Spatial layout of hierarchical shared resources

• US 8,949,769 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2007
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Biehl, Jacob T., Robertson, George G., Smith, Gregory R., Czerwinski, Mary P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr., Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dang, Christine
• Application Number:
  US11/678,494
• Publication Number:
  US 20080209387A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,902 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A hierarchical shared resources spatial visualization system and method including a visualization runtime user interface that quickly and efficiently displays a spatial layout of a shared resource having a hierarchical nature. The user interface provides a spatial layout of the hierarchical shared resource and overlays salient activity information of a group'"'"'s interaction with the shared resource. In software development, the user interface provides software teams with awareness of activity by other developers in the group regarding files in the shared source code base. The salient activity includes active file information (such as which files are open and by whom) and source repository actions (such as a developer'"'"'s activity within a project'"'"'s source repository system). Visual geometry and colors are employed to create a visually distinctive environment that is used to convey the salient activity information quickly and efficiently.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processing unit; and

one or more volatile or nonvolatile computer-readable storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to;

produce a user interface having a spatial layout of a set of hierarchical shared resources having a plurality of hierarchy levels, the user interface comprising;

a first set of display areas listing first names of a first level of shared resources in the set of hierarchical shared resources,

a second set of display areas listing second names of a second level of shared resources in the set of hierarchical shared resources, wherein the second level is relatively lower in the plurality of hierarchy levels than the first level, and

activity information that is displayed on the user interface with the first set of display areas and the second set of display areas, the activity information relating to activity of a group of users using the set of hierarchical shared resources,

wherein the set of hierarchical shared resources are associated with a repository and the activity information displayed on the user interface identifies a first developer from the group of users that currently has an individual shared resource open; and

provide the user interface to a second developer from the group of users other than the first developer that currently has the individual shared resource open.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the set of hierarchical shared resources is a hierarchical file system containing a plurality of folders as the first level and a plurality of files as the second level, and the individual shared resource is an individual file that the first developer has open inside of a software development platform.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the activity information displayed on the user interface also indicates at least one of:

other files currently being debugged;

other files that are also currently open;

other files currently checked out by the first developer;

other files currently checked out by more than one developer;

or other files currently being viewed by the first developer.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of files are source files used in software development.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processing unit to:

automatically update the user interface to reflect further activity of the group of users over time.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface further comprises a visual property that conveys an importance of the activity information such that a first visual property of a first activity is different than a second visual property of a second activity.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first visual property is a first color that represents the first activity and the second visual property is a second color that represents the second activity.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a display device,

wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processing unit to display the user interface on the display device.

9. A system comprising:

computer-executable instructions; and

a processing unit,

wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to;

produce a user interface comprising;

display areas identifying folders contained in a shared code base,

individual line items in the display areas that represent files contained in corresponding folders of the shared code base, wherein the individual line items are displayed within the corresponding folders in which the individual line items are contained, and

activity information displayed with the display areas and the individual line items, wherein the activity information represents activity of a group of developers in connection with the shared code base and indicates that a first developer from the group currently has an individual file in the shared code base open in a software development platform while the software development platform is in a debug mode; and

provide the user interface to a second developer from the group other than the first developer that currently has the individual file open in the software development platform.

10. The system of claim 9, the user interface further comprising:

an icon adjacent to another individual file indicating that the another individual file has been checked out by a third developer from the group.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the activity information also indicates that the individual file is currently in focus in the software development platform when the first developer is currently viewing the individual file in the software development platform.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the activity information comprises a rectangular border having a first color and the first color indicates that the individual file is currently being debugged.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the display areas are rectangular.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the activity information further identifies a particular method or particular class that is currently being debugged in the individual file.

15. The system of claim 9, embodied as an individual computing device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the individual file is currently in the debug mode on a computing device other than the individual computing device.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processing unit to:

communicate with a database storing data reflecting the activity of the group of developers to obtain the activity information.

18. A method performed by at least one computing device, the method comprising:

producing a user interface having a spatial layout of a set of hierarchical shared resources having a plurality of hierarchy levels, the user interface comprising;

a first set of display areas listing first names of a first level of shared resources in the set of hierarchical shared resources,

a second set of display areas listing second names of a second level of shared resources in the set of hierarchical shared resources, wherein the second level is relatively lower in the plurality of hierarchy levels than the first level, and

activity information that is displayed on the user interface with the first set of display areas and the second set of display areas, the activity information relating to activity of a group of users using the set of hierarchical shared resources,

wherein the set of hierarchical shared resources are associated with a repository and the activity information displayed on the user interface identifies a first developer from the group of users that currently has an individual shared resource open; and

providing the user interface to a second developer from the group of users other than the first developer that currently has the individual shared resource open.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first level of shared resources comprises a plurality of folders, the second level of shared resources comprises a plurality of source code files, and the individual shared resource is an individual source code file that the first developer currently has open in a software development environment.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the activity information comprises a particular color provided in association with the source code file that conveys that the source code file is currently open in the software development environment.