System and method for providing drag and drop functionality in a communities framework

• US 20070113194A1
• Filed: 03/09/2006
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Coates, Charles, Bales, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,818 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop

Abstract

A community accessible via a portal can be provided for maintaining user membership in a collaborative computing environment. Collaboration resources can be displayed on the portal page. Drag and drop functionality can be provided, which enables a community member to drag drop some resource into a target area, thereby causing a computer to execute an action upon the drop. A drag and drop tag library can be provided for allowing a developer to add this functionality to selected resources. For example, a draggable resource tag can be used by the developer to specify the resource displayed on the portal page, that is to be selected and dragged by a user. A resource drop zone tag can specify a particular area on the portal page into which the draggable resource will be dropped. The action can be a Javascript function call, a form or a page flow action initiated upon the drop.

Claims

1. A drag and drop system in a communities framework, comprising:

a computer having a user interface and a portal page rendered thereon;

a draggable resource displayed on the portal page configured to be selected and dragged by a user and described by a draggable resource tag;

a resource drop zone portion of the portal page for specifying the location of the draggable resource to be dropped and described by a resource drop zone tag; and

wherein the computer executes an action upon the dropping of the draggable resource in the resource drop zone.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the action executed is a Javascript function call and wherein the resource drop zone tag further includes a Javascript function call attribute for specifying the action.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the action is a page flow action initiated when the draggable resource is dropped and wherein the resource drop zone tag further includes a page flow action attribute for specifying the action.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the action executed is a form action and wherein the resource drop zone tag further includes a form action attribute for specifying the action to be performed upon the drop.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a repository connected to the computer and having one or more resources stored thereon for containing community data and wherein the one or more resources is displayed on the portal page.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein a developer is capable of using the draggable resource tag and the drop zone tag to enable users to drag and drop resources in the communities framework.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the draggable resource tag further includes a resource identifier attribute for specifying the unique identifier of the resource to be dragged and dropped.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a drag drop script tag for including the necessary Javascript libraries into the page, the Javascript libraries enabling the action to be performed.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the draggable resource is at least one of an issue, a document, an event and an announcement.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a community accessed via the portal, the community including one or more members having access to the draggable resource and capable of sharing the draggable resource.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the action executed causes the draggable resource to be interlinked with another draggable resource upon the drop.

12. A method for dragging and dropping resources in a communities framework, comprising:

providing a computer having a user interface and a portal page rendered thereon;

associating a draggable resource tag with a draggable resource displayed on the portal page and configured to be selected and dragged by a user;

associating a resource drop zone tag with a resource drop zone portion of the portal page for specifying the targeted area where the resource is to be dropped; and

executing an action upon the dropping of the draggable resource in the resource drop zone.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the action executed is a Javascript function call and wherein the resource drop zone tag further includes a Javascript function call attribute for specifying the action.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the action is a page flow action initiated when the draggable resource is dropped and wherein the resource drop zone tag further includes a page flow action attribute for specifying the action.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the action executed is a form action and wherein the resource drop zone tag further includes a form action attribute for specifying the action to be performed upon the drop.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

providing a repository connected to the computer and having one or more resources stored thereon for containing community data and wherein the one or more resources is displayed on the portal page.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the draggable resource tag and the drop zone tag are used by the developer to enable users to drag and drop resources in the communities framework.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein the draggable resource tag further includes a resource identifier attribute for specifying the unique identifier of the resource to be dragged and dropped.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein the draggable resource is at least one of an issue, a document, an event and an announcement.

20. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by one or more processors cause the system to:

provide a computer having a user interface and a portal page rendered thereon;

associate a draggable resource tag with a draggable resource displayed on the portal page and configured to be selected and dragged by a user;

associate a resource drop zone tag with a resource drop zone portion of the portal page for specifying the targeted area where the resource is to be dropped; and

execute an action upon the dropping of the draggable resource in the resource drop zone.