Technique for flexible inclusion of information items and various media types in a user interface

• US 6,781,609 B1
• Filed: 05/09/2000
• Issued: 08/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Merrick, Roland A., Barker, Kevin S., Burkett, Charles E., Lection, David B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cabeca, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): BAUTISTA, XIOMARA L
• Application Number:
  US09/567,487
• Time in Patent Office: 1,568 Days
• Field of Search: 345/700-866, 715/501.1, 715/513, 715/522
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for flexibly including descriptive information items, and the various media resources used for those items, in a user interface (UI). One markup language document is used for the UI data content, and a separate markup language document is used for specifying the descriptive items and media resources to be used along with that content. This technique enables dynamically altering the descriptive items and media resources to be used for a UI document, without requiring change to the UI document itself This technique also enables developing the descriptive items and media resources separately from developing the UI document, without a requirement to share common files between these development efforts. The specifications of descriptive information items and media resources can be efficiently reused among multiple UI documents.

Claims

1. A computer program product for flexibly including descriptive items and media types in a user interface, said computer program product embodied on a computer-readable medium and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for processing a first document that specifies user interface (UI) content, wherein said first document is encoded in a markup language and said UI content comprises one or more data items to be rendered to a user;

computer-readable program code means for processing a second document that identifies, in at least one media format, one or more descriptive items, wherein;

said second document is encoded in said markup language;

each of said descriptive items provides information that is renderable to the user to further describe one or more of the data items; and

said first document includes, for selected ones of said data items, a reference to one of the descriptive items;

computer-readable program code means for expanding the reference for each selected one of the data items, thereby creating a media-enhanced version of the first document, wherein the media-enhanced version includes the one or more data items of the UI content and also includes, for each of the selected ones of the data items, the descriptive item referenced therefrom in each of the at least one media formats; and

computer-readable program code means for rendering said media-enhanced version of the first document.

2. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the descriptive items is specified as a descriptive media container which identifies multiple media formats for the at least one descriptive item.

3. The computer program product according to claim 2, wherein said descriptive media container further describes a caption for one or more of the data items, a hint for one or more of the data items, a tip for one or more of the data items, or help for one or more of the data items.

4. The computer program product according to claim 2, wherein said first document further specifies an exclusion statement to exclude particular ones of the media formats specified for said descriptive media container, and wherein said computer-readable program code means for expanding further comprises computer-readable program code means for omitting said particular ones of the media formats when creating said media-enhanced version of said first document.

5. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the media format for at least one of the descriptive items is specified as a text format, a video format, an audio format, or an image format.

6. The computer program product according to claim 2, wherein said first document further specifies an exclusion statement to exclude said descriptive media container, and wherein said computer-readable program code means for expanding further comprises computer-readable program code means for omitting said descriptive media container when creating said media-enhanced version of the first document.

7. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein said computer-readable program code means for expanding uses a hash table for quick and efficient retrieval of the descriptive item referenced from each of the selected ones of the data items.

8. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein said markup language is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) derivative.

9. The computer program product according to claim 8, wherein said XML derivative is an abstract UI markup language (AUIML).

10. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein a third document is substituted for the second document, the third document being encoded in the markup language and specifying different descriptive items and/or different versions of the one or more descriptive items specified in the second document, such that operation of the computer-readable program code means for expanding automatically creates a different media-enhanced version of the first document for use by the computer-readable program code means for rendering, without requiring change to said first document.

11. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein:

a third document is substituted for the first document, the third document being encoded in the markup language and specifying at least one data item that differs from the data items in the first document and that includes a reference to one of the descriptive items, such that operation of the computer-readable program code means for expanding automatically creates a different media-enhanced document by reusing said descriptive items in said second document; and

the computer-readable program code means for rendering renders the different media-enhanced document.

12. A system for flexibly including descriptive items and media types in a user interface, comprising:

means for processing a first document that specifies user interface (UI) content, wherein said first document is encoded in a markup language and said UI content comprises one or more data items to be rendered to a user;

means for processing a second document that identifies, in at least one media format, one or more descriptive items, wherein;

said second document is encoded in said markup language;

each of said descriptive items provides information that is renderable to the user to further describe one or more of the data items; and

the first document includes, for selected ones of the data items, a reference to one of the descriptive items;

means for expanding the reference for each selected one of the data items, thereby creating a media-enhanced version of the first document, wherein the media-enhanced version includes the one or more data items of the UI content and also includes, for each of the selected ones of the data items, the descriptive item referenced therefrom, in each of the at least one media formats; and

means for rendering said media-enhanced version of the first document.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein at least one of the descriptive item is specified as a descriptive media container which identifies multiple media formats for the at least one descriptive item.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein said descriptive media container further describes a caption for one or more of the data items, a hint for one or more of the data items, a tip for one or more of the data items, or help for one or more of the data items.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein the first document further specifies an exclusion statement to exclude particular ones of the media formats specified for the descriptive media container, and wherein said means for expanding further comprises means for omitting said particular ones of the media formats when creating the media-enhanced version of the first document.

