INLINE DISPLAY AND PREVIEW OF RELATED INFORMATION FOR ELEMENTS IN A DOCUMENT

• US 20160070422A1
• Filed: 11/17/2015
• Published: 03/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Hammontree, Monty, Hosabettu Kamalesha, Murali Krishna, Adams, Brandon, Clarke, Steven John, Tkachenko, Oleg, Zaiss, Zachary S, Tilford, John, Pugh, David, Dole, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 10,331,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04855 Interaction with scrollbars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a system and method for optimizing a developer'"'"'s ability to find and navigate relevant documents, relationships, and other information related to an identifier in the code they are developing. An inline viewport is presented to the user in response to the user selecting an identifier in the code whereby the user is able to see relevant information related to the identifier in a spatially consistent location with the code they are investigating. Further, the developer has the ability to make changes to the code in the viewport without leaving the current editor.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

associating a set of relationships with the at least one identifier in a portion of code;

receiving an indication of a selection of a relationship in the set of relationships;

accessing a document associated with the selected relationship;

opening in the portion of code at least a portion of the document in a viewport, the viewport by displacing at least a second portion of the code that is after the at least one identifier; and

displaying at least a portion of the document in the viewport.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an indication from a user that a portion of text in the portion of the code is the at least one identifier.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein associating the set of relationships further comprises:

passing the at least one identifier to at least one provider; and

receiving from the at least one provider an indication that the at least one provider has a document related to the identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying the set of relationships to be on a user interface.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying at least a portion of the document in the viewport comprises:

identifying an entity of interest in the document; and

displaying the entity of interest in the viewport.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein displaying the entity of interest further comprises:

displaying the entity of interest differently from a portion of the document that is not part of the entity of interest.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining a second identifier in the document displayed in the viewport;

associating a second set of relationships for the second identifier;

receiving an indication of a selection of a second relationship in the second set of relationships;

accessing a second document associated with the selected second relationship; and

displaying the second document in the viewport.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein displaying the second document in the viewport comprises:

opening a second viewport in the portion of code.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein opening the viewport in the portion of the code further comprises:

creating a visual break point in the portion of the code at a location of the at least one identifier; and

inserting the viewport in a space between the location and the second portion of the code.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

instantiating an embedded editor in the viewport.

11. A system having at least one processor for inserting a viewport into a portion of code under development, comprising:

a peek command module configured to determine a request for a set of relationships for at least one identifier in the portion of code;

a viewport controller module configured to create a viewport in the portion of the code by inserting at least a portion of a document into the portion of code;

a broker configured to determine the set of relationships for the at least one identifier received from the peek command module, and to request the document associated with at least one relationship; and

at least one provider configured to provide the at least one relationship to the broker in response to a request from the broker for the set of relationships.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the peek command module is further configured to determine a selection of a relationship in the set of relationships and to request a document associated with the selected relationship.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the viewport controller module is further configured to create a second viewport in the portion of the code.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the viewport controller module is further configured to modify the document such that an entity of interest in the document is displayed differently from a portion of the document that is not part of the entity of interest.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the viewport controller module is further configured to:

determine a location of the at least one identifier in the portion of the code; and

insert the viewport below the location by moving a second portion of the portion of the code to a second location such that the viewport is disposed between the location and the second location.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the viewport controller module is further configured to maintain a history of documents that have been inserted into the code through the viewport.

17. A method comprising:

determining at least one identifier in a portion of code;

associating a set of relationships with the at least one identifier;

receiving an indication of a selection of a relationship in the set of relationships;

accessing a document associated with the selected relationship;

opening in the portion of code at least a portion of the document in a viewport; and

adding the at least a portion of the document to a history of actions.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

displaying the history of actions with the viewport.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

navigating to a different document in the history of actions through the displayed history of actions.

20. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

interacting with the at least the portion of the document in the viewport.