Hierarchical, multilevel, expand and collapse navigation aid for hierarchical structures
First Claim
1. A navigation aid for hierarchical structures having multiple levels of nodes, the navigational aid comprising:
- hierarchy display means for displaying the nodes in a multilevel hierarchical structure, wherein nodes having ancestors can be collapsed to the level of any ancestor and nodes having descendants can be expanded to the level of any descendant;
icon display means for displaying in the vicinity of the name of each node a conventional expand-and-collapse icon used to swap the expanded and collapsed states of each node; and
menu display means for gathering statistics about the current state of the hierarchical structure, for dynamically generating information from the statistics, for adjusting the information generated dynamically from the statistics based on the position of a selected node displayed in the hierarchical structure, and for displaying a dynamic menu associated with the selected node, wherein the dynamic menu is separate from the displayed nodes in the multilevel hierarchical structure and includes;
(a) for each ancestor level of the hierarchical structure above the selected node, an option to collapse the hierarchical structure to the level of the ancestor with a single action, based on the information generated dynamically from the statistics.(b) an entry identifying the selected node and in which level of expansion from the root node the selected node resides, based on the fully collapsed condition of the hierarchical structure, and(c) for each descendant level of the hierarchical structure below the selected node, an option to display the nodes at the descendant level, based on the information generated dynamically from the statistics.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A software utility navigation aid for hierarchical structures such as file managers, taxonomies, or tables of contents that displays a dynamic menu when the mouse cursor is hovered over an activator used to swap the expanded/collapsed state of a node displayed in a hierarchical structure. The menu contains entries that identify in which display level of expansion the node resides based on the structure'"'"'s fully collapsed condition (from the root node), the number of display levels to which this branch of the hierarchy can be expanded, and the number of nodes that will be exposed when this branch is expanded to each of those levels. Each displayed entry in this menu, positioned both below and above the identified node, can be clicked to cause the hierarchical structure to expand or collapse to that display level.
88 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A navigation aid for hierarchical structures having multiple levels of nodes, the navigational aid comprising:
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hierarchy display means for displaying the nodes in a multilevel hierarchical structure, wherein nodes having ancestors can be collapsed to the level of any ancestor and nodes having descendants can be expanded to the level of any descendant; icon display means for displaying in the vicinity of the name of each node a conventional expand-and-collapse icon used to swap the expanded and collapsed states of each node; and menu display means for gathering statistics about the current state of the hierarchical structure, for dynamically generating information from the statistics, for adjusting the information generated dynamically from the statistics based on the position of a selected node displayed in the hierarchical structure, and for displaying a dynamic menu associated with the selected node, wherein the dynamic menu is separate from the displayed nodes in the multilevel hierarchical structure and includes; (a) for each ancestor level of the hierarchical structure above the selected node, an option to collapse the hierarchical structure to the level of the ancestor with a single action, based on the information generated dynamically from the statistics. (b) an entry identifying the selected node and in which level of expansion from the root node the selected node resides, based on the fully collapsed condition of the hierarchical structure, and (c) for each descendant level of the hierarchical structure below the selected node, an option to display the nodes at the descendant level, based on the information generated dynamically from the statistics. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A computer program product for navigating hierarchical structures having multiple levels of nodes, the computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer readable program code comprising:
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computer readable program code means for displaying the nodes in a multilevel hierarchical structure, wherein nodes having ancestors can be collapsed to the level of any ancestor and nodes having descendants can be expanded to the level of any descendant; computer readable program code means for displaying in the vicinity of each node'"'"'s name a conventional expand-and-collapse icon used to swap the expanded and collapsed states of each node; and computer readable program code means for gathering statistics about the current state of the hierarchical structure, for dynamically generating information from the statistics, for adjusting the information generated dynamically from the statistics based on the position of a selected node displayed in the hierarchical structure, and for displaying a dynamic menu associated with a the selected node , wherein the dynamic menu is separate from the displayed nodes in the multilevel hierarchical structure and includes; (a) for each ancestor level of the hierarchical structure above the selected node, an option to collapse the hierarchical structure to the level of the ancestor with a single action, based on the information generated dynamically from the statistics, (b) an entry identifying the selected node and in which level of expansion from the root node the selected node resides, based on the fully collapsed condition of the hierarchical structure, and (c) for each descendant level of the hierarchical structure below the selected node, an option to display the nodes at the descendant level, based on the information generated dynamically from the statistics. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A computer-implemented aid for navigating the display of a hierarchical structure having multiple levels of nodes, wherein nodes having ancestors can be collapsed to the level of any ancestor and nodes having descendants can be expanded to the level of any descendant, and wherein a conventional expand-and-collapse icon used to swap the expanded and collapsed states of each node is displayed in association with each node, the navigational aid comprising:
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means for gathering statistics about the current state of the hierarchical structure; means for dynamically generating information from the statistics, means for adjusting the information generated dynamically from the statistics based on the position of a selected node displayed in the hierarchical structure, and means for displaying a dynamic menu associated with the selected node, wherein the dynamic menu is separate from the displayed nodes in the multilevel hierarchical structure and includes; (a) for each ancestor level of the hierarchical structure above the selected node, an option to collapse the hierarchical structure to the level of the ancestor with a single action, based on the information generated dynamically from the statistics, (b) an entry identifying the selected node and in which level of expansion from the root node the selected node resides, based on the fully collapsed condition of the hierarchical structure, and (c) for each descendant level of the hierarchical structure below the selected node, an option to display the nodes at the descendant level, based on the information generated dynamically from the statistics.
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Specification