Patent Application
20220397995
This application claims priority to pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/348,032 (Attorney Docket No. 409833-US-NP) entitled “SERVICE-DRIVEN WIDGETS WITH MULTIPLE FORMS OF AUTHENTICATION DISPLAYED IN A WIDGETS BOARD,” which was filed on Jun. 15, 2021, and is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
An application (an “app”) is program code that runs on the operating system of a computing device. An application is designed to carry out a specific task other than one relating to the operation of the computing device itself and is typically configured to be used by end-users. Examples of an application include a word processor, a spreadsheet program, an accounting application, an email client, a media player, a console game, and a photo editor. A computing device may have many applications installed, each of which uses a commensurate amount of storage. Furthermore, the features of an application are accessed by executing the application. Many applications simultaneously executing on a computing device consume a significant amount of memory and processing resources.
A web browser is a type of a type of application that enables web applications (“web apps”) to be run on a computing device. The web browser downloads content of a web application from a server to the computing device. The web browser renders a page of content related to the web application for display to the user. Multiple tabs may be maintained by the web browser, with each containing content related to a different web page, though typically with a single tab displayed to the user at any given time. A conventional web browser application may have additional features, including various navigation features. Such navigation features may include an address bar that receives a URL for navigation to a website specified by a uniform resource locator (URL), a search bar to input items for a search engine, and a book-marking bar that allows a user to save URLs for later use. On the other hand, a content viewer (e.g., web viewer) may be configured to render a web page that can be interacted with, but may not provide the features of a full browser application.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer-readable storage media described herein provide a content immersion experience by facilitating continuity of a viewing context. For example, a dashboard panel application and an immersion experience manager enable a user to scroll through headlines received from multiple endpoints and delve deeper into a topic of interest while continuing to view the headlines from the same scrolling position, without the use of a conventional web browser.
In an aspect, an operating system (OS) is configured to render a base graphical canvas on a display screen. Program code executed by a processor circuit is configured to cause a first dashboard panel view to be rendered on the base graphical canvas that includes a first scrollable arrangement of content cards. Each content card comprises information related to a respective content item. In response to receiving a selection of a first content card of the content cards, a first scroll state of the scrollable arrangement is stored. The first dashboard panel view is dismissed from display. Additional content of the respective content item associated with the selected first content card is displayed in a first content immersion viewer pane on the base graphical canvas. A second dashboard panel view is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas with the first content immersion viewer pane. The second dashboard panel view comprises a second scrollable arrangement of the content cards. The first scroll state is applied to the second dashboard panel view.
Further features and advantages of embodiments, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is noted that the methods and systems are not limited to the specific embodiments described herein. Such embodiments are presented herein for illustrative purposes only. Additional embodiments will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) based on the teachings contained herein.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the present application and, together with the description, further serve to explain the principles of the embodiments and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to make and use the embodiments.
The features and advantages of the embodiments described herein will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which like reference characters identify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.
The following detailed description discloses numerous example embodiments. The scope of the present patent application is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but also encompasses combinations of the disclosed embodiments, as well as modifications to the disclosed embodiments.
References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.
Numerous exemplary embodiments are described as follows. It is noted that any section/subsection headings provided herein are not intended to be limiting. Embodiments are described throughout this document, and any type of embodiment may be included under any section/subsection. Furthermore, embodiments disclosed in any section/subsection may be combined with any other embodiments described in the same section/subsection and/or a different section/subsection in any manner.
II. Service-Driven Widgets with Multiple Forms of Authentication Displayed in a Widget Board
Embodiments disclosed herein enable a dashboard panel application to make available “widgets” to a user on a computing device, which provide functionality for multiple applications simultaneously without corresponding applications having to be installed or running (if installed) on the computing device, and without the use of a conventional web browser. Conventionally, to access the functionality of applications, the applications must either be installed directly on the computing device or operated as web applications in a web browser. In the case of applications directly installed on the computing device, significant storage space may be used, including long term storage (e.g., disk space) and memory, as well as significant processing bandwidth being consumed. In the case of web applications, a web browser must be installed on the computing device being used, with its commensurate storage space and processing bandwidth requirements. In contrast, in embodiments of the present techniques, a single dashboard panel application is executed that manages multiple widgets having respective application functionality, while requiring substantially less storage space and processing bandwidth to operate.
