Replaceable and extensible notebook component of a network component

• US 5,784,619 A
• Filed: 10/09/1997
• Issued: 07/21/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Fisher, Stephen, Bruck, Timo, Cleron, Michael A., Evans, John S., Holleran, Patrick A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrell, Robert B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US08/947,778
• Time in Patent Office: 285 Days
• Field of Search: 345/356, 395/682, 395/200.48, 395/200.47
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A notebook component of an extensible and replaceable network-oriented component system records locations of resources coupled to a computer network. The network-oriented system includes a novel application programming interface for the notebook component that facilitates integration with an underlying software component architecture. Such a highly-modular cooperating layered-arrangement between the network component system and the component architecture allows the notebook component to be replaced, extended or modified by other notebook-type components, while ensuring that these latter components "seamlessly" interact with existing components and component editors of the system.

Claims

1. An extensible and replaceable network-oriented component system for recording locations of resources coupled to computer networks, the system residing on a computer including a component architecture layer interfacing with an operating system to control the operations of the computer, the system comprising:

a network component layer coupled to the component architecture layer in cooperating relation; and

a notebook component defined by the network component layer for recording a reference to a resource coupled to the computer networks, the notebook component being replaceable and extensible by other notebook-type components in response to the cooperating relationship between the network component layer and the component architecture layer, wherein said component architecture layer and said network component layer cooperate via an application programming interface to embed components within one another to form a compound document including mixed data types and formats.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the reference to the resource coupled to the computer networks is recorded in the notebook component as an item component.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the notebook component is a compound document stored on the computer.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the notebook and item components are represented by visual objects for manipulation on a computer screen.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the visual objects are icons, and wherein the notebook icon may be opened to display the item icon on the screen and the item icon may be opened to display the contents of its referenced resource.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein the notebook and item components are objects and wherein the network component layer comprises application programming interfaces delivered in the form of objects in a class hierarchy.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the application programming interfaces include an item class for constructing the item object as a network navigation object representing a network resource available at any location on the computer networks.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the application programming interfaces further include an extension class for constructing a network navigation object representing additional behaviors provided to computing components of the component architecture layer to thereby enable communication between the computing components and the network navigation components.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the application programming interfaces further include a notebook extension class for further constructing the notebook object as a network navigation object representing the behaviors of a notebook component.

10. An extensible and replaceable network-oriented component system for providing services directed to resources coupled computer networks, the system comprising:

a processor;

an operating system;

a component architecture layer interfacing with the operating system to control the operations of the processor;

a network component layer coupled to the component architecture layer in cooperating relation; and

a notebook component defined by the network component layer for recording a reference to a resource coupled to the computer networks, the notebook component being replaceable and extensible by other notebook-type components in response to the cooperating relationship between the network component layer and the component architecture layer, wherein said component architecture layer and said network component layer cooperate via an application programming interface to embed components within one another to form a compound document including mixed data types and formats.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the component architecture layer defines a plurality of computing components, and wherein the component architecture layer and the network component layer comprise means for embedding the computing components within one another to form a compound document having mixed data types and formats.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the reference to the resource is recorded in the notebook component as an item component and wherein the notebook component is a compound document.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the item component comprises an address pointer that identifies a location of the resource on the computer networks.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the notebook component is a repository for storing item components representing particular locations on the computer networks.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the network component layer further comprises an application programming interface for transposing the computing components to the notebook component.

16. A method for recording locations of selected network resources of interest to a user of a computer system coupled to computer networks, the method comprising the steps of:

controlling operations of the computer system with an operating system coupled to a component architecture layer of the system;

integrating a network component layer of the computer system with the component architecture layer to provide a cooperating component computing arrangement;

creating a notebook component using the cooperating component computing arrangement, the notebook component comprising a repository for recording items comprising references to network resources connected to the computer networks, the items represented by item icons displayed on a notebook window of a screen of the computer system, wherein said component architecture layer and said network component layer cooperate via an application programming interface to embed components within one another to form a compound document including mixed data types and formats; and

inserting references to selected network resources into the notebook component by dragging and dropping selected item icons onto the notebook window.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the steps of:

opening the notebook component to display a list of categories for organizing the selected items, the categories represented by category icons displayed on the screen; and

one of

folding each category icon to display a category name; and

unfolding each category icon to display selected items of each category.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the steps of folding and unfolding comprise the step of clicking on a triangle control positioned adjacent to the category icons using a mouse of the computer system.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of adding a specific item to a specific category by dragging and dropping the item icon of the specific item onto the category icon of the specific category.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the cooperating component computing arrangement allows one of replacing, modifying and extending the notebook component with a different notebook-type component to provide the user with a customized network service offering.