User interfaces for scoped hierarchical data sets

• US 20090063517A1
• Filed: 08/30/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jasinski, Aaron, Wan, Samuel, Wright, Dawn
• Application Number:
  US11/897,804
• Publication Number:
  US 20090063517A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/64 Browsing; Visualisation therefor generation of a list or set of audio data G06F16/638
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9027 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957

Abstract

One or more hierarchical scopes may be applied to various portions of a hierarchical data set to represent a logical grouping of various nodes in the hierarchy. Various user interfaces may be devised to navigate within such a scoped hierarchical data set, such as a scoped treeview that limits the viewed portion of the tree to the hierarchical scope and/or a scoped breadcrumb list containing an aggregated breadcrumb for the nodes sharing a scope to condense the breadcrumb list. Several embodiments of user interface components featuring such scoped treeviews and/or scoped breadcrumb lists and having various advantages are presented, as well as a few contexts for applying such scoped treeviews and/or scoped breadcrumb lists.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a path from a root node to a selected node in a scoped hierarchical data set, the path having at least one scope, the method comprising:

generating a breadcrumb list representing the path, respective nodes of a scope aggregated into a scoped breadcrumb.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

displaying the breadcrumb list.

3. The method of claim 2, respective hierarchical scopes associated with a distinctive visual style, and the displaying comprising:

displaying at least one scoped breadcrumb according to the visual style of the hierarchical scope of the scoped breadcrumb.

4. The method of claim 3, the distinctive visual style of the hierarchical scope comprising a color.

5. The method of claim 2, at least one scoped breadcrumb displayed in a collapsed view comprising fewer than all of the nodes in the scoped breadcrumb.

6. The method of claim 5, the collapsed view comprising the highest level node in the scoped breadcrumb and the lowest level node in the scoped breadcrumb.

7. The method of claim 6, the displaying comprising displaying in the collapsed view scoped breadcrumbs other than the scoped breadcrumb corresponding to the selected node.

8. The method of claim 5, comprising:

upon receiving user input representing activation of a scoped breadcrumb, toggling the collapsed view of the activated scoped breadcrumb.

9. The method of claim 2, comprising:

upon receiving user input representing activation of a breadcrumb, presenting a node within the activated breadcrumb in a user interface component.

10. The method of claim 9, the user interface component comprising:

a viewer configured to display the node within the activated breadcrumb.

11. A computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 1.

12. A system for identifying a path from a root node to a selected node in a scoped hierarchical data set, the path having at least one scope, the system comprising:

a memory configured to represent the scoped hierarchical data set, and

a breadcrumbing component configured to generate a breadcrumb list representing the path within the scoped hierarchy in the memory, respective nodes of a scope aggregated into a scoped breadcrumb.

13. The system of claim 12, comprising:

a display component configured to display the breadcrumb list.

14. The system of claim 13, the display component configured to display at least one scoped breadcrumb in a collapsed view comprising fewer than all of the nodes in the scoped breadcrumb.

15. The system of claim 14, comprising:

an input component configured to accept user input representing activation of a scoped breadcrumb, and the display component configured to toggle the collapsed view of the activated scoped breadcrumb.

16. The system of claim 12, comprising:

an input component configured to accept user input representing activation of a breadcrumb, and the display component configured to present a node within the activation breadcrumb in a user interface component.

17. The system of claim 16, the user interface component comprising:

a viewer configured to display the node within the activated breadcrumb.

18. A computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to implement the system of claim 12.

19. A method of displaying a path from a root node to a selected node in a scoped hierarchical data set representing at least one user interface component in an integrated development environment, respective scopes in the scoped hierarchical data set comprising one of a control style, a control template, and a root scene, the method comprising:

generating a breadcrumb list representing the path, respective nodes of a scope aggregated into a scoped breadcrumb.

20. A computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 19.