A widget is a graphical user interface (GUI)-accessible view of an application that provides functionality of the application at a computing device without code of the application being executed on the computing device. Rather, a widget host application, primarily referred to herein as dashboard panel application, enables application functionality for a widget based on a widget manifest associated with the widget, and upon service data received from a network-based service associated with the widget and application.
As such, in embodiments, the widgets are services driven. Rather than requiring an application to be installed in the computing device in order to build a widget in a conventional manner, the present techniques leverage a remote service to supply data to a widget according to the manifest associated with the widget. The supplied data is used to fill in fields of the widget when rendered for display.
Still further, in embodiments, the computing device is configured to provide authentication with multi-account support. Widgets accessed with different user sign-in credentials can be displayed in a same dashboard panel pane simultaneously (e.g., side-by-side). The dashboard panel application may automatically make a user account associated with an operating system (OS) available to widgets. The dashboard panel application may further enable the user to provide user credentials for third-party accounts on a widget-by-widget basis, such as at the time of widget configuration.
In turn, the computing device (“client”) sends the user account information to the services associated with the widgets to authenticate the user accounts and retrieve service data, which is then caused to be rendered in the dashboard panel for the user. In this manner, multiple user accounts may be used in a common dashboard panel application to display information of interest to the user. Widgets can access data at a variety of services, and in an embodiment, a widget may be interacted with (e.g., clicked upon or engaged via a user voice command) in a displayed dashboard panel to launch the corresponding application on the computing device (if installed there), in order to provide the full application functionality. In an embodiment, if the corresponding application is not installed on the computing device at a time the application is launched from the widget, the computing device may display a prompt to install the application to the user.
As described below, in addition to displaying widgets, in some embodiments, the dashboard panel application may be configured to display content from other sources, such as a content feeds service (e.g., a news feeds service). For example, the dashboard panel application may display content cards comprising headlines from online news articles, highlights from various webpages, weather data from a weather application, sports data, financial data, blog posts, etc.
It is noted that while embodiments may be described herein with reference to uniform resource locators (URLs), such embodiments are applicable to any type of uniform resource indicator (URI), including, but not limited to URLs, uniform resource names (URNs), etc. Embodiments for a dashboard panel may be implemented and may operate in various ways. Such embodiments are described as follows.
For instance,
Computing device 102 is a computing device via which a user is enabled to run applications and visit web pages. Computing device 102 may be any type of mobile computing device, such as a Microsoft® Surface® device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer such as an Apple iPad™, a netbook, a smart phone (such as an Apple iPhone, a phone implementing the Google® Android™ operating system), a wearable computing device (e.g., a head-mounted device including smart glasses such as Google® Glass™, a virtual headset such as Oculus Rift® by Oculus VR, LLC or HoloLens® by Microsoft Corporation), a stationary computing device such as a desktop computer or PC (personal computer), or other browser-enabled device. Each of servers 104A-104C may be computing devices that are configured to manage services and/or host and serve web pages. For instance, as shown in
Network 108 may comprise one or more networks such as local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), enterprise networks, the Internet, etc., and may include one or more of wired and/or wireless portions.
Processor(s) 106 includes any number of processors, including central processing units (CPUs), microprocessors, multi-processors, processing cores, and/or any other hardware-based processor types described herein or otherwise known. Storage 144 may include one or more of any type of physical storage mechanism, including a magnetic disc (e.g., in a hard disk drive), an optical disc (e.g., in an optical disk drive), a solid-state drive (SSD), a memory device such as a RAM (random access memory) device, a ROM (read only memory) device, and/or any other suitable type of physical, hardware-based storage medium. OS 116 may be any suitable type of operating system, including Microsoft Windows®, Apple Mac OS® X, Google Android™, and Linux®. Display screen 110 is a display screen of any suitable type of display, which may be built into or physically separate from computing device 102, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD) display, a light emitting diode (LED) display, a plasma display, or other display type. Note that display screen 110 may be a single display screen or may be comprised of multiple separate display screens. As shown in
Dashboard panel application 118 is an application configured to enable users to select widgets from a variety of widgets for rendering in a dashboard panel managed by dashboard panel application 118. A widget is not an independent application but is generated by dashboard panel application 118 based on a widget-specific manifest, user customization data, and/or service data (content). A widget is associated with a service separate from the dashboard panel application from which the service data is retrieved. A widget is configured to display and provide interactive content associated with the service without providing the full functionality of a website or an application that may be associated with the service. By enabling a user to provide user customization data to configure the widgets, the dashboard panel application generates a dashboard panel as a convenient, unified solution for the user to peruse information associated each of with the services. The dashboard panel may be viewed by the user relatively quickly compared to the user individually executing and viewing multiple separate applications associated with the represented services, instead providing an aggregate overview of experiences and interests.
As shown in
As shown in
Furthermore, in an embodiment, dashboard panel 122 may optionally include a web content pane 128, which includes a rendering of web content 146. For example, a user may interact with a link displayed in a news item of a news widget in widget pane 124. This may cause web content pane 128 to be rendered in dashboard panel 122 to display a news web page as web content 146. In another embodiment, web content pane 128 may alternatively be presented in a web browser.
For example, as shown in
In this manner, any number of widgets may be provided in dashboard panel 122 with their resultant displayed content and functionality. A user may select each of widgets 126A-126N for inclusion in dashboard panel 122, and may configure each widget, such as providing location information, preference information, profile information, etc., so that each widget is customized for the user. Any number of user accounts may be used to sign into the widgets and to authenticate the user with the corresponding services for widget data retrieval. Any number of different widgets may be included in dashboard panel 122, providing visibility and/or access to a corresponding number of services. Furthermore, a widget may be interacted with to cause a relevant web page to be displayed, and/or to invoke a corresponding application in computing device 102 inside or outside of dashboard panel 122.
Note that dashboard panel application 118 of
Flowchart 200 of
In step 204, configuration information is accessed that identifies a plurality of widgets selected for display in a dashboard panel of the dashboard panel application, the plurality of widgets including a first widget and a second widget. In an embodiment, dashboard panel application 118 accesses configuration information 314 in storage 144 to configure dashboard panel 122 of
Returning to
For instance, as shown in
As mentioned, a widget manifest contains metadata regarding the corresponding widget type and may contain assets for handling offline scenarios. As such, a variety of types of data and/or metadata may be maintained for a widget in a widget manifest. For instance,
In particular, as shown in
Widget display name 402 is a name and/or title of the corresponding widget for the widget view displayed in dashboard panel 122.
Supported account types 404 is an indication of one or more types of accounts a user may use for authentication with the service associated with the widget. For example, widget manifest 322A (
Size data 406 indicates one or more sizes available for selection for the widget frame when displayed in dashboard panel 122, including a default size. For instance, first widget 126A may have four display sizes, including small (e.g., 300×200 pixels), medium (e.g., 300×304 pixels), large (e.g., 300×412 pixels), and extra large (e.g., 300×516), with medium being the default size. In other examples, another size may be indicated as default, or dashboard panel application 118 may determine the default size.
Image files 408 include one or more image files corresponding to possible display views of the widget (e.g., a background view of the widget). For example, as shown in
Default state: This state defines how the widget appears with no configuration. Even without configuration, a widget's default state image may be personalized in some manner. For example, the default state image of a weather widget may show the user's local weather (e.g., based on a global positioning signal (GPS) providing a location of computing device 102 (
Placeholder state: This state defines what the widget displays when data is loading. The data loading widget image for this state may mimic the normal state with graphics and/or data fields shown blotted out (e.g., shown as rectangular shaded regions) instead of actual content. The image for this state may be shown the first time a widget appears, when no service data for the widget is yet cached, and while the service data is being retrieved.
