Patent Application
20060184890
The present patent application claims the priority benefit of the filing date of European Application (EPO) No. 05100977.7 filed Feb. 11, 2005, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of electronic data processing and, in one example of embodiment, to providing a user interface to a user.
Some modem computer systems have reached a high level of versatility. They can be used for different and possibly demanding tasks. Typically, a user of a computer system interacts with the computer system through a user interface. The user interface provides the user with a context and the user can enter instructions through the user interface. Generally, it is desirable to have a user interface which supports an interaction between the user and the computer system.
Frequently, the user chooses to directly manage files that are available on the computer system. The files may be managed using a file manager program. The file manager program may be provided by an operating system. The file manager program for example displays files and folders to the user and provides the user with functionality for managing the files and the folders.
A user interface of the file manager program may support a graphical pointer device which is a handheld device for controlling a graphical pointer. The graphical pointer device may include one or more buttons for selecting displayed files and for selecting functions from a menu. The functions may be selectable from a context menu which is usually requested by the user. The context menu has entries that may depend on previously selected files and accordingly can support the user communicating a task to the computer system.
The user may use application programs. An application program is an individual program which performs one or more operations for the user. The application program may perform an operation with respect to a file, for example to display a text of a text file. Frequently, the user starts the application program and selects from one or more files to which the application program may apply an available function.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,133, discloses methods to support the user by providing context menus. As an example, the user selects a document file and requests a context menu. An entry of the context may represent an optional operation to open the document file with an appropriate application program. As a further example, the user may select two computer resources, for example, a file and a folder and request the context menu. An entry of the context menu may represent an optional operation to transfer the file to the folder. As a further example, the user may select a plurality of files and request the context menu. The entries of the context menu may represent selectable operations that are applicable individually to each file of the plurality of files, that is, the entries are an intersection of sets of operations that are applicable to each file of the plurality.
The user may manage numerous files using the file manager program. The file manager program provides a context for selecting files and a context menu for selected files. It is desirable that the user interface provides means to the user of the file manager program so that the user can efficiently accomplish the task.
The user may apply application programs for operations that require a plurality of files as an input. It is convenient to support the user to apply the operations of the application programs to a plurality of files that are displayed by the file manager program.
An aspect of an embodiment is to provide the user with context menu entries that represent operations of application programs that require a plurality of files as an input. The entries represent operations that are selectable by the user to be applied to previously selected files.
The embodiment is fast and memory efficient because the operations represented in the context menu are generated by identifying file types and determining the operations accordingly. Frequently, a number of file types is smaller than a number of files and therefore assigning file types to operations involves less data than assigning files to operations. The file types characterize a structure of the files and the file types provide sufficient information for a determination of the applicable operations. Accordingly, it requires less data processing to determine the applicable operations by using file types instead of using files.
The embodiment reduces requirements with respect to resources of a computer system such as memory and computing performance. The reason is that the user selects the files and the operation remaining in the user context. The user is not required to change the context once or several times for selecting the application program and the operation. A change of the context requires more resources than providing the context menu with the entries.
The embodiment further reduces required resources of a computer system in case the user searches for the application program to start the application program. In the application program the user can be required to identify the operation, a location of the files, that is, where the files are for example in a hierarchical structure, and the files to which the operation of the application is applied. The user may search for identifying any of the required elements and the search of the user may consume further resources. In case the user commits an error further resources are consumed, even if the error is detected.
The entries of the context menu improve the interaction between the user and the computer system because a reduced number of applicable operations are provided. Furthermore, the user may not be aware of an applicable operation and in this case the user is informed in an efficient way about the applicable operation. Accordingly, the user of the embodiment gains a better control of the computer system when applying operations to pluralities of files.
The system may, in an example embodiment, provide the context menu entries representing the operations of the application programs requiring the plurality of files.
According to the substantial correspondence of the system to the method, aspects of the method are also valid for aspects of the computer system.
The computer program product may refer to features of the method and accordingly the aspects of the method are also valid for the computer program product.
The following description contains examples and embodiments of the invention that are not limiting the scope of the invention.
The method 100 includes operation receiving 110 a first identification of a first file which is selected by the user from the context. The context includes one or more files which may be displayed by the file manager program. The files may be represented by icons or by the file names. The user may use a graphical pointer device to point to the first file and a button for selecting the first file. An example for such a graphical pointer device is a computer mouse. A request of the context menu may be done by using a further button. The selection of an entry from the context menu may be possible by using again the button which is used for selecting the files. It depends on the file manager program if a selection and the request of the context menu can be done by using the graphical pointer device. Frequently, the file manager program supports the graphical pointer device. The file manager program may also support selecting a displayed object by pressing repeatedly a first button to navigate a file indicator to the first file and by using a second button to select the first file. A user interface may register the selection of the first file and the file manager program may provide the first identification to the method. Typically, the first file will be marked so that a selection of the first file is visible.
A following method operation is receiving 120 a second identification of a second file which is selected by the user from the context. The selection of the second file may be done in an analogous way to the selection the first file.
A following method operation is identifying 130 file types of the selected files. A file type may be identified for example by identifying an extension of a file. The extension of the file is a part of a name of the file. The part starts with a dot within the name of the file. Frequently, the file manager program provides operations requiring one file to the user and the operations are determined according to the file extension. Such an operation may be started by a double click of a button. As an example, a word processor program may be applied to open a file with an extension for a document file.
It follows determining 140 according to predefined rules an operation of an application program. The operation requires a plurality of files, that is, it is a multiple-file operation. For example, an operation of comparing two files by displaying the two files and highlighting the differences requires two files as an input. The operation of the application program is applicable to the selected files, that is, the determined operation requires files of file types which are identical with the identified file types. Frequently, an operation of an application program requires one or more specific file types and it is applicable only to files of the specific file types. The determining operation involves the identified file types and does not require an identification of a selected file. Accordingly, the determining operation is independent of the number of the files available from the context.
It follows method operation generating 150 an entry for the context menu. The entry represents the operation of the application program. The operation of the application program is selectable by the user so that the operation is applied to the selected files.
Upon receiving 120 the second file identification, an optional operation may be executed: receiving 160 one or more further file identifications of files selected from the context. The user may desire to apply an operation of an application program that requires more than two files. The selection of the further files may be done in an analogous way to the selection the first and second files.
Upon generating 150 an entry for the context menu, a further optional operation may be executed: providing 170 the user with a user interface element for inputting information required for the operation of the application program. For example, the operation of comparing two files may require a further file for saving a result of the comparing operation. In such a case the interface element may provide a means for inputting a name of a file to which the result is saved.
Following an execution of an operation the user can continue with a task requiring the context element 210. The user is not required to change the context and to recreate the context element 210.
A further embodiment may identify the file types in a different way. The further embodiment may include a mapping of the file extensions to the file type. Therefore, the file type may be associated to one or to more than one file extension. The mapping of the file extensions to the file type may for example be stored in a file that can be accessed by the file manager program. The mapping may also be modifiable by the user or a system administrator for example to add a new file type or to add a mapping of a file extension to a file type. The further embodiment may use abstract assignments to assign the file types to the operation of the application program, the path of the application program and the application program. An abstract assignment specifying file types may be used to replace a plurality of assignments specifying file extensions. For example, a first file extension and a second file extension may be compared with an application program. The first and the second file may also be merged with a further application program. In the further embodiment the first and the second file extension may be mapped to one file type. Accordingly, an abstract assignment specifying the one file type may represent two assignments specifying the first and second file extension. Therefore, abstract assignments may reduce the total number of assignments and abstract assignments. The abstract assignments may also be stored in a file which is accessible by the file manager program and modifiable by the user or the system administrator. The file type may be identified by identifying the file extensions of the selected files and identify the file types of the identified file extensions using the mapping. Furthermore, the further embodiment may determine the operations by selecting the operations from the abstract assignments that specify the identified file types. The further embodiment may be convenient in case that a plurality file extensions can be used for a plurality of operations.
Method operations of the embodiment of the invention can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing a computer program to perform functions of the invention by operating on input data and generating output. The method operations can also be performed by, and system components of the further example embodiment of the invention can be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, for example, an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit).
Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks. Information carriers suitable for embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, for example, EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, for example, internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in special purpose logic circuitry.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05100977.7 | Feb 2005 | EP | regional |
