DYNAMICALLY CHANGE USER INTERFACES FOR WEB APPLICATIONS AND ASSOCIATED METHODS

• US 20200134099A1
• Filed: 10/24/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: MOMCHILOV, GEORGY, Van Rotterdam, Jeroen Mattijs, Patrick, Ian D.
• Granted Patent: US 11,609,963 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131

Abstract

A computing system includes a server and a client computing device. The server includes a web application, and anchor definition layers associated with the web application. The client computing device is operated by an end user and includes a display, and a native application that includes an embedded browser for accessing the web application in a customization mode. The customization mode permits display of one of the web pages along with anchors that can be customized based on what is permitted by the anchor definition layer corresponding to the displayed web page, and customization of the anchors on the displayed web page by the end user to define an anchor customization layer for the displayed web page. In normal use of the web application, the anchor customization layer is applied to the corresponding web page before the corresponding web page is displayed so as to display a customized web page without re-designing the web page itself.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a server comprising a web application, and anchor definition layers associated with the web application identifying which anchor points as displayed on web pages of the web application can be customized by an end user, with each anchor definition layer corresponding to a particular web page; and

a client computing device operated by the end user and comprising;

a display; and

a native application comprising an embedded browser for accessing the web application in a customization mode, with the customization mode permitting the following;

display of at least one of the web pages along with the anchor points that can be customized based on what is permitted by the anchor definition layer corresponding to the displayed web page,

customize the anchor points on the displayed web page by the end user to define an anchor customization layer for the displayed web page, and

upon exiting the customization mode and in normal use of the web application, the anchor customization layer is applied to the corresponding web page before the corresponding web page is displayed so as to display a customized web page for the end user without re-designing the web page itself.

2. The computing system according to claim 1 further comprising a second client computing device operated by a user and comprising:

a display;

a native application comprising an embedded browser for accessing the web application in an edit mode, with the edit mode permitting the following for each web page;

analyze elements of a web page to identify anchor points,

display the web page along with identified anchor points, and

determine based on the user customization options available for each anchor point on the displayed web page what is permitted to be customized by the end user, with all of the anchor points available for customization for the displayed web page defining the anchor point definition layer that is associated with the displayed web page.

3. The computing system according to claim 2 further comprising an enterprise server, wherein said second client computing device is enrolled with said enterprise server, and wherein the anchor definition layers are stored on said enterprise server as part of published resource metadata for the web application.

4. The computing system according to claim 2 wherein the customization options for the user include marking selected anchor points that are to be hidden from the end user, and marking selected anchor points that are to be made available to the end user for customization.

5. The computing system according to claim 4 wherein the customization options for each selected anchor point available for customization comprise at least one of the following:

marking the anchor point as being hideable;

marking the anchor point as being resizable;

marking the anchor point as a source meaning that the anchor point can be moved by the end user from its current position to another position on the web page;

marking the anchor point as a target meaning that the anchor point can accept positioning of a source anchor point which in turn causes the target anchor point to be positioned where the source anchor point was initially positioned; and

marking the anchor point as a tile meaning that the anchor point would appear as a live tile for the web application when published in a store view by the end user.

6. The computing system according to claim 1 wherein the anchor definition layers are stored on said server as part of published resource metadata for the web application.

7. The computing system according to claim 1 wherein the customization options for the end user for each anchor point that can be customized comprise at least one of the following:

hiding the anchor point;

resizing the anchor point;

re-positioning the anchor point; and

grouping the anchor point with other anchor points.

8. The computing system according to claim 1 wherein the anchor customization layer is stored on said client computing device.

9. The computing system according to claim 8 further comprising an enterprise server, wherein said client computing device is enrolled with said enterprise server, and wherein the anchor customization layer is cached on said enterprise server.

