Prescribed navigation using topology metadata and navigation path

• US 7,650,349 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2005
• Issued: 01/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yeh, Erh-Chun, Nuthakki, Manoj, Jin, Youxuan, Teh, Jin Teik, Tang, Zhenyu
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hwa; Shyue Jiunn
• Application Number:
  US11/029,953
• Publication Number:
  US 20060149782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,840 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

The subject invention provides a system and/or method that facilitates prescribing a navigation within an application utilizing a topology and a navigation path. The topology is created based upon received metadata and is a network of node objects and link objects. The navigation path is a sequential list over the topology that represents a sub-graph thereof. A prescribing component can create the topology and navigation path such that a prescribed navigation can be utilized by an application during navigation (e.g., exploration) during runtime.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system that facilitates developing an application, comprising:

a processor coupled to memory that retains;

a prescribing component that provides a prescribed navigation at design time to facilitate development of applications in hypermedia systems, the prescribed navigation comprises a topology and at least one navigation path, the prescribing component comprising;

a topology component that creates a topology during design time that includes a network of node objects and link objects based on received metadata related to a business framework such that node objects are interconnected with link objects, the node objects represent data instances and link objects represent traversable relationships between data instances; and

a navigation component that creates a navigation path during design time that includes a root node object associated with a sequential list of link objects included in the topology, the link objects linking to other nodes of the topology, wherein the navigation path is persisted as a set of metadata describing a navigation route, wherein the set of metadata is utilized to generate code including a navigation expression composed in a strong typed manner;

a navigation path service that contains the generated topology and navigation path as well as a navigation path provider that provides context to the nodes of the navigation path; and

an application that communicates with the navigation path service during runtime to display a sequence of user interfaces that correspond to the navigation path, wherein the application provides a navigation expression that identifies the navigation path by filtering nodes of the topology, wherein the navigation expression is an object model created during the design time of the application based on the topology and associated code such that the navigation path service instantiates the navigation path by binding a context to the starting node and returning a user interface for the starting node to the application, the user interface including at least one user interface object representing a link object that links the starting node to another node of the topology such that when the at least one user interface object is selected within the user interface, a second user interface is generated and returned to the application, the second user interface representing the other node, the other node being bound to a context provided by the navigation path service,

wherein a journal is maintained of the sequence of nodes for which a user interface is returned to the application, the prescribing component using the journal to generate a new navigation path that corresponds with the sequence of nodes traversed by the application and

wherein a filter that creates the navigation path by filtering the node in the topology with a navigation path expression.

2. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, wherein the topology and the navigation path are created during design time of the application using metadata.

3. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, the node object further represents a state of navigation containing a list of links to another node and associated data contents.

4. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, the node object is at least one of the following:

an entity;

an entity cube;

a query;

a task, and information source that is query-able from a provider.

5. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, the link object provides at least one of a reference to a source and a destination node or a request to a provider that offers access to a destination node.

6. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, further comprising a model editor that creates the navigation path from the topology by identifying a root node and pruning the sub-graph.

7. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface tool that provides for manual generation of the topology.

8. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, further comprising an automatic component that automatically creates the topology by utilizing at least one of:

an entity graph, a business intelligence metadata, and a business intelligence journal.

9. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, further comprising a navigation path provider infrastructure that manages communication between a client application and at least one navigation path provider and enables the generation of the topology metadata in design time.

10. The computer-implemented system of claim 9, the navigation path provider infrastructure includes a navigation path provider that provides a navigation path service and accesses a context node through a transformation and/or an information retrieval mechanism.

11. The computer-implemented system of claim 10, the information retrieval mechanism is at least one of the following:

a meta-model provider for the entity;

a drill function for the business intelligence;

a task for operation, and information that is query-able from a navigation path provider.

12. The computer-implemented system of claim 1, further comprising one of the following:

a journal that records a history of navigation; and

a user interface binding that enables a binding to a user interface driven by metadata.

13. A computer-implemented method that facilitates prescribing a navigation within an application, comprising:

generating, by a processor, a prescribed navigation comprising a topology and navigation path at design time, wherein generating the prescribed navigation comprises;

receiving metadata related to a business framework during design time;

creating a topology during design time based upon the metadata, the topology including a network of node objects and link objects based on the received such that node objects are interconnected with link objects, the node objects representing data instances and link objects represent traversable relationships between data instances; and

establishing a navigation path during design time as a sub-graph of the topology, the navigation path including a root node object associated with a sequential list of link objects that are included in the topology, wherein the navigation path is persisted as a set of metadata describing a navigation route, wherein the set of metadata is utilized to generate code including a navigation expression composed in a strong typed manner;

receiving, by the processor, at a navigation path service, a request from an application at runtime to display a sequence of user interfaces that correspond to the navigation path, wherein the application provides a navigation expression that identifies the navigation path by filtering nodes of the topology, wherein the navigation expression is an object model created during the design time of the application based on the topology and associated code;

instantiating, by the processor, the navigation path by binding a context to the starting node and returning a user interface for the starting node to the application, the user interface including at least one user interface object representing a link object that links the starting node to another node of the topology;

receiving, by the processor, a request from the application that indicates selection of the at least one user interface object;

generating and returning, by the processor, a second user interface to the application, the second user interface representing the other node, the other node being bound to a context provided by the navigation path service; and

storing, by the processor, in a journal the sequence of nodes for which a user interface is returned to the application and using the journal to generate a new navigation path that corresponds with the sequence of nodes traversed by the application.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the topology is a network of a node object and a link object representing a subset of traversable objects and paths and the navigation path is a sequential list of links over the topology.