Method and computer system for document authoring

• US 8,850,392 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2004
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Lauff, Marcus, Rethore, Samuel, Seurat, Patrice, Spadone, Pascal T. C., Spriestersbach, Axel, Ulmer, Cedric S. P., Ziegert, Thomas, Nicoulaud, Florent
• Primary Examiner(s): COYER, RYAN D
• Application Number:
  US10/583,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20090024937A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,576 Days
• Field of Search: 717/123
• US Class Current: 717/123
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

Integrated development environment IDE (999), method and computer system for developing user interface documents. An editor (104) is used for editing a user interface document. An adaptation engine (105) generates device class specific representations of the user interface document. Each device class specific representation refers to a respective device class. Device class dependent tools (120) of the IDE (999) are used for generating device class specific information and providing it to the author. Device class specific information can be information about the complexity of the user interface by device class provided by a complexity indicator (121), information about how many pages are generated for which device class provided by a device class dependent view (122) or information about the layout for various device classes provided by a frames layouting view (124).

Claims

1. An integrated development environment for developing user interface documents, the integrated development environment comprising:

a processor of a machine;

an editor to edit a user interface document;

an adaptation engine to generate device class specific representations of the user interface document, each device class specific representation referring to a respective device class; and

a device class dependent complexity indicator to determine, using the processor of the machine, complexity values of layout components of the device class specific representations by accessing a library of stored complexity evaluation functions associated with the layout components, each combination of a layout component with respect to each device class having a distinct complexity evaluation function in the library, to calculate a complexity value for each of the layout components with respect to each of the respective device classes in the device class specific representations using the corresponding distinct complexity evaluation function accessed from the library, and to aggregate the complexity values of the respective device class specific representations into a single complexity value for each device class, the complexity values being numerical values.

2. The integrated development environment of claim 1, further comprising:

a template wizard being interfaced to the editor to create a new user interface document by loading a predefined document template from the template wizard into the editor.

3. The integrated development environment of claim 1, where the editor is interfaced to a template XML description file including information about different available document templates, the information comprising meta data about device classes supported by the templates.

4. The integrated development environment of claim 1, further comprising:

a tree-based outline editor to generate an outline view of the user interface document when loaded into the editor, the tree-based outline editor being interfaced to the editor so that selection of an element in the outline view causes the editor to highlight a corresponding text portion of the user interface document.

5. The integrated development environment of claim 1, further comprising:

a code completion tool to propose possibilities for auto-insertion of text in the editor dependent on document context at a specific position within the user interface document.

6. The integrated development environment of claim 1, further comprising:

a fragment repository to save from or loading to the user interface document a document fragment having a layout that is specific to a specific device class.

7. The integrated development environment of claim 1, further comprising:

a Java filtering tool to hide Java code in the editor when using an XML view for editing the user interface document, and to edit Java code when activating a Java code view for editing the user interface document, wherein the editor is configured to save the user interface document including Java code independent from the current editing view.

8. The integrated development environment of claim 1, further comprising:

a device class dependent frames layouting view being, interfaced to the editor to provide an overview of presentation structures of the user interface document for various device classes.

9. The integrated development environment of claim 1, further comprising:

a device class dependent page view to use the adaptation engine to execute a pre-pagination run with respect to the device class specific representations and to visualize the result of the pre-pagination run for the respective device classes.

10. The integrated development environment of claim 1 , wherein the device class dependent complexity indicator is replaced by a device class dependent page view to use the adaptation engine to execute a pre-pagination run with respect to the device class specific representations and to visualize the result of the pre-pagination run for the respective device classes.

11. The integrated development environment of claim 1, wherein the device class dependent complexity indicator is replaced by a device class dependent frames layouting view being interfaced to the editor to provide an overview of presentation structures of the user interface document for various device classes.

12. The integrated development environment claim 11, further comprising:

a device class dependent page view to use the adaptation engine to execute a pre-pagination run with respect to the device class specific representations and to visualize the result of the pre-pagination run for the respective device classes.

13. A computer implemented method for generating user interface documents, the method comprising:

loading a user interface document into an editor;

generating device class specific representations of the user interface document using an adaptation engine, each device class specific representation referring to a respective device class;

determining, using a processor of a machine, complexity values of layout components of the device class specific representations by;

accessing a library of stored complexity evaluation functions associated with the layout components, each layout component with respect to each device class having a distinct complexity evaluation function in the library, and

calculating a complexity value for each of the layout components with respect to each of the respective device class in the device class specific representations using the corresponding distinct complexity evaluation function accessed from the library, the complexity values being numerical values; and

aggregating the complexity values of the respective device class specific representations into a single complexity value for each device class.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing an overview of presentation structures of the user interface document for various device classes.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

executing a pre-pagination run with respect to the device class specific representations by using the adaptation engine; and

visualizing the result of the pre-pagination run for the respective device classes in a device class dependent page view.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining and aggregating operations are replaced by the operations:

executing a pre-pagination run with respect to the device class specific representations by using the adaptation engine; and

visualizing the result of the pre-pagination run for the respective device classes in a device class dependent page view.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

visually presenting the aggregated complexity value for each device class of the respective layout component hierarchies, the aggregated complexity value comprising a numerical value.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the layout component hierarchy comprises a parent node and child nodes, the aggregating comprising propagating at least one of the complexity values of the child nodes in the layout component hierarchy to the parent node.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising, overruling the at least one of the complexity values propagated to the parent node with a higher complexity value calculated for the parent node using an evaluation function corresponding to the parent node.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the propagating at least one of the complexity values comprises propagating a maximum complexity value of the child nodes to the parent node.

20. A tangible machine-readable storage medium not comprising transitory signals and storing instructions, which when executed by at least one processor, provide operations comprising:

loading a user interface document into an editor;

generating device class specific representations of the user interface document using an adaptation engine, each device class specific representation referring to a respective device class;

determining complexity values of layout components of the device class specific representations by;

accessing a library of stored complexity evaluation functions associated with the layout components, each a layout component with respect to each of device class having a distinct complexity evaluation function in the library, and

calculating a complexity value for each of the layout components with respect to each of the respective device class in the device class specific representations using the corresponding distinct complexity evaluation function accessed from the library, the complexity values being numerical values; and

aggregating the complexity values of the respective device class specific representation into a single complexity value for each device class.