LARGE SETS OF DATA

• US 20100299620A1
• Filed: 05/22/2009
• Published: 11/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sharma, Sean K, Pettit, Bradley R., Surpatanu, Nicolae, Hao, Junmin
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,840 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

This document describes tools that enable a computing device to retrieve large data in smaller blocks. The tools also allow the computing device to receive and display data that does not include display formatting information through the use of templates.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

retrieving markup data including a control definition, the control definition having one or more templates, each of the templates indicating a different way in which to display an element of data;

retrieving data separate from the markup data, the retrieved data having the element of data;

matching the element of data with one of the templates; and

populating the matched template with the element of data to provide a populated template, the populated template ready for rendering as part of a control, the control created based on the control definition of the markup data.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the retrieved data includes multiple additional elements of data and further comprising:

matching each of the multiple additional elements of data with additional templates of the one or more templates; and

populating each of the matched additional templates with each of the multiple additional elements of data to provide additional populated templates, the additional populated templates ready for rendering as part of the control.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the retrieved data is a block of data and the act of retrieving the data retrieves the block of data from a source of data, the block of data including fewer elements of data than the whole set of data at the source of data, and uses a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), the URI included in the markup data, the URI having a start index field that is populated with a value provided by the control definition that specifies an index of a first element of the block of data, the URI having an item count field populated with a value provided by the control definition that specifies a number of elements of data in the block of data.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

navigating through the additional populated templates within the control until a pre-retrieve threshold is reached, the pre-retrieve threshold defined within the control definition and specifying a number of populated templates remaining to an end of the additional populated templates; and

responsive to reaching the pre-retrieve threshold, requesting a next block of data from the source of data by specifying a different start index and the item count.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein one of the one or more templates includes an event definition, the event definition having an action field set to a pre-defined action or set to an action defined within the one of the one or more templates that includes the event definition.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the pre-defined action or the defined action is configured to show or hide an image that is represented by an image identifier, the image identifier being modified to include an index of an item generated from the template

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein matching the element of data with one of the templates comprises comparing a template identifier within the element of data to identifiers of the one or more templates provided in the markup data and choosing one of the one or more templates that matches the identifier.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the markup data is located on a remote computing device prior to retrieval.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data and the markup data are located on the same computing device prior to their respective retrievals.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the control is a list control or a menu control.

11. A method comprising:

retrieving, using a first Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and from a source of data having a whole set of data, a first block of data having a first number of data elements, the first number of data elements being fewer than those stored in the whole set of data, the first URI having a first start index field that specifies a first index of a first data element of the block of data and a first item count field that specifies the first number of data elements;

navigating through data elements of the first block of data until a pre-retrieve threshold is reached, the pre-retrieve threshold specifying a number of the data elements of the first block of data that have been navigated through or a remaining number of the data elements of the first block of data that have not been navigated through; and

responsive to reaching the pre-retrieve threshold, retrieving, using a second Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and from the source of data, a second block of data having a second number of data elements, the second number of data elements being fewer than those stored in the whole set of data, the URI having a second start index field that specifies a second index of a different first data element of the second block of data and a second item count field that specifies the second number of data elements requested, the second start index being different than the first start index.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the first number of data elements requested in the first item count field is different than the second number of data elements requested in the second item count field.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the act of navigating through the data elements of the first block of data is performed by navigating through a control having the data elements of the first block of data.

14. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the data elements of the first block of data include markup information for displaying the data elements of the first block of data.

15. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

retrieving markup data including a control definition having one or more templates, each of the templates indicating different ways in which to display;

matching one of the data elements of the first block of data with one of the templates; and

populating the matched template with its matched element of data to provide a populated template ready for rendering as part of a control, the control created based on the control definition of the markup data.

16. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the source of data is located on a remote computing device.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a computing device for a block of data specified by a start index and an item count, the start index specifying an index of a first element of the block of data, the item count specifying a number of elements requested;

extracting the block of data from a data store; and

communicating the block of data to the computing device.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

receiving another request from the computing device for markup data, the markup data including a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) used to request the block of data, the markup data including display formatting information usable by the computing device to display elements included in the block of data, the elements included in the block of data not including display formatting information; and

communicating the markup data to the computing device.

19. A method comprising:

retrieving markup data including a control definition having one or more templates, each of the templates indicating different ways in which to display elements of data;

retrieving, from a source of data having a whole set of data, a first block of data having a first number of data elements, the first number of data elements being fewer than those stored in the whole set of data;

matching each element of the first number of elements with one of the templates;

populating each matched template with its matched element of data to provide populated templates, each of the populated templates ready for rendering as part of a control, the control created based on the control definition of the markup data;

navigating through the populated templates until a pre-retrieve threshold is reached, the pre-retrieve threshold defined within the control definition and specifying a number of populated templates remaining or a number of populated templates that have been navigated through; and

responsive to reaching the pre-retrieve threshold, retrieving, from the source of data having the whole set of data, a second block of data having a second number of data elements, the second number of data elements being fewer than those stored in the whole set of data.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the first block of data and the second block of data are retrieved using a first Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and a second URI, respectively, the first URI having a first start index field that specifies a first index of a first data element of the first block of data and a first item count field that specifies the first number of data elements and the second URI having a second start index field that specifies a second index of a different first data element of the second block of data and a second item count field that specifies the second number of data elements.