Visual hierarchy explorer

• US 8,677,279 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2009
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Business Objects Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Gan, Jeff, Cannon, Finlay, Richards, Ronald Wade
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Matt
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shiberou, Mahelet
• Application Number:
  US12/436,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20100287512A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,777 Days
• Field of Search: 715/854
• US Class Current: 715/854
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957

Abstract

A method and a system are described that involve generating a graphical tree hierarchy of a data structure and its accompanying metadata. In one embodiment, the method includes building a graphical tree hierarchy with a plurality of levels, wherein the graphical tree hierarchy includes at least a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes. Further, the method includes aggregating at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes at a level of the graphical tree hierarchy, if a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level exceeds a maximum number of nodes per the level. The method also includes scaling down the plurality of leaf nodes, if the plurality of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy exceeds a maximum number of levels.

Claims

1. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions therein that when executed by the machine, cause the machine to:

receive a data structure including a plurality of levels, a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes;

build a graphical tree hierarchy associated with the data structure;

horizontally aggregate at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes at an entire level of the graphical tree hierarchy to form a plurality of aggregation nodes, upon determining that a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level exceeds a maximum number of nodes per the level;

define a histogram plotted along a base of the graphical tree hierarchy comprising a set of bins correspondingly associated with the plurality of aggregation nodes, the plurality of leaf nodes defining a count for each bin of the histogram;

upon determining that the plurality of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy exceeds a maximum number of levels, vertically scale down proportionally the plurality of leaf nodes in each bin of the histogram to a plurality of leaf node icons such that the plurality of leaf node icons fit in a predefined GUI region, wherein a leaf node icon of the plurality of leaf node icons represents a number of leaf nodes computed based on a maximum allowed number of leaf nodes in an aggregated node of the plurality of aggregation nodes and a number of leaf nodes in a largest aggregation node of the plurality of aggregation nodes; and

display the graphical tree hierarchy in the predefined GUI region, the displayed graphical tree being associated with the data structure and accompanying metadata.

2. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

compute the maximum number of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a height parameter of the predefined GUI region; and

compute the maximum number of nodes per the plurality of levels of the tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a width parameter of the predefined GUI region.

3. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, wherein instructions causing the machine to build the graphical tree hierarchy comprise instructions causing the machine to:

add the root node to the graphical tree hierarchy at a first level of the plurality of levels; and

walk through the data structure to build the plurality of non-leaf nodes of the graphical tree hierarchy.

4. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 3 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

add a plurality of parent non-leaf nodes at different levels of the graphical tree hierarchy in accordance with the plurality of non-leaf nodes built by walking through the data structure;

add a plurality of child non-leaf nodes to the graphical tree hierarchy in accordance with the plurality of non-leaf nodes built by walking through the data structure; and

attach the plurality of child non-leaf nodes to the plurality of parent non-leaf nodes at lower levels of the graphical tree hierarchy in accordance with the walked-through data structure.

5. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, wherein instructions causing the machine to aggregate at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes comprise instructions causing the machine to aggregate every two non-leaf nodes from the subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level that exceeds the maximum number of nodes per the level, the two non-leaf nodes sharing a same parent non-leaf node.

6. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 5, wherein instructions causing the machine to scale down the plurality of leaf nodes comprise instructions causing the machine to:

compute a maximum number of leaf nodes per an aggregation node based on a remaining portion of space of the predefined GUI region;

retrieve a largest aggregation node at the level, the largest aggregation node including a maximum count of leaf nodes from the plurality of leaf nodes; and

divide the retrieved maximum count of leaf nodes of the largest aggregation node by the computed maximum number of leaf nodes per the aggregation node.

7. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 6 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

round up a result of the division of the maximum count of leaf nodes by the computed maximum number of leaf nodes per the aggregation node to a nearest whole number, if the result is not a whole number; and

scale down the plurality of leaf nodes by the whole number.

8. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

navigate in the displayed graphical tree hierarchy via a set of GUI elements;

display metadata associated with an aggregation node in the graphical tree hierarchy upon user interaction with the aggregation node, wherein the metadata includes at least a portion of;

a name of the aggregation node, a starting name and an ending name for the nodes aggregated in the aggregation node, a number of child nodes to the aggregation node, and a number of leaf nodes under the aggregation node; and

switch orientation of the graphical tree hierarchy.

9. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

receive a selection of a node in the predefined GUI region, the node representing a portion of the graphical tree hierarchy; and

update the predefined GUI region to include a sub-tree defined by the node, thereby drilling into a subset of the graphical tree hierarchy.

10. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1 having instructions that when executed further cause the machine to:

receive a user interaction to drill out of the graphical tree hierarchy; and

in response to the user interaction, update the predefined GUI region to include a subset of the graphical tree hierarchy corresponding to the drill out.

11. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, wherein the count for each bin of the histogram is represented by a visual element selected from:

a set of icons, wherein a first number of leaf nodes is equated to a representative icon in the set of icons; and

a bar, wherein the length of a representative bar is proportional to the count for a representative bin.

