System and methods for building spreadsheet applications

• US 5,883,623 A
• Filed: 04/21/1997
• Issued: 03/16/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Borland Software Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Borland International, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Cseri, Istvan
• Primary Examiner(s): FEILD, JOSEPH H
• Application Number:
  US08/841,480
• Time in Patent Office: 694 Days
• Field of Search: 707/500, 707/501, 707/503, 707/504, 707/904, 345/333, 345/334, 345/335, 345/346, 345/347, 345/354
• US Class Current: 715/866
• 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 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/12 Use of codes for handling textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/973 Scroll tool, e.g. window scroll bar

Abstract

An electronic spreadsheet system of the present invention includes a notebook interface having a plurality of notebook pages, each of which may contain a spread of information cells, or other desired page type (e.g., Graphs page). The system includes a spreadsheet application development module having a user interface (UI) builder. The UI builder provides "live" links between system objects. In particular, link commands are provided as statements a developer may attach to a control to indicate what should happen when an end-user activates or changes the control. Link commands usually specify three things: an event, an action, and an object. The event indicates what occurrence should trigger the link command; the action indicates what should happen. The object is what should be acted upon. One control can have many link commands. In operation, a link command can send a value to a cell in the notebook, run a macro, close a dialog box, change the zoom factor in the notebook, or the like.

Claims

1. In a computer system having a memory and a storage device for storing data in a plurality of cell objects, a method for linking user interface objects to other objects, the method comprising:

(a) providing a plurality of user interface objects, each user interface object being associated with at least one event;

(b) defining for each object in the system a set of properties and a set of link objects, each link object for storing information for characterizing a link between a source object and a destination object, and wherein at least some objects maintain lists of links for determining what objects they are linked to;

(c) in response to user input, linking an event of a particular user interface object to a particular property of at least one other object through use of a particular link object, wherein said link object stores information characterizing a particular linkage between the objects; and

(e) upon occurrence of the linked event associated with the particular user interface object, determining all other objects linked to the particular user interface object and triggering an automatic change in value to the property of said at least one other object being linked.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said user interface objects include selected ones of an edit field, scroll bar, and screen button.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said properties of an object include displayed attributes of the object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein events for a user interface object include events triggered as a result of action performed by the object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein events for user interface object include events triggered as a result of input from user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said change in value to the property of said at least one object linked comprises a change in value to a property of said at least one object being linked other than an object'"'"'s value.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said linking an event of a particular user interface object to a particular property of at least one object includes:

displaying a dialog listing events which can occur at said particular user interface object.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (e) includes:

upon occurrence of the linked event associated with the particular user interface object, determining all objects which have been linked to the event.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein properties for objects comprise attribute values other than values stored by the objects.

10. In a computer system having a memory and a storage device for storing data in a plurality of objects, a method for linking properties of objects together, the method comprising:

(a) providing a plurality of objects, each object having a set of display properties affecting how the object is displayed

(b) displaying a dialog for connecting a particular property of one object to respective properties of an arbitrary number of other objects;

(c) in response to user input, linking the particular property of said one object to a corresponding property for each of the other objects; and

(e) upon occurrence of a change in value to particular property of said one object, automatically propagating changes to values of the corresponding property for each of the other objects.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said one object comprises a user interface control.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said occurrence of a change in value to particular property of said one object occurs as a result of user input.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

(f) selecting a property of a first object to monitor;

(g) linking a corresponding property of at least one second object to that of the first object; and

(h) upon change in value of the property of the first object, propagating said change to the property of all said at least one second object.

14. In a computer system, a method for linking objects together comprising:

storing a plurality of objects;

storing for each object in the system a set of properties, inlets, and outlets, wherein inlets for an object include actions which may be performed by the object, and wherein outlets for an object include events which may occur at the object;

storing a set of link objects, each link object for storing information for characterizing a link between a source object and a destination object;

storing for each object a list of other objects linked to said each object;

receiving input for changing at least one object; and

using said link objects, updating a change in the one object to other objects which are linked to said one object.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said plurality of objects include user interface objects for receiving user input.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said properties of an object include display attributes of the object.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein said objects include user interface objects.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein events for an object include events triggered as a result of actions performed by the object.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein events for an object include events triggered as a result of input from a user.