Method to redisplay active panels

• US 6,864,905 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2001
• Issued: 03/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Meaden, Jeffrey Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Baveri, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vu, Kieu D.
• Application Number:
  US09/816,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20020171683A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,446 Days
• Field of Search: 345/764, 345/806, 345/781, 345/783, 345/790, 345/791, 345/794, 345/795, 345/796, 345/797, 345/802, 345/767, 345/779, 345/799, 345/835
• US Class Current: 715/806
• 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

Abstract

Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture are provided that allow multiple instances of an image to be displayed for different objects. In one embodiment, only one instance of an image is allowed to be displayed for a particular object. A tracking mechanism contains a reference to each active (displayed) image. The reference can be resolved into a unique value identifying each image. If the user requests an action on an object, steps are taken to construct a unique image value for the object and then determine whether the image is already active. If the image is active, the image is repositioned. Repositioning may be accomplished, for example, by moving the image to the foreground of a user interface.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an input device configured to receive input events;

a display device configured to display an image for each of at least two objects in a user interface (UI);

a memory comprising a display program comprising (i) an image tracking mechanism configured to contain a reference to each active image and (ii) an active panel method configured to request a key for an image to be displayed, wherein the key is a unique value for the image to be displayed; and

a processor operably connected to the display device and the input device and configured to receive the input events;

wherein the processor, when executing the display program, is configured to;

(a) track each image that is currently active using the reference associated with each image and contained in the image tracking mechanism;

(b) receive an event indicating that a first image associated with a first object is to be displayed on the display device;

(c) determine whether the first image is already active by determining whether a match exists between a first image key associated with the first image and a unique image value for each active image referenced in the image tracking mechanism;

(d) if the first image is already active, reposition the image into a viewable position in the display device; and

(e) if the first image is not already active, create the image, store a reference to the image in the image tracking mechanism and display the image in the prominent viewing position.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the display program further comprises:

a UI object configured to provide a unique object identifier for an object being acted upon by the event, wherein the unique object identifier is utilized to construct the key and the unique image value for each active image; and

an image manager configured to create an image manager instance for each image, wherein each image manager instance comprises (i) an image identifier method configured to request the unique image value identifying the image manager instance and (ii) a display method configured to display the image.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the event is received from the input device and provides an object reference and an action to perform on the object.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to track each image that is currently active by storing the reference associated to each image to the image tracking mechanism.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the prominent viewing position is in a foreground of the UI.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the prominent viewing position is in a foreground of the UI relative to at least a second image.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the image is at least one of a window and a panel.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the key is comprises a unique object identifier associated with an object being acted on by the event and an image type.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the unique image value is constructed for each reference contained in the image tracking mechanism by using (i) a unique object identifier for an object being acted on by the event and (ii) an image type determined according to the reference.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the display program further comprises an image manager class for each image manager instance and wherein the image manager class comprises a static data element representing the image type.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the active panel method is further configured to request a unique identifier for each active image referenced in the image tracking mechanism.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the key is comprises (i) a unique object identifier associated with an object being acted on by the event;

and (ii) an image type and wherein the unique image value is constructed for each image referenced in the image tracking mechanism by using (i) the unique object identifier for the object being acted on by the event and (ii) an image type of the respective referenced image.

13. A method of displaying an image in a user interface containing at least two images each having an associated object, the method comprising:

receiving an event that a first image associated with a first object is to be displayed in the user interface;

constructing a key uniquely identifying the first image;

determining whether the key matches a unique image value for each additional image active in the user interface, wherein a match indicates that the first image is already active in the user interface; and

if the key matches, repositioning the first image into a viewable position within the user interface; and

if the key does not match, creating the first image and displaying the first image in the user interface.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein constructing the key comprises combining an image type and an object reference, wherein the object reference is resolved to a unique object identifier for the first object.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein creating the first image comprises storing a reference to the first image in a tracking object.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein repositioning the first image into a viewable position comprises positioning the first image into a foreground of the user interface relative to each additional image active in the user interface.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein determining whether the key matches the unique image value for each additional image active in the user interface comprises accessing a list containing an image reference to each additional image.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising, for each image reference contained in the list:

passing a reference image type and object reference to an image identifier building method, wherein the reference image type identifies a type of image associated with the image reference and the object reference references the first object;

resolving the object reference to a unique object identifier for the first object; and

combining the unique object identifier for the first object with the panel type to provide the unique image value.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein constructing the key comprises combining an image type for the first image and the object reference.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising constructing the unique image value for each additional image active in the user interface;

wherein each unique image value comprises (i) an image type of the respective active image; and

(ii) a unique object identifier for the first object; and

wherein the key comprises (i) an image type of the first image; and

(ii) the unique object identifier for the first object.

21. A signal bearing medium, comprising a program which, when executed by a processor, performs a method of displaying an image in a user interface containing at least two images each having an associated object, the method comprising:

receiving an event prompting a first image associated with a first object is to be displayed in the user interface;

constructing a key uniquely identifying the first image;

determining whether the key matches a unique image value for each additional image active in the user interface, wherein a match indicates that the first image is already active in the user interface; and

if the key matches, repositioning the first image into a viewable position within the user interface; and

if the key does not match, creating the first image and displaying the first image in the user interface.

22. The signal bearing medium of claim 21, wherein constructing the key comprises combining an image type and an object reference, wherein the object reference is resolved to a unique object identifier for the first object.

23. The signal bearing medium of claim 21, wherein creating the first image comprises storing a reference to the first image in a tracking object.

24. The signal bearing medium of claim 21, wherein repositioning the first image into a viewable position comprises positioning the first image into a foreground of the user interface relative to each additional image active in the user interface.

25. The signal bearing medium of claim 21, wherein determining whether the key matches the unique image value for each additional image active in the user interface comprises accessing a list containing an image reference to each additional image.

26. The signal bearing medium of claim 25, further comprising, for each image reference contained in the list:

passing a reference image type and object reference to an image identifier building method, wherein the reference image type identifies a type of image associated with the image reference and the object reference references the first object;

resolving the object reference to a unique object identifier for the first object; and

combining the unique object identifier for the first object with the panel type to provide the unique image value.

27. The signal bearing medium of claim 26, wherein constructing the key comprises combining an image type for the first image and the object reference.

28. The signal bearing medium of claim 21, further comprising constructing the unique image value for each additional image active in the user interface;

wherein each unique image value comprises (i) an image type of the respective active image; and

(ii) a unique object identifier for the first object; and

wherein the key comprises (i) an image type of the first image; and

(ii) the unique object identifier for the first object.