Generation of an application from data

• US 9,696,967 B2
• Filed: 11/09/2015
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Balasubramanian, Barath, Cohen, Evan Bjorn-Thomas, Gruian, Radu Bogdan, Colle, Olivier, Lindhorst, Gregory S., Sathsahayaraman, Muralidhar, Benmouffok, Mohammed Amine, Dani, Unnati J., Dobin, Alexander J.
• Primary Examiner(s): APONTE, FRANCISCO JAVIER
• Application Number:
  US14/936,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20170131975A1
• Time in Patent Office: 603 Days
• Field of Search: 717106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

Examples of the disclosure provide for receiving a data set at a design surface from a data source, and inferring a first data type from the data set. A first control type is generated for the inferred first data type. A second data type is inferred from the data set and a second control type is generated for the inferred second data type, with the first control type and the second control type being different. A layout is generated for an application document that includes the first control type and the second control type.

Claims

1. A method for generating an application from data, the method comprising:

importing a first set of data from a data source to a design surface;

analyzing the first set of data from the data source to identify one or more subsets of data;

inferring a first data type from the first set of data based on the analysis of the first set of data;

identifying a default control type for the inferred first data type;

generating a first control type based on the identified default control type for the inferred first data type;

inferring a second data type from the first set of data;

generating a second control type for the inferred second data type, wherein the first control type and the second control type are different; and

generating a layout for an application document that includes the first control type and the second control type, wherein the layout is generated automatically without user or administrative intervention.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the inferred first data type and the inferred second data type is inferred based on user profile data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the inferred first data type and the inferred second data type is inferred based on telemetry data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a third control type for the second data type, the third control type being different from the second control type; and

re-generating the layout that includes the first control type and the third control type.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the application document using the generated layout, the application document including at least three forms.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least three forms comprise a browsing form, a detail form, and an edit form.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the inferred first data type and the inferred second data type is inferred based on a source data type within the first set of data from the data source.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data source is a spreadsheet, and wherein the inferred first data type is inferred based on one or more values in a first column of the spreadsheet.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the inferred first data type and the inferred second data type is inferred based on metadata provided by a connection provider of the data source.

10. A system for generating an application from data, the system comprising:

a design surface that receives a first set of data from a data source, the design surface implemented on a processor;

a data inference mechanism, coupled to the design surface, that analyzes the first set of data from the data source to identify one or more subsets of data and infers a first data type and a second data type from the first set of data based on the analysis of the first set of data;

a control generator that identifies a default control type for the inferred first data type and generates a first control type for the subset of data based on the identified default control type for the inferred first data type, and generates a second control type for the inferred second data type, wherein the first control type and the second control type are different; and

a layout generator that generates an application document using the generated first control type and the generated second control type and the one or more subsets of data from the data set automatically without user or administrative intervention.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a data connection mechanism that identifies one or more data sources and provides the one or more identified data sources as a connection list to the design surface.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a theme manager that provides a list of themes to the design surface and applies a selected theme from the list of themes for the generated application document.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a data control table that provides a mapping between one or more data types and one or more control types.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the received first set of data is a spreadsheet.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the received first set of data is a number of tables.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the generated application document is a template, and wherein the template is modifiable.

17. One or more computer readable memories having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for generating an application from data, which, on execution by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

a data inference mechanism receiving a set of data from a data source;

the data inference mechanism analyzing the set of data to identify one or more subsets of data;

the data inference mechanism inferring a first data type for an identified first subset of data based on the analysis of the first set of data and identifying a default control type for the inferred first data type;

the data inference mechanism sending the inferred first data type to a control generator for generating a first control based on the identified default control type for the inferred first data type;

the data inference mechanism inferring a second data type for an identified second subset of data; and

the data inference mechanism sending the inferred second data type to the control generator for generating a second control for the inferred second data type, wherein the first control and the second control are different control types.

18. The one or more computer readable memories of claim 17, having further computer-executable instructions for:

the data inference mechanism determining whether the first subset of data comprises yes/no values; and

responsive to determining that the first subset of data comprises yes/no values, inferring a Boolean data type.

19. The one or more computer readable memories of claim 17, having further computer-executable instructions for:

the data inference mechanism determining whether the first subset of data comprises three or more values; and

responsive to determining that the first subset of data comprises three or more values, inferring a list data type.

20. The one or more computer readable memories of claim 17, having further computer-executable instructions for:

the data inference mechanism determining whether the first subset of data comprises numerical values; and

responsive to determining that the first subset of data comprises the numerical values, inferring a date data type.