Method and system for a flexible-data column user interface

• US 20090164915A1
• Filed: 12/23/2007
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Gasn, Marni Alyse, Sebata-Dempster, Yurika
• Granted Patent: US 9,501,453 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

In embodiments there are provided techniques for flexibly displaying information into one or more columns. One technique includes the user interface (UI) receiving from an end user a selection of display criteria configured by an administrative user. Data from a dataset may be selected and/or ordered for displaying according to the criterion selected by the end user. Alternative embodiments may provide displaying positive and negative data, sorting, and fixed locations.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving from a first user in an administrative role, a set of ordering criteria;

displaying the set of ordering criteria to a second user in an end-user role to enable the second user to select at least one criterion; and

displaying a dataset to the second user according to the selected at least one criterion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying a dataset to the second user according to the selected at least one criterion includes at least one of:

selecting data to be displayed from the dataset according to the at least one criterion; and

ordering data to be displayed according to the at least one criterion.

3. A method, comprising:

receiving from a first user in an administrative role, a set of characteristics for a set of data;

sending a display of the set of characteristics to a second user in an end-user role to enable the second user to select at least one characteristic;

receiving a selection for at least one characteristic from the set of characteristics; and

sending a display of a dataset to the second user correlated with the at least one characteristic that was selected.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the sending of the display of the dataset correlated with the at least one characteristic includes at least sending a display of graphical information that represents the at least one characteristic.

5. The method of claim 4, the graphical information including a bar graph that represents the at least one characteristic that was selected.

6. The method of claim 3, the sending of the display of the set of characteristics includes at least sending a display of a pick list that includes a list of the characteristics, and the receiving of the selection includes receiving a selection of one of the characteristics listed in the pick list.

7. The method of claim 6, the sending of the display of the pick list including sending a display of a pull down menu.

8. The method of claim 3, the set of data being a set of identifiers of documents, and the set of characteristics being a set of characteristics of the documents.

9. The method of claim 8, the identifiers of documents being identifiers of documents that are associated with at least one workspace of a system, the system having at least

a mechanism for adding and removing members from workspaces, each member being granted a level of access to the documents associated with the at least one workspace, and

a mechanism for inhibiting nonmembers access to the documents and inhibiting members access to the documents that is not consistent with the level of access granted.

10. The method of claim 9, the sending of the display of the set of characteristics and the sending of the display of the dataset including at least displaying information about one or more workspaces.

11. The method of claim 10, the sending of the display of the set of characteristics and the sending of the display of the dataset including sending a display of a user interface that displays a list of workspaces.

12. The method of claim 10, the sending of the display of the set of characteristics and the sending of the display of the dataset including sending a display of a user interface that displays a list of documents in a particular workspace.

13. The method of claim 3, the sending of the display of the dataset to the second user correlated with the at least one characteristic that was selected including at least sending a display of the dataset in a first column and sending a display of a value for the at least one characteristic in a second column, each value for the at least one characteristic being in a row that corresponds to a value for the dataset.

14. The method of claim 13,

the sending of the display of the set of characteristics to the second user, including at least sending a display of at least two pick lists to the second user;

the receiving of the selection for the at least one characteristic including at least receiving at least two choices, each choice being for at least one characteristic, each choice coming from a different one of the at least two pick lists;

the sending of the display of the dataset to the second user correlated with the at least one characteristic that was selected, including at least

sending a display of the dataset in a first column;

sending a display of a first set of values, which are values for the first characteristic, in a second column, each value for the first characteristic being in a row that corresponds to a value for the dataset; and

sending a display of a second set of values, which are values for the second characteristic in a third column, each value for the third characteristic being in a row that corresponds to a value for the dataset.

15. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving a series of one or more signals associated with dragging a location of the at least one characteristic selected;

and

sending a display having the at least one characteristic selected located in a location that is based on the dragging.

16. The method of claim 3, the sending of the display of the set of characteristics to the second user including at least sending a display from a system of at least one pull down menu of the second user, the pull down menu including a pick list of characteristics;

the receiving of the selection including receiving at the system a selection of one of the characteristics from the pull down menu;

the sending of the display of the dataset including sending from the system a display of a first column having document identifiers and displaying at least one other column having values for the characteristic selected, each value of the characteristic being in a row having a value for a document identifier, each of the documents being associated with at least one workspace of a system, the system having at least

a mechanism for adding and removing members from workspaces, each member being granted a level of access to the documents associated with the workspace, and

a mechanism for inhibiting nonmembers access to the documents and inhibiting members access to the documents that is not consistent with a level of access granted to the members;

the method further comprising;

receiving a series of signals associated with dragging a location of the at least one characteristic selected; and

sending a display of the at least one characteristic selected in a location based on the dragging.

17. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

sending a display of a user interface, which the set of characteristics is associated with, the display of the user interface including a display of an icon in a location associated with a location where the at least one characteristic is displayed;

receiving a signal indicating that the icon was selected; and

in response to the receiving of the signal indicating that the icon was selected, ordering the data into an order that is based on the at least one characteristic, and sending a display of the dataset sorted in an order based on the at least one characteristic.

18. A machine-readable medium storing thereon one or more instructions, which when implemented cause a machine to implement a method comprising:

receiving from a first user in an administrative role, a set of ordering criteria;

displaying the set of ordering criteria to a second user in an end-user role to enable the second user to select at least one criterion; and

displaying a dataset to the second user according to the selected at least one criterion.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein displaying a dataset to the second user according to the selected at least one criterion includes at least one of:

selecting data to be displayed from the dataset according to the at least one criterion; and

ordering data to be displayed according to the at least one criterion.

20. A machine-readable medium storing thereon one or more instructions, which when implemented cause a machine to implement a method comprising:

receiving from a first user in an administrative role, a set of characteristics for a set of data;

sending a display of the set of characteristics to a second user in an end-user role to enable the second user to select at least one characteristic;

receiving a selection for at least one characteristic from the set of characteristics; and

sending a display of a dataset to the second user correlated with the at least one characteristic that was selected.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the sending of the display of the dataset correlated with the at least one characteristic includes at least sending a display of graphical information that represents the at least one characteristic.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 20, the sending of the display of the set of characteristics to the second user including at least sending a display from a system of at least one pull down menu of the second user, the pull down menu including a pick list of characteristics;

the receiving of the selection including receiving at the system a selection of one of the characteristics from the pull down menu;

the sending of the display of the dataset including sending from the system a display of a first column having document identifiers and displaying at least one other columns having values for the characteristic selected, each value of the characteristic being in a row having a value for a document identifier, each of the documents being associated with at least one workspace of a system, a system, the system having at least

a mechanism for adding and removing members from workspaces, each member being granted a level of access to the documents associated with the workspace, and

a mechanism for inhibiting nonmembers access to the documents and inhibiting members access to the documents that is not consistent with level of access granted to the members;

the method further comprising;

receiving a series of signals associated with dragging a location of the at least one characteristic selected; and

sending a display of the at least one characteristic selected in a location based on the dragging.

23. An apparatus for flexible-data column user interface in a multi-tenant database, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

the machine-readable medium of claim 20.