ENTERPRISE TOOLS ENHANCEMENTS

• US 20130086151A1
• Filed: 06/25/2012
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Guo-Boynton, Vivien
• Granted Patent: US 10,210,026 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for managing an interface of an enterprise application to support unlimited modal and modeless elements thereof. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention can include an Application Program Interface (API) for invoking and interacting with a set of modal and/or modeless functions and which can be browser independent. Such an API can be implemented, for example, in JavaScript or other language supported by the browser. Generally speaking, this script or application can provide features such as normally associated with the browser'"'"'s modal support but without relying on that support and without many of the constraints and other limitations normally imposed or encountered with the browser'"'"'s modal support.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an application server executing an enterprise application, the enterprise application maintaining and providing a set of application data;

a web server communicatively coupled with the application server, the web server receiving application data from the enterprise application of the application server, generating at least one user interface page based on the received application data, and providing the at least one user interface page; and

a client device communicatively coupled with the web server and executing a client application, the client application comprising a modal controller separate from a browser application of the client device and having an Application Program Interface (API) for invoking one or more functions of the modal controller, the client device receiving the at least one user interface page from the web server and rendering the at least one user interface page, wherein rendering the at least one user interface page includes invoking at least one function of the modal controller through the API of the modal controller.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the functions of the modal controller include one or more of generating one or more modal windows, assigning an identifier to each modal window generated, maintaining relationships between each modal window generated, or controlling refresh and update of contents of each modal window generated.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the web server further assigns to each element of the generated user interface page a pair of tags, the pair of tags comprising a unique identifier for a container of information content for the element.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the modal controller refreshes contents of one or more modal windows based on the tags.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the modal controller refreshes only the information content of an identified container of one or more modal windows based on the tags and without affecting the position of layout of the modal window or content of other elements.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the web server further dynamically generates a unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for a modal window of the user interface, the unique URL comprising a unique Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) indicating a sequential window count for the modal window.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the web server maintains a linked list of unique URLs for modal windows of each of one or more browser sessions of the client.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein each entry of each linked list is associated with one or more timestamps and wherein the web server expires a link list based on the associated timestamps.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the web server and the application server each track a state of a modal window and application data associated therewith based on the unique URL and the tags identifying each element.

10. A method for managing an interface of an enterprise application, the method comprising:

executing, by one or more servers, an enterprise application, wherein executing the enterprise application comprises maintaining and providing a set of application data;

generating, by the one or more servers, at least one user interface page based on the application data; and

providing, by the one or more servers, the at least one user interface page to a client device executing a client application, the client application comprising a modal controller separate from a browser application of the client device and having an Application Program Interface (API) for invoking one or more functions of the modal controller.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the functions of the modal controller include one or more of generating one or more modal windows, assigning an identifier to each modal window generated, maintaining relationships between each modal window generated, or controlling refresh and update of contents of each modal window generated.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising assigning to each element of the generated user interface page a pair of tags, the pair of tags comprising a unique identifier for a container of information content for the element.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising dynamically generating, by the one or more servers, a unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for a modal window of the user interface, the unique URL comprising a unique Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) indicating a sequential window count for the modal window.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising maintaining, by the one or more servers, a linked list of unique URLs for modal windows of each of one or more browser sessions of the client.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each entry of each linked list is associated with one or more timestamps and wherein the one or more servers expire a link list based on the associated timestamps.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising tracking, by the one or more servers, a state of a modal window of the client application and application data associated therewith based on the unique URL and the tags identifying each element.

17. A method for managing an interface of an enterprise application, the method comprising:

receiving, by a client device executing a modal controller separate from a browser application of the client device, at least one user interface page of an enterprise application from a web server through an Application Program Interface (API) for invoking one or more functions of the modal controller, wherein the functions of the modal controller include one or more of generating one or more modal windows, assigning an identifier to each modal window generated, maintaining relationships between each modal window generated, or controlling refresh and update of contents of each modal window generated; and

rendering the at least one user interface page, wherein rendering the at least one user interface page includes invoking at least one function of the modal controller through the API of the modal controller.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each element of the user interface page comprises a pair of tags, the pair of tags comprising a unique identifier for a container of information content for the element.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising refreshing contents of one or more modal windows, by the modal controller, based on the tags.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the modal controller refreshes only the information content of an identified container of one or more modal windows based on the tags and without affecting the position of layout of the modal window or content of other elements.