Customizable Bladed Applications

• US 20160196006A1
• Filed: 01/05/2015
• Published: 07/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Doan, Christopher, Vranjes, Miron, Sareen, Chaitanya Dev, Vasudevan, Lavanya
• Granted Patent: US 9,946,432 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Customizable bladed applications are described herein. A device platform is configured to provide a simultask mode that enables combined user access to multiple applications of the platform via respective chrome portions. When simultask mode is active, arrangement of chrome elements within a user interface is controlled to generate a bladed view that provides a compact representation for one application in conjunction with an expanded view that provides principal chrome for a different application. The platform makes the bladed view available for any displayable application of the platform. The bladed view may also include application-specific elements that are populated using customizations designated via metadata of the application, or using default information for applications in the absence of designated customizations. Further, the platform may implement a notification system that operates on behalf of applications to obtain and apply updates for dynamically updatable content incorporated into bladed views.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a computing device comprising:

detecting an event to initiate arrangement of a graphical user interface for a platform into a simultask mode that enables combined user access to multiple applications of the platform via respective portions for the multiple applications exposed via the graphical user interface;

responsive to detection of the event, activating the simultask mode by;

controlling arrangement of the chrome elements within the graphical user interface to generate at least;

a bladed view in a portion of the graphical user interface configured to provide a compact application representation for one application having a plurality of application-specific elements populated with data derived from metadata associated with the one application; and

an expanded view for a different application in another portion of the graphical user interface configured to provide principal chrome for a different application; and

exposing the bladed view and expanded view via the graphical user interface to facilitate the combined user access to the multiple applications.

2. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein controlling arrangement includes recognizing application-specific customizations indicated by the metadata associated with the one application and populating the application-specific elements using the metadata, the application-specific customizations including one or more of an icon, a color scheme, a title, a content stream, or a background image specified for the one application.

3. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the bladed view is configured to present dynamically updating content for the one application obtained from operation of the one application in a background state while the bladed view is exposed.

4. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the bladed view is configured to present dynamically updating content for the one application obtained via a notification system of the platform with the one application in a non-running state.

5. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the bladed view is available to configure a compact application representation for any displayable application via the platform using corresponding metadata to populate the plurality of application-specific elements.

6. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the simultask mode is available for any combination of displayable applications supported by the platform.

7. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the bladed view is configured as a bar placed at a fixed location within the graphical user interface and having a pre-arranged layout of the application-specific elements, such that a consistent compact application representation is created across different applications when the application-specific elements are populated with data for the different applications.

8. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein controlling arrangement of the chrome elements comprises configuring the chrome elements to substantially consume available screen-real estate of a display device used to present the graphical user interface.

9. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the event comprises user input defined as a trigger for the bladed view applied during interaction with the one application in a single-app mode.

10. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the event comprises a user selection to identify the one application for the bladed view and a user selection to identify the different application for the expanded view via an application selector accessible via the platform.

11. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the event comprises a notification event related to the one application received in the background during interaction with the different application in a single-app mode and while the one application is in a non-running state, the notification effective to cause the platform to launch the simultask mode and generate the bladed view for the one application based on the notification.

12. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the event comprises changing an orientation of the computing device.

13. A computing device comprising:

a processing system;

one or more computer-readable media storing processor-executable instructions that, responsive to execution by the processing system, implement an operating system for the computing device configured to perform operations comprising;

generating a bladed view of a selected application to provide a compact application representation having a plurality of application-specific elements populated with data derived from metadata associated with the selected application, the operating system configured to generate bladed views for any displayable application of the computing device using corresponding metadata;

exposing the bladed view for the selected application in a graphical user interface for the computing device in connection with an expanded view configured to provide principal chrome for a different application;

obtaining a notification for the selected application via a notification system of the operating system, the notification indicating an update for data presented via the plurality of application-specific elements the bladed view; and

updating the application-specific elements to reflect the update as indicated by the notification.

14. The computing device as described in claim 13, wherein generating the bladed view comprises:

parsing metadata for the selected application;

extracting data from the metadata to populate the plurality of application-specific elements; and

populating the plurality of application-specific elements with the extracted data.

15. The computing device as described in claim 13, wherein the operating system is configured to generate bladed views for each displayable application based upon application-specific customizations indicated by metadata for the application when designated or using default information available for the application in the absence of designated application-specific customizations.

16. The computing device as described in claim 13, wherein the operating system is further configured to perform operations comprising:

recognizing input applied in relation to the bladed view to cause expansion of the selected application within the user interface; and

responsive to the input, switching views for the selected application and the different application.

17. One or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by a processing system of a device, cause an operating system for the device to perform operations comprising:

exposing an application selector configured to enable user navigation of and selection between multiple applications active on the device;

obtaining input via the application selector to select one of the multiple applications to place into a bladed view;

arranging a graphical user interface for the device to represent the selected application in the bladed view;

receiving additional input via the application selector to select a main application to present in an expanded view;

controlling arrangement of the graphical user interface for the device to represent the main application in the expanded view in conjunction with the bladed view of the selected application.

18. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the operating system for the device to perform operations comprising:

recognizing input applied in relation to the bladed view to cause expansion of the selected application within the graphical user interface; and

responsive to the input, switching views for the selected application and the main application such that the main app is presented in the bladed view in conjunction with the selected application in the expanded view.

19. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the operating system for the device to perform operations comprising:

obtaining a notification for the selected application via a notification system of the operating system, the notification indicating an update for a content stream for the selected application presented via the bladed view; and

updating the content stream for the selected application to reflect the update as indicated by the notification.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 17, wherein arranging the graphical user interface for the device to represent the selected application in the bladed view comprises:

determining whether application-specific customizations are designated for the selected application by parsing metadata for the selected application; and

configuring elements of the bladed view in accordance with the determining by;

using application-specific customizations indicated by the metadata to arrange the elements of the bladed view when designated;

or

using default information available for the selected application to arrange the elements of the bladed view in the absence of designated application-specific customizations.