POSITIONING AND REALIZING OF VIRTUALIZED VISIBLE CONTENT WITHIN A VIEWPORT

• US 20090327952A1
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Christensen, Jason Alan, Debry, Fabrice A., Karas, Benjamin
• Granted Patent: US 8,381,123 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/786
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04855 Interaction with scrollbars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A method and medium are provided for presenting virtualized visible content within a viewport in a user interface. An anchor is received that represents a point on a line of virtualized visible content and a target value is received that represents a location in a viewport of a user interface. The anchor and target values can be received from user input devices or by analyzing the position of a scroll thumb relative to a scroll trough in the user interface. A first line of virtualized visible content that corresponds to the anchor value is realized by loading the line into memory from another source. The line is then positioned in the viewport based on the target value. Additional lines surrounding the first line are realized until the viewport is full. Lines that are not visible in the viewport can be unrealized, thus conserving computing resources.

Claims

1. A method of presenting virtualized visible content within a viewport in a user interface, the method comprising:

determining the position of the top of a scroll thumb relative to the length of a corresponding scroll trough, wherein the scroll thumb represents the position of the viewport relative to the entire virtualized visible content and is located within the scroll trough in the user interface;

calculating an anchor and target value based on the position of the scroll thumb, wherein the anchor value defines a point on a line in the virtualized visible content and the target value represents a point in the viewport that anchor is aligned with;

determining a portion of virtualized visible content to realize based on the calculated anchor value, target value and size of viewport;

realizing the determined portion of the virtualized visible content, wherein realizing includes loading into memory the determined portion of the virtualized visible content; and

presenting at least part of the realized portion of virtualized visible content within the viewport in the user interface based on the calculated anchor value and target value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

unrealizing at least a portion of the realized virtualized visible content that is not presented within the viewport.

3. One or more computer-readable media with computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of scrolling a line to a specified location within a viewport in an user interface, the method comprising:

receiving a specified location that includes corresponding anchor and target values;

realizing one or more lines of virtualized visible content based on the values of the anchor and target and the size of the viewport, thereby scrolling a line to a specified location within the viewport in the user interface;

determining the proper position for a scroll thumb within a scroll trough; and

presenting the scroll thumb within the scroll trough at the determined position.

4. The media of claim 3, wherein the specified location is received as a form of user input.

5. The media of claim 3, wherein the specified location is received from an application.

8. The media of claim 3, wherein the anchor value defines a point on a line of virtualized visible content.

9. The media of claim 3, wherein the target value defines a point in the viewport of the user interface that the anchor is aligned with.

10. The media of claim 3, wherein realizing one or more lines of virtualized visible content comprises loading into memory the one or more line of virtualized visible content.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein realizing one or more lines of virtualized visible content comprises:

realizing at least a portion of a first line of virtualized visible content corresponding to the anchor value; and

realizing one or more additional lines of virtualized visible content below or above the first line of virtualized visible content until the viewport is filled with lines of virtualized visible content.

12. The media of claim 3, wherein determining the proper position for the scroll thumb within the scroll trough comprises:

determining the total number of lines of virtualized visible content available for presentation;

calculating the ratio of the anchor value to the total number of lines of virtualized visible content available for presentation; and

determining the proper position of the scroll thumb by analyzing the calculated ratio.

13. The media of claim 3, further comprising determining the size of the scroll thumb by:

(a) determining the total number of lines of virtualized visible content available for presentation;

(b) determining the number of lines of virtualized visible content currently being presented in the viewport;

(c) calculating a ratio of the value determined in (a) to the value determined in (b); and

(d) sizing the scroll thumb based on the ratio calculated in (c).

6. The media of 4, wherein the user input is received from a user input device.

7. The media of claim 6, wherein the user input device is selected from the list comprising:

a pointing device, a computer mouse, a touch pad, or a keyboard.

14. One or more computer-readable media with computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of positioning one or more lines of virtualized visible content within a viewport in an user interface, the method comprising:

receiving an anchor value and target value;

realizing a first line corresponding to the anchor value;

positioning the first line in the viewport based on the target value;

realizing one or more lines surrounding the first line; and

unrealizing one or more lines that are not visible in the viewport.

15. The media of claim 14, wherein the anchor value defines a point on a line of virtualized visible content.

16. The media of claim 14, wherein the target value defines a point in the viewport of the user interface.

17. The media of claim 14, wherein realizing a first line corresponding to the anchor value comprises loading a line of virtualized visible content into memory that includes the anchor value.

18. The media of claim 14, wherein unrealizing one or more lines that are not visible in the viewport comprises unloading the one or more lines that are not visible in the viewport from memory.

19. The media of claim 14, wherein realizing one or more lines surrounding the first line further comprises:

determining the number of additional surrounding lines that can be presented in the viewport based on the available space in the viewport after the first line is presented is presented in the viewport; and

realizing the determined number of additional surrounding lines.

20. The media of claim 19, wherein realizing the determined number of additional surrounding lines comprises loading the determined number of additional surrounding lines into memory.