PLATFORM INDEPENDENT PRESENTATION COMPOSITION

• US 20110258596A1
• Filed: 04/15/2010
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Benson, Ryan S., Otryshko, Volodymyr V., Findik, Ferit, Bykov, Evgueni N.
• Granted Patent: US 9,513,882 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Architecture that includes a platform independent, configuration driven, presentation composition engine. The composition engine that allows dynamic generation of multiplatform user experience (UX) based on a data contract. By composition, the user can select the parts, interactions, and constraints between the interaction and parts, as well as the placement with respect to each other. The UX is dynamically composed from components that are targeted to particular data classes. At runtime, platform dependent component implementations are automatically selected by the engine based on the execution platform of the composition host. A user can create or customize the UX without writing code by composing from a wide variety of presentation widgets that access a wide variety of data sources that can work on many platforms. Compositions are targeted to both a data class and presentation type and can be either predefined or generated.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented visualization system having computer readable media that store executable instructions executed by a processor, comprising:

a store of store definitions that include component definitions and data definitions for components and data associated with a user experience; and

a composition engine that automatically and declaratively composes an instance of an output component based on a store definition, the output component specific to a user experience of a visualization host.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the output component includes a base component, a container component, or a combination of base and container components.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the output component is composed based on a target data type of the user experience.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising an component registry via which an component is searched based on the target data type.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the output component is composed based on a data context.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the output component binds associated component properties to data context elements to link child components.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the composition engine includes global variables that enable data exchange between output components in unrelated data contexts.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the composition engine employs a personalization override that is composed with a selected component definition to override a global variable with a private variable.

9. A computer-implemented visualization method executable via a processor and memory, comprising:

receiving a request for an component to be employed in an execution environment;

searching for an component definition associated with the component;

selecting one or more data definitions for a found component definition; and

automatically composing the one or more data definitions with the component definition to output the component in the execution environment at environment runtime.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising searching for the component definition based on a data type of the requested component when the component definition is not found.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising creating a custom component based on absence of the component requested.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising applying a global variable to the component to enable data exchange between unrelated data contexts.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising overriding a global variable with a private variable to impose the private variable on child components of the component.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

creating a container component when the requested component is not found;

loading the container component with base components associate data type properties; and

outputting the container component as the component.

15. A computer-implemented visualization method executable via a processor and memory, comprising:

receiving a request for an component based on an component execution environment;

searching for an component definition associated with the component;

selecting one or more data definitions for the component definition if the component definition is found;

creating a custom component based on a data type related to the requested component when the component definition is not found;

applying a global variable to the component or custom to enable data exchange between unrelated data contexts; and

automatically composing the one or more data definitions with the component definition to output the component in the execution environment at environment runtime.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising overriding the global variable with a private variable to impose the private variable on child components of the component.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

creating a container component when the requested component is not found;

loading the container component with base components associate data type properties; and

outputting the container component as the component.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising defining data to be passed to the component via a parameter node.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising composing a parent component that includes bindings of properties to child components and bindings of the properties to data components.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the component is composed based on a target data type of a user experience.