Object-oriented computer user interface
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A computer user interface, comprising:
- means for graphically representing objects that collectively are instances of a plurality of object types,wherein a folder is one of such object types and comprises a collection of instances of an object type;
wherein an agent is another of such object types and wherein an instance of the agent object type comprises an indication of a collection of objects, an indication of at least one rule to be applied to the collection of objects, and an indication of an event the occurrence of which causes the rule to be applied to the collection of objects; and
wherein the objects are semi-structured by having a collection of fields, wherein information in at least one of the fields may be of any type, so as to be interpretable by agents in a uniform way; and
wherein the means for graphically representing and the means for structuring function so that each object is presented to, edited by, and acted upon by the user in a substantially uniform way, regardless of type.
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Abstract
A computer user interface includes a mechanism for graphically representing and displaying user-definable objects of multiple types. The object types that can be represented include data records, not limited to a particular kind of data, and agents. An agent processes information automatically on behalf of the user. Another mechanism allows a user to define objects, for example by using a template. These two mechanisms act together to allow each object to be displayed to the user and acted upon by the user in a uniform way regardless of type. For example, templates for defining objects allow a specification to be input by a user defining processing that can be performed by an agent.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A computer user interface, comprising:
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means for graphically representing objects that collectively are instances of a plurality of object types, wherein a folder is one of such object types and comprises a collection of instances of an object type; wherein an agent is another of such object types and wherein an instance of the agent object type comprises an indication of a collection of objects, an indication of at least one rule to be applied to the collection of objects, and an indication of an event the occurrence of which causes the rule to be applied to the collection of objects; and wherein the objects are semi-structured by having a collection of fields, wherein information in at least one of the fields may be of any type, so as to be interpretable by agents in a uniform way; and wherein the means for graphically representing and the means for structuring function so that each object is presented to, edited by, and acted upon by the user in a substantially uniform way, regardless of type. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A computer user interface, comprising:
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means for graphically representing objects that collectively are instances of a plurality of object types, each object type having a set of fields; wherein a data record is one of such object types; wherein an agent is another of such object types and wherein an instance of the agent object type comprises an indication of a collection of objects, an indication of at least one rule to be applied to the collection of objects, and an indication of an event the occurrence of which causes the rule to be applied to the collection of objects; and means for organizing the object types in a hierarchy of increasing specialization of a generic object type and for causing each specialized object type to inherit one or more properties of any parent thereof. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer user interface comprising:
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means for graphically representing objects that collectively are instances of a plurality of object types, each object type having a set of fields, and wherein an agent is one of such object types and wherein an instance of the agent object type comprises an indication of a collection of objects, an indication of at least one rule to be applied to the collection of objects, and an indication of an event the occurrence of which causes the rule to be applied to the collection of objects; and means for causing the objects to be semi-structured by having a collection of fields, wherein information in at least one of the fields may be of any type, so as to be interpretable by agents in a uniform way. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A computer system, comprising:
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means for creating a plurality of object types using a template to create different templates for different object types; means for creating instances of an object type using the templates for the object type; and wherein at least one of the data object types is an agent which performs functions on other data object types and wherein an instance of the agent object type comprises an indication of a collection of objects of at least one of the object types, an indication of at least one rule to be applied to the collection of objects, and an indication of an event the occurrence of which causes the rule to be applied to the collection of objects.
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16. A computer system comprising:
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means for easily defining new object types with different fields; means for creating instances of objects of the defined object types; means for easily defining links between instances of objects; means for providing traversal of links; and means for easily defining agents as object types and for performing functions on instances of objects and wherein an instance of the agent object type comprises an indication of a collection of objects of at least one of the defined object types, an indication of at least one rule to be applied to the collection of objects, and an indication of an event the occurrence of which causes the rule to be applied to the collection of objects. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An object-oriented computer user interface system, comprising:
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a semi-structured generic object type defining a collection of fields, wherein information in at least one of the fields may be of any type; an agent object type derived from the generic object type, wherein an agent, an instance of the agent object type, comprises; an indication of a collection of instances of an object type derived from the generic object type, a collection of rules to be applied to the collection of instances of an object type, an indication of a trigger condition indicating when the collection of rules is to be applied, and a trigger method for evaluating occurrence of the trigger condition; and a data record object type derived from the generic object type, wherein a data record, an instance of the data record object type, comprises; a collection of fields for storing data. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification