Interface building/design tool for generating nested interface systems and displays
First Claim
1. A method of creating an interface for an arbitrary application program, said method comprising steps of parsing a description of data to determine attributes of a plurality of objects, partitioning said attributes into groups, establishing a hierarchy among attributes of at least one said group of attributes, providing analysis formulas for computing values of attributes from attributes lower in said hierarchy, and establishing visual characteristics of markers corresponding to values resulting from said computing of values in accordance with said formula.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Design and deployment of an interface for a data processing application is facilitated by a tool, preferably implemented in software, which parses a description of data to form a hierarchy of groups of selector, terminal and intermediate attributes, including generation of attributes through specification of analyses of data, to develop an interface building program which, when executed, builds an interface for the data processing application. The attributes of the hierarchy are configured into layers, analyses are selected and/or specified, interface display pages are configured and global controls are specified using the tool. Markers having freely definable visual attributes and properties corresponding to analysis results such as return codes provide a condensed display which also facilitates access to data nested beneath each marker.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method of creating an interface for an arbitrary application program, said method comprising steps of
parsing a description of data to determine attributes of a plurality of objects, partitioning said attributes into groups, establishing a hierarchy among attributes of at least one said group of attributes, providing analysis formulas for computing values of attributes from attributes lower in said hierarchy, and establishing visual characteristics of markers corresponding to values resulting from said computing of values in accordance with said formula.
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2. A method as recited in claim 2, including a further step of
establishing properties of markers for controlling access to data nested under a said marker.
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17. A machine-readable storage medium having a program stored thereon which is executable by a data processor, said program, when executed on a data processing apparatus performing steps of
parsing a description of data to determine attributes of a plurality of objects, partitioning said attributes into groups, establishing a hierarchy among attributes of at least one said group of attributes, providing analysis formulas for computing values of attributes from attributes lower in said hierarchy, and establishing visual characteristics of markers corresponding to values resulting from said computing of values in accordance with said formula.
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23. A computerized interface building tool including
means for parsing descriptions of data to be managed by an application through use of said interface to develop a categorization and hierarchy for attributes of said data as defined by said descriptions, means for defining analyses of data in accordance with said categorization and hierarchy, means for defining visual attributes and properties of markers of a display, and means for outputting said categorization, hierarchy, analyses and properties to derive an interface building program.
Specification