VISUAL CUES BASED ON FILE TYPE

• US 20120151438A1
• Filed: 12/08/2010
• Published: 06/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bach, Michael, Tan, Simon, Joshi, Vishal
• Granted Patent: US 9,098,472 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/168 Details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems, e.g. browsing and visualisation, 2d or 3d GUIs query results presentation G06F16/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

The subject disclosure relates to providing more effective visual cues for distinguishing between files based upon file types. Given that users typically browse and select files based upon their file types, and further that various collections of files often share identical or similar naming conventions, the subject disclosure provides a useful mechanism to reduce the need for close inspection of file names in order to locate desired files. In particular, various file types can be assigned to a set of groups and each group can be associated with a particular color. Thus, visual representations (e.g., icons or tabs) of the various files can be presented with a color-coded element to serve as the visual cue.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates visual cues in connection with file type groupings, comprising:

a categorization component configured to assign at least one file to a group associated with a color based upon a file type of the at least one file; and

a gestalt component, in a computer-readable storage medium, that operatively couples to a file system of an operating system (OS), wherein the gestalt component is configured to apply the color to a visual representation of the at least one file presented by the OS.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the categorization component is further configured to assign the at least one file to the group based upon an extension associated with the at least one file.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the categorization component is further configured to assign the at least one file to the group based upon an analysis of content included in the at least one file.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the categorization component is further configured to assign the at least one file to the group, wherein the group is a member of a set of less than or equal to six groups.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the color associated with the group is one of a primary color comprising red, blue, or yellow;

or one of a secondary color comprising purple, green, or orange.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of (1) a first group included in the set of no more than six groups is associated with hypertext markup language (HTML) files with at least one of the following extensions:

.htm, .html, .hta, .htc, .ss, or .tpl, (2) a second group is associated with cascading style sheet files with a .css extension, (3) a third group is associated with javascript files with a .js extenstion, (4) a fourth group is associated with code-based files with at least one of the following extensions;

.cs, .vb, or .vbs, (5) a fifth group is associated with mixed type files that represent a mixture between code-based files and HTML files with at least one of the following extensions;

.aspx, .asmx, .asax, .ascx, .ashx, .master, .skin, .svc, .asp, .asa, .cshtml, .vbhtml, .aspq, .php, .phps, .class, .install, .module, .ini, or .inc, or (6) a sixth group is associated with extensible markup language (XML) or structured query language (SQL) with at least one of the following extensions;

.xml, .config, .xaml, .xoml, .csproj, .settings, .xsd, .xsl, .xslt, .wsdl, .browser, .mxml, .dbml, .user, .resx, or .sql.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a settings component configured to enable associations between groups, colors, or file types based upon one or more selection.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more selection is based upon input received from a user interface.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the gestalt component is further configured to apply the color to a tabbed view of the visual representation of the at least one file.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the gestalt component is further configured to apply the color to a directory view of the visual representation of the at least one file.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sorting component configured to sort respective visual representations of the at least one file as a function of the color.

12. A system that facilitates visual cues for file type groups in connection with software development, comprising:

a categorization component configured to catalog a file, based upon an examination of a file type of the file, into a file group that is associated with a color; and

a presentation component, in a computer-readable storage medium, that operatively couples to a development environment, wherein the presentation component is configured to present the color in connection with a visual representation of the file displayed in a user interface associated with the development environment.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein development environment is an environment associated with website development.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the categorization component is further configured to catalog the file into the group based upon an extension associated with the file or based upon an analysis of content included in the file.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the categorization component is further configured to catalog the file into the group, wherein the group is a member of a set of exactly six groups associated with respective colors.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising at least one of (1) a settings component configured to enable associations between groups, colors, or file types based upon at least one selection input to a user interface or (2) a sorting component configured to sort the visual representation of the file as a function of the color.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the presentation component is further configured to present the color to a tabbed view of the visual representation of the file, or to a directory view of the visual representation of the file.

18. A method for facilitating visual cues in connection with file type grouping, comprising:

analyzing a file type for at least one file;

categorizing the at least one file into a group associated with a color based upon the file type of the at least one file determined by the analyzing; and

applying the color to a visual representation of the at least one file presented by an application or an operating system (OS).

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising at least one of the following acts:

categorizing the at least one file based upon an analysis of content included in the at least one file;

categorizing the at least one file based upon an analysis of an extension associated with the at least one file;

employing no more than six groups for categorizing the at least one file;

or

associating the no more than six groups to a different color, respectively.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising at least one of:

employing default settings in connection with associations between groups, colors, or file types;

providing a user interface (UI) for configuring settings in connection with associations between the groups, the colors, or the file types;

applying the color to a tabbed view of the visual representation of the at least one file;

or

applying the color to a directory view of the visual representation of the at least one file.