Systems and methods for navigating, finding, and presenting data objects

• US 8,584,045 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2007
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Rode, Jochen, Boettcher, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Pesin, Boris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wright, Elizabeth G
• Application Number:
  US11/625,056
• Publication Number:
  US 20080178101A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,489 Days
• Field of Search: 707/769, 707/797, 707/798, 707/708, 707/709, 715/764, 715/854, 715/784
• US Class Current: 715/854
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Various systems and related methods involve navigating, finding, and visually presenting data objects or sets of data objects. In one implementation, a set of data objects is visually presented as a graphical element and one or more semantic relationships between the graphical element and other sets of data objects are visually presented. Furthermore, this includes a method for finding related sets of data objects by presenting different search paths and enabling the user to select a destination set of data objects based on the presented paths. One possible operation associated with this system includes presenting relationships between data objects outside of predefined work flows.

Claims

1. A method of visually presenting information to a computer user, the method comprising:

providing a notification at an interface of a computing device that a status of at least one of an initial data object and a semantic relationship between the initial data object and another data object has changed;

receiving a first user input at the interface, the first user input corresponding to at least one of the initial data object and an initial set of data objects;

determining, in response to the first user input, semantic relationships among a plurality of data objects, each data object being of a type, wherein the type comprises one or more of a customer, a supplier, a purchase order, and a material, and information about each data object and the semantic relationships among the plurality of data objects being stored in a data object repository;

filtering the plurality of data objects based on one or more of a particular type of a data object or an instance of the data object to provide filtered data objects;

grouping the filtered data objects into sets of data objects, the data objects in a set of data objects being of a same type and having a same type of semantic relationship to the at least one of the initial data object and the initial set of data objects;

presenting, on a display of the interface, a first graphical user interface including multiple path graphical elements presenting respective paths of the semantic relationships between one of the initial data object and the initial set of data objects and a respective one of a destination object and a destination set of data objects, the first graphical user interface allowing the computer user to perform analyses and actions not predefined in existing workflows and to select a first number of data object relationship levels to be presented in the first graphical user interface;

receiving a second user input at the interface, the second user input indicating a first graphical element, the first graphical element corresponding to a second data object or a second set of data objects provided in a path graphical element; and

in response to receiving the second user input, presenting, on the display, a second graphical user interface including the first graphical element and at least one semantic relationship between the first graphical element and another graphical element, the second graphical user interface allowing the computer user to perform analyses and actions not predefined in the existing workflows and to select a second number of data object relationship levels to be presented in the second graphical user interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further including presenting at least one semantic relationship between a business object and other data objects, wherein the business object comprises a data object.

3. The method of claim 1, further including, in response to user selection of the first graphical element, presenting a second graphical element corresponding to another set of data objects of a second type, and at least one semantic relationship between presented sets.

4. The method of claim 3, further including presenting information corresponding to the second graphical element in response to user selection of the second graphical element.

5. The method of claim 1, further including moving the first graphical element from a first position to a second position on the display in response to a user input.

6. The method of claim 5, further including presenting the moving as an animation.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first graphical element is located on a periphery of the display, and wherein moving the first graphical element includes moving the first graphical element toward a center of the display and displaying graphical elements related to the first graphical element around the first graphical element.

8. The method of claim 1, further including enabling the computer user to search for one of a destination data object or set of destination data objects by presenting multiple paths thereto, the paths including multiple graphical elements and at least one semantic relationship between the graphical elements of the respective paths.

9. The method of claim 8, further including presenting information corresponding to one of the graphical elements in response to user selection thereof.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein each path graphical element includes a plurality of graphical elements, an initial graphical element of each path graphical element being the same across the path graphical elements.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user input comprises query text that is input into a search field.