12. A computer implemented method for displaying a tree structure hierarchy on a computer generated user interface, the method comprising:

receiving a data structure including a plurality of levels, wherein the graphical tree hierarchy includes at least a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes, and wherein the data structure is stored in a database storage unit;

horizontally aggregating at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes at an entire level of the graphical tree hierarchy to form a plurality of aggregation nodes upon determining that a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level exceeds a maximum number of nodes per the level;

defining a histogram plotted along a base of the graphical tree hierarchy comprising a set of bins correspondingly associated with the plurality of aggregation nodes, and the plurality of leaf nodes defining a count for each bin of the histogram;

upon determining that the plurality of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy exceeds a maximum number of levels, vertically scaling down proportionally the plurality of leaf nodes in each bin of the histogram to a plurality of leaf node icons such that the plurality of leaf node icons fit in a predefined GUI region, wherein a leaf node icon of the plurality of leaf node icons represents a number of leaf nodes computed based on a maximum allowed number of leaf nodes in an aggregated node of the plurality of aggregation nodes and a number of leaf nodes in a largest aggregation node of the plurality of aggregation nodes; and

displaying the graphical tree hierarchy as a visualization in the predefined GUI region, the displayed graphical tree associated with the data structure and accompanying metadata.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

computing the maximum number of levels of the graphical tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a height parameter of the predefined GUI region; and

computing the maximum number of nodes per the plurality of levels of the tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a width parameter of the predefined GUI region.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving the graphical tree hierarchy comprises:

adding the root node to the graphical tree hierarchy at a first level of the plurality of levels;

adding a plurality of parent non-leaf nodes at different levels of the graphical tree hierarchy;

adding a plurality of child non-leaf nodes to the graphical tree hierarchy by attaching the nodes of the plurality of child non-leaf nodes to their parents in the plurality of parent non-leaf nodes; and

updating the visualization of the graphical tree.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

updating the visualization with metadata associated with an aggregation node in the graphical tree hierarchy upon user interaction with the aggregation node, wherein the metadata includes at least a portion of;

a name of the aggregation node, a starting name and an ending name for the nodes aggregated in the aggregation node, a number of child nodes to the aggregation node, and a number of leaf nodes under the aggregation node.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein aggregating at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes comprises aggregating every two non-leaf nodes from the subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level that exceeds the maximum number of nodes per the level, where the two non-leaf nodes share a same parent non-leaf node.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

navigating in the displayed graphical tree hierarchy via a set of GUI elements;

providing information for the graphical tree hierarchy and for each node of the graphical tree hierarchy; and

switching orientation of the graphical tree hierarchy.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the count for each bin of the histogram is represented by a visual element selected from:

a set of icons, wherein a first number of leaf nodes is equated to a representative icon in the set of icons; and

a bar, wherein the length of a representative bar is proportional to the count for a representative bin.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein the aggregating at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes at a level of the graphical tree hierarchy occurs, if a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at the level exceeds a maximum number of nodes per the level.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

computing the maximum number of nodes per the plurality of levels of the tree hierarchy that fit in the predefined GUI region based on a width parameter of the predefined GUI region.

21. A computing system comprising:

a processor;

a memory device including instructions stored thereon that are operable on the processor to cause the system to provide;

a GUI region with predefined parameters;

a hierarchal data structure stored in a database storage unit;

a graphical tree structure with a plurality of hierarchal levels including at least a root node, a plurality of non-leaf nodes, and a plurality of leaf nodes,

wherein at least a portion of the plurality of non-leaf nodes is aggregated horizontally, to form a plurality of aggregation nodes, when a subset of the plurality of non-leaf nodes residing at a level of the tree exceeds a maximum number of non-leaf nodes per that level,

wherein a histogram is plotted along a base of the graphical tree hierarchy comprising a set of bins correspondingly associated with the plurality of aggregation nodes, the plurality of leaf nodes defining a count for each bin of the histogram, and

wherein the plurality of leaf nodes is vertically scaled down proportionally in each bin of the histogram to a plurality of leaf node icons such that the plurality of leaf node icons fit in a predefined GUI region, wherein a leaf node icon of the plurality of leaf node icons represents a number of leaf nodes computed based on a maximum allowed number of leaf nodes in an aggregated node of the plurality of aggregation nodes and number of leaf nodes in a largest aggregation node of the plurality of aggregation nodes, when the levels of the tree exceed a maximum number of levels, and wherein the graphical tree is a visual representation of the hierarchal data structure displayed in the predefined GUI region; and

a set of GUI elements to navigate in the graphical tree structure and to retrieve information about the root node, the plurality of non-leaf nodes, and the plurality of leaf nodes.

22. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the set of GUI elements to navigate in the graphical tree structure comprises:

a zoom button to zoom an aggregation node of the graphical tree structure, wherein after zooming in, a parent node of the aggregation node becomes the root node and a sub-tree of the graphical tree residing under the parent node is rendered;

an orientation change button that changes orientation of display of the graphical tree structure; and

a select button to select a node or multiple nodes of the graphical tree structure.

23. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the set of GUI elements to retrieve information in the graphical tree structure comprises:

a scale GUI component that displays a number of actual leaf nodes that are represented by a leaf node of the plurality of leaf nodes;

a total items GUI component that displays a total number of nodes in the graphical tree structure; and

a tooltip GUI component that displays information about each node in the graphical tree structure.