Display/layout methods and apparatuses including content items and display containers

• US 20060107204A1
• Filed: 11/16/2005
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gula Consulting Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Compography Incorporated
• Inventors: Epstein, Samuel S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,409,635 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/243
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/114 Pagination

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for generating rendering layout specifications for content items to be rendered, using display containers, and/or rendering the content items using the generated rendering layout specification are disclosed. In various embodiments, the generating of a rendering layout specification may include one or more of selecting a display container for a content item, selecting a content item for a display container, and selecting a display container for a display container.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

forming an inner-outer display entity pair having an inner display entity and an outer display entity, the outer display entity being a display container, and the inner display entity being a selected one of a content item and another display container; and

accepting or rejecting placement of the inner display entity into the outer display entity based at least in part on one or more layout placement criteria.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said forming comprises selecting the outer display entity, followed by selecting the inner display entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said forming comprises selecting the inner display entity, followed by selecting the outer display entity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said forming comprises selecting a content item, followed by selecting a display container.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said forming comprises selecting a display container, followed by selecting another display container or a content item.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said forming comprises selecting the inner display entity by a selected one of an inner and an outer execution loop, and the outer display entity by the other of the inner and outer execution loops.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more layout placement criteria include at least one of

a criterion associated with whether scrolling is required for a content item to be placed in a display container, when the inner-outer pair is a content item-display container pair,

a criterion associated with placement of subconstituents of a content item, when the inner-outer pair is a content item-display container pair,

a criterion associated with display space utilization, and

a criterion associated with display aesthetics.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises on rejecting the placement of the inner display entity in the outer display entity, forming another inner-outer display entity pair by replacing one of the display entities of the rejected inner-outer display entity pair, and accepting or rejecting placement of the inner display entity of the another inner-outer display entity pair into the outer display entity of the another inner-outer display entity pair based at least in part on one or more layout placement criteria.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said replacing comprises selecting another inner display entity to form the another inner-outer display entity pair with the outer display entity of the rejected inner-outer display entity pair, or selecting another outer display entity to form the another inner-outer display entity pair with the inner display entity of the rejected inner-outer display entity pair.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises on rejecting the placement of the inner display entity of the another inner-outer display entity pair in the outer display entity of the another inner-outer display entity pair, relocating a previous placement of a content item.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising performing a plurality of diagnostics, and identifying the previously placed content item to be relocated based at least in part on diagnostic data obtained from performance of said diagnostics.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises on accepting the placement of the inner display entity in the outer display entity, forming another inner-outer display entity pair with the inner display entity of the previously accepted inner-outer display entity pair and another outer display entity, accepting or rejecting placement of the inner display entity of the previously accepted inner-outer display entity pair into the another outer display entity based at least in part on one or more layout placement criteria that includes layout placement criteria of whether the placement represented by the another inner-outer display entity pair is better than the placement represented by the previous inner-outer display entity pair, the placement represented by the another inner-outer display entity pair supersedes the placement represented by the previous inner-outer display entity pair if placement of the inner display entity of the previously accepted inner-outer display entity pair into the another outer display entity is accepted.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises on accepting the placement of the inner display entity in the outer display entity, forming another inner-outer display entity pair having another inner display entity and another outer display entity, and accepting or rejecting placement of the another inner display entity into the another outer display entity based at least in part on one or more layout placement criteria.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the another inner display entity of the another inner-outer display entity pair is the outer display entity of the inner-outer display entity pair.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises evaluating one or more layout completion criteria.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more layout completion criteria comprise at least one of

a criterion associate with placement of a sufficient set of content items,

a criterion associated with display space utilization, and

a criterion associated with display aesthetics.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises modifying at least one of inner and outer display entities of the inner-outer display entity pair, and the accepting or rejecting is based on the modified inner-outer display entity pair.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said modifying comprises at least a selected one of

converting a content item from absolute to percentage sizing,

providing a graphic treatment to a content item,

relocating a display entity, and

modifying a size of a display entity

modifying a shape of a display entity.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the outer display entity is a display container, and the method further comprises creating the display container.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprises ordering content items prior to or after performing said forming and (accepting or rejecting).

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said ordering is performed based on values of the content items and/or diagnostic data gathered on the content items.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprises ordering display containers prior to or after performing said forming and (accepting or rejecting).

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said ordering is performed based on remaining content item holding capacity of the display containers.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein said forming comprises selecting the inner display entity by a first execution thread, and selecting the outer display entity by a second execution thread, said first and second execution threads being different execution threads.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a plurality of content items from one or more sources selected from the group consisting of an application, a content cache, and a content server.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said forming and (accepting or rejecting) are performed to generate a rendering layout specification for rendering the plurality of content items.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising processing the generated rendering layout specification, and rendering the content items in accordance with the rendering layout specification.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein said rendering comprises rendering on a selected one of a display surface of a display device, a logical display pane, a portion of a display window, an electronic page, a portion of an electronic page, a portion of a printed page and a printed page.

30. A computer readable medium comprising a plurality of programming instructions configured to program an apparatus to enable the apparatus to practice the method as set forth in claim 1.

29. An apparatus comprising:

an inner-outer display entity pair formation module adapted to form an inner-outer display entity pair having an inner display entity and an outer display entity, the outer display entity being a display container, and the inner display entity being a selected one of a content item and another display container; and

an acceptance or rejection module coupled to the inner-outer display entity pair formation module to accept or reject placement of the inner display entity into the outer display entity based at least in part on one or more layout placement criteria.