EXTENSIBLE USER INTERFACE

• US 20080104617A1
• Filed: 06/07/2007
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nolan, Sean Patrick, Apacible, Johnson T., Jones, Jeffrey Dick, Kott, Ryszard K.
• Application Number:
  US11/759,361
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104617A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A user interface is provided for rendering platform data to an output device. The data is sent to the user interface from the protocol along with self-describing rendering information. This information can be in a transform format, such as extensible stylesheet language (XSL) and the like, and/or code-based language such as an object-oriented language, sequential language, hierarchical (such as XML) and the like. The user interface utilizes the self-describing rendering information (and/or a rendering method contained therein) to render the data to the output device. In this regard, the user interface is extensible by modifying the self-describing rendering information, which mitigates the need for additional development to the user interface when rendering methods change (for new field additions, cosmetic preferences, etc.).

Claims

1. An interface for outputting platform data, comprising:

a data receiving component that receives data from a platform, the received data includes at least one self-describing rendering instruction specified by the platform; and

a data rendering component that utilizes the self-describing rendering instruction to output the received data to an output device.

2. The interface of claim 1, further comprising a data requesting component that forwards a request for data from a requesting entity to the platform, the received data based at least in part on the request for data.

3. The interface of claim 2, the requesting entity is the output device.

4. The interface of claim 2, the platform determines the at least one self-describing rendering instruction from a context of the requesting entity.

5. The interface of claim 1, the output device is an auditory alarm.

6. The interface of claim 1, the output device is a personal health device.

7. The interface of claim 1, the data rendering component outputs the received data in a tabular format for viewing on a digital display by utilizing the self-describing rendering instruction.

8. The interface of claim 1, the data rendering component outputs the received data in a graphical form for viewing on a digital display by utilizing the self-describing rendering instruction.

9. The interface of claim 1, the self-describing rendering instruction comprises an XML document that is executed by the data rendering component.

10. The interface of claim 1, the platform is a health integration network comprising a plurality of databases that respectively store health related data originating from disparate sources.

11. A method for rendering platform data to disparate applications and devices, comprising:

receiving data to be rendered along with self-describing rendering information from a platform;

rendering the data to at least one application or device based at least in part on the self-describing rendering information.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising sending a request for data to the platform on behalf of the application or device, the received is data related to the request.

13. The method of claim 12, the platform utilizes at least one value relating to a context of the request for data to provide the self-describing rendering information.

14. The method of claim 11, the data is rendered in a tabular format according to the self-describing rendering information.

15. The method of claim 11, the data is rendered to an alarm for auditory notification based on the self-describing rendering information.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising choosing at least one of a plurality of rendering methods residing in the self-describing rendering information to be utilized in rendering the data.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising executing software code provided in the self-describing rendering information.

18. The method of claim 17, the software code performs a request to the platform for additional information relating to the data to be rendered.

19. A system that utilizes a user interface to provide platform data to a client, comprising:

means for receiving data to be output to a display;

means for receiving self-describing rendering information related to the data;

means for selecting a rendering method from the self-describing rendering information; and

means for rendering the data to the display in a layout specified by the rendering method.

20. The system of claim 19, the rendering method is chosen based at least in part on a context of a request made for the data.