Hierarchy navigation system

• US 6,285,366 B1
• Filed: 06/30/1998
• Issued: 09/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Maritzen, Lynn Michael, Sponheim, Claire Jean, Sha, Rong Qiang, Ng, Bernard Ignatius
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cao H.
• Application Number:
  US09/107,857
• Time in Patent Office: 1,162 Days
• Field of Search: 345/339, 345/340, 345/342, 345/348, 345/353, 345/356, 345/357
• US Class Current: 715/853
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A navigation system for a hierarchy of objects displayed by a computing system are rapidly navigated first by an automatic explosion module for exploding a displayed node of the hierarchy in response to a first characteristic stroke by a pointer control device while the pointer is within the boundary of the displayed node. In addition, an implosion module implodes nodes branching from a displayed node of the hierarchy in response to a second characteristic stroke by the pointer control device while the pointer is within the boundary of the displayed node. The first characteristic stroke by the pointer control device is movement of the pointer controlled by the pointer control device within the boundaries of the displayed node. The second characteristic stroke by the pointer control device is a mouse click while the pointer is within the boundaries of the displayed node or object. A keystroke module sets the level of further explosion of the node when the displayed node is exploded by the explosion module.

Claims

1. Apparatus for navigating through a hierarchy of objects in an information processing system in a computer, the computer having a processor, a display, a keyboard, a pointer control device for the display and a data storage device, said apparatus comprising:

an explosion module for exploding a displayed object of the hierarchy in response to a first characteristic stroke of the pointer control device while the pointer is within the boundary of the displayed object;

an implosion module for imploding nodes branching from a displayed object of the hierarchy in response to a second characteristic stroke of the pointer control device while the pointer is within the boundary of the displayed object; and

a keystroke module in response to a key stroke for setting the level of further explosion of the object when the displayed object is exploded by the explosion module.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first characteristic stroke of the pointer control device is movement of the pointer controlled by the pointer control device within the boundaries of the displayed object.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the second characteristic stroke of the pointer control device is a mouse click while the pointer is within the boundaries of the displayed object.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

an adjust scrolling module for scrolling the hierarchy relative to the display to maintain the displayed object on the display after explosion or implosion.

5. A method for navigating through a hierarchy of objects displayed by an information processing system, said method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

detecting a first type or second type of selection of a target object displayed on the display screen by a pointer device in the information processing system; and

in response to the first type of selection, marking as visible all children of the target object to a depth level greater than one in the hierarchy past the target object;

in response to the second type of selection, inhibiting visibility of all children of the target object in the hierarchy;

drawing a new hierarchy display wherein is displayed either the total of all objects visible in a current display plus the children of objects marked visible by said marking step, or the remainder of the objects visible in the current display after subtracting children whose visibility is inhibited by said inhibiting step whereby, when the new hierarchy display is drawn, the target object is exploded to display children of the target object through the depth level or children of the target object are imploded into the target object.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the step of setting the depth level to a selected level.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said depth level has a default value of one level.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein said marking step further comprises the step of marking as not visible any children at a next level past a predetermined depth level.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the drawing step comprises the steps of:

laying out a hierarchy tree with each branch of the tree extending until an object marked not visible is reached; and

painting only visible objects laid out in each branch so that only objects marked visible are displayed.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein said inhibiting step comprises the steps of:

detecting that children of the target object are marked visible; and

in response to detecting children of the target object are visible, marking, as not visible, children at a next level past the target object.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the drawing step comprises the steps of:

laying out a hierarchy tree with each branch of the tree extending until an object marked not visible is reached; and

painting only visible objects laid out in each branch so that only objects marked visible are displayed.

13. The method of claim 5 further comprising the steps of:

setting an object desensitization interval;

blocking said marking step during the object desensitization interval to prevent the object just imploded from being exploded during the object desensitization interval.

14. The method of claim 5 further comprising the steps of:

setting a global desensitization level;

blocking said marking step for any object in the display during the global desensitization level to preserve the hierarchy display during the global desensitization interval.

15. The method of claim 5 wherein the hierarchy display is larger than the display screen window and further comprising the step of scrolling the new hierarchy display to maintain the target object and pointer on the display screen window.

8. The method of 5 further comprising the steps of:

animating the target object in the new hierarchy display whereby the target object is highlighted after explosion or implosion.

16. A computer program storage medium readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for navigating through nodes of a hierarchy tree displayed by the computing system, said computer process comprising the steps of:

detecting mouse pointer movement pointer within or a mouse click within a node displayed on a display screen;

a marking step, responsive to detection of the mouse movement by said detecting step for marking the children of the node as visible whereby, when the display is redrawn, the node is exploded;

a testing step responsive to detection of mouse click by said detecting step for indicating children of the node are marked visible for display on the display screen;

an inhibiting step, responsive to said testing step indicating the children of the node clicked on are marked visible, for marking the children as invisible whereby, when the display is redrawn, the branches of the node clicked on are imploded and the node becomes an imploded node; and

setting levels of explosion for branches from the node to a selected level;

wherein said marking step marks the children of the object visible to a further level of explosion indicated by the selected level.

17. The computer program storage medium of claim 16 where said computer process in the computer program further comprises the steps of:

drawing the hierarchy display with all nodes from a preceding display minus the children of nodes marked invisible by said inhibiting step; and

animating the node whose children have been marked invisible by said second marking step whereby the imploded node is highlighted.

18. The computer program storage medium of claim 17 where said computer process in the computer program further comprises the steps of:

setting a node desensitization interval; and

blocking said marking step during the node desensitization interval to prevent the node just imploded from being exploded during the node desensitization interval.

19. The computer program storage medium of claim 17 where said computer process in the computer program further comprises the steps of:

setting a global desensitization interval;

blocking said marking step for any node in the display during the global desensitization interval to preserve the display of the tree during the global desensitization interval.

20. Apparatus for navigating through a hierarchy of objects in an information processing system in a computer, the computer having a processor, a display, a keyboard, a pointer control device for the display and a data storage device, said apparatus comprising:

means for exploding a displayed object of the hierarchy in response to a first characteristic stroke of the pointer control device while the pointer is within the boundary of the displayed object;

means for imploding nodes branching from a displayed object of the hierarchy in response to a second characteristic stroke of the pointer control device while the pointer is within the boundary of the displayed object; and

means responsive to a key stroke for setting the level of further explosion of the object when the displayed object is exploded by the explosion module.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the first characteristic stroke of the pointer control device is movement of the pointer controlled by the pointer control device within the boundaries of the displayed object.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the second characteristic stroke of the pointer control device is a mouse click while the pointer is within the boundaries of the displayed object.

23. The apparatus of claim 20 further comprising:

means for scrolling the hierarchy relative to the display to maintain the displayed object on the display after explosion or implosion.