GRAPHICAL ACTION INVOCATION METHOD, AND ASSOCIATED METHOD, FOR A COMPUTER SYSTEM

• US 20020057292A1
• Filed: 08/31/1998
• Published: 05/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: HOLTZ, BRIAN
• Granted Patent: US 6,433,800 B1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop

Abstract

Apparatus, and an associated method, provides iconic representations of actions available to be performed upon an object of a particular datatype. The iconic representations are displayed, for instance, as part of a toolbar on a computer display. A representation of an object upon which an action is to be performed is dragged-and-dropped upon the iconic representation of the selected action to invoke that action upon both the dropped object and the object of a particular datatype.

Claims

1. A method for graphically invoking an action to be performed upon a selected object identified by a selected datatype and at least one dropped object, the selected datatype having an action menu associated therewith, the action menu including at least one action, said method comprising:

iconically representing the at least one action of the action menu associated with the datatype of the selected object with an iconic representation of the action;

selectively dragging and dropping the at least one dropped object upon at least a selected iconic representation of the iconic representation of the at least one action of the action menu; and

invoking performance of the selected action upon the at least one dropped object dragged and dropped during said operation of selectively dragging and dropping together with the selected object.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said operation of iconically representing comprises displaying the iconic representation of the at least one action upon a toolbar.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising the additional operation of iconically representing the at least one dropped object with an icon.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said operation of selectively dragging and dropping comprises dragging an iconic representation of the at least one dropped object upon the selected one of the iconic representation of the action of the action menu.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one dropped object identified by the selected datatype comprises a first dropped object and at least a second dropped object and wherein said operation of selectively dragging and dropping comprises dragging and dropping the first dropped object and the second dropped object upon at least the selected one of the iconic representation of the at least one action of the action menu.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said method comprises the additional operation of adding at least one additional action to the action menu associated with the selected datatype.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said operations of iconically representing, selectively dragging and dropping, and invoking performance are carried out within a container-type application.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said container-type application comprises an e-mail application, wherein the at lest one action of the action menu associated with the selected datatype comprises an “

open-address card”

action, a “

mail to”

action, and a “

print”

action, and wherein said operation of iconically representing comprises representing the “

open-address card”

action with an open-address card icon, representing the “

mail to”

action with a mail to icon, and representing the “

print”

action with a print icon.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein said container-type application comprises an address card application.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein said container-type application comprises a host address application for at least one host of a multi-host network.

11. Apparatus for graphically invoking an action to be performed upon a selected object together with at least one dropped object resident in a computer, the selected object identified by a selected datatype, the selected datatype having an action menu associated therewith, the action menu including at least one action, said apparatus comprising:

an icon generator coupled to receive indications of the at least one action of which the action menu is formed, said icon generator for generating an icon representation of each of the at least one actions of the action menu;

a drag and drop interface actuation display upon which to display the icon representation generated by said icon generator and an indication of the at least one dropped object, said drag and drop interface actuation display selectively actuable to drag the indication of the at least one dropped object to the icon representation of the at least one action and to drop the indication of the at least one dropped object thereat; and

a performance invoker coupled to receive indications of dropping of the indication of the at least one dropped object upon the icon representation of the at least one action, said performance invoker for invoking performance of the action upon the at least one dropped object of which the indication thereof is dropped upon the icon representation together with the selected object.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the icon representation generated by said icon generator forms a portion of a toolbar displayable upon said drag and drop interface actuation display.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the action menu includes a first action and at least a second action, and wherein said icon generator generates a first icon representation of the first action and at least a second icon representation representative of the at least the second icon.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the at least one dropped object identified by the selected datatype comprises a first dropped object and at least a second dropped object, and wherein said drag and drop interface actuation display is selectably actuable to drag the indication of the first dropped object to the first icon representation and to drag the indication of the second dropped object to the second icon representation.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said drag and drop interface is further selectably actuable to drag the indication of the first dropped object to the second icon representation and to drag the indication of the second dropped object to the first icon representation.

16. A method for providing for graphically invoking an action to be performed upon at least one selected object identified by a selected datatype, and at least one dropped object the selected datatype having an action menu associated therewith, the action menu including at least one action, said method for providing comprising:

iconically representing the at least one action of the action menu associated with the datatype with an iconic representation of the action;

selectively dragging and dropping the at least one dropped object upon at least a selected one of the at least one object upon the iconic representation of the at least one action of the action menu; and

invoking performance of the at least one selected action upon the at least one dropped object dragged and dropped during said operation of selectively dragging and dropping together with the selected object.

17. A computer program product comprising:

a computer useable code storage medium;

computer readable code embodied in said storage medium for graphically invoking an action to be performed upon a selected object identified by a selected datatype, the selected datatype having an action menu associated therewith, the action menu including at least one action, and at least one dropped object, the computer readable code comprising;

computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect an iconic representation of the at least one action of the action menu;

computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to selectively drag and drop the at least one dropped object upon the iconic representation oft he at least one action of the action menu; and

computer readable program code devices configured to cause invocation of performance of the at least one object selectively dragged and dropped together with the selected object.

18. A method for graphically invoking an action to be performed upon a first object and an at least second object, the first and at least second objects identified by a selected datatype, the selected datatype having an action menu associated therewith, the action menu including at least one action, said method comprising:

selecting the first object;

determining the selected datatype of the first object;

iconically representing the action of the action menu associated with the selected datatype;

dragging-and-dropping the at least second object upon the action iconically represented during said operation of iconically representing; and

invoking the action upon the first object and the at least second object.