System and method for providing rich minimized applications
First Claim
1. A method in a computing system for providing a user interaction scheme comprising:
- defining a sidebar of a user interface;
requesting an application appear in a sidebar when minimized, said application having a taskbar application button associated therewith; and
minimizing the application upon receiving a minimize command to a rich minimized application (RMA), said minimizing including hiding the taskbar application button associated with the application, said RMA comprising a restore option allowing the user to restore the application, said minimizing comprising;
revealing a tile in the sidebar to represent the RMA,wherein the sidebar configured to display a plurality of tiles corresponding to a plurality of RMAs,wherein revealing the tile includes displaying a sub-set of live-data provided by the application when not minimized to the RMA and a sub-set of interactive application features provided by the application when not minimized to the RMA in the tile,wherein the sub-set of interactive applications features do not include features related to sizing or re-sizing of the tile, andwherein the sub-set of interactive application features are selected by the application and the sub-set of interactive application features are determined to be useful by the application when minimized; and
persisting the revealed tile in the sidebar when the user logs off the computing system wherein the revealed tile remains in the sidebar upon the next login of the user.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is directed to a method and system for use in a computing environment to present and provide access to user information. The system may include a sidebar for hosting a plurality of tiles. Applications may be minimized and inserted into the sidebar upon minimization. Selected features of the application remain available through a tile when the application is represented by a tile in the sidebar. The system may also include user interface tools for allowing a user to command placement of a selected application into the sidebar. The application may include an available feature selection module for allowing an application to provide at least a sub-set of a full feature set upon minimization. An insertion module may be provided for inserting the tile into the user interface.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method in a computing system for providing a user interaction scheme comprising:
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defining a sidebar of a user interface; requesting an application appear in a sidebar when minimized, said application having a taskbar application button associated therewith; and minimizing the application upon receiving a minimize command to a rich minimized application (RMA), said minimizing including hiding the taskbar application button associated with the application, said RMA comprising a restore option allowing the user to restore the application, said minimizing comprising; revealing a tile in the sidebar to represent the RMA, wherein the sidebar configured to display a plurality of tiles corresponding to a plurality of RMAs, wherein revealing the tile includes displaying a sub-set of live-data provided by the application when not minimized to the RMA and a sub-set of interactive application features provided by the application when not minimized to the RMA in the tile, wherein the sub-set of interactive applications features do not include features related to sizing or re-sizing of the tile, and wherein the sub-set of interactive application features are selected by the application and the sub-set of interactive application features are determined to be useful by the application when minimized; and persisting the revealed tile in the sidebar when the user logs off the computing system wherein the revealed tile remains in the sidebar upon the next login of the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 18)
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9. A method in a computing system for providing a user interaction scheme through the use of a sidebar, comprising:
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requesting an application appear in a sidebar when minimized; and moving an application to the sidebar upon receipt of a user command to minimize the application based on the request to a rich minimized application (RMA), said minimizing including hiding a taskbar application button associated with the application, said RMA comprising a restore option allowing the user to restore the application, said minimizing comprising; displaying at least a sub-set of interactive features belonging to the application when not minimized to the RMA, wherein the sub-set of interactive applications features do not include features related to sizing or re-sizing of the tile, wherein the sub-set of interactive application features are selected by the application and the sub-set of interactive application features are determined to be useful by the application when minimized to the RMA; and persisting the display of the at least a sub-set of the interactive features in the sidebar when the user logs off the computing system wherein the display of the at least a sub-set of the interactive features remains in the sidebar upon the next login of the user. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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19. A system for providing user access to a variety of informational items, the system comprising:
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a processor associated with a computer for generating a sidebar of a user interface, said sidebar being configured for displaying a plurality of tiles, wherein each of the tiles represents a rich minimized application (RMA) and includes a sub-set of live-data provided by application and a sub-set of interactive application features provided by the application, said RMA further comprising a restore option; an insertion module for inserting at least one of the tiles into the sidebar wherein the sub-set of interactive features of the RMA represented by the inserted tile are displayed therein when the application is represented by the inserted tile in the sidebar, wherein the sub-set of interactive application features are selected by the application and the sub-set of interactive application features are determined to be useful by the application when included in the sidebar, and wherein the sub-set of interactive applications features do not include features related to sizing or re-sizing of the inserted tile, said inserting further comprising hiding a taskbar application button associated with the application; and an available features selection module for selecting the sub-set of interactive application features for display in and accessibility through the inserted tile; and user interface tools for allowing a user to command placement of a selected application into the sidebar, wherein the tile corresponding to the selected application persists in the sidebar when the user logs off the computer and wherein tile corresponding to the selected application remains in the sidebar upon the next user login to the computer. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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23. A system for providing access to a minimized email application through a user interface, the system comprising:
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a processor associated with a computer; an available feature selection module for allowing an email application to provide one or more selected interactive features of the email application including at least a sub-set of a full feature set upon minimization of the email application to a rich minimized application (RMA) wherein the selected interactive application features include access to new and unread email messages received by the email application while minimized; and a tile insertion module for revealing a tile corresponding to the RMA, said RMA comprising a restore option, and for displaying the selected interactive features in the tile in response to minimization of the email application, said displaying including hiding a taskbar application button associated with the application, wherein the selected interactive applications features do not include features related to sizing or re-sizing of the tile, wherein the tile insertion module reveals the tile in a sidebar configured to host the tile within the user interface, wherein the sidebar includes a plurality of tiles corresponding to a plurality of applications, wherein the tile corresponding to the minimized application persists in the sidebar when the user logs off the computer and wherein tile corresponding to the application remains in the sidebar upon the next user login to the computer. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification