Dynamic data source binding

• US 10,359,914 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2014
• Issued: 07/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Wang, Yifei
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Wilson
• Application Number:
  US14/552,699
• Publication Number:
  US 20160147903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,701 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• 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 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

A method for customizing a user interface of a server-side business application on a client device includes querying the server-side business application for information on an available data source in a current context of the business application and for information on a data type of the available data source. The method further involves mapping the data type of the available data source to a user interface (UI) element type and loading an UI element of the mapped UI type in the user interface on the client device. The method includes the server-side business application to retrieve data from the available data source, and displaying the retrieved data via the loaded UI element in the user interface of the business application on the client device.

Claims

1. A method for customizing a user interface of a server-side business application on a client device at a runtime of the server-side business application, the method comprising:

querying, by a client application on the client device, the server-side business application for explicit identification of a data type of an available data source as being one of integers, Booleans, characters, floating-point numbers, complex numbers, text, alphanumeric strings, arrays, and matrices;

mapping, by the client application, the identified data type of the available data source to a user interface (UI) element type capable of displaying data of the identified data type of the available data source;

selecting, by the client device during the runtime of the server-side business application, mapped UI element types that are compatible with data types of user-selected data sources for display on the client device;

loading, by the client device during the runtime of the server-side business application, an UI element of a selected mapped UI element type in a runtime user interface of the server-side business application on the client device to customize the runtime user interface of the server-side business application on the client device;

dynamically binding the loaded UI element to the available data source during the runtime of the server-side business application, by the client device, without further individual customization for the loaded UI element;

querying the server-side business application to retrieve data from the available data source for the loaded UI element; and

displaying the retrieved data via the loaded UI element in the runtime user interface of the server-side business application on the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein querying the server-side business application for information on an available data source in a current context of the business application includes querying the server-side business application for all data sources available for display in the current context or state of the business application, and for the data types of all such data sources.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, presenting a list of all the data sources available for display in the current context or state of the business application on the user interface of the client device as user-selectable data sources for display.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein mapping the data type of the available data source to an UI element type includes mapping the data type of a user-selected data source to the UI element type.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein loading the UI element of the mapped UI type in the user interface of the business application on the client device includes loading an UI element having the UI element type mapped to the data type of the user-selected data source.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing user-activable features on the user interface that are user-activable to add, modify, delete, or move an UI element on the user interface.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, importing or exporting an UI elements layout of the user interface as a XML file.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, including instructions which, when executed by a microprocessor, cause a client computing device to provide a runtime user interface to a server-side business application by:

querying, by a client application on the client device, the server-side business application for explicit identification of a data type of an available data source as being one of integers, Booleans, characters, floating-point numbers, complex numbers, text, alphanumeric strings, arrays, and matrices;

mapping, by the client application, the identified data type of the available data source to a user interface (UI) element type capable of displaying data of the identified data type of the available data source;

selecting, by the client device during the runtime of the server-side business application, mapped UI element types that are compatible with data types of user-selected data sources for display on the client device;

loading, by the client device during the runtime of the server-side business application, an UI element of a selected mapped UI element type in the runtime user interface of the server-side business application on the client device to customize the runtime user interface of the server-side business application on the client device;

dynamically binding the loaded UI element to the available data source during runtime of the server-side business application, by the client device, without further individual customization for the loaded UI element;

querying the server-side business application to retrieve data from the available data source for the loaded UI element; and

displaying the retrieved data via the loaded UI element in the runtime user interface of the server-side business application on the client device.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein querying the server-side business application for information on an available data source in a current context of the server-side business application includes querying the server-side business application for all data sources available for display in the current context or state of the server-side business application, and for the data types of all such data sources.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed cause the client computing device to provide a list of all the data sources available for display in the current context or state of the business application on the user interface of the client device as user-selectable data sources for display.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein mapping the data type of the available data source to an UI element type includes mapping the data type of a user-selected data source to the UI element type.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein loading the UI element of the mapped UI type in the user interface of the business application on the client device includes loading an UI element having the UI element type mapped to the data type of the user-selected data source.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed cause the client computing device to provide user-activable features on the user interface that are user-activable to add, modify, delete, or move UI elements present on the user interface.