10. A computer program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage device, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

providing a notification at an interface of a computing device that a status of at least on of an initial data object and a semantic relationship between the initial data object and another data object has changed;

receiving a first user input at the interface, the first user input corresponding to at least one of the initial data object and an initial set of data objects;

determining, in response to the first user input, semantic relationships among a plurality of data objects, each data object being of a type, wherein the type comprises one or more of a customer, a supplier, a purchase order, and a material, and information about each data object and the semantic relationships among the plurality of data objects being stored in a data object repository;

filtering the plurality of data objects based on one or more of a particular type of a data object or an instance of the data object to provide filtered data objects;

grouping the filtered data objects into sets of data objects, the data objects in a set of data objects being of a same type and having a same type of semantic relationship to the at least one of the initial data object and the initial set of data objects;

presenting, on a display of the interface, a first graphical user interface including multiple path graphical elements presenting respective paths of the semantic relationships between one of the initial data object and the initial set of data objects and a respective one of a destination object and a destination set of data objects, the first graphical user interface allowing the computer user to perform analyses and actions not predefined in existing workflows and to select a first number of data object relationship levels to be presented in the first graphical user interface;

receiving a second user input at the interface, the second user input indicating a first graphical element, the first graphical element corresponding to a second data object or a second set of data objects provided in a path graphical element;

in response to receiving the second user input, presenting, on the display, a second graphical user interface including the first graphical element and at least one semantic relationship between the first graphical element and another graphical element, the second graphical user interface allowing the computer user to perform analyses and actions not predefined in the existing workflows and to select a second number of data object relationship levels to be presented in the second graphical user interface.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise determining subsets of the sets of data objects in response to a user input and determining corresponding subsets of the semantic relationships.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein determining semantic relationships between the plurality of data objects includes determining, in response to the user input, multiple sets of data objects associated with at least one of the initial data object and the set of initial data objects, and at least one corresponding path of semantic relationships between the sets of data objects.

19. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein each path graphical element includes a plurality of graphical elements, an initial graphical element of each path graphical element being the same across the path graphical elements.

20. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the first user input comprises query text that is input into a search field.

13. An information system, comprising:

a computing device having an interface for providing a notification that a status of at least one of an initial data object and a semantic relationship between the initial data object and another data object has changed and receiving a first user input, the first user input corresponding to at least one of an initial data object and an initial set of data objects;

a processor that is operable to;

determine, in response to the first user input, semantic relationships among a plurality of data objects, each data object being of a type, wherein the type comprises one or more of a customer, a supplier, a purchase order, and a material, and information about each data object and the semantic relationships among the plurality of data objects being stored in a data object repository,

filter the plurality of data objects based on one or more of a particular type of a data object or an instance of the data object to provide filtered data objects;

group the filtered data objects into sets of data objects, the data objects in a set of data objects being of a same type and having a same type of semantic relationship to the at least one of the initial data object and the initial set of data objects, and

receive a second user input indicating a first graphical element, the first graphical element corresponding to a second data object or a second set of data objects provided in a path graphical element; and

a display of the interface for;

presenting a first graphical user interface including multiple path graphical elements presenting respective paths of semantic relationships between one of the initial data object and the initial set of data objects and a respective one of a destination object and a destination set of data objects, the first graphical user interface allowing the computer user to perform analyses and actions not predefined in existing workflows and to select a first number of data object relationship levels to be presented in the first graphical user interface; and

presenting, in response to receiving the second user input, a second graphical user interface including the first graphical element and at least one semantic relationship between the first graphical element and another graphical element, the second graphical user interface allowing the computer user to perform analyses and actions not predefined in the existing workflows and to select a second number of data object relationship levels to be presented in the second graphical user interface.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor is further operable to determine at least one ad hoc path between a data object and at least one of the sets of data objects as a function of the user input.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the display presents graphical elements corresponding to the set of data objects semantically related to the initial data object.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the initial data object comprises a business object, and wherein the information system comprises at least one system selected from the group consisting of an enterprise resource planning system, a customer relationship management system, and a supply chain management system.