SPATIAL LAYOUT OF HIERARCHICAL SHARED RESOURCES

• US 20080209387A1
• Filed: 02/23/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Czerwinski, Mary P., Robertson, George G., Smith, Gregory R., Biehl, Jacob T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,949,769 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A hierarchical shared resources spatial visualization system and method including a visualization runtime user interface that quickly and efficiently displays a spatial layout of a shared resource having a hierarchical nature. The user interface provides a spatial layout of the hierarchical shared resource and overlays salient activity information of a group'"'"'s interaction with the shared resource. In software development, the user interface provides software teams with awareness of activity by other developers in the group regarding files in the shared source code base. The salient activity includes active file information (such as which files are open and by whom) and source repository actions (such as a developer'"'"'s activity within a project'"'"'s source repository system). Visual geometry and colors are employed to create a visually distinctive environment that is used to convey the salient activity information quickly and efficiently.

Claims

1. A computer-readable memory storing a computer-executable instructions executable by a processor for producing a user interface having a spatial layout of a set of hierarchical shared resources having a plurality of hierarchy levels, the user interface comprising:

a first set of display areas for listing names of a first level of shared resources in the set of hierarchical shared resources such that the first level shared resource names are highest in the hierarchy and such that each of the first level shared resource names are displayed in the user interface;

a second set of display areas within the first set of display areas for listing names of a second level of shared resource such that the second level shared resource names are below the first level shared resource names in the hierarchy and such that each of the second level shared resource names are displayed in the user interface; and

an activity display that is overlaid on the first set of display areas and the second set of display areas to indicate salient activity information of a group using the set of hierarchical shared resources.

2. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the set of hierarchical shared resources is a hierarchical file system containing a plurality of folders and a plurality of files within the plurality of folders and the plurality of hierarchy levels follows the hierarchy of a file organization.

3. The computer-readable memory of claim 2, wherein the salient activity information about the plurality of files includes at least one of:

(a) files currently being debugged;

(b) files currently open;

(c) files currently checked out by a developer;

(d) files currently checked out by more that one developer;

(e) files currently being viewed by a developer;

(f) files currently being edited by a developer.

4. The computer-readable memory of claim 3, wherein the plurality of files are source files used in software development.

5. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, further comprising an executable process that constantly and automatically updates and refreshes the user interface in real time.

6. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the activity display further comprises a distinctive visual property that conveys an importance of the salient activity information such that a visual property of a first activity is more distinct that a visual property of a second activity when the first activity is more important to convey to a user of the user interface than the second activity.

7. The computer-readable memory of claim 6, wherein the distinctive visual property is color such that a color of the first activity is more distinct that a color of the second activity when the first activity is more important to convey to the user of the user interface than the second activity.

8. The computer-readable memory of claim 6, further comprising an executable process that allows a user to select an individual color corresponding to each activity in the salient activity information.

9. A user interface displayed on a display device of a computing device for providing a visualization of an entire shared code base in a software development environment, comprising:

rectangular display areas for displaying folders contained in the entire shared code base;

individual line items in the rectangular display areas that represent files contained in the folders of the entire shared code base, such that the files within a folder appear as line items in the rectangular display area representing that folder; and

activity information overlaid on the rectangular display areas and the individual line items that represent an activity of a group of developers in the software development environment in connection with the shared code base.

10. The user interface of claim 9, further comprising a checkmark icon adjacent an individual file indicating that the file has been checked out by a developer.

11. The user interface of claim 10, further comprising a rectangular border around an individual file indicating that the file is currently in focus by a developer such that the developer is currently viewing the file.

12. The user interface of claim 11, wherein the rectangular border has a first color.

13. The user interface of claim 11, wherein the rectangular border has a second color that is different from the first color and indicates that the developer is currently debugging the file.

14. The user interface of claim 11, further comprising a background within the rectangular border indicating a status of the file.

15. The user interface of claim 14, wherein the background is a third color that is different from the first and second colors and indicates that the file is open by the developer.

16. The user interface of claim 14, wherein the background is a fourth color that is different from the first and second colors and indicates that the file currently is being edited by the developer.

17. The user interface of claim 14, wherein the background is a hashed background that includes alternating bands of a fifth color and a sixth color that are different from each other and different from the first and second colors and indicates that the file currently is being checked out by more than one developer.

18. One or more computer-readable media having stored thereon a computer program executable by a processor, for generating a user interface for visualizing a hierarchical shared code base in a software development environment, comprising:

a rectangular area corresponding to a folder in the shared code base;

a plurality of individual line items in the rectangular area corresponding to names of files contained in the folder;

a background for each of the plurality of individual line items having a first color that appears based on salient activity of a group of developers on a file, wherein the first color is based on a type of salient activity;

a border around each of the each of the plurality of individual line items having a second color that appears based on the salient activity of the group of developers on a file, wherein the second color is based on a type of salient activity and is different from the first color; and

an icon adjacent each of the plurality of individual line items such that each icon;

(a) is a photograph of a developer who has a file checked out when one developer has checked out the file;

(b) is a group icon illustrating multiple persons when two or more developers have checked out the file.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 18, further comprising a flag adjacent the file names indicating a comment has been place by a user on the file.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the layout of the user interface is controlled by using a squarified tree map and a hierarchy that uses a metric based on file activity such that files having greater activity are presented more prominently in the user interface that those file having less activity.