Source Code Semantic Zoom and Spatial Layout

• US 20100318959A1
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: DeLine, Robert A., Rowan, Kael R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,561,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

The present disclosure describes an apparatus and a method for contemporaneously viewing code structure in a diagram as well as source code facilitated by a semantic zoom and pan feature and enabled via use of advanced rendering engines. The apparatus and method support in-place editing where edits are represented on the diagram in real-time. One example system includes a diagramming surface, an advanced rendering engine, viewers with controls and data retrieval modules, a data store with data loaded from source code well as external sources, and workers possibly implemented as background threads to monitor changes. One example method enables layers where a subset of data is viewed and a corresponding control is used to manipulate the data. An advanced rendering engine enables a wide range of user interface techniques, including but not limited to semantic zoom and pan and in-place editing.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one artifact comprising data relating to entities and relationships between the entities;

a diagramming surface to represent the entities and the relationships between the entities;

a rendering engine to render views of data relating to the entities and the relationships between the entities on the diagramming surface, a real-time viewer operably coupled to the diagramming surface, the real time viewer comprising;

(a) at least one retrieval module to retrieve data from the at least one artifact comprising the data and the relationships to be rendered by the rendering engine, and

(b) a plurality of controls to manipulate views of the data and the relationships to be rendered by the rendering engine, at least one of the controls comprising an in-place editor and at least one of the controls comprising a panning and zooming control.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising an intervening data store wherein at least some of the data relating to the entities and relationships is stored in the intervening data store and the at least one retrieval module accesses the at least some of the data relating to entities and relationships from the intervening data store.

3. The system of claim 2 further comprising a loader operably coupled to the intervening data store, the loader to load at least some of the data relating to the entities and the relationships into the intervening data store, wherein the at least some of the data relating to the entities and the relationships is data external to the artifact.

4. The system of claim 2 further comprising a source code loader operably coupled to the intervening data store, the source code loader to load at least some of the data relating to the entities and the relationships into the intervening data store wherein the at least some of the data relating to the entities and the relationships is data internal to the artifact.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a worker component, the worker component operably coupled to the diagramming surface, rendering engine, or viewer to receive a software notification and, upon receiving the software notification, updating the representation of the entities and relationships between the entities represented by the diagramming surface.

6. A method to manipulate a representation of entities and relationships between entities and session state information of the representation in a computer user interface, the method comprising:

retrieving data relating to entities and relationships between entities from at least one artifact comprising data relating to entities and relationships between entities;

storing user interface session state information of the representation comprising navigation and rendering information specific to a session;

rendering the data relating to the entities and the relationships between entities on a diagramming surface comprising a representation of entities and relationships between entities;

manipulating data relating to entities and relationships between entities and user interface session state information of the representation by one of;

(a) panning across the representation of entities and relationships between entities or

(b) zooming in or out of the representation of entities and relationships between entities.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein a subset of the entities and the relationships between the entities are represented by a layer comprising a representation of a subset of the entities, a representation indicating relationships between entities in the subset of the entities, and a control to manipulate the representation of the subset of entities.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the relationship between entities to be represented is an external grouping.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the control to manipulate the representation of the subset of entities further comprises an annotation editor, and wherein the control triggers display of at least some annotations.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein a subset of the entities and relationships between the entities are manipulated by a second layer overlaid over the first layer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the second layer is overlaid upon a selecting of text in an entity in the first layer.

12. The method of claim 6 further comprising manipulating the representation of entities and relationships between entities,

the representation comprising user interface session state information of the representation, the user interface session state information comprising a zoom level,

by previewing, the previewing comprising zooming on a local subset of entities or relationships between entities while maintaining the previous zoom level for the entities or relationships between entities excluded from the local subset.

13. The method of claim 6 further comprising manipulating the representation of entities and relationships between entities and user interface session state information of the representation,

receiving search criteria,

identifying entities and relationships between entities associated with the search criteria, and

representing at least some of the entities and relationships between entities matching the search criteria.

14. The method of claim 6 wherein the manipulating data relating to entities and relationships between entities and user interface session state information of the representation further comprises editing the data underlying the representation of entities and relationships with an in-place editor, wherein the data is internal to the artifact.

15. The method of claim 6 wherein the rendering the entities and relationships between entities on a diagramming surface includes rendering a transparency over a subset of data entities and relationships between entities.

16. The method of claim 6 wherein the captions of references are preserved during panning and zooming.

17. The method of claim 6 wherein the method further comprises supporting multiple representations of entities and relationships between entities.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein at least one representation of entities and relationships between entities corresponds to a first user and at least one representation of entities and relationships between entities corresponds to a second user.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the first user and the second user are remote from each other.

20. A computer readable medium comprising instructions operable for a computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

retrieving data relating to entities and relationships between entities from at least one artifact comprising data relating to entities and relationships between entities;

storing user interface session state information of the representation comprising navigation and rendering information specific to a session;

rendering the data relating to the entities and the relationships between entities on a diagramming surface comprising a representation of entities and relationships between entities;

manipulating data relating to entities and relationships between entities and user interface session state information of the representation by one of;

(a) panning across the representation of entities and relationships between entities or

(b) zooming in or out of the representation of entities and relationships between entities.