Graphical representation of tabular data

• US 8,984,433 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2007
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Martone, Peter Francis, James, David, Liu, Jeff, VanOrman, Ransom, Wang, Jun, Tariq, Sobia
• Primary Examiner(s): Shih, Haoshian
• Application Number:
  US11/869,919
• Publication Number:
  US 20090100370A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,715 Days
• Field of Search: 715/771, 715/777, 715/227, 715/765, 345/440, 345/440.2, 340/870.01
• US Class Current: 715/777
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

An enterprise management system may present data in a user interface that contains tabular data and a graphical representation of the tabular data. The graphical representation may change based on portions of the tabular data that may be selected, and may show a graphical data summary if no rows are selected, or detailed graphical illustrations of the selected rows. In some cases, filters may be applied to the data, and a selection tool may enable a user to select from several different parameters in each row.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

selecting a group of records to be displayed from a database, each of said group of records having at least one data parameter;

displaying said group of records in tabular form in a first part of a user interface, the tabular form including at least one column, the at least one column associated with a select one of the at least one data parameter;

when none of said records are selected, displaying a summary graphical representation of said group of records in a second part of said user interface simultaneously with said first part of said user interface, the summary graphical representation comprising a first selection mechanism displayed in the summary graphical representation to select between the data parameters;

when one or more of said records are selected, displaying a graphical representation of said one or more of said records simultaneously with said first part of said user interface, the graphical representation comprising a second selection mechanism displayed in the graphical representation to select between the data parameters; and

changing the graphical representation or summary graphical representation based on a selection of a data parameter received through a respective selection mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

filtering said group of records into a subset of said records.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical representation is one of a bar chart, stacked bar chart, line chart, pie chart, timeline diagram, scatter diagram, or geographic map.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the summary graphical representation is one of a bar chart, stacked bar chart, line chart, pie chart, timeline diagram, scatter diagram, or geographic map.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the group of records includes status information of devices associated with an enterprise management system.

6. The method of claim 1, said graphical representation comprising separate representations for each of said records that are selected.

7. The method of claim 1, said graphical representation comprising an aggregated representation of the one or more records that are selected.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the group of records are displayed in one or more rows of the tabular form.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

changing the summary graphical representation based on a selection of one or more of the group of records displayed in the first part of the user interface.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said selection mechanism is a drop down list, the drop down list including one or more of the data parameters.

11. A system comprising:

an enterprise management system that determines status information from a plurality of devices and stores said status information in records in a database;

a user interface for said enterprise management system that;

selects a group of said records to be displayed from said database, each of said group of records having at least one data parameter;

displays said group of records in a tabular form in a first part of a user interface, the tabular form including at least one column, the at least one column associated with a select one of the at least one data parameter;

when none of said records are selected, displays a summary graphical representation of said group of records in a second part of said user interface simultaneously with said first part of said user interface,

when one or more of said records are selected, displays a graphical representation of said one or more of said records simultaneously with said first part of said user interface;

changes the graphical representation or summary graphical representation based on a selection of a data parameter; and

wherein the graphical representation comprises a first selection mechanism displayed in the graphical representation to select between the data parameters,

wherein the summary graphical representation comprises a second selection mechanism displayed in the summary graphical representation to select between the data parameters.

12. The system of claim 11, said user interface being further adapted to:

filter said group of records into a subset of said records.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the first selection mechanism includes each of the data parameters.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the second selection mechanism includes each of the data parameters.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the graphical representation is one of a bar chart, stacked bar chart, line chart, pie chart, timeline diagram, scatter diagram, or geographic map.

16. The system of claim 11, said graphical representation comprising separate representations for each of said records that are selected.

17. The system of claim 11, said graphical representation comprising an aggregated representation of said one or more records.

18. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

changing the summary graphical representation based on a selection of one or more of the group of records displayed in the first part of the user interface.

19. A method comprising:

receiving messages from a plurality of monitored devices, each of said messages comprising a device status;

creating data records from said messages;

storing said data records in a database;

selecting a group of said data records to be displayed from a database, each of said group of data records having at least one data parameter;

displaying said group of data records in a tabular form in a first part of a user interface, the tabular form including at least one column, the at least one column associated with a select one of the at least one data parameter;

when none of said data records are selected, displaying a summary graphical representation of said group of data records in a second part of said user interface simultaneously with said first part of said user interface; and

when one or more of said data records are selected, displaying a graphical representation of said one or more of said data records simultaneously with said first part of said user interface;

changing the graphical representation or summary graphical representation based on a selection of a data parameter,

wherein the graphical representation comprises a first selection mechanism displayed in the graphical representation to select between the data parameters,

wherein the summary graphical representation comprises a second selection mechanism displayed in the summary graphical representation to select between the data parameters.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the summary graphical representation comprises a selection mechanism, the selection mechanism displayed on the summary graphical representation to enable a user to change a data parameter associated with the group of data records.