SYNCHRONIZING UNDO/REDO OPERATIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT DOCUMENT VIEWS

• US 20080177800A1
• Filed: 01/18/2007
• Published: 07/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Arkhipov, Mikhail E., Bissonnette, Charles Y.
• Granted Patent: US 7,707,191 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for synchronizing undo/redo operations between different document views. A unified undo stack uniformly stores undo operations and information for multiple views of a document. When a change in first view is detected, the first view submits an undo unit for storage in a global undo unit in the unified undo stack. A second view is notified of the detected change in the first view. In response, the second view submits an undo unit for storage in the global undo unit. Accordingly, undo information for both views is stored together at the unified undo stack. When an undo command is receive from either view, appropriate undo units for each view are applied to each view respectively.

Claims

1. At a computer system including an editor having a plurality of document views including a first view and a second view, the first view and the second view having different document architectures for representing documents loaded into the editor, a method for synchronizing undo operations between the first and second view, the method comprising:

an act of detecting a change to the document in the first view;

an act of the first view creating a global undo unit in a unified undo stack, the unified undo stack accessible to and configured for compatible interaction with both the first view and the second view;

an act of the first view inserting a first view undo operation for the detected change into the global undo unit;

an act of the first view notifying the second view of the detected change such that the detected change can be synchronized between the first view and the second view;

an act of the first view receiving a notification that the second view has inserted a corresponding appropriate second view undo unit into the global undo unit such that undo operations for undoing the detected change are unified in the global undo unit.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of detecting a change to the document in the first view comprises an act of detecting a change to the document in the first view, wherein the first view is selected form among a code view and a design view.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of detecting a change to the document in the first view comprises an act of detecting a change to a Web page document.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the first view creating a global undo unit in a unified undo stack comprises an act of creating a global undo unit in a unified undo stack that is compatible with the document architectures of both the first and second views.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the first view inserting a first view undo operation for the detected change into the global undo unit comprises an act of a code view inserting an code view undo unit for undoing a textual change to a Web page document.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the first view inserting a first view undo operation for the detected change into the global undo unit comprises an act of a design view inserting an design view undo unit for undoing a graphical change to a Web page document.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

an act of the second view determining that the detected change alters how the document is rendered at the second view subsequent to first view notifying the second view of the detected change

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein an act of the first view notifying the second view of the detected change comprises a code view notifying a design view of a textual change to a Web page document.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein an act of the first view notifying the second view of the detected change comprises a design view notifying a code view of a graphical change to a Web page document.

10. At a computer system including an editor having a plurality of document views including a first view and a second view, the first view and the second view having different document architectures for representing documents loaded into the editor, a method for uniformly performing undo operations at the first and second view, the method comprising:

an act of loading corresponding representations of a document into the first view and second view of the editor respectively, the document representations loaded according to the different document architectures for the first and second view;

an act of detecting invocation of an undo command at the first view, the undo command invoked to undo a change previously entered into the document;

an act of accessing a global unit undo from a unified undo stack, the global undo unit including a first view undo unit and a corresponding second view undo, the first view undo unit containing first undo information for undoing the previously entered document change in the first view, the second view undo unit containing second undo information for undoing the previously entered document change in the second view;

an act of applying the first undo information to the loaded representation of the document in the first view; and

an act of applying the second undo information to the loaded representation of the document in the second view such that the second view is consistent with any modifications to the document in the first view caused from applying the first undo information to the first view.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the act of loading corresponding representations of a document into the first view and second view of the editor respectively comprises an act of loading corresponding representations of a Web page document into a code view and a into a design view respectively.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the act of detecting invocation of an undo command at the first view comprises an act of detecting invocation of an undo command in a code view of a Web page.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the act of detecting invocation of an undo command at the first view comprises an act of detecting invocation of an undo command in a design view of a Web page.

14. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the act applying the first undo information to the loaded representation of the document in the first view comprises an act of transitioning the loaded representation of the document in the first view to a state prior to a previously entered change in the first view.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the act of applying the second undo information to the loaded representation of the document in the second view comprises an act of transitioning the loaded representation of the document in the second view to a state prior to a previously entered change in the first view.

16. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

an act of determining that the accessed global unit includes the second undo information such that transitioning the second view to a state prior to a previously entered change in the first view is necessary.

17. At a computer system, including:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more physical computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions comprising an editor and a unified undo stack, wherein;

the editor is configured to;

load a document into a plurality of document views including a first view and a second view, the first view and the second view having different document architectures for representing documents loaded into the editor; and

the unified undo stack is configured to;

receive global undo unit creation commands from either of the first and second views;

create global undo units in response to global undo unit creation commands;

insert first view undo units from the first view into created global undo units, the first undo units including first undo information for undoing document changes in the first view;

insert second view undo units from the second view into created global undo units, the second undo units including second undo information for undoing document changes in the second view;

wherein first undo units and second undo units containing undo information for undoing a document change in the first and second views respectively are inserted into the same global undo unit such the undo information for the document change is uniformly contained in the same global undo unit;

receive undo commands from either of the first and second views for undoing previously entered document changes;

access the appropriate global undo unit corresponding to the undo command;

apply the first undo information contained in the accessed global undo unit to the first view; and

apply the second undo information contained in the accessed global undo unit to the second view such that the second view is consistent with any modifications to the document in the first view caused from applying the first undo information to the first view.

18. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the editor is included in a design application for designing Web pages and where the editor includes a code view and design view for representing Web pages.

19. The system as recited in claim 17, where the unified undo stack is further configured to:

insert a null unit into a global undo unit for the second view when a detected change to the document in the first view does not impact the rendering of the document in the second view.

20. The system as recited in claim 17, where the unified undo stack is further configured to:

insert a null unit into a global undo unit for the first view when a detected change to the document in the second view does not impact the rendering of the document in the first view.