Automatically binding and populating a selection control with both display labels and identification values

• US 7,552,129 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2006
• Issued: 06/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Jianjun, Xu, Li
• Primary Examiner(s): Chace; Christian P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chbouki; Tarek
• Application Number:
  US11/411,664
• Publication Number:
  US 20070256052A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: 707101-102, 717/109, 709/229
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

A method, system and computer-usable medium are presented for binding multi-value data structures to a selection control in one single action, where one of the multi-value data structures is for identification values and the other multi-value data structure is for labels. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of predictively determining that a data structure is either an identifier value or a label; and simultaneously associating a predictively determined identifier value and a predictively determined label with a widget in an editor pane in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

utilizing a processor in a computer to execute computer program instructions that, when executed, perform the steps of;

drag-and-dropping two data structures from a data tree into a widget, wherein the data tree is displayed in a data pane of an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), and wherein the widget is displayed in an editor pane in the IDE;

binding labels and identifiers to the widget;

recording the labels and identifiers in a metadata area of the IDE;

in response to determining that the widget is list-bindable, that there are exactly two data structures, and that both data structures are multi-valued, predictively determining that one of the data structures is an identifier value and another of the data structures is a label, wherein the identifier value identifies multiple labels for record entries contained within a file identified by the identifier value, and wherein predictively determining that one of the data structures is the identifier value and another of the data structures is the label comprises the steps of;

determining if one of the data structures is a string list and another of the data structures is a non-string list, wherein if one of the data structures is a string list and another of the data structures is a non-string list, then determining that a string list data structure is a label and a non-string list data structure is an identifier value,

determining if one of the data structures is a numeric list and another of the data structures is a non-numeric list, wherein if one of the data structures is a numeric list and another of the data structures is a non-numeric list, then determining that a numeric list data structure is an identifier value and a non-numeric list data structure is a label,

in response to determining that object names of the data structures are indicative of whether a data structure is an identifier value or a label, describing and identifying the data structures according to the object names of the data structures, and

in response to determining that object names of the data structures are not indicative of whether the data structure is the identifier value or the label and in response to subsequently determining that either of the data structures have been used and have been identified and recorded in a look-up table as being either an identifier value or a label, describing and identifying the data structures according to entries in the look-up table, wherein said determining that either of the data structures have been used and have been identified and recorded in the look-up table as being either the identifier value or the label only occurs after said determining that object names of the data structures are not indicative of whether the data structure is the identifier value or the label;

binding the two data structures to the widget only if one of the data structures is determined to be an identifier value and another of the data structures is determined to be a label;

in response to determining that both of the two data structures have been incorrectly described as being either an identifier value or a label, switching identifier value and label descriptors between the two data structures before binding the two data structures to the widget; and

in response to the look-up table not being accessible, randomly describing and identifying the data structures as being either an identifier value or a label.