Patent Application
20080229219
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of management of clipboard objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal computing many decades ago enabled a Herculean advancement in productivity mostly in consequence of the ease in which personal computing devices permitted document creation and management. The word processor, the earliest of killer applications permitted the end user not only to craft the text of a document, but also to manipulate the placement of text through “cutting” and “pasting” from one portion of a document to another. In that early computing environments provided a mere character based, uni-tasking user interface, the act of cutting and pasting largely was limited to a single document, although during the twilight of the character based user interface era, terminate and stay resident applications permitted cutting and pasting not only across different documents in a single application, but also across different documents in respectively different applications.
The advent of the graphical user interface computing environment accelerated the growth of personal computing and supported the globalization of the ubiquity of the word processor. The clipboard became a focal point of the new environment, allowing for the intra-computer movement not only of textual data, but also other types of data including graphical objects. The general paradigm for cutting and pasting in a graphical user interface persists today more than twenty years subsequent to the widespread distribution of the first graphical user interface based personal computers—namely the selection of a document location through a pointing device such as a mouse, the activation of a context menu with the mouse and the commanding of a cut or copy operation followed by the placement of the mouse pointer in a different document location, the activation of a context menu with the mouse and the commanding of a paste operation.
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to clipboard object management and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for clipboard handling of object intent for clipboard objects. In one embodiment of the invention, a clipboard data processing system can be configured for clipboard handling of object intent for clipboard objects. The system can include a clipboard agent managing a clipboard in an operating platform. The system further can include clipboard object intent handling logic. In particular, the clipboard object intent handling logic can include program code enabled to embed a reference to both a selected object and corresponding selectable action on the object from a source into a target.
In one aspect of the embodiment, a context menu of selectable actions can be provided, the menu corresponding to a selected object for placement into the clipboard. In another aspect of the embodiment, the selectable actions can vary and can include, for example, a reply directive, an edit directive, a view directive and a delete directive, to name only a few. In yet another aspect of the embodiment, the operating platform can include not only an operating system, but also a collaborative computing environment. Finally, in even yet another aspect of the embodiment, the target can include a calendar entry, a document, a workflow builder entry or an agent builder entry.
In another embodiment of the invention, a method for clipboard handling of object intent for clipboard objects can be provided. The method can include selecting an object in a source for placement into a clipboard, choosing an associated action from among a set of actions corresponding to the selected object, placing a reference to both the selected object and the chosen associated action into the clipboard, and pasting the reference to the selected object and the chosen associated action into a target such that activating the reference to the selected object causes an application of the associated action on the selected object. Optionally, pasting the reference to the selected object and the chosen associated action into a target such that activating the reference to the selected object causes an application of the associated action on the selected object, further can include prompting for permission to apply the associated action on the selected object responsive to the activating of the reference.
Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspects of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for clipboard handling of object intent for clipboard objects. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a action for an object can be recorded in connection with an object selected for clipboard insertion. Thereafter, both the action identifier and the object can be inserted into the clipboard. When pasting the object from the clipboard into content, the action also can be inserted into the content in association with the pasted object such that a selection of the object in the content activates the action for operation on the object.
In illustration,
In further illustration,
Notably, clipboard object intent handling logic 200 can be coupled to the clipboard agent 170. The clipboard object intent handling logic 200 can include program code enabled to detect an intent-based clipboard action such as the selection of an action along with an associated object. The action can include, for example, an open, view, edit, reply or delete action and the associated object can include a document, an e-mail message or an instant message, or a reference to a network-accessible artifact such as a Web page. The program code can be further enabled to copy both a reference to the action and the associated object into the clipboard and to insert the reference into the target. In this way, when the reference becomes activated, the action can be launched on the associated object from within the target.
In further illustration,
Turning now to
Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system.
For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk—read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk—read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.
A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.
