Application user interface template with free-form layout

• US 20040268299A1
• Filed: 08/04/2003
• Published: 12/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Mukundan, Anil, Shroff, Vipul, Lei, Shu, Richardson, Russell, Wang, Yuhong, Levin, Isaac, Gampala, Ravikumar
• Granted Patent: US 7,237,227 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and apparatuses for quickly and easily configuring an application user interface using a flexible generic layout file. For one embodiment, a free-form grid layout is provided that allows an application provider to create a desired number of placeholders, each of a desired size, by positioning objects at desired locations on the free-form grid. In this way the application provider configures the application user interface. For one embodiment, the placeholders are created by dragging selected objects, from a provided set of objects, onto the grid layout. For such an embodiment, a set of parameters that describe the objects on the grid layout (e.g., indicating number, size, and location) is stored to a database. At run-time, the parameters are used to dynamically generate HTML code, which when executed presents the application user interface.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a configuration for a user interface of an application;

determining a set of parameters corresponding to the configuration; and

dynamically generating user interface display code based upon the set of configuration parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting the user interface display code to a client digital processing system in response to a request to access the application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration for the user interface is determined by selecting one or more objects and positioning each object in a desired location of a free-form grid layout.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the request is communicated through the Internet and the user interface display code is hyper text markup language code.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more objects are selected using a user input device and each selected object is positioned by dragging the object to a desired location of the free-form grid layout.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein positioning an object in a desired location of a free-form grid layout includes indicating a desired size for the object.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein indicating a desired size for the object includes selecting a perimeter of the object at a first location on the free-form grid layout and dragging the perimeter to a second location on the free-form grid layout.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the hyper text markup language code is dynamically generated based upon the set of configuration parameters and based upon an origin of the request.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the free-form grid layout comprises a plurality of grid cells and the set of parameters includes information indicating the position of each object in reference to one or more of the plurality of grid cells.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the set of parameters includes a grid coordinate specifying one of the plurality of grid cells, a column span specifying a first dimension, and a row span specifying a second dimension for each of the one or more objects.

11. A system comprising:

a server digital processing system having a storage, the storage containing a set of configuration parameters corresponding to a configuration of a user interface of an application;

one or more client digital processing systems coupled to the server digital processing system capable of requesting access to the application such that the request causes the server digital processing system to dynamically generate user interface display code based upon the set of configuration parameters.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the client digital processing system is coupled to the server digital processing system through the Internet and the user interface display code is hyper text markup language code.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the configuration is determined by selecting one or more objects and positioning each object in a desired location of a free-form grid layout.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein positioning an object in a desired location of a free-form grid layout includes indicating a desired size for the object.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein indicating a desired size for the object includes selecting a perimeter of the object at a first location on the free-form grid layout and dragging the perimeter to a second location on the free-form grid layout.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the hyper text markup language code is dynamically generated based upon the set of configuration parameters and based upon an origin of the request.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein the free-form grid layout comprises a plurality of grid cells and the set of parameters includes information indicating the position of each object in reference to one or more of the plurality of grid cells.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the set of parameters includes a grid coordinate specifying one of the plurality of grid cells, a column span specifying a first dimension, and a row span specifying a second dimension for each of the one or more objects.

19. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

accessing a generic layout file for a user interface of an application, the generic layout file having a free-form grid layout and a set of objects;

creating a configuration for a user interface of an application;

determining a set of parameters corresponding to the configuration; and

dynamically generating user interface display code based upon the set of configuration parameters.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 further comprising:

transmitting the user interface display code to a client digital processing system in response to a request to access the application.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the configuration for the user interface is determined by selecting one or more objects and positioning each object in a desired location of a free-form grid layout.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the request is communicated through the Internet and the user interface display code is hyper text markup language code.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the one or more objects are selected using a user input device and each selected object is positioned by dragging the object to a desired location of the free-form grid layout.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 wherein positioning an object in a desired location of a free-form grid layout includes indicating a desired size for the object.

25. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 wherein indicating a desired size for the object includes selecting a perimeter of the object at a first location on the free-form grid layout and dragging the perimeter to a second location on the free-form grid layout.

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the hyper text markup language code is dynamically generated based upon the set of configuration parameters and based upon an origin of the request.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the free-form grid layout comprises a plurality of grid cells and the set of parameters includes information indicating the position of each object in reference to one or more of the plurality of grid cells.

28. The machine-readable medium of claim 27 wherein the set of parameters includes a grid coordinate specifying one of the plurality of grid cells, a column span specifying a first dimension, and a row span specifying a second dimension for each of the one or more objects.