System and method for browsing tabbed-heterogeneous windows

• US 8,713,444 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2011
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sauve, Aaron J., Cummins, Charles, Van Dok, Cornelis K., Schreiner, Tony E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shih, Haoshian
• Application Number:
  US13/043,269
• Publication Number:
  US 20110161828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• Field of Search: 715/738, 715/759, 715/804, 718/100, 718/103, 719/329, 712/216, 712/225, 712/226, 712/227, 712/228
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

The techniques and mechanisms described herein are directed to a method for managing multiple content windows. The content windows may host a web browser, a shell view, a word processing application, and the like. A set of content windows are grouped into a frame in a manner such that a taskbar shows one item for the set of content windows. Each content window is associated with a tab for the frame. A content-specific menu may be associated with each tab. The content-specific menu includes a set of commands based on the heterogeneous content hosted in the content window. The set of commands provide functionality to the heterogeneous content.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components for implementing tabbed browsing, the components comprising:

a tab window manager component;

a plurality of tab window components, each configured to manage communication between the tab window manager component and an individual tab out of a plurality of tabs, the plurality of tab window components having a one-to-one relationship with a plurality of content windows and each content window being associated with one of the plurality of tabs, each content window having respective heterogeneous content and being processed by a respective thread;

a tab user interface component configured to render a user interface for the plurality of tabs, the user interface providing a content-specific menu based on the heterogeneous content in the content window; and

a browser frame component configured to broker communications between the tab window manager component and the tab user interface component;

wherein the browser frame component, the tab window manager component, the tab user interface component, and the plurality of tab window components are processed by a single thread and the tab window manager component manages cross-thread communication between the single thread and each of the content window threads.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each content window being processed by the respective thread operates such that if one of the content windows hangs the other content windows will not hang.

3. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components for implementing tabbed browsing, the components comprising:

a tab window manager component;

a plurality of tab window components, each configured to manage communication between the tab window manager component and an individual tab out of a plurality of tabs, the plurality of tab window components having a one-to-one relationship with a plurality of content windows and each content window being associated with one of the plurality of tabs, each content window having respective heterogeneous content and being processed by a respective thread;

a tab user interface component configured to render a user interface for the plurality of tabs, the user interface providing a content-specific menu based on the heterogeneous content in the content window; and

a browser frame component configured to broker communications between the tab window manager component and the tab user interface component;

wherein the browser frame component, the tab window manager component, the tab user interface component, and the plurality of tab window components are processed by a single thread and the tab window manager component manages cross-thread communication between the single thread and each of the content window threads.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein each of the content windows are processed by the respective thread such that if one the content windows hangs the other content windows will not hang.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the tab window component is further configured to convert synchronous calls into asynchronous calls.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the tab window manager component is further configured to manage a state for each of the tabs.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the heterogeneous content for at least one of the content windows comprises a shell folder.

8. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

displaying a user interface of a tabbed browser application for switching between heterogeneous content, the user interface including a navigation bar, a tab band, and a content area;

upon receiving an add tab signal, displaying a new tab within the tab band;

downloading heterogeneous content in the content area associated with the new tab, wherein the downloading occurs in the background using a separate thread;

upon receiving another add tab signal, displaying another new tab within the tab band;

downloading heterogeneous content in the content area associated with the other new tab, wherein the downloading occurs in the background using another separate thread different from the separate thread;

wherein upon one of the tabs hanging, the other tabs not hanging.

9. The computer-readable media of claim 8, the heterogeneous content of at least one of the tabs being a web page and the heterogeneous content of at least one other of the tabs being content other than a web page.

10. The computer-readable media of claim 8, the method further comprising, upon receiving a select tab signal, bringing a tab associated with the select tab signal into focus and displaying a content-specific menu for the selected tab, the content-specific menu providing commands specific to the heterogeneous content in the content area, the commands providing functionality for the heterogeneous content.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 10, the method further comprising applying a theme to the selected tab.