User interface annotations

• US 20080209328A1
• Filed: 02/26/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Parkinson, Steven W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,099,673 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Some embodiments of user interface annotations have been presented. In one embodiment, comments are retrieved from a database coupled to a client machine executing an application program, wherein subjects of the comments comprise at least one of a graphical user interface (GUI) of the application program and one or more user interface (UI) elements in the GUI. Then annotations of the comments are presented on the GUI.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

retrieving comments from a database coupled to a client machine executing an application program, wherein subjects of the comments comprise at least one of a graphical user interface (GUI) of the application program and one or more user interface (UI) elements in the GUI; and

presenting annotations of the comments on the GUI.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the annotations comprises:

overlaying each of the annotations on the GUI at a first location associated with a second location of a subject of a comment corresponding to a respective annotation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing a user to add a comment on at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements; and

storing the comment in the database, wherein the database is accessible by other client machines.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a user interface control to allow users to edit the comments; and

updating the comments in the database in response to edits made by the users.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user request specifying one of the annotations; and

displaying on the GUI a comment corresponding to the specified one of the annotations.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the comments comprise an error report on at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements; and

the annotations comprise a graphical representation indicative of an error.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the comments include a suggestion on how to improve at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements; and

the annotations comprise a graphical representation indicative of a suggestion on an improvement to the at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the comments include a suggestion on how to use at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements; and

the annotations comprise a graphical representation indicative of a suggestion on a usage of the at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating each of the one or more UI elements in the GUI with a distinctive identifier, wherein retrieving comments from the database comprises querying the database using the distinctive identifier and an identifier of the GUI.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a graphical user interface (GUI) module to generate a user interface control presented with a GUI of an application program to allow a user to add a comment on at least one of the GUI and one or more UI elements in the GUI; and

a database accessing module to store the comment in a database.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a network adapter coupled to the database accessing module to communicatively couple to a network to access the database.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

an application processing module coupled to the GUI module to execute the application program.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

an annotation module to associate the comment with a distinctive identifier, wherein the comment is stored in the database with the distinctive identifier.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

an annotation module to generate annotations for comments on at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements retrieved from the database, wherein the GUI module is operable to overlay the annotations on the GUI.

15. A system comprising the apparatus of claim 10, further comprising the database.

16. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor, will cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

retrieving comments from a database coupled to a client machine executing an application program, wherein subjects of the comments comprise at least one of a graphical user interface (GUI) of the application program and one or more user interface (UT) elements in the GUI; and

presenting annotations of the comments on the GUI.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein presenting the annotations of the comments comprises:

overlaying each of the annotations on the GUI at a first location associated with a second location of a subject of a comment corresponding to a respective annotation.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

allowing a user to add a comment on at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements; and

storing the comment in the database, wherein the database is accessible by other client machines.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a user interface control to allow users to edit the comments; and

updating the comments in the database in response to edits made by the users.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a user request specifying one of the annotations; and

displaying on the GUI a comment corresponding to the specified one of the annotations.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein:

the comments comprise an error report on at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements; and

the annotations comprise a graphical representation indicative of an error.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein:

the comments include a suggestion on how to improve at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements; and

the annotations comprise a graphical representation indicative of a suggestion on an improvement to the at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein:

the comments include a suggestion on how to use at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements; and

the annotations comprise a graphical representation indicative of a suggestion on a usage of the at least one of the GUI and the one or more UI elements.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

associating each of the one or more UI elements in the GUI with a distinctive identifier, wherein retrieving comments from the database comprises querying the database using the distinctive identifier and an identifier of the GUI.