MODELING SYSTEM FOR GRAPHIC USER INTERFACE

• US 20100050152A1
• Filed: 11/05/2009
• Published: 02/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Gilboa, Yuval
• Granted Patent: US 8,522,139 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• 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 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/146 Coding or compression of tree-structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A modeling system for universal specification of user interfaces. The system provides a means for defining user interfaces, including highly complex and dynamic user interfaces, in a manner that is independent of any implementation context. The modeling system leads from a user-friendly visual representation of the user interface, through progressively detailed specifications of structural and behavioral aspects of the user interface parts, until a rigorous definition of the user interface in all its contexts of use is achieved. Using the information captured in the model, tools that automatically generate the fully working user interface code can be built.

Claims

1. A method for generating a user interface, the user interface being configured for use in a client-server environment, the method comprising:

providing an editor for designing a visual representation of a user interface, the editor providing a workspace and a task panel to be displayed on a display device on a client system, the workspace being provided to design the visual representation thereon, the task panel providing a plurality of elements for use in designing the visual representation, one or more of the elements being associated with a server system remotely located from the client system;

selecting a first actor from the task panel, the first actor being a data source object that is one of the elements and includes application logic needed to access application layer provided in the server system;

inserting the first actor into the workspace;

inserting a second actor selected from the task panel into the workspace;

diagrammatically defining a relationship between the first actor and the second actor; and

generating executable code from the first and second actors and the relationship thereof.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a canonic representation of the first and second actor and the relationship thereof, wherein the executable code is generated from the canonic representation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the generated executable code is compatible with a first platform, wherein the canonic representation is used to generate executable code for a second platform.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inserting an operator to the workspace, the operator being configured to process data in a specific way;

diagrammatically defining a relationship between the second actor and the operator.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing an identifier of the first actor in a work session associated with the current instance of the editor, wherein the identifier of the first actor is used to call the first actor stored in the server system during a runtime to have the first actor perform a predetermined task.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

logging on to the server system to launch the editor.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

storing the generated executable code to a repository in the server system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the server system includes an enterprise portal, the enterprise portal including one or more servers dedicated to the application layer and one or more Web servers dedicated to interface with a plurality of client systems.

9. A method for generating a user interface using a modeling system, comprising:

providing an editor for designing a visual representation of a user interface from a server system to a client system, the editor providing a workspace and a task panel to be displayed on a display device on the client system, the workspace being provided to design the visual representation thereon, the task panel providing a plurality of elements for use in designing the visual representation, one or more of the elements being associated with the server system remotely located from the client system;

displaying a scenario selected by a user on the workspace, the scenario being compatible with user requirements for the user interface, the scenario including a plurality of interleaved scenes;

defining each of the plurality of scenes according to inputs received from the user, each scene including concurrently active and collaborating actors, the actors being specialized computational units that represent threads of activities, where each scene is defined by diagrammatically defining a relationship between the actors associated with that scene;

generating a canonic representation of a model represented by the scenario and the scenes; and

generating executable of from the canonic representation.

10. A method for generating a user interface in a distributed computer system, the method comprising:

displaying a first business function component selected by a first user on a first display area of a frontend system, the first business function component being associated with first application logic to access a first business application provided in a server system;

displaying a second business function component selected by the first user on the first display area of the client system, the second business function component being associated with second application logic to access a second business application provided in the server system; and

forming a relationship between the first and second business function components,

wherein a visual representation of the user interface is created based on the displaying steps and the forming step.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

generating a canonic representation of the visual representation; and

generating an executable user interface code from the canonic representation, the user interface code being operable to access the first and second applications provided in the server system to retrieve desired data.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

storing the user interface code in a repository in the server system,

wherein the first and second business applications are different applications.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the visual representation includes a third business function component that specifies a presentation format, the method further comprising:

storing the user interface code in a repository associated with the server system; and

receiving a request to access the user interface code from a second user, wherein the user interface code is executed in response to the request, the code being used to access the first and second applications provided in the server system to retrieve data desired by the second user, wherein the data retrieved for the second user is displayed on a second display area of the client system according to presentation format specified by the third business function component, the first and second display areas being associated with different client systems.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

storing a first identifier for the first business function component in the client system in conjunction with the displaying-a-first-business-function-component step; and

storing a second identifier for the second business function component in the client system in conjunction with the displaying-a-second-business-function-component step,

wherein the first and second identifiers are used subsequently at a runtime to access the first and second application logics, respectively.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

generating a canonic representation of the visual representation; and

generating a first executable user interface code from the canonic representation, the first user interface code being operable to access the first and second applications provided in the server system to retrieve desired data,

wherein the first and second identifiers are inserted in the canonic representation.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the canonic representation is based on an XML-based language, wherein the first and second applications may be the same application or different applications.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

generating a second executable user interface code from the canonic representation, the second user interface code being operable to access the first and second applications provided in the server system to retrieve desired data,

wherein the first code is compatible with a first platform and the second code is compatible with a second platform that is different from the first platform.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

associating an operator to the second business function component; and

connecting an output port of the second business function component to an input port of the operator.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating a canonic representation of the visual representation; and

generating an executable user interface code from the canonic representation, the first user interface code being operable to access the first and second applications provided in the server system to retrieve desired data,

wherein the generated code does not require verification.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the generated code does not require a performance tuning.

21-30. -30. (canceled)