Displaying hierarchical relationship of data accessed via subject index

• US 20020059210A1
• Filed: 10/01/2001
• Published: 05/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Town Compass LLC
• Original Assignee: Town Compass LLC
• Inventors: Thorne, Edwin III, Johnson, Wayne L., Makus, Eric J., Usibelli, Robert L., Usibelli, Sean M.
• Granted Patent: US 6,757,673 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A data viewer for displaying information selected from hierarchically organized data enables hierarchical searching by displaying hierarchical levels, or alternatively, by implementing an index search of selected data elements. If the index search is selected, an alphabetically ordered list of selected subjects, categories, and subcategories in the database is displayed for the hierarchically organized data. The selected subjects, categories, and subcategories are each associated with a database record and not with a lower hierarchical level that is a category or subcategory. Upon selecting an element from the index, the user is presented with a topical list. Any topic can be selected to display additional information. When an element is selected during an index search, the hierarchical relationship of the selected element to the hierarchical levels above it is also displayed, enabling the user to select a different hierarchical level that appears more relevant to the information desired.

Claims

1. A method for enabling a user to efficiently search for information associated with a desired data element in a database, comprising the steps of:

(a) organizing data within the database in a dual structure, including a hierarchical-based structure and an indexed based structure;

(b) enabling a user to selectively search said database for information by carrying out one of a hierarchical-based search and an index-based search; and

(c) indicating a hierarchical relationship of a selected data element to other data elements in the database, even though the user has selectively searched the database by carrying out the index-based search, the hierarchical relationship of the selected data element referencing related levels in the hierarchical relationship from which the user can selectively choose to locate the desired data element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is accessed with at least one of a handheld device, a cell phone, a pager, a personal digital assistant, and a portable computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of indicating the hierarchical relationship comprises the step of displaying to the user at least one higher hierarchical level associated with the selected data element.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said at least one higher hierarchical level includes a title.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of indicating the hierarchical relationship comprises the step of displaying to the user at least two successively higher hierarchical levels related to the selected data element.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of indicating the hierarchical relationship comprises the steps of:

(a) displaying a first title representing a hierarchical level related to the selected data element and which is one hierarchical level higher than that of the selected data element;

(b) displaying a second title representing a hierarchical level related to the selected data element and which is two hierarchical levels higher than that of the selected data element, if such a hierarchical level exists; and

(c) displaying a third title representing a hierarchical level related to the selected data element and which is three hierarchical levels higher than that of the selected data element, if such a hierarchical level exists.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of enabling a user to selectively search said database comprises the steps of:

(a) enabling a user to select a control initiating one of a hierarchical-based search and an index-based search; and

(b) when a user has selected a hierarchical-based search, then;

(i) enabling a user to select a subject from a plurality of hierarchical ranked subjects;

(ii) enabling a user to select a category from a plurality of hierarchical ranked categories associated with the subject selected by the user; and

(iii) enabling a user to select a subcategory from a plurality of hierarchical ranked subcategories associated with the category selected by the user; and

otherwise;

(c) when a user has selected an index-based search, enabling a user to select at least one of a subject, a category, and a subcategory from a plurality of indexed subjects, categories and subcategories, each indexed subject being associated with no lower level category, and each indexed category and subcategory being associated with no lower level subcategory;

(d) supplying a list of data elements to a user, said list comprising data elements that are associated with one of the lowest hierarchical levels selected by the user during the hierarchical-based search, and data elements that are associated with the index-based search; and

(e) enabling a user to select said desired data element from said list.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of supplying the list of data elements to the user comprises the step of providing a plurality of database records to the user, each database record in the plurality of database records being associated with a user selection from one of the hierarchical-based search and the index-based search.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of displaying a database record selected by the user from the plurality of database records.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of supplying the list of data elements to the user comprises the step of displaying hierarchical information associated with the list of data elements to the user with said list.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of displaying the hierarchical information comprises the step displaying at least one title of a hierarchical level that is a higher hierarchical level than that associated with said list.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of enabling the user to select a hierarchical level from the hierarchical information to access and select a different data element, to identify the desired data element.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of displaying hierarchical information comprises the steps of:

