent of an element.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the properties has a value that disables a manipulation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the properties has a value that causes the element to be treated as a manipulation-causing element.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the properties has a value that specifies that the element is to be treated as a manipulation-blocking element.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the hit testing using the independent hit test thread comprises utilizing a Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) rule to enable or disable manipulations associated with the default touch behaviors.

10. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer readable media embodying computer readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, perform operations for implementing a computer-controlled method of improving response time for a webpage when determining a response to user gestures relative to content located on the webpage, the computer-controlled method comprising;

at a manipulation thread, receiving an input message associated with a touch input for a user gesture relative to content on a webpage, wherein the webpage comprises;

at least one dependent region in which content is processed in response to a user gesture by a user interface thread that performs full hit testing;

at least one independent region in which content is processed in response to a user gesture by an independent hit test thread;

wherein the content that is associated with the independent region is associated with hit testing of a display tree associated with the webpage;

wherein one or more declared values are associated with one or more properties for an element of the independent region; and

wherein the element is associated with the declared one or more values;

in response to the touch input, the manipulation thread sending notification of the input message associated with the touch input to an independent hit test thread rather than sending the notification to the user interface thread, wherein full hit testing by the user interface thread is bypassed for any input message associated with a touch input for the independent region; and

the independent hit thread performing hit testing for any independent regions associated with the touch input by traversing at least a portion of the display tree, and once the hit test is performed, the independent hit test thread then notifying the manipulation thread to initiate one or more default touch behaviors associated with the touch input.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the default touch behaviors comprise enabling or disabling a panning manipulation.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the default touch behaviors comprise enabling or disabling a pinch zoom manipulation.

13. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the default touch behaviors comprise enabling or disabling a double-tap-zoom manipulation.

14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein one of the properties has a value that defers a touch-action decision to a parent of an element.

15. The computing device of claim 10, wherein one of the properties has a value that disables a manipulation.

16. The computing device of claim 10, wherein one of the properties has a value that causes the element to be treated as a manipulation-causing element.

17. The computing device of claim 10, wherein one of the properties has a value that specifies that the element is to be treated as a manipulation-blocking element.

18. The computing device of claim 10, wherein performing the hit testing using the independent hit test thread comprises utilizing a Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) rule to enable or disable manipulations associated with the default touch behaviors.

19. A hardware memory device containing computer-executable instructions which, when implemented by one or more processors, perform a computer-controlled method of improving response time for a webpage when determining a response to user gestures relative to content located on the webpage, the computer-controlled method comprising:

at a manipulation thread, receiving an input message associated with a touch input for a user gesture relative to content on a webpage, wherein the webpage comprises;

at least one dependent region in which content is processed in response to a user gesture by a user interface thread that performs full hit testing;

at least one independent region in which content is processed in response to a user gesture by an independent hit test thread;

wherein the content that is associated with the independent region is associated with hit testing of a display tree associated with the webpage;

wherein one or more declared values are associated with one or more properties for an element of the independent region; and

wherein the element is associated with the declared one or more values;

in response to the touch input, the manipulation thread sending notification of the input message associated with the touch input to an independent hit test thread rather than sending the notification to the user interface thread, wherein full hit testing by the user interface thread is bypassed for any input message associated with a touch input for the independent region; and

the independent hit thread performing hit testing for any independent regions associated with the touch input by traversing at least a portion of the display tree, and once the hit test is performed, the independent hit test thread then notifying the manipulation thread to initiate one or more default touch behaviors associated with the touch input.