VISUAL HIERARCHY EXPLORER

• US 20100287512A1
• Filed: 05/06/2009
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Gan, Jeff, Cannon, Finlay, Richards, Ronald Wade
• Granted Patent: US 8,677,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/854
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957

Abstract

A method and a system are described that involve generating a graphical tree hierarchy of a data structure and its accompanying metadata. In one embodiment, the method includes building a graphical tree hierarchy with a plurality of levels, wherein the graphical tree hierarchy includes at least a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes. Further, the method includes aggregating at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes at a level of the graphical tree hierarchy, if a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level exceeds a maximum number of nodes per the level. The method also includes scaling down the plurality of leaf nodes, if the plurality of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy exceeds a maximum number of levels.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions therein that when executed by the machine, cause the machine to:

receive a graphical tree hierarchy with a plurality of levels, wherein the graphical tree hierarchy includes at least a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes, and wherein the graphical tree hierarchy represents a data structure;

aggregate at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes at a level of the graphical tree hierarchy, if a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level exceeds a maximum number of nodes per the level;

scale down the plurality of leaf nodes, if the plurality of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy exceeds a maximum number of levels; and

display the graphical tree hierarchy in a predefined GUI region, the displayed graphical tree is associated with the data structure and accompanying metadata.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

compute the maximum number of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a height parameter of the predefined GUI region; and

compute the maximum number of nodes per the plurality of levels of the tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a width parameter of the predefined GUI region.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein instructions causing the machine to receive the graphical tree hierarchy comprise instructions causing the machine to:

add the root node to the graphical tree hierarchy at a first level of the plurality of levels; and

walk through the data structure to build the plurality of non-leaf nodes of the graphical tree hierarchy.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

add a plurality of parent non-leaf nodes at different levels of the graphical tree hierarchy in accordance with the plurality of non-leaf nodes built by walking through the data structure;

add a plurality of child non-leaf nodes to the graphical tree hierarchy in accordance with the plurality of non-leaf nodes built by walking through the data structure; and

.

attach the plurality of child non-leaf nodes to the plurality of parent non-leaf nodes at lower levels of the graphical tree hierarchy in accordance with the walked-through data structure.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein instructions causing the machine to aggregate at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes comprise instructions causing the machine to aggregate every two non-leaf nodes from the subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level that exceeds the maximum number of nodes per the level, the two non-leaf nodes share a same parent non-leaf node.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein instructions causing the machine to scale down the plurality of leaf nodes comprise instructions causing the machine to:

compute a maximum number of leaf nodes per an aggregation node based on a remaining portion of space of the predefined GUI region;

retrieve a largest aggregation node at the level, the largest aggregation node including a maximum count of leaf nodes from the plurality of leaf nodes; and

divide the retrieved maximum count of leaf nodes of the largest aggregation node by the computed maximum number of leaf nodes per the aggregation node.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

round up a result of the division of the maximum count of leaf nodes by the computed maximum number of leaf nodes per the aggregation node to a nearest whole number, if the result is not a whole number; and

scale down the plurality of leaf nodes by the whole number.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

navigate in the displayed graphical tree hierarchy via a set of GUI elements;

display metadata associated with an aggregation node in the graphical tree hierarchy upon user interaction with the aggregation node, wherein the metadata includes at least a portion of;

a name of the aggregation node, a starting name and an ending name for the nodes aggregated in the aggregation node, a number of child nodes to the aggregation node, and a number of leaf nodes under the aggregation node; and

switch between horizontal and vertical orientation of the graphical tree hierarchy.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

receive a selection of a node in the predefined GUI region, the node representing a portion of the graphical tree hierarchy; and

update the predefined GUI region to include a sub-tree defined by the node, thereby drilling into a subset of the graphical tree hierarchy.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

receive a user interaction to drill out of the graphical tree hierarchy; and

in response to the user interaction, update the predefined GUI region to include a subset of the graphical tree hierarchy corresponding to the drill out.

11. A computer implemented method for displaying a tree structure hierarchy on a computer generated user interface, the method comprising:

receiving a graphical tree hierarchy with a plurality of levels, wherein the graphical tree hierarchy includes at least a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes, and wherein the graphical tree hierarchy represents a data structure, the data structure stored in a database storage unit;

aggregating at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes at a level of the graphical tree hierarchy, if a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level exceeds a maximum number of nodes per the level;

scaling down the plurality of leaf nodes, if the plurality of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy exceeds a maximum number of levels; and

displaying the graphical tree hierarchy as a visualization in a predefined GUI region, the displayed graphical tree associated with the data structure and accompanying metadata.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

computing the maximum number of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a height parameter of the predefined GUI region; and

computing the maximum number of nodes per the plurality of levels of the tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a width parameter of the predefined GUI region.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving the graphical tree hierarchy comprises:

adding the root node to the graphical tree hierarchy at a first level of the plurality of levels;

adding a plurality of parent non-leaf nodes at different levels of the graphical tree hierarchy;

adding a plurality of child non-leaf nodes to the graphical tree hierarchy by attaching the nodes of the plurality of child non-leaf nodes to their parents in the plurality of parent non-leaf nodes; and

updating the visualization of the graphical tree.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

updating the visualization with metadata associated with an aggregation node in the graphical tree hierarchy upon user interaction with the aggregation node, wherein the metadata includes at least a portion of;

a name of the aggregation node, a starting name and an ending name for the nodes aggregated in the aggregation node, a number of child nodes to the aggregation node, and a number of leaf nodes under the aggregation node.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein aggregating at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes comprises aggregating every two non-leaf nodes from the subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level that exceeds the maximum number of nodes per the level, the two non-leaf nodes share a same parent non-leaf node.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

navigating in the displayed graphical tree hierarchy via a set of GUI elements;

providing information for the graphical tree hierarchy and for each node of the graphical tree hierarchy; and

switching between horizontal and vertical orientation of the visualized graphical tree hierarchy.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the visualization of the graphical tree includes an inverted histogram plotted along a base of the graphical tree with a plurality of aggregation nodes from the plurality of non-leaf nodes defining a set of bins and the leaf nodes defining a count for each bin.

18. A computing system comprising:

a GUI region with predefined parameters;

a hierarchal data structure stored in a database storage unit;

a graphical tree structure with a plurality of hierarchal levels including at least a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes is aggregated if a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at a level of the tree exceeds a maximum number of non-leaf nodes per that level, and wherein the plurality of leaf nodes is scaled down if the levels of the tree exceed a maximum number of levels, and wherein the graphical tree is a visual representation of the hierarchal data structure displayed in the GUI region; and

a set of GUI elements to navigate in the graphical tree structure and to retrieve information about the root node, the plurality of non-leaf nodes, and the plurality of leaf nodes.

19. The computing system of claim 18, wherein the set of GUI elements to navigate in the graphical tree structure comprises:

a zoom button to zoom an aggregation node of the graphical tree structure, wherein after zooming in, a parent node of the aggregation node becomes the root node and a sub-tree of the graphical tree residing under the parent node is rendered;

an orientation toggle button that toggles between vertical and horizontal orientation of display of the graphical tree structure; and

a select button to select a node or multiple nodes of the graphical tree structure.

20. The computing system of claim 18, wherein the set of GUI elements to retrieve information in the graphical tree structure comprises:

a scale GUI component that displays a number of actual leaf nodes that are represented by a leaf node of the plurality of leaf node;

a total items GUI component that displays a total number of nodes in the graphical tree structure; and

a tooltip GUI component that displays information about each node in the graphical tree structure.