BI-DIRECTIONAL UPDATE OF A GRID AND ASSOCIATED VISUALIZATIONS

• US 20100156889A1
• Filed: 12/18/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Martinez, Edward A., Bhatia, Tushar, Jagadeba, Ramani Ranjan, Korasala, Kaladhar Bapu V S, Govind, Rishab, Sawhney, Sonal, Mukhija, Nitin, Vishwanath, Adithya Nittor, Rai, Siddhartha, Agarwal, Abhishek
• Granted Patent: US 8,576,218 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data

Abstract

Architecture that facilitates the attachment of multiple visualization types (e.g., charts) to the data of a grid and the presentation of the visualization next to the grid. The infrastructure allows each data view to be associated with a set of visualizations. These visualizations are rendered along with the grid (in a separate presentation pane) so that the user does not have to switch context to perform analyses. The visualizations available include charts that show aggregate and/or non-aggregate data. In a server farm scenario, all user interactions such as drill-downs are provided. Server farm drill-downs for these visualizations can be obtained using MHTML (MIME hypertext markup language). The visualizations can be automatically updated when filters are applied on the grid, and when drill-down is performed on the visualization, the grid is automatically updated. The visualizations can be consumed from a web-based browser client and/or thick client, for example.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented data viewing system, comprising:

a data component for generating a grid of data;

a visualization component for associating a visualization with the data of the grid; and

a presentation component for presenting the visualization in combination with the grid data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the visualization is automatically updated when a filter is applied to the grid data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the grid is automatically updated in response to an interactive drill-down on the visualization.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the drill-down is performed based in part on a chart parameter related to a data point of a chart that is selected for drill-down and a group-by parameter.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the visualizations are rendered proximate the data in a server-based data viewing application.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the visualization is a third-party plug-in.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the visualization is formed using an image and an image map that are both received in response to a single request for drill-down.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a composite control component for manipulating the grid and the visualization relative to each other.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a charting component for streaming a chart image in response to a drill-down process.

10. A computer-implemented data viewing system, comprising:

a data component for generating one or more grids of data;

a visualization component for associating one or more visualizations with the data of the one or more grids, the one or more visualizations rendering aggregate or non-aggregate summaries of the data on the one or more grids; and

a presentation component for presenting the one or more visualizations proximate to the one or more grids in a server-based application.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the visualization component builds a multiple content type response that embeds image data and an HTML document in a single response.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the visualization is automatically updated when a filter is applied to the grid data, and the one or more grids are automatically updated in response to an interactive drill-down on the visualization.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising a composite control component for manipulating the grid and the visualization relative to each other, and a charting component for streaming a chart image in response to a drill-down process.

14. A computer-implemented method of viewing data, comprising:

generating a grid of data;

associating one or more visualizations with the data of the grid;

presenting an original visualization proximate to the grid; and

selecting and presenting a different visualization proximate to the grid in response to operations on the grid data or interaction with the original visualization.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising updating the original visualization in response to filtering of the data.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising updating the grid and grid data based on drill-down on the original visualization.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising building a multiple content type response that embeds an image and an image map in a single response for drill-down of a visualization, which is a chart.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating a composite control in a web page that facilitates relative sizing and layout of the grid and a visualization.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising checking consistency of a visualization with the grid data.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the data is related to customer relations management and a visualization represents the data as a chart.