Populating Dynamic Navigational Content in Disparate Application Environments

• US 20090177997A1
• Filed: 01/07/2008
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Do, Lydia Mai, Seacat, Lisa Anne, Nesbitt, Pamela Ann, Li, FuYi
• Application Number:
  US11/970,201
• Publication Number:
  US 20090177997A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/789
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for providing document-specific widgets in an application program. An application program is launched in a digital device. A document is opened in the application program. Configuration data pertaining to document-specific widgets to be included in the application program user interface is loaded. The document-specific widgets are specific to the opened document. Each document-specific widget defining a document-specific operation to be performed with respect to the document upon activation by a user The document-specific widgets are displayed in the application program user interface and the opened document is displayed to a user of the digital device in accordance with the configuration data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing document-specific widgets in an application program, the method comprising:

launching an application program in a digital device;

opening a document in the application program;

loading configuration data pertaining to document-specific widgets to be included in the application program user interface, the document-specific widgets being specific to the opened document and each document-specific widget defining a document-specific operation to be performed with respect to the document upon activation by a user; and

displaying the document-specific widgets in the application program user interface and the opened document to a user of the digital device in accordance with the configuration data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the document-specific widgets and the opened document includes displaying the document-specific widgets in the same window as the document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the document-specific widgets and the opened document includes displaying the document-specific widgets and the document in separate windows.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the document includes one or more of:

text, images, and multimedia components.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the application program is a web browser application; and

loading configuration data includes receiving a file representing a web page to be displayed in a web browser window, the file including information about document-specific widgets for the web page and web browser application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the received file includes instructions to replace at least some navigational elements in the web page with document-specific widgets in the web browser application user interface.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing the document-specific widgets from the application program user interface in response to the user taking an action causing the document to not be displayed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration data is stored in the digital device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration data is expressed in one of:

a text format, and a programmed format operable to be loaded by the application program.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration data includes names to be displayed on the document-specific widgets and target operations to be associated with the document-specific widgets.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the target operations include one or more of:

opening a different application program, opening a file, and opening a document described by a Uniform Resource Locator.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein loading configuration data includes selecting configuration data from a plurality of configuration data sets in accordance with a pre-defined set of rules.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user input activating one of the document-specific widgets; and

performing a document-specific operation defined by the widget.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user input adding a document-specific widget for the displayed document to the application program user interface.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user-defined application control operation; and

loading configuration data in accordance with the received user-defined application control operation.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the widgets are selected from the group consisting of:

buttons, links, and menus.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

loading configuration data pertaining to user-specific widgets to be included in the application program user interface, the user-specific widgets being specific to the opened document and to operations commonly performed on the document by the user; and

displaying the user-specific widgets in the application program user interface along with the document-specific widgets and the opened document to a user of the digital device in accordance with the configuration data.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein:

loading configuration data pertaining to document-specific widgets includes loading configuration data pertaining to a group of related document-specific widgets; and

displaying the document-specific widgets in the application program user interface includes displaying the related document-specific widgets as a group of widgets.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

launch an application program in a digital device;

open a document in the application program;

load configuration data pertaining to document-specific widgets to be included in the application program user interface, the document-specific widgets being specific to the opened document and each document-specific widget defining a document-specific operation to be performed with respect to the document upon activation by a user; and

display the document-specific widgets in the application program user interface and the opened document to a user of the digital device in accordance with the configuration data.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein:

the application program is a web browser application; and

loading configuration data includes receiving a file representing a web page to be displayed in a web browser window, the file including information about document-specific widgets for the web page and web browser application.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the received file includes instructions to replace at least some navigational elements in the web page with document-specific widgets in the web browser application user interface.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer program further causes the computer to:

remove the document-specific widgets from the application program user interface in response to the user taking an action causing the document to not be displayed.

23. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the configuration data includes names to be displayed on the document-specific widgets and target operations to be associated with the document-specific widgets.

24. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein loading configuration data includes selecting configuration data from a plurality of configuration data sets in accordance with a pre-defined set of rules.

25. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer program further causes the computer to:

receive a user input adding a document-specific widget for the displayed document to the application program user interface.