System and method for graphically illustrating external data source information in the form of a visual hierarchy in an electronic workspace
First Claim
1. A method for illustrating data from a data source, the method comprising:
- retrieving the data from the data source;
creating a visual presentation format for the data based on characteristics associated with the data in the data source, where the visual presentation format is hierarchical and where the visual presentation format is different from the format that the data exists in the data source; and
illustrating the data in the form of a visual hierarchy in accordance with the visual presentation format, where the data is illustrated in an electronic workspace that, absent an occurrence of an event designated to trigger a connection with the data source, enables a user to edit or supplement the data without affecting the data source.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method enable automatic importation of data from an external data source into an electronic workspace in the form of a visual hierarchy. To display data from a data source, data is retrieved from the external data source, and a visual presentation format for the data is created based on characteristics of the data (e.g., the field to which the data is assigned in the data source, the type of data, the value of the data, etc), where the visual presentation format is hierarchical. The data is then displayed in an electronic workspace in the form of visual hierarchy that is accordance with such visual presentation format. In the electronic workspace, a user can manipulate and supplement the data without affecting the data source, unless there is a trigger event that causes modifications to the data to be written back to the data source. A further embodiment of the present invention enables modifications to the data in the workspace to be written back to the data source upon the occurrence of one or more select events. When such an event occurs, rules, which are essentially the inverse of the rules applied to create the visual presentation format, are used to convert the visual presentation format back to the data source format. The modified data is then written back to the data source.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method for illustrating data from a data source, the method comprising:
- retrieving the data from the data source;
creating a visual presentation format for the data based on characteristics associated with the data in the data source, where the visual presentation format is hierarchical and where the visual presentation format is different from the format that the data exists in the data source; and
illustrating the data in the form of a visual hierarchy in accordance with the visual presentation format, where the data is illustrated in an electronic workspace that, absent an occurrence of an event designated to trigger a connection with the data source, enables a user to edit or supplement the data without affecting the data source. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
- retrieving the data from the data source;
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25. A software application stored on a computer readable medium comprising:
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a data retrieval module for retrieving data from an external data source a data processing module, in communication with the data retrieval module, for creating a visual presentation format for the data based on characteristics associated with the data, where the visual presentation format is hierarchical and where such visual presentation format is different from the format that the data exists in the data source; and
a visual hierarchy module, in communication with the data retrieval module, for depicting the data in the form of a visual hierarchy (i) in accordance with the visual presentation format and (ii) in an electronic workspace that, absent an occurrence of an event designated to trigger a connection with the data source, enables a user to edit or supplement the data without affecting the data source. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification