EAGER BLOCK FETCHING FOR WEB-BASED DATA GRIDS

• US 20130103738A1
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Published: 04/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: van den Broek, Hendrik, Ahmed, Diar, Evans, James A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,506 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/541 Client-server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Techniques for improving scrolling performance in a web-based data grid. In one set of embodiments, when a user scrolls through a data grid rendered in a viewport of the user'"'"'s web browser, client-side code executing in the web browser can detect whether a scroll event has occurred that requires a portion of the viewport to be filled/refreshed with data from a server. The client-side code can further determine whether the scroll event is a short scroll or a long scroll, and can send a request to the server that indicates the type of scroll event. If the scroll event is a short scroll, the server can determine a first amount of data to fetch based on one or more first parameters. If the scroll event is a long scroll, the server can determine a second amount of data to fetch based on one or more second parameters.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program code executable by a processor, the program code comprising:

code that causes the processor to receive, from a client computer system, a request for data in response to a scroll event performed by a user of the client computer system with respect to a data grid, the request including an indication of whether the scroll event is a short scroll or a long scroll;

if the scroll event is a short scroll, code that causes the processor to retrieve, in response to the request, a first amount of data based on one or more first parameters defining a predetermined block size; and

if the scroll event is a long scroll, code that causes the processor to retrieve, in response to the request, a second amount of data based on the one or more first parameters defining the predetermined block size and one or more second parameters defining a predetermined block array size.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data grid comprises a plurality of cells.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2 wherein the one or more first parameters define the predetermined block size as a set of J×

K cells.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3 wherein the one or more second parameters define the predetermined block array size as a set of M×

N blocks, each block comprising J×

K cells.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the code that causes the processor to retrieve the second amount of data based on the one or more first parameters and the one or more second parameters comprises:

code that causes the processor to determine a size of the second amount of data by multiplying the predetermined block size by the predetermined block array size; and

code that causes the processor to retrieve the second amount of data based on the determined size.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the request further includes a starting position for the data within the data grid.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data grid is a pivot table.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the data grid is part of a web application.

9. A method comprising:

rendering, by a client computer system, a data grid in a viewport of a web browser;

detecting, by the client computer system, a scroll event performed by a user with respect to the data grid;

determining, by the client computer system, that a first portion of the data grid visible in the viewport as a result of the scroll event needs to be populated with data from a server computer system;

determining, by the client computer system, whether the scroll event is a short scroll or a long scroll; and

sending, by the client computer system to a server computer system, a request for a data block for populating the first portion of the data grid, the request including an indication of whether the scroll event is a short scroll or a long scroll.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein determining whether the scroll event is a short scroll or a long scroll comprises determining whether any portion of the data grid visible in the viewport as a result of the scroll event overlaps one or more data blocks stored on the client computer system.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

if any portion of the data grid visible in the viewport as a result of the scroll event overlaps one or more data blocks stored on the client computer system, determining that the scroll event is a short scroll; and

if no portion of the data grid visible in the viewport as a result of the scroll event overlaps one or more data blocks stored on the client computer system, determining that the scroll event is a long scroll.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the viewport includes a horizontal scrollbar or a vertical scrollbar, and wherein the scroll event is performed by operating the horizontal scrollbar or the vertical scrollbar.

13. A system comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive, from a client computer system, a request for data in response to a scroll event performed by a user of the client computer system with respect to a data grid, the request including an indication of whether the scroll event is a short scroll or a long scroll;

if the scroll event is a short scroll, retrieve, in response to the request, a first amount of data based on one or more first parameters defining a first predetermined block size; and

if the scroll event is a long scroll, retrieve, in response to the request, a second amount of data based on one or more second parameters defining a second predetermined block size distinct from the first predetermined block size.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the data grid comprises a plurality of cells.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the one or more first parameters define the first predetermined block size as a set of M×

N cells and the one or more second parameters define the second predetermined block size as a set of J×

K cells.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the second predetermined block size is greater than the first predetermined block size.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the data grid is a pivot table.

18. The system of claim 13 wherein the data grid is part of a web application.