State management for user interfaces

• US 8,812,546 B1
• Filed: 07/25/2012
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cornali, Del J.
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, BINH VAN
• Application Number:
  US13/558,087
• Time in Patent Office: 755 Days
• Field of Search: 707/779
• US Class Current: 707/779
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

State information for a page can be stored and restored using a component state manager to extract and set state information for various components on a page. Each appropriate component can register with the state manager, such that when a user requests to store state information, the state manager can extract state information for each registered component and store the state information accordingly. The user can be provided with a tag or other identifier that allows the user to subsequently request recreation of that state. In response to receiving the identifier, the state manager retrieves the stored state information and sets the state of each respective registered component on the page. The identifiers can be shared with other users to allow those users to also quickly access the same state.

Claims

1. A method of managing state information for an application utilizing a graphical user interface, comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

providing a component interface specified with an object-oriented computer programming language for at least one of a plurality of components of a user interface of an application, individual components having a state able to be altered by a user, the component interface including;

a first interface element that, in response to a request, at least provides a current state of the component; and

a second interface element that, in response to a request, at least sets the current state of the component to a provided state;

providing a state manager interface specified with the object-oriented computer programming language for a component state manager, the state manager interface distinct from the component interface and including;

a third interface element that, in response to a request, at least registers one or more of the plurality of components of the user interface;

a fourth interface element that, in response to a request, at least saves state information for the user interface of the application and generates, by the component state manager and independent of a textual user input, an identifier corresponding to the saved state information, the state information for the user interface obtained at least in part with the first interface element of the component interface for one or more registered components of the user interface;

a fifth interface element that, in response to a request, at least provides for presentation a plurality of identifiers associated with user input that corresponds to at least a portion of the identifier generated by the fourth interface element; and

a sixth interface element that, in response to a request, at least restores saved state information for the user interface of the application at least in part by setting the current state of one or more registered components of the user interface with the second interface element, the saved state information for the user interface being identified by the identifier generated by the fourth interface element; and

responsive to a request by the user, restoring the state of the at least one of the plurality of components of the user interface with the component state manager.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein individual components of the plurality of components of the user interface registered by the component state manager implement the component interface.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the plurality of components of the user interface are maintained at a network location that is remote from the component state manager.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein a component of the user interface is enabled to register using the third interface element of the state manager interface at least in part by implementing the component interface.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein providing the current state of the component by the first interface element comprises providing a data object specified with an extensible markup language.

6. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein saving state information for the user interface by the fourth interface element comprises saving one or more data objects obtained using the component interface in a data store.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the identifier provided by the fourth interface element corresponds to the one or more data objects saved in the data store.

8. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the plurality of identifiers includes the identifier generated by the fourth interface element and a second identifier corresponding to saved state information associated with a second user.

9. A system for managing state information, comprising:

memory storing computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor configured to access the memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to at least facilitate;

a user interface of an application, the user interface having a plurality of components, wherein individual components of the plurality of components have a state able to be altered by a user;

a component interface implemented by at least one of the plurality of components registered by a component state manager, the component interface including;

a first interface element that, in response to a request, at least provides a current state of the component; and

a second interface element that, in response to a request, at least sets the current state of the component to a provided state; and

the component state manager having a state manager interface that is distinct from the component interface and including;

a third interface element that, in response to a request, at least registers one or more of the plurality of components of the user interface;

a fourth interface element that, in response to a request, at least saves state information for the user interface of the application and generates, by the component state manager and independent of a textual user input, an identifier corresponding to the saved state information, the state information for the user interface obtained at least in part with the first interface element of the component interface for one or more registered components of the user interface;

a fifth interface element that, in response to a request, at least provides for presentation a plurality of identifiers associated with user input that corresponds to at least a portion of the identifier generated by the fourth interface element; and

a sixth interface element that, in response to a request, at least restores saved state information for the user interface of the application at least in part by setting the current state of one or more registered components of the user interface with the second interface element, the saved state information for the user interface being identified by the identifier generated by the fourth interface element.

10. A system in accordance with claim 9, wherein the user interface includes a graphical user interface and the plurality of components of the user interface include a plurality of graphical user interface components.

11. A system in accordance with claim 10, wherein the state of at least one of the plurality of graphical user interface components corresponds to an appearance of the graphical user interface component to the user and restoring the state of the graphical user interface component restores the appearance.

12. A system in accordance with claim 10, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to, at least:

enable the user input that corresponds to the at least a portion of the identifier provided by the fifth interface element; and

provide the plurality of identifiers for presentation to the user.

13. A system in accordance with claim 10, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to, at least:

receive a selection of one of the plurality of identifiers that are provided by the fifth interface element; and

responsive to the selection, restore the state of the at least one of the plurality of components of the user interface with the sixth interface element.

14. A system in accordance with claim 9, further comprising a graphical user interface for the component state manager, the graphical user interface configured at least to activate one or more of the third interface element, the fourth interface element, the fifth interface element and the sixth interface element responsive to user interaction with the graphical user interface.

15. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium having collectively stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause at least one computer to collectively, at least:

provide a component interface specified with an object-oriented computer programming language for at least one of a plurality of components of a user interface of an application, wherein individual components have a state able to be altered by a user and the component interface includes;

a first interface element that, in response to a request, at least provides a current state of the component; and

a second interface element that, in response to a request, at least sets the current state of the component to a provided state;

provide a state manager interface specified with the object-oriented computer programming language for a component state manager, the state manager interface distinct from the component interface and including;

a third interface element that, in response to a request, at least registers one or more of the plurality of components of the user interface;

a fourth interface element that, in response to a request, at least saves state information for the user interface of the application and generates, by the component state manager and independent of a textual user input, an identifier corresponding to the saved state information, the state information for the user interface obtained at least in part with the first interface element of the component interface for one or more registered components of the user interface;

a fifth interface element that, in response to a request, at least provides for presentation a plurality of identifiers associated with user input that corresponds to at least a portion of the identifier generated by the fourth interface element; and

a sixth interface element that, in response to a request, at least restores saved state information for the user interface of the application at least in part by setting the current state of one or more registered components of the user interface with the second interface element, the saved state information for the user interface being identified by an identifier provided by the fourth interface element; and

responsive to a request by the user, restore the state of the at least one of the plurality of components of the user interface with the component state manager.

16. At least one computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein the state of the component includes at least one of:

visual state, contextual state and selected state.

17. At least one computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein the application includes a metadata editor.

18. At least one computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein the at least one of the plurality of components of the user interface is associated with a navigation hierarchy and the state of the component includes a selected node in the navigation hierarchy.

19. At least one computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein the identifier corresponding to the saved state information does not expose information about the saved state information that could enable unauthorized access to the saved state information.

20. At least one computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein the at least one of the plurality of components of the user interface participates in a model-view-controller component architecture.