Pluggable web-based visualizations for applications

• US 8,890,890 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2010
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fisher, Danyel, Fernandez, Roland, Drucker, Steven Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Brier, Jeffery A
• Application Number:
  US12/788,222
• Publication Number:
  US 20110292072A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,637 Days
• Field of Search: 345/440
• US Class Current: 345/619
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

The pluggable web-based visualization technique described herein pertains to a method for providing pluggable web-based visualizations for applications. The method selects visualizations from the web to be embedded into a host application on a desktop computing device. The visualizations can be plugged in to a variety of host applications. This empowers end-users, application designers, and visualization designers by allowing greater reuse of existing code. Additionally, end-users do not have to wait for new revisions of existing applications to use the latest techniques. Designers of domain specific visualizations can work on just the visualization and have them incorporated into a variety of different host applications. Users can perform local processing and visualizations on their own machine, yet obtain new visualizations from the web where they can be updated more frequently and where special purpose visualizations are available.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented process for creating a dynamic visualization of data for a software application:

using a computing device for;

obtaining a dataset for which a dynamic visualization is sought at the computing device that hosts the software application;

receiving instructions for creating a first dynamic visualization over a network at the software application hosted on the computing device, wherein the software application hosted on the computing device employs a host adapter that interfaces with one or more dynamic visualizations and comprises a host library that provides commands that are used to render the dynamic visualization using the software application; and

rendering the first dynamic visualization at a display of the computing device using the software application, the received instructions for creating a dynamic visualization, the host adapter and the obtained dataset so as to create the dynamic visualization that automatically changes on the display when the software application changes the dataset.

2. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the received instructions for creating the first dynamic visualization using the software application are stored on the computing device rendering the first dynamic visualization.

3. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the network is the Internet.

4. The computer-implemented process of claim 1 wherein the instructions for creating a dynamic visualization are compatible with more than one software application without requiring changes to the received instructions or the more than one software applications.

5. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving instructions for creating a second dynamic visualization over the network;

at the software application, simultaneously rendering the first dynamic visualization and the second dynamic visualization using the obtained dataset and the received instructions for creating the second dynamic visualization.

6. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the created first dynamic visualization is rendered using the software hosted on the computing device and a browser.

7. The computer-implemented process of claim 5, further comprising a user linking objects rendered in the first dynamic visualization and the second dynamic visualization by user action.

8. The computer-implemented process of claim 7, further comprising the user selecting an object in the first dynamic visualization and causing visible changes to occur in one or more linked objects in the second dynamic visualization.

9. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the first dataset is formatted as one or more tables of rows and columns.

10. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the received instructions for creating the first dynamic visualization are created using a library of predetermined commands for creating a dynamic visualization.

11. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein the first created dynamic visualization is rendered using a web browser without network access, and wherein the first created dynamic visualization has an identifier that designates it to be rendered with a web browser without network access.

12. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, further comprising using the host adapter to communicate selection, preferences and parameter changes from the software application to the first dynamic visualization.

13. A system for displaying a dynamic visualization of data using a software application, comprising:

a general purpose computing device;

a computer program comprising program modules executable by the general purpose computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to,

at the software application that is hosted on the computing device and that employs a host adapter that comprises a host library and a web browser control, compute a dataset for which a dynamic visualization is sought;

receive instructions for creating a dynamic visualization using the host software application, wherein the instructions are created using a library of predetermined commands that allow the dynamic visualization to be rendered at the host software application as well as other software applications written in different programming languages from the software application that is hosted on the computing device;

render the dynamic visualization using the software application that computed the dataset, the web browser control and the received instructions for creating a dynamic visualization; and

automatically change the rendered dynamic visualization in real time when the software application changes the dataset.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the received instructions for creating a dynamic visualization using the computed dataset are obtained over a network from a collection of instructions for creating different types of dynamic visualizations.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising a module for aggregating data in the dataset prior to rendering the dynamic visualization with the received instructions.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising a module for modifying the instructions for creating the dynamic visualization, comprising:

sending and receiving updates to the instructions for creating a dynamic visualization; and

selecting and receiving preferences and settings for the instructions for creating a dynamic visualization; and

rendering the modified dynamic visualization with the software application.

17. A computer-implemented process for dynamically displaying a dynamic visualization representing a set of data, comprising:

using a first computing device for;

receiving instructions for creating a first dynamic visualization of a first dataset from a second computing device;

dynamically rendering, without recompilation, the first dynamic visualization of the first dataset using a software application hosted on the first computer, the received instructions and the first dataset at a display of the first computing device;

changing the first dataset using the software application hosted on the first computer,

dynamically rendering changes to the first visualization, without recompilation, using the software application hosted on the first computer, the received instructions and the changed first dataset at a display of the first computing device.

18. The computer-implemented process of claim 17 further comprising partitioning the data of the first data set and using the received instructions for creating the first dynamic visualization to create a set of dynamic visualizations.

19. The computer-implemented process of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving instructions for creating a second dynamic visualization of a second dataset from a third computing device;

simultaneously rendering the changes to the first dynamic visualization and the second dynamic visualization using the received instructions for the second dynamic visualization of the second dataset using the software application on the first computing device.