Large sets of data

• US 8,392,840 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2009
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• 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, Surpatanu, Nicolae, Pettit, Bradley R., Hao, Junmin
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): NABI, REZA U
• Application Number:
  US12/471,026
• Publication Number:
  US 20100299620A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,383 Days
• Field of Search: 715/760
• 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;

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;

retrieving multiple additional elements of data;

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

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, the retrieved data and the retrieved multiple additional elements of data comprising a block of data;

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;

responsive to reaching the pre-retrieve threshold, requesting a next block of data and deleting at least a portion of the block of data; and

the data and the multiple additional elements of data retrieved using a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) included in the markup data, the URI having a plurality of fields.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of retrieving the data and the act of retrieving the multiple additional elements of data retrieve the block of data from a source of data, the block of data including fewer elements of data than a whole set of data at the source of data, wherein the plurality of fields of the URI includes 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, and 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.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein requesting the next block of data further comprises requesting the next block of data from the source of data by specifying a different start index and the item count.

4. 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.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, 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.

6. 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.

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

8. 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.

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

10. A method comprising:

retrieving, using a first Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) included in markup data 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 a control having data elements of the first block of data until a pre-retrieve threshold is reached, the pre-retrieve threshold specifying a remaining number of the data elements to an end 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) included in the markup data and from the source of data, a second block of data having a second number of data elements and deleting at least a portion of the first block of data, the second number of data elements being fewer than those stored in the whole set of data, 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 requested, the second start index being different than the first start index, the first number of data elements requested in the first item count field different than the second number of data elements requested in the second item count field, the data elements of the first block of data including markup data for displaying the data elements of the first block of data, and the retrieving the data elements of the first block of data separate from retrieving the markup data.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, 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 data elements;

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.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the source of data is located on a remote computing device.

13. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a computing device for markup data including a control definition having one or more templates, each of the templates indicating different ways in which to display data elements, and the markup data including a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that includes a start index field and an item count field;

communicating the markup data to the computing device, the markup data configured to cause the computing device to match at least one data element of a block of data with one of the templates and populate the matched template with its matched element of data to provide a populated template ready for rendering as part of a control that is created based on the control definition;

receiving a request from the computing device for the block of data, the request for the block of data specifying a start index identified in the start index field of the URI and an item count identified in the item count field of the URI of the block of data, 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;

communicating the block of data to the computing device separately from the markup data;

receiving an additional request from the computing device for a next block of data when a pre-retrieve threshold is reached, the pre-retrieve threshold specifying a remaining number of elements to an end of the block of data that have not been navigated through; and

communicating the next block of data to the computing device effective to cause at least a portion of the block of data to be deleted by the computing device.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the URI is used to request the block of data and 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.

15. 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 to an end that have not 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 and deleting at least a portion of the first block of data, the second number of data elements being fewer than those stored in the whole set of data, the first block of data retrieved using a first Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) included in the markup data, the first URI having a plurality of fields and the second block of data retrieved using a second URI included in the markup data, the second URI having a plurality of fields.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the plurality of fields of the first URI includes 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 wherein the plurality of fields of the second URI includes 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.