Bi-directional update of a grid and associated visualizations

• US 8,576,218 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2008
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Martinez, Edward A., Rai, Siddhartha, Jagadeba, Ramani Ranjan, Vishwanath, Adithya Nittor, Korasala, Kaladhar Bapu V S, Bhatia, Tushar, Govind, Rishab, Mukhija, Nitin, Agarwal, Abhishek, Sawhney, Sonal, Kelleran, Jeff
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Du, Haixia
• Application Number:
  US12/337,648
• Publication Number:
  US 20100156889A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,783 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data

Abstract

Architecture that facilitates the attachment of multiple visualization types (e.g., charts) to the data of a grid and the presentation of the visualization next to the grid. The infrastructure allows each data view to be associated with a set of visualizations. These visualizations are rendered along with the grid (in a separate presentation pane) so that the user does not have to switch context to perform analysis. The visualizations available include charts that show aggregate and/or non-aggregate data. In a server farm scenario, all user interactions such as drill-downs are provided. Server farm drill-downs for these visualizations can be obtained using MHTML (MIME hypertext markup language). The visualizations can be automatically updated when filters are applied on the grid, and when drill-down is performed on the visualization, the grid is automatically updated. The visualizations can be consumed from a web-based browser client and/or thick client, for example.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented data viewing system, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory comprising and computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

retrieve at least a portion of data in a database,

generate a grid based upon the at least a portion of the data,

send the grid for display,

accept a request to display at least a portion of the data in the grid in a graphical format,

send a data page with the grid data and with a placeholder for a graphical format,

determine graphical formats available to display the grid data,

send a listing of the available graphical formats,

accept a designation of an available graphical format,

accept a designation of grid data to be represented in the designated graphical format,

retrieve data from the database corresponding to the designated grid data,

generate a graphical representation of the retrieved data in the designated graphical format, and

send the graphical representation to replace the placeholder in the data page.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

accept a request to apply a filter to the grid data;

apply the filter to the grid data;

send a data page with the filtered grid data;

determine whether the graphical representation is a valid representation of the filtered grid data;

if the graphical representation is not a valid representation then modify the graphical representation to indicate that the graphical representation is not a valid representation of the filtered grid data;

send the modified graphical representation and an option to update the graphical representation;

accept a request to update the graphical representation;

update the graphical representation in view of the filtered grid data; and

send the modified graphical representation to be inserted into the data page.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

accept a request for an interactive drill-down on the graphical representation;

automatically update the grid in response to the interactive drill-down request on the graphical representation;

automatically updating the graphical representation in response to the interactive drill-down request; and

send the updated grid and the updated graphical representation.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the memory further comprises computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

accept a request to filter the data in the grid;

filter the data in the grid; and

update the graphical representation to reflect the filtered grid data.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the memory further comprises computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

accept a request to apply a filter to the data in the grid; and

fade an existing graphical representation in response to the request to apply the filter.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the memory further comprises computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

accept a request to update the graphical representation in response to the filter being applied;

update the graphical representation; and

send the updated graphical representation for display.

7. A computer-readable storage medium that is not a signal, the computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

generate one or more grids, each grid being based upon at least a portion of data retrieved from a database;

send at least one grid for display;

accept a request to display at least a portion of the data in the at least one grid in a graphical format;

send a data page with the at least one grid and with a placeholder for a graphical format;

determine graphical formats available to display the data in the at least one grid;

send a listing of the available graphical formats;

accept a designation of an available graphical format;

accept a designation of data to be represented in the designated graphical format;

retrieve from the database data corresponding to the designated data;

generate a graphical representation of the retrieved data in the designated graphical format; and

send the graphical representation to replace the placeholder in the data page.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

accept a request to filter the data;

apply a filter to the data;

automatically update the graphical representation in response to the filter being applied to the data;

accept a request for an interactive drill-down on the graphical representation; and

automatically update the graphical representation in response to the interactive drill-down request.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

accept a request to apply a filter to the grid data;

apply the filter to the grid data;

send a data page with the filtered grid data;

determine whether the graphical representation is a valid representation of the filtered grid data;

if the graphical representation is not a valid representation then modify the graphical representation to indicate that the graphical representation is not a valid representation of the filtered grid data;

send the modified graphical representation and an option to update the graphical representation;

accept a request to update the graphical representation;

update the graphical representation in view of the filtered grid data; and

send the modified graphical representation to be inserted into the data page.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

accept a request to filter the data in the grid;

filter the data in the grid; and

update the graphical representation to reflect the filtered grid data.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

accept a request to apply a filter to the data in the grid; and

fade an existing graphical representation in response to the request to apply the filter.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

accept a request to update the graphical representation in response to the filter being applied;

update the graphical representation; and

send the updated graphical representation for display.

13. A computer-implemented method of viewing data, the computer-implemented method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for:

obtaining data from a database;

generating a grid based upon the data;

sending the grid of the data for display;

accepting a request to display the data in a graphical format;

sending a data page with the grid and with a placeholder for a graphical format;

determining graphical formats available to display the data;

sending a listing of the available graphical formats;

accepting a designation of an available graphical format;

accepting a designation of data to be represented in the designated format;

retrieving from the database data corresponding to the designated data;

generating a graphical representation of the designated data in the designated graphical format; and

sending the graphical representation to replace the placeholder in the data page.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising accepting a request for an interaction invoking a drill-down process to be performed on the graphical representation, performing the drill-down process, and updating the grid of data based on the drill-down process performed on the graphical representation.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

accepting a request to apply a filter to the grid data;

applying the filter to the grid data;

sending a data page with the filtered grid data;

determining whether the graphical representation is a valid representation of the filtered grid data;

if the graphical representation is not a valid representation then modifying the graphical representation to indicate that the graphical representation is not a valid representation of the filtered grid data;

sending the modified graphical representation and an option to update the graphical representation;

accepting a request to update the graphical representation;

updating the graphical representation in view of the filtered grid data; and

sending the modified graphical representation to be inserted into the graphical representation.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

accepting a request to apply a filter to the data in the grid; and

fading an existing graphical representation in response to the request to apply the filter.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

accepting a request to update the graphical representation in response to the filter being applied;

updating the graphical representation; and

sending the updated graphical representation for display.