BINDING OF DATA SOURCE TO COMPOUND CONTROL

• US 20140310273A1
• Filed: 04/12/2013
• Published: 10/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mital, Vijay, Poozhiyil, Suraj T., Bapat, Vikram, Hodes, Benjamin
• Granted Patent: US 10,055,396 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

The automated binding of a data source to a compound control. The properties of the compound control are identified. Furthermore, a particular data source is associated with the compound control. For each of one or more of the properties of the compound control, information regarding the compound control and the data source are used to identify a set of one or more fields of the particular data source that may be bound to the corresponding property of the compound control. If the corresponding property of the compound control has bound thereto an output parameter of a declarative transformation, the nature of the transformation may also be taken into consideration when identifying the set of one or more fields that may be used in order to bind to the corresponding property of the compound control.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for facilitating binding of a data source to a compound control, the method comprising:

an act of identifying a plurality of properties of the compound control;

an act of associating a particular data source with the compound control, the particular data source having a plurality of fields organized within a schema; and

for at least one of the plurality of properties of the compound control, an act of using at least the schema of the data source and metadata regarding the corresponding property to identify a set of one or more fields of the particular data source that may be bound to the corresponding property of the compound control.

2. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the corresponding property of the compound control has bound thereto an output parameter of a transformation, wherein the set of one or more fields of the particular data source may be bound to the corresponding property of the compound control through the transformation by being bound to one or more input parameters of the transformation.

3. The computer program product in accordance with claim 2, wherein the compound control is included within a recalculation user interface, and is bound to input parameters to and output parameters from a transformation chain that includes the transformation.

4. The computer program product in accordance with claim 3, wherein the transformation is declarative.

5. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the computer executable instructions are further structured such that, when executed by the one or more processors, the computing system responds to editing of the declarative transformation by performing the following:

an act of using at least the schema of the data source and metadata regarding the corresponding property to identify a set of one or more other fields of the particular data source that may be bound to the corresponding property of the compound control.

6. The computer program product in accordance with claim 5, wherein the computer executable instructions are further structured such that, when executed by the one or more processors, the computing system further responds to editing of the declarative transformation by performing the following:

an act of default binding one of the set of one or more other identified fields of the particular data source to the corresponding property of the compound control.

7. The computer program product in accordance with claim 2, wherein the set of one or more fields of the particular data source are identified also using the transformation associated with the corresponding property of the compound control.

8. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, the method further comprising:

an act of default binding one of the set of one or more identified fields of the particular data source to the corresponding property of the compound control.

9. The computer program product in accordance with claim 8, wherein the computer executable instructions are further structured such that, when executed by the one or more processors, the computing system responds to user input by further performing the following:

an act of determining that the user input is indicative of an intent to change the binding to the corresponding property of the compound control; and

in response to the act of determining, an act of binding another of the set of one or more identified fields of the particular data source to the corresponding property of the compound control.

10. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of associating the particular data source with the compound control comprises:

an act of using metadata associated with the plurality of properties of the compound control and at least the schema of the particular data source to determine that the particular data source may be used as a source of data to bind to the compound control.

11. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of associating the particular data source with the compound control comprises:

an act of accessing at least a schema for each of a plurality of data sources;

for each of the plurality of data sources, an act of comparing the at least the schema of the data source against the metadata associated with the plurality of properties of the compound control to determine whether the corresponding data source may be used as a source of data to bind to the compound control, and if the data source can be used as a source of data to bind to the compound control, an act of adding the corresponding data source to a list of available data sources,

wherein after the act of comparing is performed for all of the plurality of data sources, the list includes multiple data sources including the particular data source; and

an act of receiving a user selection of the particular data source.

12. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of using is performed for at least some of the plurality of properties of the compound control.

13. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of using is performed for all of the plurality of properties of the compound control.

14. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein for at least a second of the plurality of properties of the compound control, the method further comprises:

an act of providing a transformation authoring interface that is specific to a type of the property.

15. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the compound control is included within a recalculation user interface.

16. The computer program product in accordance with claim 15, wherein the recalculation user interface is a spreadsheet document.

17. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the computer executable instructions are further structured such that, when executed by the one or more processors, the computing system responds to add addition of a control to the component control by performing the following:

an act of identified at least one property of the added control; and

an act of using at least the schema of the data source and metadata regarding the at least one property of the added control to identify a set of one or more fields of the particular data source that may be bound to the at least one property of the added control; and

an act of default binding one of the set of one or more identified fields of the particular data source to the at least one property of the added control.

18. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the metadata regarding the corresponding property comprises at least two of a type, a name, a hint, and a previous usage of the corresponding property.

19. A method for facilitating binding of a data source to a compound control, the method comprising:

an act of identifying a plurality of properties of the compound control;

an act of associating a particular data source with the compound control, the particular data source having a plurality of fields organized within a schema; and

for at least one of the plurality of properties of the compound control, an act of using at least the schema of the data source and metadata regarding the corresponding property to identify a set of one or more fields of the particular data source that may be bound to the corresponding property of the compound control.

20. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for facilitating binding of a data source to a compound control, the method comprising:

an act of identifying a plurality of properties of the compound control used in a recalculation user interface;

an act of associating a particular data source with the compound control, the particular data source having a plurality of fields organized within a schema;

for at least some of the plurality of properties of the compound control, an act of using at least the schema of the data source and metadata regarding the corresponding property to identify a set of one or more fields of the particular data source that may be bound to the corresponding property of the compound control, wherein the corresponding property of the compound control has bound thereto an output parameter of a declarative transformation, wherein the set of one or more fields of the particular data source may be bound to the corresponding property of the compound control through the declarative transformation by being bound to one or more input parameters of the transformation, wherein the set of one or more fields of the particular data source are identified also using the transformation associated with the corresponding property of the compound control;

an act of default binding one of the set of one or more identified fields of the particular data source to the corresponding property of the compound control;

an act of determining that user input is indicative of an intent to change the binding to the corresponding property of the compound control; and

in response to the act of determining, an act of binding another of the set of one or more identified fields of the particular data source to the corresponding property of the compound control.