AUTOMATIC USER INTERFACE GENERATION FOR ENTITY INTERACTION

• US 20100023547A1
• Filed: 07/28/2008
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Brid, Regis Lucien Francis
• Granted Patent: US 8,209,355 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Architecture that allows a developer to create an application quicker by providing an engine that automatically creates pieces of an application user interface (UI). The engine can take as input an instance of an entity or any entity type, and create as an output a user interface (UI) that allows the application users view and modify the entity. The architecture also facilitates the association of metadata with the source entity to guide the engine decisions; decisions such as which UI controls the engine chooses to represent the entity properties, how much “real estate” (UI space) the entity is provided, and how the entity properties are to be laid out. Additionally, applications allow the user to interact with known entity types, but also with types that were unknown at the time of the application conception. In other words, applications (e.g., line-of-business) are able to handle random entities that are dynamically generated.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented interface generation system, comprising:

a metadata component for creating an association of metadata with entities; and

an engine component for automatically creating a user interface and presenting the entities in the user interface based on the metadata.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the engine component further considers device characteristics of a device in which the user interface is presented.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the device characteristics include real estate available on the device for viewing the user interface.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the engine component exposes an entity type and an entity instance for generating the user interface and populating the user interface with the entity instance.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the engine component facilitates user interaction with the entities that includes visualization, editing and validation.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata component and engine component are part of a line-of-business application, the metadata component and the engine component facilitate handling of dynamically generated random business entities.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the entities are presented in the user interface using importance metadata and group metadata and based on available real estate of a device viewer of the user interface.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata component associates importance metadata that defines less importance with less important entity properties, and the engine component hides the less important entity properties from view in the user interface based on the importance metadata and makes the hidden less important entity properties viewable via a selectable link.

9. A computer-implemented interface generation system, comprising:

a metadata component for creating an association of metadata with entities; and

an engine component for automatically creating a user interface for a device for presentation of the entities based on the metadata and viewable real estate of the device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the engine component exposes an entity type for generation of the user interface, or an entity instance for generating the user interface and populating the user interface with the entity instance.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata component and engine component are part of a line-of-business application, the metadata component and the engine component facilitate handling of dynamically generated random business entities.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the entities are presented in the user interface according to a layout using importance metadata and group metadata, and based on available real estate of a device viewer.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata component associates importance metadata that defines importance of an entity property, and the engine component hides less important entity properties from view in the user interface based on the importance metadata and makes the hidden less important entity properties viewable via a selectable link.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata relates to visibility, size, render hints, grouping, importance, and usage.

15. A computer-implemented method of generating an interface, comprising:

associating metadata with entities; and

automatically creating a user interface for a device for presentation of the entities based on the metadata and viewable real estate of the device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising grouping entity properties based on the metadata.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting a layout of the entities based on the viewable real estate of the device.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising ordering the entities at least one of vertically or horizontally based on importance metadata.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising reinterpreting data passed to an entity based on usage metadata.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising ignoring entities with property metadata relative to an importance threshold.