Method and apparatus for iterative refinement of generated user-interface markup

• US 20040109024A1
• Filed: 12/10/2002
• Published: 06/10/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines SA (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Banavar, Guruduth Somasekhara, Hori, Masahiro, Soroker, Danny, Bergman, Lawrence David, Ono, Kohichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,546,541 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

A method and system for applying a method for iterative refinement of a presentation including (a) a developer creating a high-level representation of the user interface; (b) automatically generating a concrete user interface markup from the high-level representation; (c) the developer editing the concrete generated markup and saving the edits to an edit history; (d) the developer editing the high-level representation; (e) automatically re-generating a concrete markup from the edited high-level representation; and (f) automatically or interactively applying the edit history to the concrete markup to produce an updated markup.

Claims

1. A method for providing iterative development of a generated presentation, comprising the steps of:

creating a high level presentation;

automatically generating a concrete presentation from said high-level presentation;

editing said concrete presentation by performing at least one editing step on said concrete presentation;

storing a history of said at least one editing step in an edit history;

modifying the high level presentation;

automatically re-generating a revised concrete presentation based on said modifying of the high level presentation; and

applying said edit history to perform said at least one editing step on said revised concrete presentation to generate an edited revised concrete presentation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said applying said edit history comprises automatically performing said at least one editing step on said revised concrete presentation.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said edit history includes a plurality of editing steps and wherein said applying said edit history comprises selectively performing at least one of said plurality of editing steps.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating said steps of modifying, automatically re-generating, and applying.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying a preview of an edited revised concrete presentation prior to applying said edit history to said revised concrete presentation.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying said high level and said concrete presentations, wherein said editing and modifying comprise user input to said displayed presentations.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said applying said edit history comprises performing said at least one editing step on at least one other presentation.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of defining the scope of said at least one editing step.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said defining the scope comprises identifying the editing step to be a page-specific, presentation-specific, application-wide or cross-application edit.

10. A program storage device readable by machine tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for providing iterative development of a generated presentation, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving user input for creating a high level presentation;

automatically generating a concrete presentation from said high-level presentation;

editing said concrete presentation by receiving user input for performing at least one editing step on said concrete presentation;

storing a history of said at least one editing step in an edit history;

modifying the high level presentation based on received user input;

automatically re-generating a revised concrete presentation based on said modifying of the high level presentation; and

applying said edit history to perform said at least one editing step on said revised concrete presentation to generate an edited revised concrete presentation.

11. A system for iterative development of a generated presentation, comprising:

a high level presentation editor for creating and modifying a high level presentation;

a concrete presentation generator for automatically generating a concrete presentation from said high-level presentation;

a concrete presentation editor for accepting user editing input and executing editing of said concrete presentation by performing at least one editing step on said concrete presentation;

an edit history component for storing a history of said at least one editing step in an edit history; and

an edit history application component for applying said edit history to perform said at least one editing step on said revised concrete presentation to generate an edited revised concrete presentation.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising a display component for displaying said high level and concrete presentations to a user.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising an edit preview component for displaying a preview of said at least one editing step to said user.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein said edit history component is located at said concrete presentation editor.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein said edit history application component is located in said concrete presentation editor.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein said edit history application component is located in said concrete presentation editor.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein said concrete presentation editor further comprises means for defining the scope of said at least one editing step.

18. The system of claim 11 wherein said edit history component further stores user-defined scope for said at least one editing step.

19. The system of claim 11 wherein said edit history application component further comprises means for defining the scope of said at least one editing step.

20. The system of claim 11 wherein said edit history application component is adapted for applying said edit history to perform said at least one editing step on at least one other presentation.