Selective rendering of user interface of computer program

• US 7,571,391 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2003
• Issued: 08/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Roessler, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore; William L
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHANTANA ANGKOOL, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US10/688,856
• Publication Number:
  US 20050086608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,118 Days
• Field of Search: 715/764, 715/774
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

Methods, system and apparatus, including computer program products, for rendering a user interface in a client program. The techniques include detecting multiple changes to a user interface of a computer program, the user interface having multiple user interface elements, each change being a change to one of the multiple user interface elements; generating a rendering request for each change, each rendering request specifying the user interface element that has changed and a type of modification to be performed on the user interface element; and filtering the requests to eliminate redundant requests. The user interface can be rendered based on the filtered requests.

Claims

1. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product comprising instructions operable to cause a client apparatus to perform operations comprising:

displaying, by the client apparatus, a user interface to a server computer program running on a server, the user interface including a plurality of user interface elements including a first user interface element, the first user interface element having a plurality of attributes;

receiving, from the server, a server-generated chance to the first user interface element;

receiving a client-generated change to the first user interface element based on a user input to the client apparatus;

receiving a plurality of additional changes to the first user interface element based on additional user inputs to the client apparatus or additional changes received from the server;

generating a server-based rendering request for the server-generated change and a client-based rendering request for the client-generated change, the server-based rendering request and client-based rendering request each specifying the first user interface element and a type of modification to be performed on the first user interface element;

generating additional rendering requests for the additional chances to the first user interface element;

categorizing both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request as redundant because both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request identify subsets of the attributes of the first user interface element also identified by the additional rendering requests for the additional changes;

filtering both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request to eliminate the redundant server-based rendering request and the redundant client-based rendering request; and

rendering the first user input element, the rendering being limited to additional rendering requests and excluding the filtered server-based rendering request and the filtered client-based rendering request.

2. The product of claim 1, wherein each rendering request is a request to modify a data structure representing the user interface.

3. The product of claim 2, wherein the data structure is a document object model representation of the user interface.

4. The product of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the additional rendering requests is a request for a complete re-rendering of the user interface element.

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

the first user element is a text field, radio button, table, tray, or menu.

6. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the additional rendering requests, the server-based rendering request, or the client-based rendering request specifies a color attribute of the first user interface element.

7. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the first user interface element elements filters its own rendering requests.

8. A client apparatus comprising:

means for displaying a user interface to a server computer program running on a server, the user interface including a plurality of user interface elements including a first user interface element, the first user interface element having a plurality of attributes;

means for receiving, from the server, a server-generated change to the first user interface element;

means for receiving a client-generated change to the first user interface element based on a user input to the client apparatus;

means for receiving a plurality of additional changes to the first user interface element based on additional user inputs to the client apparatus or additional changes received from the server;

means for generating a server-based rendering request for the server-generated change and a client-based rendering request for the client-generated change, the server-based rendering request and client-based rendering request each specifying the first user interface element and a type of modification to be performed on the first user interface element;

means for generating additional rendering requests for the additional changes to the first user interface element;

means for categorizing both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request as redundant because both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request identify subsets of the attributes of the first user interface element also identified by the additional rendering requests for the additional changes;

means for filtering, both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request to eliminate the redundant server-based rendering request and the redundant client-based rendering request;

means for rendering the first user input element, the rendering being limited to additional rendering requests and excluding the filtered server-based rendering request and the filtered client-based rendering request; and

a processor for implementing at least the means for filtering.

9. The client apparatus of claim 8, wherein each rendering request is a request to modify a data structure representing the user interface.

10. The client apparatus of claim 9, wherein the data structure is a document object model representation of the user interface.

11. The client apparatus of claim 8, wherein:

at least one of the additional rendering requests is a request for a complete re-rendering of the user interface element.

12. The client apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the first user interface element filters its own rendering requests.

13. A computer-implemented method comprising:

displaying, by a client apparatus, a user interface to a server computer program running on a server, the user interface including a plurality of user interface elements including a first user interface element, the first user interface element having a plurality of attributes;

receiving, from the server, a server-generated change to the first user interface element;

receiving a client-generated change to the first user interface element based on a user input to the client apparatus;

receiving a plurality of additional changes to the first user interface element based on additional user inputs to the client apparatus or additional changes received from the server;

generating a server-based rendering request for the server-generated change and a client-based rendering request for the client-generated change, the server-based rendering request and client-based rendering request each specifying the first user interface element and a type of modification to be performed on the first user interface element;

generating additional rendering requests for the additional changes to the first user interface element;

categorizing both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request as redundant because both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request identify subsets of the attributes of the first user interface element also identified by the additional rendering requests for the additional changes;

filtering both the server-based rendering request and the client-based rendering request to eliminate the redundant server-based rendering request and the redundant client-based rendering request; and

rendering the first user input element, the rendering being limited to additional rendering requests and excluding the filtered server-based rendering request and the filtered client-based rendering request.

14. The computer-implemented method according to claim 13, wherein each rendering request is a request to modify a data structure representing the user interface.

15. The computer-implemented method according to claim 13, wherein the data structure is a document object model representation of the user interface.

16. The computer-implemented method according to claim 13, wherein at least one of the additional rendering requests is a request for a complete re-rendering of the user interface element.

17. The computer-implemented method according to claim 13, wherein the first user interface element filters its own rendering requests.