System, method, and software application for enabling a user to view and interact with a visual map in an external application

• US 20100122151A1
• Filed: 11/10/2008
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corel Corporation (Corel Holdings LP)
• Original Assignee: Corel Corporation (Corel Holdings LP)
• Inventors: Mochalskyy, Andriy O., Creekbaum, William J., Mendelson, Neil S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,396,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

The present invention provides a system, method, and software program for enabling a user to view and interact with a visual map in an external application. According to one embodiment of the invention, a visual mapping application creates a file with (i) visual map data and (ii) software code capable of being executed by an external application to display the visual map and provide select visual mapping application in the external application. In one embodiment, such functionality includes the ability to expand and collapse map topics, scroll the map, zoom in and out, follow hypertext links in the map, find content in the map, and print the map. The created file can be thought of as a “visual map player” in that an external application can “play” the created file, resulting in a live map in the external application.

Claims

1. A method on a computer for enabling a user to view and interact with a visual map in an external application, the method comprising:

retrieving visual map data, wherein the visual map data is retrieved by a visual mapping application; and

creating a file in the visual mapping application, wherein the created file includes (i) the visual map data and (ii) software code capable of being executed by the external application to display the visual map and enable visual mapping functionality in the external application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual mapping functionality includes the ability to expand and collapse topics in the displayed visual map, change a zoom factor of the visual map, follow hypertext links in the visual map, and print the visual map.

37. A method of claim 1, wherein the visual mapping application data retrieved was created in the visual mapping application.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual mapping application data retrieved was retrieved by the visual mapping application from an external source.

2. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises embedding the created file into another file that is of a type compatible with the external application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the external application is a web browser and the created file is embedded into a web page.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the external application is a PDF player and the created file is embedded into a PDF file.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the external application is a word processing application, and the created file is embedded into a word processing document.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the external application is an application that enables a user to create and play slide presentations, and the created file is embedded into a slide presentation file.

8. A method on a computer for enabling a user to view and interact with a visual map in an external application, the method comprising:

creating a file that includes code with visual mapping functionality that can be executed by an external application; and

inserting data related to a visual map into the created file;

wherein the created file, when executed by an external application, is able to display the visual map and provide a user with select visual mapping functionality within the external application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises embedding the created file into another file that is of a type compatible with the external application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the external application is a web browser and the created file is embedded into a web page.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the external application is a PDF player and the created file is embedded into a PDF file.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the external application is a word processing application, and the created file is embedded into a word processing document.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the external application is an application that enables a user to create and play slide presentations, and the created file is embedded into a slide presentation file.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the data related to a visual map includes all the data necessary to display the visual map.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the data related to a visual map is a link to a network address from which visual map data can be obtained.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the link is a link to a published visual map available on a web service.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the network address is a web service and the link includes information used by the web service to dynamically generate visual map data from a data source.

18. The method of claim 8, wherein the visual map functionality includes the ability to expand and collapse topics in the displayed visual map, change a zoom factor of the visual map, follow hypertext links in the visual map, and print the visual map.

19. The method of claim 8, wherein the visual map functionality includes the ability to edit the displayed visual map.

20. The method of claim 8, wherein the created file is embedded within an external application prior to the inserting step, and wherein the external application generates visual map data and performs the inserting step.

21. A method on a computer for enabling a user to view and interact with a visual map in an external application, the method comprising:

creating a visual mapping application using a programming language that, when compiled, can be executed by an external application;

compiling the visual mapping application to create compiled visual mapping code;

creating a template file that includes the compiled code; and

importing data related to a visual map into the template file to create a file that includes such data and the compiled code, wherein, the created file, when executed by an external application, is able to display and operate on the visual map.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises embedding the created file into another file that is of a type compatible with the external application.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the data related to a visual map includes all the data necessary to display the visual map.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the data related to a visual map is a link to a network address from which visual map data can be obtained.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the link is a link to a published visual map available on a web service.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the network address is a web service and the link includes information used by the web service to dynamically generate visual map data from a data source.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the visual map functionality includes the ability to expand and collapse topics in the displayed visual map, change a zoom factor of the visual map, follow hypertext links in the visual map, and print the visual map.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the visual map functionality includes the ability to edit the displayed visual map.

29. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium and comprising code, that, when executed by a computer, enables the computer to perform the following method:

creating a file that includes code with visual mapping functionality that can be executed by a non-visual mapping application; and

inserting data related to a visual map into the created file;

wherein the created file, when executed by a non-visual mapping application, is able to display the visual map and provide a user with select visual mapping functionality within the non-visual mapping application.

30. The computer program of claim 29, wherein the method further comprises embedding the created file into another file that is of a type compatible with the non-visual mapping application.

31. The computer program of claim 29, wherein the data related to a visual map includes all the data necessary to display the visual map.

32. The computer program of claim 29, wherein the data related to a visual map is a link to a network address from which visual map data can be obtained.

33. The computer program of claim 32, wherein the link is a link to a published visual map available on the web service.

34. The computer program of claim 32, wherein the network address is a web service and the link includes information used by the web service to dynamically generate visual map data from a data source.

35. The computer program of claim 29, wherein the visual map functionality includes the ability to expand and collapse topics in the displayed visual map, change a zoom factor of the visual map, follow hypertext links in the visual map, and print the visual map.

36. The computer program of claim 29, wherein the visual map functionality includes the ability to edit the displayed visual map.

39. A method on a computer for enabling a user view and interact with a visual map in an external application, the method comprising:

creating a file that includes (i) code with visual mapping functionality that can be executed by an external application and (ii) an application program interface to the external application;

launching the created file in the external application;

generating visual map data, wherein the external application generates the visual map data;

inserting the visual map data into the created file;

wherein the external application provides the visual map data to the application program interface in the created file; and

displaying a visual map with the visual map data in the external application.