USER INTERACTION AND DISPLAY OF TREE HIERARCHY DATA ON LIMITED SCREEN SPACE

• US 20150046882A1
• Filed: 09/26/2013
• Published: 02/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Menyhart, Istvan, Rezayat, Moshen, McMinn, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US14/038,031
• Publication Number:
  US 20150046882A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/854
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• 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: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Systems and methods for displaying tree hierarchy data on limited screen space and interacting with users. A method includes displaying multi-level data from a tree data structure to a user on the data processing system display, wherein the multi-level data is displayed using colored vertical lines or other visual indicators to represent parent-child relationships in the tree data structure. The method includes receiving a user input and re-displaying the multi-level data from the tree data structure according to the user input.

Claims

1. A method for interacting with a user, the method performed by a data processing system and comprising:

displaying multi-level data from a tree data structure to a user on a data processing system display, wherein the multi-level data is displayed using colored vertical lines to represent parent-child relationships in the tree data structure;

receiving a user input; and

re-displaying the multi-level data from the tree data structure according to the user input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data processing system is one of a smartphone, a tablet computer, a mobile device, a laptop computer, or a desktop computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the vertical lines represent an indentation level and start at a parent node and extend downward to encompass all descendent nodes of that parent, a line ending is displayed as a small gap between the end and start of a new line at the same indentation level, a line beginning is displayed as connected to a horizontal line at the top of the node, and the horizontal line extends only part way if an associated node is a leaf node and has no children.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the horizontal line extends substantially across the display when the associated node is not a leaf node and has children.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein an expand indicator is displayed to represent parent nodes that have child nodes but are not expanded to show children of the parent nodes.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the expand indicator is a plus sign.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input is a touch-screen gesture.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input is a right-swipe gesture on a displayed non-expanded parent node that causes the data processing system to re-display the multi-level data by expanding the parent node and showing its child nodes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input is a left-swipe gesture on an expanded parent node that causes the data processing system to re-display the multi-level data by collapsing the parent node and hiding its child nodes.

10. A data processing system, comprising:

a processor;

an accessible memory; and

a touch-screen display, the data processing system configured to

display multi-level data from a tree data structure to a user on the touch-screen display, wherein the multi-level data is displayed using colored vertical lines to represent parent-child relationships in the tree data structure;

receive a user input; and

re-display the multi-level data from the tree data structure according to the user input.

11. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the data processing system is one of a smartphone, a tablet computer, a mobile device, a laptop computer, or a desktop computer.

12. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the vertical lines represent an indentation level and start at a parent node and extend downward to encompass all descendent nodes of that parent, a line ending is displayed as a small gap between the end and start of a new line at the same indentation level, a line beginning is displayed as connected to a horizontal line at the top of the node, and the horizontal line extends only part way if an associated node is a leaf node and has no children.

13. The data processing system of claim 12, wherein the horizontal line extends substantially across the display when the associated node is not a leaf node and has children.

14. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein an expansion indicator is displayed to represent parent nodes that have child nodes but are not expanded to show children of the parent nodes.

15. The data processing system of claim 14, wherein the expansion indicator is a plus sign.

16. The data processing system of claim 10, the user input is a touch-screen gesture.

17. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the user input is a right-swipe gesture on a displayed non-expanded parent node that causes the data processing system to re-display the multi-level data by expanding the parent node and showing its child nodes.

18. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the user input is a left-swipe gesture on an expanded parent node that causes the data processing system to re-display the multi-level data by collapsing the parent node and hiding its child nodes.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with executable instructions that, when executed, cause a data processing system to:

display multi-level data from a tree data structure to a user on the touch-screen display, wherein the multi-level data is displayed using colored vertical lines to represent parent-child relationships in the tree data structure;

receive a user input; and

re-display the multi-level data from the tree data structure according to the user input.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the vertical lines represent an indentation level and start at a parent node and extend downward to encompass all descendent nodes of that parent, a line ending is displayed as a small gap between the end and start of a new line at the same indentation level, a line beginning is displayed as connected to a horizontal line at the top of the node, and the horizontal line extends only part way if an associated node is a leaf node and has no children.