10. The computing system according to claim 1 wherein the customization mode further permits a customized anchor point to be tagged with a label, with the tag and the customizations being saved as a pattern that can be applied to a different web page for customization by the end user based on the different web page having an anchor point tagged with the same label, with the customization of the different web page corresponding to the customizations associated with the tagged anchor point.

11. A method for operating a computing system comprising a server and a client computing device comprising a native application comprising an embedded browser, the sever comprising a web application and anchor definition layers associated with the web application identifying which anchor points as displayed on web pages of the web application can be customized by an end user, with each anchor definition layer corresponding to a particular web page;

and

operating the client computing device by an end user for accessing the web application via the embedded browser in a customization mode, with the customization mode permitting the following;

display of at least one of the web pages along with the anchor points that can be customized based on what is permitted by the anchor definition layer corresponding to the displayed web page;

customize the anchor points on the displayed web page by the end user to define an anchor customization layer for the displayed web page; and

upon exiting the customization mode and in normal use of the web application, the anchor customization layer is applied to the corresponding web page before the corresponding web page is displayed so as to display a customized web page for the end user without re-designing the web page itself.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the computing system further comprises a second client computing device operated by a user and comprising a display, and a native application comprising an embedded browser for accessing the web application in an edit mode, with the edit mode permitting the following for each web page:

analyzing elements of a web page to identify anchor points;

displaying the web page along with identified anchor points; and

determining based on the user customization options available for each anchor point on the displayed web page what is permitted to be customized by the end user, with all of the anchor points available for customization for the displayed web page defining the anchor point definition layer that is associated with the displayed web page.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the computing system further comprises an enterprise server, wherein the second client computing device is enrolled with the enterprise server, and wherein the anchor definition layers are stored on the enterprise server as part of published resource metadata for the web application.

14. The method according to claim 12 wherein the customization options for the user include marking selected anchor points that are to be hidden from the end user, and marking selected anchor points that are to be made available to the end user for customization.

15. The method according to claim 14 wherein the customization options for each selected anchor point available for customization comprise at least one of the following:

marking the anchor point as being hideable;

marking the anchor point as being resizable;

marking the anchor point as a source meaning that the anchor point can be moved by the end user from its current position to another position on the web page;

marking the anchor point as a target meaning that the anchor point can accept positioning of a source anchor point which in turn causes the target anchor point to be positioned where the source anchor point was initially positioned; and

marking the anchor point as a tile meaning that the anchor point would appear as a live tile for the web application when published in a store view by the end user.

16. The method according to claim 11 further comprising storing the anchor definition layers on the server as part of published resource metadata for the web application.

17. The method according to claim 11 wherein the customization options for the end user for each anchor point that can be customized comprise at least one of the following:

hiding the anchor point;

resizing the anchor point;

re-positioning the anchor point; and

grouping the anchor point with other anchor points.

18. The method according to claim 11 further comprising storing the anchor customization layer on the client computing device.

19. The method according to claim 18 wherein the computing system further comprises an enterprise server, wherein the client computing device is enrolled with the enterprise server, and further comprising caching the anchor customization layer on the enterprise server.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium for operating a client computing device comprising a native application comprising an embedded browser, the client computing device is part of a computing system comprising a sever comprising a web application and anchor definition layers associated with the web application identifying which anchor points as displayed on web pages of the web application can be customized by an end user, with each anchor definition layer corresponding to a particular web page, and with the non-transitory computer readable medium having a plurality of computer executable instructions for causing the computing device to perform steps comprising:

accessing the web application via the embedded browser in a customization mode, with the customization mode permitting the following;

displaying of at least one of the web pages along with the anchor points that can be customized based on what is permitted by the anchor definition layer corresponding to the displayed web page;

customizing the anchor points on the displayed web page by the end user to define an anchor customization layer for the displayed web page; and

upon exiting the customization mode and in normal use of the web application, the anchor customization layer is applied to the corresponding web page before the corresponding web page is displayed so as to display a customized web page for the end user without re-designing the web page itself.