Computer user interfaces that are generated as needed

• US 20020063734A1
• Filed: 11/30/2000
• Published: 05/30/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rahimi, Sia, Sheu, Steve, Khalfay, Afzal
• Granted Patent: US 7,039,875 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

A computer user interface generation system and method is disclosed, wherein computer user interfaces can be generated dynamically during activation of the computer application for which the generated user interface provides user access to the functional features of the application. The generated user interface may be a graphical user interface (GUI) that uses instances of various user interaction techniques. A user interface specification is provided in a configuration database for generating the user interface, and by changing the user interface specification in the configuration database, the user interface for the computer application can be changed during activation of the application.

Claims

1. A method for providing one or more graphical user interfaces, comprising:

for each said graphical user interface (GUI) the following steps (A)-(C) are performed;

(A) activating an encoding of a computer application for which the GUI provides a user interactive computer display for the computer application;

(B) activating a GUI generator for performing the following substeps;

(a) retrieving, from a predetermined data repository, GUI specification information, wherein said GUI specification information includes (i) and (ii) following;

(i) at least one GUI page definition for defining a corresponding page of said GUI, wherein said GUI page definition includes one or more occurrences of presentation data, wherein each said occurrence is related to a corresponding one of one or more GUI user interaction techniques, wherein each said user interaction technique has a distinct collection of user interactions for allowing a user to request a performance of one of a predetermined one or more actions provided by the technique;

(ii) at least one mapping for associating a user request input to said at least one page with a corresponding application functionality that is substantially independent of a format for a display of said page;

(b) generating, using said presentation data occurrences, a corresponding GUI encoding for each of said user interaction techniques;

(C) executing each said GUI encoding for presenting a corresponding instance of said corresponding user interaction technique to the user, wherein each said instance is included in at least a portion of a GUI display of said page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said GUI specification information includes an identification of a natural language for use in the display of said page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of a first and second of said GUIs, said corresponding GUI specification information includes data for providing a display layout wherein an ordering of GUI information on said display is substantially opposite from that of the other of said first and second GUIs.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein for at least a first of said GUls, during said activation of the application, said page has a first GUI display obtained using a first instance of said GUI specification information, and a second GUI display obtained using a second instance of said GUI specification.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said first and second GUI displays of said page use a different one of said GUI user interaction techniques for activating a same said corresponding application functionality for said page.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each of said user interaction techniques includes a different collection of one or more of:

an application bar, panels, a button, a comboBox, a groupBox, a checkBox, an actionbar,

7. The method of claim 1 further including, for at least one of said GUIs, a step of changing, in said data repository, one of said occurrences of said presentation data to a different occurrence of said presentation data, wherein during a subsequent presentation of said page, a presentation of one of said corresponding user interaction techniques for said one occurrence is changed to a presentation of a different one of said user interaction techniques.

8. The method of claim 7, said subsequent presentation of said page is provided without a step of linking or recompiling with said application.

9. The method of claim 7, further including a step of receiving, via a communications network transmission, said different occurrence of said presentation data.

10. An apparatus for providing one or more user interfaces for a computer application, comprising:

a data repository for storing first user interaction specification information providing data for substantially defining one or more instances of user interaction techniques for presentation to a user interacting with a computer application, wherein each said user interaction technique has a distinct collection of user interactions for allowing a user to request a performance of one of a predetermined one or more actions provided by the technique for accessing a functionality of the computer application;

a user interface generator for accessing said first user interaction specification information and generating a corresponding user interface for the computer application, wherein with each activation of the computer application, said user interface generator generates said corresponding user interface;

wherein for a change in said first user interaction specification information within said data repository such that a first data descriptor for a first of said first user interaction techniques is changed in said first user interaction specification information to a second data descriptor for a different second user interaction technique during an activation of the computer application, said user interface generator generates code for presenting said second user interaction technique in place of said first user interaction technique when the user requests access to a functionality of the computer application that had been previously accessible by said first user interaction technique.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further including a user interface builder for allowing a user interface designer to create a second user interaction specification information for replacing said first user interaction specification information in said data repository, wherein said user interface builder has a user interface wherein the designer is able to drag and drop graphical representations of user interaction controls onto a page of said second user interface.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 further including an instance of said data repository and an instance of said user interface generator at each of a plurality of remote Internet sites, wherein for each said instance, DB, of said data repository, said first user interaction specification information therein identifies a user interface layout and language that is preferable to a user at the Internet site for DB.

13. An apparatus for providing one or more user interfaces, comprising:

for each said user interface the following components (A)-(C) are provided;

(A) a data repository for storing first user interaction specification information for substantially defining one or more instances of user interaction techniques for presentation to a user interacting with a computer application, wherein each said user interaction technique has a distinct collection of user interactions for allowing the user to request a performance of one of a predetermined one or more actions provided by the technique for accessing a functionality of the computer application;

(B) a means for activating an encoding of the computer application for which the user interface provides a user interactive computer display for the application;

(C) a user interface generator means having the components (a) and (b) following;

(c) a repository access module for retrieving, from said data repository, said user interface specification information, wherein said user interface specification information includes (i) and (ii) following;

(i) one or more occurrences of presentation data, wherein each said occurrence is related to a corresponding one of one or more of said user interaction techniques;

(ii) at least one mapping for associating a user request input to a display of one of said user interaction techniques with a corresponding application functionality, wherein said application functionality does not require a particular user interface to be displayed to the user;

(d) a generator for generating, using said presentation data occurrences, a corresponding user interface encoding for each of said user interaction techniques;

(D) a means for presenting an activation of said corresponding user interface encoding to the user;

wherein when one of said occurrences of said presentation data is changed in said data repository to a different occurrence of said presentation data during an activation of the computer application, said repository access module retrieves said different occurrence and said generator generates a different corresponding user interface encoding for presentation to the user of a user interface technique substantially defined by said different occurrence.