Systems and methods for creating and managing graphical user interface lists

• US 7,603,627 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2002
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Falcon, Stephen Russell, Sharpe, Timothy, Bailey, Richard St. Clair, Shoop, Kirk
• Primary Examiner(s): Hailu; Tadesse
• Assistant Examiner(s): Roswell; Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/072,396
• Publication Number:
  US 20030146941A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,807 Days
• Field of Search: 345/830, 345/829, 345/826, 345/833, 345/764, 345/866, 715/764, 715/826, 715/829, 715/830, 715/833, 715/866, 715/769
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for providing a standard list function to create a graphical user interface list and list manager while allowing the graphical user interface to vary by appearance. An application developer can include a list manager control in an application. Properties are set that link the list manager to display controls, a data source and a scrolling behavior source. The list manager provides the appropriate content to the display controls in response to user selections of the display controls. The display controls and a user interface that contains them may vary without altering the basic functionality of the list manager.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an application configured for execution on one or more processors included in the system;

a data source locally accessible to the application that includes a plurality of data elements;

software to select a configuration and an appearance of a list of data items from the data source to be presented; and

a list manager to be instantiated by the software to;

act as an interface between the data source and the list;

receive the configuration and the appearance from the software, access the data source, and populate the list of data items according to the configuration and the appearance; and

wrap one or more display controls that are attached to the list with a property that stores a unique identifier that specifies which said data element a particular said display control is currently displaying, the unique identifier identifying an additional property of said data element from the data source without listening to a data item corresponding to said data element.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the list manager further populates the list of data items according to a scrolling event.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the list manager is capable of residing on various systems using various computing platforms and being added to various applications.

4. A method comprising:

receiving properties from an application of a user-selectable display list to be displayed in a graphical user interface;

attaching user-selectable display controls to the display list;

accessing data elements from a data source, the data elements to be displayed in the display controls;

establishing a display state of the display controls;

receiving a request to change data elements in the display controls; and

managing the data elements in the display controls by wrapping one or more said display controls with a property that stores a unique identifier that specifies which said data element a particular said display control is currently displaying, the unique identifier enables the application to request an additional property of said data element from the data source beyond that which is currently displayed within the display list without listening to a display control corresponding to said data element.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein:

the managing includes managing a display state of the display controls; and

the display state changes between a request to change data elements in the display controls and an actual change of the data elements in the display controls.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein:

the managing includes managing a display state of the display controls; and

the display state of the display controls changes while data elements in the display controls are changing.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein:

the managing includes managing a display state of the display controls; and

the display state changes in response to a selection of a user of the list generating engine.

8. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein:

the managing includes managing a display state of the display controls; and

the display state of the display controls is managed simultaneously while managing the data elements in the display controls.

9. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein:

the application listens to forwarded events without listening to the events directly from the display list.

10. A list generating engine that extends an application program interface (API), comprising:

one or more processors configured to provide the list generating engine that includes;

means for receiving properties of a user-selectable display list to be displayed in a graphical user interface from an application;

means for attaching user-selectable display controls to the display list;

means for accessing data elements from a data source, the data elements to be displayed in the display controls;

means for establishing a display state of the display controls;

means for receiving a request to change data elements in the display controls;

means for managing the data elements in the display controls according to the display state; and

means for requesting an additional property of said data element from the data source beyond that which is currently displayed within the display list without listening to a display control corresponding to said data element.

11. The list generating engine as recited in claim 10, further comprising means for changing the display state of the display controls while continuing to manage the data elements in the display controls.

12. The list generating engine as recited in claim 11, wherein the display state of the display controls changes between a request to change data elements in the display controls and an actual change of the data elements in the display controls.

13. The list generating engine as recited in claim 11, wherein the display state of the display controls changes while data elements in the display controls are changing.

14. The list generating engine as recited in claim 13, wherein the display state changes in response to a selection of a user of the list generating engine.

15. The list generating engine as recited in claim 10, further comprising means for managing the display state of the display controls, wherein the means for managing the display state of the display controls functions simultaneously with the means for managing the data elements in the display controls.

16. The list generating engine as recited in claim 10, wherein the application listens to forwarded events without listening to the events directly from the display list.