Methods and systems for creating skins

• US 7,073,130 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2001
• Issued: 07/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Larkin, Kevin P, Novak, Michael J., Olson, Kipley J., Nadalin, David M., Sanborn, Frank G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): ENGLAND, SARA M
• Application Number:
  US09/773,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20020101444A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,980 Days
• Field of Search: 345/762, 345/763, 345/760, 345/719, 345/717, 345/744, 345/768
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

Methods and systems for creating and rendering skins are described. In one described embodiment skins can be defined as sets of script files, art files, media files, and text files. These files can be used to create new and different skin appearances, layouts and functionalities. The files are organized for use using a hierarchical tag-based data structure, an example of which is an XML data structure. The data structure is processed to provide an object model. The object model can be a scriptable object model that enables script to execute to provide an interactive, dynamic skin that can respond to internal and external events. In one embodiment, a computer architecture used for rendering the skin includes a layout manager that processes an intermediate representation of the XML data structure to provide the scriptable object model. Various components of the scriptable object model can include a script engine for receiving and executing script, and one or more rendering elements. Each rendering element represents a different skin element and can be individually configured to respond to script via the script engine. The inventive systems and techniques can provide a robust, dynamic skin that can be rendered and re-rendered at runtime.

Claims

1. A method of rendering a skin comprising:

a defining one or more subviews, each subview corresponding to a subsection within a skin that can be moved or hidden;

defining multiple visible regions, individual visible regions being associated with the one or more subviews, the visible regions representing individual areas to which their associated one or more subviews are drawn;

defining a traversable tree structure having multiple nodes, each node being associated with a visible region and having one or more attributes, at least some of the attributes being changeable by a user interaction with a visible region;

recalculating a visible region for a node responsive to a user-induced attribute change for the visible region by traversing the tree structure;

recalculating a visible region associated with a parent node of said node; and

after said acts of recalculating, re-rendering a skin associated with the tree structure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said defining of the one or more subviews comprises doing so using an XML data structure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said recalculating of the visible region associated with the parent node comprises summing multiple visible regions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said re-rendering takes place at runtime.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said defining of the tree structure comprises doing so at runtime.

6. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

define one or more subviews using an XML data structure, each subview corresponding to a sabsection within a skin that can be moved or hidden;

define multiple visible regions, individual visible regions being associated with the one or more subviews, the visible regions representing individual areas to which their associated one or more subviews are drawn;

define a traversable tree structure having multiple nodes, each node being associated with a visible region and having one or more attributes, at least some attributes being changeable by a user interaction with a visible region;

recalculate a visible region for a node responsive to a user-induced attribute change for the visible region by traversing the tree structure;

recalculate a visible region associated with a parent node of said node; and

responsive to said acts of recalculating, re-render a skin associated with the tree structure.