Hybrid and dynamic representation of data structures

• US 20030172078A1
• Filed: 04/30/2002
• Published: 09/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Stumpf, Dirk
• Granted Patent: US 7,328,215 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9027 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/954 Relational
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/955 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/957 Multidimensional
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for dynamic and hybrid representation of data structures. A computer program product for representing a data structure includes instructions to cause a processor to receive information associated with the data structure, and determine how to represent the data structure as one of a tree representation, a breadcrumb representation, and a hybrid of a tree representation and a breadcrumb representation. The product is tangibly stored on machine-readable media. A method for representing a data structure includes representing the data structure as a hybrid of a tree representation and a breadcrumb representation.

Claims

1. A method for representing a data structure, comprising:

representing the data structure as a hybrid of a tree representation and a breadcrumb representation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input specifying a portion of the data structure; and

representing the data structure as a second hybrid representation to display the portion specified by the user.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein representing the data structure as the second hybrid representation includes:

buffering data from the data structure in a middleware component; and

reusing the buffered data to represent the data structure as the second hybrid representation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining how to represent the data structure in the hybrid representation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining how to represent the data structure includes:

comparing characteristics of the data structure with characteristics of the computing environment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein characteristics of the data structure include:

one or more of an amount of data associated with the data structure, a number of levels in the data structure, a dimension of the data structure, a symmetry of the data structure, and a pattern of the data structure.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein characteristics of the computing environment include:

one or more of a size of a display, an available font, and a color limitation of the display.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving user input specifying a data structure representation other than the determined hybrid representation, the user input overriding the determination; and

representing the data structure as the data structure representation specified by the user input.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input specifying a portion of the data structure; and

changing the portion of the hybrid representation from a tree portion into a breadcrumb portion.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

rearranging the hybrid representation of the data structure into a further data structure representation.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein rearranging the hybrid representation comprises:

reusing information related to the previous representation of the data structure.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

representing the data structure as the hybrid representation occurs automatically without a user request.

13. A computer program product, tangibly stored on machine readable media, for representing a data structure, the product comprising instructions to cause a processor to:

receive information associated with the data structure; and

determine how to represent the data structure as one of a tree representation, a breadcrumb representation, and a hybrid of a tree representation and a breadcrumb representation based at least in part on the received information.

14. The product of claim 13, wherein the received information includes:

one or more of data structure information, user information, and user-independent information.

15. The product of claim 13, wherein the received information includes:

a rule used to determine how to represent the data structure.

16. The product of claim 13, wherein the product includes instructions to cause the processor to:

receive information associated with characteristics of the computing environment.

17. The product of claim 13, wherein the information associated with characteristics of the computing environment includes:

one or more of a size of a display, an available font, and a color limitation of the display.

18. The product of claim 13, wherein:

the data structure includes a collection of nodes; and

the determined representation of the data structure allows the collection of nodes to be shown in a display area.

19. The product of claim 13, wherein the instructions also cause the processor to:

receive a request to represent the data structure, the processor determining how to represent the data structure before receiving the request.

20. The product of claim 13, wherein the instructions also cause the processor to:

receive user input specifying a portion of the data structure; and

determine how to represent the data structure as a second hybrid representation to display the portion specified by the user.

21. The product of claim 20, wherein the instructions also cause the processor to:

buffer data from the data structure in a middleware component; and

reuse the buffered data to determine how to represent the data structure as the second hybrid representation.

22. A system for representing a data structure comprising:

a component including

criteria used to determine how to represent the data structure in a data structure representation;

operation information and data information related to a previous application of the criteria to represent the data structure; and

rearrangement logic used to dynamically reuse the operation information and data information from the previous application in a further application of the criteria to determine how to rearrange the data structure into a further data structure representation.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the criteria used to determine how to represent the data structure include:

characteristics of the data structure.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the component further includes:

extraction logic used to extract the characteristics of the data structure from the data structure.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the criteria used to determine how to represent the data structure include:

one or more of a user preference and a user profile.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the component includes:

an input device to receive a user request to selectively rearrange the data structure.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein:

the rearrangement logic is used to represent the data structure as a hybrid of a tree representation and a breadcrumb representation.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the system further comprises:

a back-end database used to store the data structure.

29. The system of claim 22, wherein the system further comprises:

a front-end component used to display the data structure representation to a user.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein:

the component is middle ware component.