SUPPORTING DISPLAY OF CONTEXT MENUS IN BOTH CASCADED AND OVERLAPPING STYLES

• US 20130174041A1
• Filed: 01/04/2012
• Published: 07/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Chakravarthy, Amogh
• Granted Patent: US 9,400,588 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A computing system provided according to an aspect of the present invention contains a server system operable to send a same hierarchical menu to client systems which display the sub-menus of the hierarchical menu in a overlapping style or a cascading style. As a result, the implementation of server systems supporting such client systems may be simplified. According to another aspect, an event handler is also implemented on the server system, to process the events generated by client system displaying menus in both the overlapping style and the cascading style. According to yet another aspect, a server system stores a in-memory representation of a context menu, and thereafter serves requests from different clients for the same hierarchical menu based on such in-memory representation.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a server system operable to send a context menu associated with a same graphical element, said context menu containing a first sub-menu and a second sub-menu, wherein said second sub-menu is represented as a child of a parent menu item contained in said first sub-menu;

a first client system to receive said context menu associated with said same graphical element, and display said first sub-menu and said second menu in a overlapping style on a first display unit associated with said first client system; and

a second client system to also receive said context menu associated with said same graphical element, and then display said first sub-menu and said second sub-menu in a cascaded style on a second display unit associated with said second client system,

wherein said second sub-menu is displayed upon selection of said parent menu item in each of said first client system and said second client system.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein each of said first client system and said second client system displays a corresponding web page containing said same graphical element,

each of said first client system and said second client system displaying said context menu upon a same user action with respect to said same graphical element displayed on the corresponding web page.

3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein said context menu is provided by said server system to each of said first client system and said second client system within said corresponding web page, wherein said corresponding web page sent by said server system contains data representing said context menu.

4. The computing system of claim 2, wherein said first client system receives said same user action with respect to said same graphical element displayed in said corresponding web page, and in response communicates with said server system to indicate that said same user action has been performed with respect to said same graphical element, and receives said context menu asynchronously as a response from said server system.

5. The computing system of claim 2, wherein said same user action from each of said first client system and said second client system invokes a single event handler executing in said server system.

6. The computing system of claim 2, wherein said first sub-menu contains a first set of menu items and said second sub-menu contains a second set of menu item,

wherein each of said first set of menu items are available for selection in said second client system when said second set of menu items are displayed on said second display unit,

wherein said first set of menu items are unavailable for selection in said first client system when said second set of of menu items are displayed on said first display unit.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein said first display unit has a smaller display screen compared to said second display unit.

8. The computing system of claim 2, wherein said server system is operable to:

maintain an in-memory representation of said context menu in a volatile memory;

receive a third request for a context menu for said graphical element;

retrieving said context menu from said volatile memory, in response to said receiving of said third request, wherein said in-memory representation is present in said volatile memory before receiving of said third request;

sending said context menu as a response to said third request.

9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein said server system is further operable to:

receive a fourth request from a second user;

in response to receiving said fourth request;

retrieving said context menu from said volatile memory;

sending the retrieved context menu to an external security server, which applies a second set of filters applicable to said second user, to generate a filtered context menu;

receiving said filtered context menu and sending the received filtered context menu as a response to said fourth request,

whereby said context menu is retrieved only once from a data store in processing multiple requests received from different users.

10. A method of supporting context menus, said method being performed in a server system, said method comprising:

maintaining an in-memory representation of a hierarchical menu in a volatile memory;

receiving a first request for a web page defined to contain a graphical element associated with a context menu;

retrieving said hierarchical menu from said volatile memory, in response to said receiving of said first request, wherein said in-memory representation is present in said volatile memory before receiving of said first request;

forming a web page including said graphical element and said context menu, wherein said context menu is based on the retrieved hierarchical menu; and

sending said web page as a response to said first request.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a second request from a second client system;

in response to receiving a second request;

sending, based on said hierarchical in-memory representation, said hierarchical menu to an external security server, which applies a second set of filters applicable to said second request, to generate a filtered hierarchical menu;

receiving said filtered hierarchical menu and sending the received filtered hierarchical menu as a response to said second request.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said in-memory representation is formed in said volatile memory in response to processing of a third request for said web page, wherein said third request is received and processed before said first request in said server system.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein each of a first client system and said second client system displays a corresponding web page containing said same graphical element,

each of said first client system and said second client system displaying said context menu upon a same user action with respect to said same graphical element displayed on the corresponding web page.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said context menu is provided by said server system to each of said first client system and said second client system within said corresponding web page, wherein said corresponding web page sent by said server system contains data representing said context menu.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said first client system receives said same user action with respect to said same graphical element displayed in said corresponding web page, and in response communicates with said server system to indicate that said same user action has been performed with respect to said same graphical element, and receives said context menu asynchronously as a response from said server system.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein said same user action from each of said first client system and said second client system invokes a single event handler executing in said server system.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein said first client system has a smaller display screen compared to said second client system.

18. A computer readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions, wherein execution of said one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors contained in a server system causes said server system to support context menus in client systems, wherein execution of said one or more instructions by one or more processors contained in said server system causes said server system to perform the actions of:

sending a context menu associated with a same graphical element to both a first client system and a second client system, said context menu containing a first sub-menu and a second sub-menu, wherein said second sub-menu is represented as a child of a parent menu item contained in said first sub-menu,

wherein said first client system displays said first sub-menu and said second menu in a overlapping style on a first display unit associated with said first client system, and

said second client system displays said first sub-menu and said second sub-menu in a cascaded style on a second display unit associated with said second client system.