16. The system according to claim 12, wherein the media format for at least one of the descriptive items is specified as a text format, a video format, an audio format, or an image format.

17. The system according to claim 13, wherein said first document further specifies an exclusion statement to exclude said descriptive media container, and wherein said means for expanding further comprises means for omitting said descriptive media container when creating the media-enhanced version of the first document.

18. The system according to claim 12, wherein said means for expanding uses a hash table for quick and efficient retrieval of the descriptive item referenced from each of the selected ones of the data items.

19. The system according to claim 12, wherein the markup language is an Extreme Markup Language (XML) derivative.

20. The system according to claim 19, where said XML derivative is an abstract UI markup language (AUIML).

21. The system according to claim 12, wherein a third document is substituted for the second document, the third document being encoded in the markup language and specifying different descriptive items and/or different versions of the one or more descriptive items specified in the second document, such that operation of the means for expanding automatically creates a different media-enhanced version of the first document for use by the means for rendering, without requiring change to the first document.

22. The system according to claim 12, wherein:

a third document is substituted for the first document, the third document being encoded in the markup language and specifying at least one data item that differs from the data items in the first document and that includes a reference to one of the descriptive items, such that operation of the means for expanding automatically creates a different media-enhanced document by reusing descriptive items in the second document; and

the means for rendering renders the different media-enhanced document.

23. A method for flexibly including descriptive items and media types in a user interface, comprising the steps of:

processing a first document that specifies user interface (UI) content, wherein the first document is encoded in a markup language and said UI content comprises one or more data items to be rendered to a user;

processing a second document that identifies, in at least one media format, one or more descriptive items, wherein;

the second document is encoded in the markup language;

each of the descriptive items provides information that is renderable to the user to further describe one or more of the data items; and

the first document includes, for selected ones of the data items, a reference to one of the descriptive items;

expanding the reference for each selected one of the data items, thereby creating a media-enhanced version of the first document, wherein the media-enhanced version includes the one or more data items of the UI content and also includes, for each of the selected ones of the data items, the descriptive item referenced therefrom, in each of the at least one media formats; and

rendering said media-enhanced version of the first document.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein at least one of the descriptive items is specified as a descriptive media container which identifies multiple media formats for the at least one descriptive item.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein said descriptive media container further describes a caption for one or more of the data items, a hint for one or more of the data items, a tip for one or more of the data items, or help for one or more of the data items.

26. The method according to claim 24, wherein the first document further specifies an exclusion statement to exclude particular ones of the media formats specified for the descriptive media container, and wherein the expanding step further comprises the step of omitting said particular ones of the media formats when creating the media-enhanced version of the first document.

27. The method according to claim 23, wherein the media format for at least one of the descriptive items is specified as a text format, a video format, an audio format, or an image format.

28. The method according to claim 24, wherein the first document further specifies an exclusion statement to exclude said descriptive media container, and wherein said expanding step further comprises the step of omitting the descriptive media container when creating the media-enhanced version of the first document.

29. The method according to claim 23, wherein the expanding step uses a hash table for quick and efficient retrieval of the descriptive item referenced from each of the selected ones of the data items.

30. The method according to claim 23, wherein the markup language is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) derivative.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein said XML derivative is an abstract UI markup Language (AUIML).

32. The method according to claim 23, wherein a third document is substituted for the second document, the third document being encoded in the markup language and specifying different descriptive items and/or different versions of the one or more descriptive items specified in the second document, such that operation of the expanding step automatically creates a different media-enhanced version of the first document for use by the rendering step, without requiring change to the first document.

33. The method according to claim 23, wherein:

a third document is substituted for the first document, the third document being encoded in the markup language and specifying at least one data item that differs from the data items in the first document and that includes a reference to one of the descriptive items, such that operation of the expanding step automatically creates a different media-enhanced document by reusing descriptive items in the second document; and

the rendering step renders different media-enhanced document.

34. The method according to claim 23, wherein at least one of the descriptive items is specified as a reference to a descriptive item.

35. The method according to claim 23, wherein at least one of the descriptive items is specified as a reference to a descriptive media container which identifies multiple media formats for the at least one descriptive item.