(a) displaying a subject associated with said list;

(b) displaying a category associated with said list; and

(c) displaying a subcategory associated with said list.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the database having the dual data structure comprises:

(a) a tree data structure that defines the hierarchical relationship between the plurality of data elements in said database; and

(b) an ordered array.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the ordered array includes only data elements that are associated with lower hierarchical levels that comprise database records, and not data elements that are associated with lower hierarchical levels that do not comprise database records.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the ordered array includes data elements at a hierarchical level that is immediately above a lowest hierarchical level of the dual data structure.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein members of the ordered array are displayed in a desired order.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of alphabetically ordering members of the ordered array.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of providing an attribute for each data element of said ordered array, said attribute defining a relative position of each data element in said ordered array, to determine an order with which each element of the ordered array is displayed to a user.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of providing at least one pointer from a node of the tree structure to one of:

(a) a first child;

(b) a next sibling; and

(c) a parent.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the tree data structure comprises at least two types of nodes, a first type of node including at least one of a subject, a category, and a subcategory, and a second type of node including a database record.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of enabling a user to selectively add a database record to a user database that is associated with said database.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of enabling a user to replace said database with an updated database without changing any data in said user database.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of enabling a user to selectively add a data element to a user database that is associated with said database.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of enabling a user to associate a hierarchical level with each data element added by the user, so that if the user selects a hierarchical level associated with a data element added by the user, said data element is displayed in a list of data elements associated with the hierarchical level selected by a user.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein said portable device includes limited memory resources, and wherein the step of providing a database comprises the step of generating a database stored in said limited memory resources and that is read in place from said memory resources.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the database has dual data structures.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the step of generating the database having the dual data structures comprises the steps of:

(a) generating a tree data structure comprising a plurality of branches, said tree data structure defining a hierarchical relationship between the plurality of data elements; and

(b) generating an ordered array that includes data elements at a second lowest level in said hierarchical relationship of each branch of the tree data structure.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of generating the ordered array comprises the step of sorting the data elements in alphabetical order.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of generating the ordered array comprises the step including in the ordered array only data elements that are associated with lower hierarchical levels that comprise database records, and not data elements that are associated with lower hierarchical levels, which are not database records.

34. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of enabling the user to selectively search said database comprises the steps of:

(a) enabling a user to selectively initiate one of the hierarchical-based search and the index-based search;

(b) in response to the user initiating a hierarchical-based search;

(i) enabling a user to select a subject from a plurality of hierarchical-ranked subjects;

(ii) enabling a user to select a category from a plurality of hierarchical-ranked categories associated with the subject selected by the user; and

(iii) enabling a user to select a subcategory from a plurality of hierarchical-ranked subcategories associated with the category selected by the user;

(c) in response to the user initiating the index-based search, enabling a user to select at least one of a subject, a category, and a subcategory from a plurality of indexed subjects, categories and subcategories, each indexed subject being associated with no lower level category, and each indexed category and subcategory being associated with no lower level subcategory;

(d) displaying a list of data elements to a user, said data elements in the list being associated with either the subcategory selected by a user through the hierarchical-based search or with the at least one of the subject, the category, and the subcategory selected by a user through the index-based search; and

(e) enabling a user to select a data element from said list.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the step enabling a user to select said data element from said list comprises the step of displaying a database record associated with said data element to the user.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the tree structure includes a top level of said hierarchical relationship of the data that is a subject level, and a bottom level of said hierarchical relationship of the data that is a database record level.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein an intermediate level of said hierarchical relationship of the data includes at least one of a category level and a subcategory level.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of generating the tree data structure comprises the step of providing at least one pointer from a node of the tree data structure to at least one of a first child, a next sibling, and a parent.

