USER INTERFACE FOR NETWORKS INCLUDING VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20130055092A1
• Filed: 08/25/2011
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: CANNON, Thomas C. III, DEE, Stephanie, SHEPHERD, Peter J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,927,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A user interface for a virtual machine infrastructure enables a user to navigate a graph in a tabular format. The user interface simultaneously displays data associated with a selected node from a plurality of applications via view extensions provided by the applications. The user interface shows data associated with a node on which a navigation panel is focused, an anchor node, together with related nodes and edge categories including the edges connecting the related nodes to the anchor node. The user can peek at the data associated with a related node by selecting the node in the user interface and change the displayed data without changing the focus of the navigation panel. The user can also change the focus of the navigation panel to a related node via data displayed in a data panel or related nodes identified in the navigation panel.

Claims

1. A user interface for a virtual machine infrastructure comprising a plurality of applications and a plurality of nodes connected by edges, the user interface comprising:

a navigation panel displayed on the display of a computing device, the navigation panel identifying;

an anchor node having a type; and

at least one edge category determined by the type of the anchor node, wherein the edge category represents a plurality of edges connecting the anchor node to related nodes; and

a data panel displayed on the display of the computing device, the data panel displaying data associated with the anchor node when the anchor node is selected.

2. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the at least one edge category describes a relationship between the anchor node and a related node and an edge is the relationship between the anchor node and the related node.

3. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the navigation panel identifies a related node associated with the anchor node by an edge in the at least one edge category when the at least one edge category is selected.

4. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the navigation panel identifies a related node when the at least one edge category is selected and the related node is connected to the anchor node by an edge in the at least one edge category, and wherein the data panel displays data associated with the related node when the related node is selected in the navigation panel.

5. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the data panel displays data associated with a related node connected by an edge to the anchor node when an edge category including the edge connecting the related node to the anchor node is selected in the navigation panel.

6. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the anchor node has a type defined by a first application and the related node has a type defined by a second application different from the first application.

7. A method of changing the focus of a navigation panel of a user interface for a virtual machine infrastructure, the navigation panel displayed in a display of a computing device, the method comprising:

identifying, in the navigation panel, an anchor node having a type;

identifying, in the navigation panel, at least one edge category determined by the type of the anchor node, the edge category representing a plurality of edges connecting the anchor node to related nodes;

identifying, in the navigation panel, a related node associated with the anchor node by an edge in the at least one edge category;

switching the focus of the navigation panel to the related node in response to receiving input from a user at an input device of the computing device, the switching comprising;

identifying, in the navigation panel, at least one edge category determined by a type of the related node, wherein the at least one edge category determined by the type of the related node is not an edge category determined by the type of the anchor node.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the input from the user is a request to focus the navigation panel on the related node and is originated from a data panel displayed in the display of the computing device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the input from the user is a request to focus the navigation panel on the related node and is originated from the navigation panel.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the anchor node has a type defined by a first application and the related node has a type defined by a second application, wherein the second application is different from the first application.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein switching the focus of the navigation panel from the anchor node to the related node further comprises animating the navigation panel to slide to a side such that a representation of the related node and the at least one edge category associated with the related node that is not an edge category determined by the type of the anchor node slides in to replace the representation of the anchor node and the at least one edge category defined by the type of the anchor node as the representation of the anchor node and the at least one edge category defined by the type of the anchor node slides to the side.

12. The method of claim 7 further comprising switching the focus of the navigation panel back to the anchor node in response to input from the user, the input comprising selecting a back command associated with the navigation panel.

13. A user interface for a virtual machine infrastructure, the virtual machine infrastructure comprising a plurality of applications and a plurality of nodes connected by edges, the user interface comprising:

a navigation panel displayed by a display of a computing device, the navigation panel identifying an anchor node having a type;

a data panel displayed by the display of the computing device, the data panel displaying data associated with a first application and data associated with a second application different from the first application, the first application defining the type of the anchor node, wherein the user interface receives input from a user at an input device of the computing device and changes a configuration setting of the anchor node in the second application in response to the input from the user.

14. The user interface of claim 13, wherein the navigation panel identifies a related node, the related node connected to the anchor node by an edge in an edge category associated with the type of the anchor node.

15. The user interface of claim 13 wherein the input received from the user comprises a request to change the configuration setting of the second application.

16. A method of updating application configuration settings of nodes in a virtual machine infrastructure, the virtual machine infrastructure comprising a plurality of applications and a plurality of nodes connected by edges, the method comprising:

identifying, in a navigation panel, an anchor node having a type;

displaying, in a data panel, data associated with a first application defining the type of the anchor node and data associated with a second application different from the first application, wherein the data associated with each of the first and second applications is associated with a related node having a type defined by the second application;

changing, in response to receiving input from a user via an input device of a computing device and without changing a focus of the navigation panel, a configuration setting of the first application in response to the input from the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the related node is connected to the anchor node via an edge, wherein the edge is in an edge category associated with the type of the anchor node.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the input received from the user comprises a request to change the configuration setting of the first application.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein a focus of the navigation panel is the related node.

20. A user interface for a virtual machine infrastructure, the virtual machine infrastructure comprising a plurality of applications and a plurality of nodes connected by edges, the user interface comprising:

a navigation panel displayed by a display of a computing device, the navigation panel identifying an anchor node having a type and a related node connected to the anchor node by an edge in an edge category associated with the type of the anchor node;

a data panel displayed by the display of the computing device, the data panel displaying data associated with a first application and data associated with a second application different from the first application, the first application defining the type of the anchor node and the second application defining a type of the related node, wherein the user interface receives an input from a user via an input device of the computing device and changes a configuration setting of the first application in response to the input from the user.

21. The user interface of claim 20 wherein the input received from the user comprises a request to change the configuration setting of the first application.

22. The user interface of claim 20 wherein the navigation panel is focused on the related node.