Dynamic Displays in a Distributed Computing Environment

• US 20120079368A1
• Filed: 11/23/2011
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bernard A. Traversat, Gregory L. Slaughter, Mohamed M. Abdelaziz, Thomas E. Saulpaugh
• Original Assignee: Bernard A. Traversat, Gregory L. Slaughter, Mohamed M. Abdelaziz, Thomas E. Saulpaugh
• Inventors: Abdelaziz, Mohamed M., Slaughter, Gregory L., Traversat, Bernard A., Saulpaugh, Thomas E.
• Granted Patent: US 9,110,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols

Abstract

A mechanism for describing dynamic display objects in a distributed computing environment is described. A service in a distributed computing environment may generate results data for a client in response to client requests. The service may provide schemas describing the presentation characteristics of results data. The schemas may include information for use in presenting the results data. The results data may include data elements, and the presentation schema may include presentation elements each including information describing the presentation characteristics of one or more of the data elements. The client may map data elements to corresponding presentation elements from the schema, and may use the element corresponding to a data element to present the data element. Using the dynamic display objects, display behavior may be altered without having to rebuild code.

Claims

1. A method for presenting results data in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

accessing a presentation schema in the distributed computing environment, wherein the presentation schema includes information for presenting results data for clients in the distributed computing environment;

accessing results data for a client in the distributed computing environment; and

presenting the results data for the client in accordance with the information from the presentation schema.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising a service in the distributed computing environment generating the results data prior to said accessing the results data.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein said generating the results data is performed in response to the client sending a request message in a data representation language to the service, wherein the request message requests the service to perform a function on behalf of the client, and wherein the function generates the results data when performed by the service.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the data representation language is eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

5. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein said accessing results data for a client in the distributed computing environment comprises receiving the results data from the service in one or more messages in the data representation language.

6. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein said generating the results data comprises the service storing the results data on a results space in the distributed computing environment.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein said accessing results data for a client in the distributed computing environment comprises accessing the results data from the results space.

8. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein said accessing results data for a client in the distributed computing environment comprises:

providing a results advertisement for the results data stored on the results space, wherein the results advertisement includes information for enabling access of the results data; and

accessing the results data from the results space in accordance with the results advertisement.

9. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the presentation schema is provided by the service.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the presentation schema is comprised in a presentation schema advertisement comprised on a storage device in the distributed computing environment, wherein the storage device is operable to store a plurality of presentation schema advertisements, and wherein said accessing the presentation schema comprises accessing the presentation schema advertisement from the storage device through a space service.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the presentation schema advertisement is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information for presenting results data in the presentation schema includes information to facilitate the presentation of results data to the client in an audio format.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information for presenting results data in the presentation schema includes information to facilitate the presentation of results data to the client in a visual format.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information for presenting results data in the presentation schema includes information to facilitate the display of results data to the client on a display device.

15. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the results data comprises a plurality of data elements, and wherein the presentation schema comprises a plurality of presentation elements each including information describing presentation characteristics of one or more of the plurality of data elements.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of presentation elements further comprises information for locating the one or more data elements associated with the presentation element, and wherein said presenting the results data for the client in accordance with the information from the presentation schema comprises:

accessing a first presentation element in the plurality of presentation elements;

accessing one or more data elements associated with the first presentation element in accordance with the information for locating the one or more data elements included in the first presentation element; and

presenting the one or more data elements for the client in accordance with the information describing the presentation characteristics of the one or more data elements included in the first presentation element.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising repeating said accessing a first presentation element, said accessing one or more data elements, and said presenting the one or more data elements for each of the plurality of presentation elements.

18. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said accessing a presentation schema in the distributed computing environment, said accessing results data for a client in the distributed computing environment, and said presenting the results data for the client are performed by a data presentation process.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the client is executing within a first device in the distributed computing environment, and wherein the data presentation process is executing within a second device in the distributed computing environment.

20. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the data presentation process accessing the results data comprises:

the client receiving the results data from the service; and

the client providing the results data to the data presentation process.

21-57. -57. (canceled)