USER INTERFACE FOR NAVIGATING LARGE SCALE HIERARCHICAL NAMESPACES

• US 20090319956A1
• Filed: 06/20/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mohanna, Manal, Lucas, Ian, Wolters, Nigel, Hassel, Kenik, Emard, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,490,021 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/854
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A system and method of displaying user interface information with respect to navigation of a hierarchical namespace is disclosed. The hierarchical namespace includes a first set of items representing a top level portion of the hierarchical namespace and a second set of items representing lower levels of the hierarchical namespace.

Claims

1. A method of displaying user interface information with respect to navigation of a hierarchical namespace, the hierarchical namespace including a first set of items representing a top level portion of the hierarchical namespace and a second set of items representing lower levels of the hierarchical namespace, the method comprising:

displaying each of the items in the first set of items in a first navigation display area;

after selection of one of the first set of items, displaying a second navigation display area, the second navigation display area including display of a list of one or more items selected from the second set of items;

detecting a selected use of a particular one of the list of one or more items in the second navigation display area;

creating a direct link to the particular one of the list of one or more items; and

displaying the direct link to the particular one of the list of one or more items in an area of the first navigation display area that is associated with the selected one of the first set of items.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising manipulating a user control to access the particular one of the list of one or more items without requiring further navigation upon selection of the direct link in the first navigation display area.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected use of the particular one of the list of one or more items is detected when a user selects an end node of the hierarchical namespace and after a delay period expires, when data is presented in a results viewing area and after expiration of a results viewing period of time, upon the user taking an action with respect to results data associated with the particular one of the list of one or more items or otherwise taking an action related to the particular one of the list of one or more items.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the action is a right mouse button selection or a user selected action from an action pane.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a location of the particular one of the list of one or more items in the second navigation display area is stored in a computer memory and wherein the particular one of the list of one or more items is immediately useable upon selection of the direct link, such that the direct link provides a shortcut to access the particular one of the list of one or more items.

6. A user interface comprising:

a navigation pane including a plurality of selectable items, the navigation pane displayable in a first region of a display; and

a column explorer display area selectively displayable in a second region of the display, the second region distinct from the first region;

wherein a display indicator associated with a particular one of the selectable items in the navigation pane identifies a data item displayed in the column explorer display area, wherein the data item corresponds to the particular one of the selectable items.

7. The user interface of claim 6, wherein the column explorer display area includes a plurality of expandable pop-up display regions or a plurality of fixed display regions.

8. The user interface of claim 7, wherein the column explorer display area is displayed in the second region of the display upon selection of the particular one of the selectable items, and wherein the column explorer display area selectively displays either the plurality of expandable pop-up display regions or the plurality of fixed display regions upon a user selection of either a pop-up mode or a docked mode.

9. The user interface of claim 6, wherein the navigation pane includes a first control item to select a first tree data structure display and a second control item to select a second tree data structure display, wherein either the first tree data structure display or the second tree data structure display is visible;

wherein the first tree data structure display presents hierarchical data of a tree data structure with respect to a first orientation and the second tree data structure display presents the hierarchical data of the tree data structure with respect to a second orientation.

10. The user interface of claim 9, wherein the second tree data structure display is an alternate display to navigate the tree data structure.

11. The user interface of claim 9, wherein the navigation pane is a permanent display region.

12. The user interface of claim 11, wherein each displayable column in the column explorer display area is adjacent to at least one other column in the column explorer display area and wherein each displayable column represents a group of nodes of the hierarchical data of the tree data structure that are at the same level of the tree data structure.

13. The user interface of claim 11, wherein each displayable column in the column explorer display area is vertically expandable to display additional selectable items.

14. The user interface of claim 11, wherein a first displayable column in the column explorer display area represents data at a higher level in the tree structure than data represented by a second displayable column in the column explorer display area, wherein the second displayable column is displayable adjacent to the first displayable column, such that the tree data structure is navigable from a higher level node of the tree data structure to a lower level node of the tree data structure.

15. A system comprising:

navigation pane logic to provide a navigation pane as part of a user interface, the navigation pane including a plurality of displayable data items representing a first set of high level nodes of a hierarchical data structure;

expandable column explorer logic to selectively present one or more columns, the one or more columns to display a second set of data items representing portions of the hierarchical data structure where the second set of data items of the hierarchical data structure are selectively displayed by the one or more columns, wherein a first of the one or more columns includes a first portion of the second set of data items and a second of the one or more columns includes a second portion of the second set of data items, wherein the first portion identifies data items at a different level of the hierarchical data structure than the second portion;

wherein upon navigation to a data item in the one or more columns, a link to the data item is added as a selectable link in association with one of the plurality of displayable data items in the navigation pane.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a navigation service to couple data items displayed in the one or more columns within a column explorer display area of the user interface to corresponding displayable data items in the navigation pane.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising navigation data that is bound to both the navigation pane and to the column explorer display area, the navigation data including a record of a plurality of most recently used data items, wherein each of the records is identifiable by a link that is displayed within the navigation pane.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the navigation pane further includes a second plurality of displayable data items representing a second set of nodes of the hierarchical data structure.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein a first link to a data item in a first column is displayed in a first location in the navigation pane associated with a first data item in the navigation pane and a second link to a second data item in a second column is displayed in a second location in the navigation pane associated with a second data item in the navigation pane.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the one or more columns is adapted to enable a search of data items at a particular level of the hierarchical data structure.