Defining the visual appearance of user-interface controls

• US 20060010374A1
• Filed: 07/09/2004
• Published: 01/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cutsinger, Paul L., Layson, Thomas J., Zou, Song, Bower, Nathan William, Corrington, Robert E., Yang, Seung M., Boni, Jalayne Taber, Rugge, Robert David, Koenig, Douglas, Westcott, Derek R., Rasmussen, Kathryn G., Shambaugh, Diane, Viriththamulla, Gamage I., Leong, Mun Ying
• Granted Patent: US 7,398,472 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

Systems and methods for defining at least one visual-display characteristic of at least one user-interface control are disclosed. In accordance with various embodiments of the invention, a dialog template specifies at least one style selector for the at least one user-interface control. A transformation module extracts the at least one style selector from the dialog template. A style sheet defines at least one visual-display-characteristic value that is applicable to the at least one user-interface control and that is associated with the at least one style selector. A style sheet-parsing engine uses the at least one style selector to retrieve the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from the style sheet. And a user-interface-control-drawing module draws the at least one user-interface control in accordance with the at least one visual-display-characteristic value retrieved by the style sheet-parsing engine.

Claims

1. A system for defining at least one visual-display characteristic of at least one user-interface control, the system comprising:

a dialog template that specifies at least one style selector for the at least one user-interface control, wherein the style selector includes at least one of;

(1) a tag name, and (2) a tag name and a class attribute;

a transformation module that extracts the at least one style selector from the dialog template;

a style sheet that defines at least one visual-display-characteristic value that is applicable to the at least one user-interface control and that is associated with the at least one style selector;

a style sheet-parsing engine that uses the at least one style selector to retrieve the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from the style sheet; and

a user-interface-control-drawing module that draws the at least one user-interface control in accordance with the at least one visual-display-characteristic value retrieved by the style sheet-parsing engine.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dialog template specifies a location within a displayed user-interface page of the at least one user-interface control.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the user-interface page is at least one of an HTML page and a platform-specific user-interface display page.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the style sheet defines the at least one visual-display-characteristic value in accordance with syntax and semantics that are substantially equivalent to Cascading-Style-Sheet syntax and Cascading-Style-Sheet semantics, respectively.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value includes a value for at least one visual-display characteristic selected from the group consisting of:

foreground color, background color, borders, font, font properties other than font family, and background image.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value overrides at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic is defined at a level that is less specific than the at least one visual-display-characteristic value.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the less-specific level is selected from the group consisting of:

application-wide, area-specific, and control-specific.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the style sheet-parsing engine retrieves from the style sheet and caches at least one visual-display-characteristic value for at least one additional user-interface control.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the style sheet-parsing engine retrieves the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from a pre-compiled binary form of the style sheet.

11. At least one computer-readable medium containing computer-readable instructions for defining at least one visual-display characteristic for at least one user-interface control, wherein, when executed, the computer-executable instructions perform steps comprising:

specifying, in a dialog template, at least one style selector for the at least one user-interface control, wherein the style selector includes at least one of;

(1) a tag name, and (2) a tag name and a class attribute;

extracting the at least one style selector from the dialog template;

defining, in a style sheet, at least one visual-display-characteristic value that is applicable to the at least one user-interface control and that is associated with the at least one style selector;

using the at least one style selector to retrieve the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from the style sheet; and

drawing the at least one user-interface control in accordance with the at least one visual-display-characteristic value retrieved from the style sheet.

12. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the dialog template specifies a location within a displayed user-interface page of the at least one user-interface control.

13. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the user-interface page is at least one of an HTML page and a platform-specific user-interface display page.

14. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the style sheet defines the at least one visual-display-characteristic value in accordance with syntax and semantics that are substantially equivalent to Cascading-Style-Sheet syntax and Cascading-Style-Sheet semantics.

15. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value includes a value for at least one visual-display characteristic selected from the group consisting of:

foreground color, background color, borders, font, font properties other than font family, and background image.

16. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value overrides at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic.

17. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic is defined at a level that is less specific than the at least one visual-display-characteristic value.

18. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the less-specific level is selected from the group consisting of:

application-wide, area-specific, and control-specific.

19. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 11, containing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, perform steps comprising:

retrieving from the style sheet and caching at least one visual-display-characteristic value for at least one additional user-interface control.

20. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the step of retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value further comprises retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from a pre-compiled binary form of the style sheet.

21. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the step of retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value further comprises retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from a pre-compiled binary form of the style sheet.

22. A method of defining at least one visual-display characteristic for at least one user-interface control, the system comprising:

specifying, in a dialog template, at least one style selector for the at least one user-interface control;

extracting the at least one style selector from the dialog template;

defining, in a style sheet, at least one visual-display-characteristic value that is applicable to the at least one user-interface control and that is associated with the at least one style selector;

using the at least one style selector to retrieve the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from the style sheet; and

drawing the at least one user-interface control in accordance with the at least one visual-display-characteristic value retrieved from the style sheet.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the dialog template specifies a location within a displayed user-interface page of the at least one user-interface control.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the user-interface page is at least one of an HTML page and a platform-specific user-interface display page.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the style sheet defines the at least one visual-display-characteristic value in accordance with syntax and semantics that are substantially equivalent to Cascading-Style-Sheet syntax and Cascading-Style-Sheet semantics.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value includes a value for at least one visual-display characteristic selected from the group consisting of:

foreground color, background color, borders, font, font properties other than font family, and background image.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one visual-display-characteristic value overrides at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the at least one inherited visual-display-characteristic is defined at a level that is less specific than the at least one visual-display-characteristic value.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the less-specific level is selected from the group consisting of:

application-wide, area-specific, and control-specific.

30. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

retrieving from the style sheet and caching at least one visual-display-characteristic value for at least one additional user-interface control.

31. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value further comprises retrieving the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from a pre-compiled binary form of the style sheet.