System and method for dynamically generating viewable graphics

• US 7,050,079 B1
• Filed: 01/04/2000
• Issued: 05/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Estrada, Julio, Russo, Joseph A., Estrada, Miguel A., Shore, Maurice B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Ba
• Assistant Examiner(s): DETWILER, BRIAN J
• Application Number:
  US09/477,477
• Time in Patent Office: 2,331 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/246, 709/247, 709/203, 709/217, 707/10, 345/751, 345/759, 345/557, 345/733, 345/760, 345/764, 345/765, 345/581, 345/589, 345/592, 345/594, 345/619, 345/636
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2145 Inheriting rights or properties, e.g., propagation of permissions or restrictions within a hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Collaboration space object model provides for a Place consisting of rooms. A room is made up of pages. Folders are used to organize pages. Members belong to rooms, and are those users authorized to access them. Place type controls the creation of a place, including how many rooms it has, for example. Room type controls the appearance and content of rooms. A form manages the display of data notes. A form can contain fields for containing data and employ scripts to process and compute data. A page is the basic vehicle for content. Content is created using an or importing content from an external source. A member is also a data note, and each place contains its own member directory. A place is created and managed from a client browser in on-line mode and in offline mode with respect to a replicated copy of the space. Room security is independently managed, and security and aesthetics characteristics of subrooms selectively inherited. Room navigation and workflow processing is provided, as are forms creation and uploading from browser to server.

Claims

1. A system for serving graphics for display at a browser, comprising:

a graphics server;

a database for storing graphic effects parameters;

a cache;

said browser including a display;

said graphics server for serving an image to an edit screen on said display;

said graphics server responsive to a user activating an insert graphic command with a cursor positioned by said user at an insertion point anywhere within a document for serving to said browser an insert graphics screen for user selection of said graphic effects parameters;

said graphics server responsive to said user completing said selection of said graphic effects parameters for serving said image at said insertion point;

said server being operable for storing graphics and text received from said browser as an image in said cache and said parameters for said image in said database; and

said server being further operable to respond to a request from a requesting browser for selectively serving to said requesting browser for display said image from said cache and, if not found in said cache, for dynamically generating anew said image from said parameters stored in said database without retrieving said image from an alternate location by constructing a background object, constructing a font object, constructing text graphics, applying graphic effects from said database, and combining said background object, said font object, said text graphics, and said graphic effects to form said image.

2. The system of claim 1, said graphics server being operable for storing in said database, and making available to any of a plurality of browsers, parameters for reconstituting a plurality of screen display images.

3. A method for serving an image to a browser screen, comprising the steps of:

maintaining a cache of cached images;

maintaining a data base of default parameters;

serving a document to an edit panel on said screen;

responding to a user activating an insert graphic command with a cursor positioned at an insertion point at any user selected position in said document by serving to said browser an insert graphics text screen for user selection of graphic effects parameters;

responding to said user completing said selection of said graphic effects parameters by serving a graphic image at said insertion point;

receiving a graphic request locator for said insert graphics text screen;

hashing said graphic request locator to form a string number; and

examining cache for a cached image with a matching string number, and if found, serving said cached image to said browser screen; and

, if not found, without retrieving said image from an alternate location, parsing said graphic request locator for graphic parameters and constructing from said graphic parameters and selectively from said default parameters a reconstructed image for serving to said browser.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of maintaining a database of graphic parameters, and responsive to receiving a graphic request locator which does not hash to a string number found in said cache, parsing said graphic request locator for the location in said database of graphic parameters for said graphic parameters for reconstructing said image for serving to said browser.

5. The method of claim 3, said step for constructing a reconstructed image further comprising the steps of:

constructing a background object;

constructing a font object;

constructing text graphics;

applying graphic effects from said database; and

combining said background object, said font object, said text graphics, and said graphic effects to form said image.

6. The method of claim 5, said graphic effects selectively including blurring, shadowing, animation and transparency effects.

7. The method of claim 6, said animation effects selectively including fade in, fade out, fade in/out, undulation, and slide.

8. The method of claim 7, said slide effects selectively including in, out, loop, up, and down.

9. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for serving an image to a browser screen, said method steps comprising:

maintaining a cache of cached images;

maintaining a data base of default parameters;

serving a document to an edit panel on said screen;

responding to a user activating an insert graphic command with a cursor positioned at an insertion point at any user selected position in said document by serving to said browser an insert graphics text screen for user selection of graphic effects parameters;

responding to said user completing said selection of said graphic effects parameters by serving a graphic image at said insertion point;

receiving a graphic request locator;

hashing said graphic request locator to form a string number; and

examining cache for a cached image with a matching string number, and if found, serving said cached image to said browser screen; and

, if not found, without retrieving said image from an alternate location, parsing said graphic request locator for graphic parameters and constructing from said graphic parameters and selectively from said default parameters a reconstructed image for serving to said browser by constructing a background object, constructing a font object, constructing text graphics, applying graphic effects from said database, and combining said background object, said font object, said text graphics, and said graphic effects to form said image.

10. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer useable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for serving an image to a browser screen, the computer readable program means in said article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect maintaining a cache of cached images;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect maintaining a data base of default parameters;

computer readable program code means for serving a document to an edit panel on said screen;

computer readable program code means responsive to a user activating an insert graphic command with a cursor positioned at an insertion point at any user selected position in said document for serving to said browser an insert graphics text screen for user selection of said graphic effects parameters;

computer readable program code means responsive to said user completing said selection of said graphic effects parameters for serving said graphic image at said insertion point;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect receiving a graphic request locator;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect hashing said graphic request locator to form a string number; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect examining cache for a cached image with a matching string number, and if found, serving said cached image to said browser screen; and

, if not found, without retrieving said image from an alternate location, parsing said graphic request locator for graphic parameters and constructing from said graphic parameters and selectively from said default parameters a reconstructed image for serving to said browser by constructing a background object, constructing a font object, constructing text graphics, applying graphic effects from said database, and combining said background object, said font object, said text graphics, and said graphic effects to form said image.

11. A computer program product or computer program element for serving an image to a browser screen according to the steps of:

maintaining a cache of cached images;

maintaining a data base of default parameters;

serving a document to an edit panel on said screen;

responding to a user activating an insert graphic command with a cursor positioned at an insertion point located at any user selected position in said document by serving to said browser an insert graphics text screen for user selection of graphic effects parameters;

responding to said user completing said selection of said graphic effects parameters by serving a graphic image at said insertion point;

receiving a graphic request locator;

hashing said graphic request locator to form a string number; and

examining cache for a cached image with a matching string number, and if found, serving said cached image to said browser screen; and

, if not found, without retrieving said image from an alternate location, parsing said graphic request locator for graphic parameters and dynamically constructing from said graphic parameters and selectively from said default parameters a reconstructed image for serving to said browser by constructing a background object, constructing a font object, constructing text graphics, applying graphic effects from said database, and combining said background object, said font object, said text graphics, and said graphic effects to form said image.