Method for utilizing look and feel in a graphical user interface

• US 20050005243A1
• Filed: 02/27/2004
• Published: 01/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Musson, Scott, Howes, Jason, Bergman, Robert, Beartusk, Brodi, Jolley, Christopher, Naidu, Purushotham Babu, Dew, Douglas, Olander, Daryl B., Cook, Thomas A., Galiana, Fernand, Giridhar, Sathyanarayana, O'Neil, Edward K., Feit, Richard, Breeden, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 8,225,234 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/747
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A method for rendering a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising providing for the representation of the GUI as a set of objects wherein the objects are organized in a logical hierarchy, associating a theme with a first object in the set of objects, rendering the first object according to the theme, rendering any descendents of the first object according to the theme, wherein any descendents of the first object can override the theme, and wherein one of the set of objects can communicate with another of the set of objects.

Claims

1. A method for rendering a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising:

providing for the representation of the GUI as a set of objects wherein the objects are organized in a logical hierarchy;

associating a theme with a first object in the set of objects;

rendering the first object according to the theme;

rendering any descendents of the first object according to the theme;

wherein any descendents of the first object can override the theme; and

wherein one of the set of objects can communicate with another of the set of objects.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

one of the set of objects can respond to an event raised by another of the set of objects.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

a control can have an interchangeable persistence mechanism.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

a control can have an interchangeable rendering mechanism.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accepting a request.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the request in a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the request originates from a Web browser.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a response.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein:

an object can represent one of;

button, text field, menu, table, window, window control, title bar, pop-up window, check-box button, radio button, window frame, desktop, shell, head, body, header, footer, book, page, layout, placeholder, portlet and toggle button.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein:

associating the theme with the first object can occur when the first object is rendered.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first object inherits the theme from a parent object.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the theme specifies the appearance and/or functioning of an object in the GUI.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein:

rendering the first object according to the theme can be accomplished in parallel with rendering of other objects.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the theme can be specified in whole or in part by a properties file.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein:

the properties file can include at least one of;

     1) cascading style sheet;

     2) Java Server Page;

     3) Extensible Markup Language;

     4) text;

     5) Hypertext Markup Language;

     6) Extensible Hypertext Markup Language;

     7) JavaScript; and

     8) Flash MX.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein:

the properties file can specify at least one image.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the GUI is part of a portal on the World Wide Web.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein:

one of the set of objects can respond to an event raised by another of the set of objects.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein:

a control can have an interchangeable persistence mechanism.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein:

a control can have an interchangeable rendering mechanism.

39. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first object can respond to an event raised by the second object.

40. The method of claim 1 wherein:

an object can have an interchangeable persistence mechanism.

41. The method of claim 1 wherein:

an object can have an interchangeable rendering mechanism.

18. A method for rendering a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising:

W accepting a request;

mapping the request to a set of objects that represent the GUI, and wherein the objects are organized in a logical hierarchy;

associating a theme with a first object in the set of objects;

rendering the first object according to the theme;

rendering any descendents of the first object according to the theme; and

wherein any descendents of the first object can override the theme.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the request in a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the request originates from a Web browser.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating a response.

25. The method of claim 18 wherein:

an object can represent one of;

button, text field, menu, table, window, window control, title bar, pop-up window, check-box button, radio button, window frame, desktop, shell, head, body, header, footer, book, page, layout, placeholder, portlet and toggle button.

26. The method of claim 18 wherein:

associating a theme with the first object can occur when the first object is rendered.

27. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the first object inherits the theme from a parent object.

28. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the theme specifies the appearance and/or functioning of an object in the GUI.

29. The method of claim 18 wherein:

rendering the first object according to the theme can be accomplished in parallel with rendering of other objects.

30. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the theme can be specified in whole or in part by a properties file.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein:

the properties file can include at least one of;

     1) cascading style sheet;

     2) Java Server Page;

     3) Extensible Markup Language;

     4) text;

     5) Hypertext Markup Language;

     6) Extensible Hypertext Markup Language;

     7) JavaScript; and

     8) Flash MX.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein:

the properties file can specify at least one image.

33. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the GUI is part of a portal on the World Wide Web.

34. A method for rendering a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising:

providing for the representation of the GUI as a plurality of objects wherein the objects are organized in a logical hierarchy;

associating a first theme with a first object in the plurality of objects;

rendering the first object according to the first theme;

associating a second theme with a second object in the plurality of objects;

rendering the second object according to the second theme; and

wherein the second object is a descendant of the first object.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

accepting a request.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein:

the request in a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request.

37. The method of claim 35 wherein:

the request originates from a Web browser.

38. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

generating a response.

42. The method of claim 34 wherein:

an object can represent one of;

button, text field, menu, table, window, window control, title bar, pop-up window, check-box button, radio button, window frame, desktop, shell, head, body, header, footer, book, page, layout, placeholder, portlet and toggle button.

43. The method of claim 34 wherein:

the first object inherits the first theme from a parent object.

44. The method of claim 34 wherein:

the first theme specifies the appearance and/or functioning of the first object in the GUI.

45. The method of claim 34 wherein:

the rendering the first object can be accomplished in parallel with the rendering of the second object.

46. The method of claim 34 wherein:

a theme can be specified in whole or in part by a properties file.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein:

the properties file can include at least one of;

     1) cascading style sheet;

     2) Java Server Page;

     3) Extensible Markup Language;

     4) text;

     5) Hypertext Markup Language;

     6) Extensible Hypertext Markup Language;

     7) JavaScript; and

     8) Flash MX.

48. The method of claim 46 wherein:

the properties file can specify at least one image.

49. The method of claim 34 wherein:

the GUI is part of a portal on the World Wide Web.

50. A machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor cause a system to:

provide for the representation of the GUI as a set of objects wherein the objects are organized in a logical hierarchy;

associate theme with a first object in the set of objects;

render the first object according to the theme;

render any descendents of the first object according to the theme;

wherein any descendents of the first object can override the theme; and

wherein one of the set of objects can communicate with another of the set of objects.

51. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

one of the set of objects can respond to an event raised by another of the set of objects.

52. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

a control can have an interchangeable persistence mechanism.

53. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

a control can have an interchangeable rendering mechanism.

54. The machine readable medium of claim 50, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

accept a request.

55. The machine readable medium of claim 54 wherein:

the request in a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request.

56. The machine readable medium of claim 54 wherein:

the request originates from a Web browser.

57. The machine readable medium of claim 50, farther comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

generate a response.

58. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

an object can represent one of;

button, text field, menu, table, window, window control, title bar, pop-up window, check-box button, radio button, window frame, desktop, shell, head, body, header, footer, book, page, layout, placeholder, portlet and toggle button.

59. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

associating the theme with the first object can occur when the first object is rendered.

60. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

the first object inherits the theme from a parent object.

61. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

the theme specifies the appearance and/or functioning of an object in the GUI.

62. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

rendering the first object according to the theme can be accomplished in parallel with rendering of other objects.

63. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

the theme can be specified in whole or in part by a properties file.

64. The machine readable medium of claim 63 wherein:

the properties file can include at least one of;

     1) cascading style sheet;

     2) Java Server Page;

     3) Extensible Markup Language;

     4) text;

     5) Hypertext Markup Language;

     6) Extensible Hypertext Markup Language;

     7) JavaScript; and

     8) Flash MX.

65. The machine readable medium of claim 63 wherein:

the properties file can specify at least one image.

66. The machine readable medium of claim 50 wherein:

the GUI is part of a portal on the World Wide Web.

67. A computer data signal embodied in a transmission medium, comprising:

a code segment including instructions to provide for the representation of the GUI as a set of objects wherein the objects are organized in a logical hierarchy;

a code segment including instructions to associate theme with a first object in the set of objects;

a code segment including instructions to render the first object according to the theme;

a code segment including instructions to render any descendents of the first object according to the theme;

wherein any descendents of the first object can override the theme; and

wherein one of the set of objects can communicate with another of the set of objects.