40. The method of claim 36, wherein the ordered array comprises components of the data that are only associated with lower hierarchical levels comprising database records, and not associated with lower hierarchical levels that comprise other types of data.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the step of generating said ordered array comprises the step of organizing the components in a desired order.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the step of organizing comprises the step of alphabetizing the components.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein the step of organizing comprises the step of storing said ordered array in a memory so as to achieve said desired order.

44. The method of claim 41, wherein the step of organizing comprises the step of providing an attribute to each component of said ordered array, said attribute defining a position of each component in said ordered array, to determine an order with which each component of the ordered array is displayed.

45. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of generating the ordered array comprises the step of organizing selected subjects, categories, and subcategories of the data into a desired order, each selected subject being associated with no lower level category, and each selected category and each selected subcategory being associated with no lower level subcategory.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising the step of alphabetizing said selected subjects, categories, and subcategories to achieve the desired order.

48. The database of claim 47, wherein a top level of said hierarchical relationship comprises a subject level, and a bottom level of said hierarchical relationship comprises a record level.

49. The database of claim 47, wherein an intermediate level of said hierarchical relationship comprises at least one of a category level, and a subcategory level.

50. The database of claim 47, wherein the first data structure comprises at least one pointer associated with a node in the first data structure and pointing to at least one of a first child, a next sibling, and a parent, associated with the node.

51. The database of claim 47, wherein the defined level of the hierarchical relationship is a second lowest level of each branch of the first data structure.

52. The database of claim 47, wherein the ordered array is alphabetized.

53. The database of claim 47, wherein said ordered array includes an attribute associated with each component of the data comprising said ordered array, said attribute defining a position of each component in said ordered array, to determine an order with which each component of the ordered array is displayed to a user.

26. A memory medium on which are stored a plurality of machine instructions for enabling a user to efficiently search for information associated with a desired data element in a database, said machine instructions, when executed by a computing device, causing a plurality of functions to be performed, including:

(a) organizing data within the database in a dual structure, including a hierarchical-based structure and an indexed-based structure;

(b) enabling a user to selectively search said database for information by carrying out one of a hierarchical-based search and an index-based search; and

(c) indicating a hierarchical relationship of a selected data element to other data elements in the database, even though the user has selectively searched the database by carrying out the index-based search, the hierarchical relationship of the selected data element referencing related levels in the hierarchical relationship from which the user can selectively choose to locate the desired data element.

27. A system for enabling a user to efficiently search for information associated with a desired data element in a database, comprising:

(a) a memory in which a plurality of machine instructions are stored;

(b) a display;

(c) an input device comprising a plurality of user actuatable inputs; and

(d) a processor that is coupled to the display and to the memory to access the machine instructions, said processor executing said machine instructions and implementing a plurality of functions, including;

(i) organizing data within the database in a dual structure, including a hierarchical-based structure and an indexed-based structure;

(ii) selectively searching said database for information by carrying out one of a hierarchical-based search and an index-based search in response to a user election; and

(iii) indicating a hierarchical relationship of a selected data element to other data elements in the database, even though the index-based search was elected, the hierarchical relationship of the selected data element referencing related levels in the hierarchical relationship from which a level is selectively chosen to locate the desired data element.

28. A method for enabling a user to search for a data element in a database, using one of a hierarchical-based and an index-based searching, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a portable device adapted to both accept input from a user and to display data to a user, and a database that can be accessed by said portable device, said database comprising a plurality of data elements;

(b) enabling a user to selectively search said database for said desired data element by initiating one of a hierarchical-based search and an index-based search; and

(c) displaying said desired data element to a user, such that a hierarchical relationship of said desired data element to other data elements in the database is also displayed to a user regardless of whether the user selectively initiated the hierarchical-based search or the index-based search.

36. A method for organizing data into a database having dual structures that facilitate locating desired information included in the database, comprising the steps of:

(a) generating a tree data structure that defines a hierarchical relationship of the data; and

(b) generating an ordered array of data elements included in the data.

47. A database comprising:

(a) a first data structure that defines a hierarchical relationship of data included in the database; and

(b) a second data structure that comprises an ordered array at a defined level of the hierarchical relationship.