Normal state: This state defines how the configured, up-to-date widget appears. Each widget may have a refresh strategy. On invocation, dashboard panel 122 displays the normal widget image with cached service data (content). An API (application programming interface) enables a widget to determine when dashboard panel 122 is being shown, such that the widget can refresh its content as desired. If the widget is up to date, new data is not needed to be retrieved from the corresponding service. If the widget has passed its update cadence and/or if new data is available, new data may be retrieved from the service for the widget.
Stale state: This state defines how the widget appears when the current displayed widget data is stale, and new data cannot be retrieved (e.g., due to a connection issue). In an embodiment, a widget in this state displays a timestamp in the header indicating the last time at which the data was refreshed. An API may be provided by dashboard panel application 118 to determine this time. Dashboard panel application 118 may convert this time into a string for display in the widget header in dashboard panel 122 in a consistent format.
Error state: This state defines how the widget appears during an error. Note that in one embodiment, the error image is provided by in the widget manifest, and in another embodiment, a same error image is used for all widgets, except that the relevant widget title (and icon) may be displayed in the error image. Various error scenarios may be covered by the error state, such as a failure by dashboard panel application 118 to navigate to the widget's content at the corresponding service, and/or the widget being unable to receive a valid authentication token during authorization of the widget. A reload button may be interacted with to reinitiate the authentication flow. As such, in an embodiment, dashboard panel 122 may display the widget view with the error image overlaid with the widget header, an error message, and a reload button.
Referring back to
Minimum dashboard version supported 412 is an indication of the minimum version of dashboard panel application 118 that supports the widget (e.g., for compatibility purposes).
Maximum number of widget instances 414 is an indication of the maximum number of instances of the widget that can be simultaneously displayed in dashboard panel 122.
Network address (for service) 416 is an indication of an entry point for the service corresponding to the widget. For instance, network address 416 may be a HTTPS (hypertext transfer protocol secure) URL to a file (e.g., a JavaScript .js file) at the service that contains a script for an initialization contract between the service and dashboard panel application 118. In an embodiment, the initialization contract instantiates the widget and enters the widget in the DOM (document object model) code descriptive of dashboard panel 122 for rendering, as described in further detail below. Furthermore, the initialization contract may define contracts for widget settings and state.
Widget properties 418 include any number of parameters that are specific to the widget, and that may be available to the widget at initialization and runtime. Examples of such properties may include stock values parameters (for a stock widget), favorite team parameters (for a sports widget), etc.
Referring back to step 206 of flowchart 200 in
It is noted that in an embodiment, different account credentials may be used for different widgets, including different account credentials of a same user for multiple instances of a same widget (e.g., work account credentials of a user for a first instance of a calendar widget, and personal account credentials of the user for a second instance of the calendar widget). For example, in step 206, first account credentials may be transmitted to first service 112A on behalf of first widget 126A, and second account credentials may be transmitted to second service 112B on behalf of second widget 126B, where the first and second account credentials are different from each other (e.g., a different login identifier). In step 208, corresponding service data may be received from first and second services 112A and 112B for first and second widgets 126A and 126B, respectively. In this manner, widgets of various services may be presented to a user in a common dashboard panel 122 at the same time, despite requiring different account credentials, enabling the user to be presented with a wider variety of data, as compared to conventional systems using a common account credentials for all widgets.
In step 208, widget data associated with the widgets is received from the server-hosted services. In an embodiment, after the user is authenticated at a widget service according to step 206, the service may transmit data for the widget back to dashboard panel application 118. For instance, with reference to
Note that steps 206 and 208 may be performed for any number of widgets selected by the user for inclusion in dashboard panel 122, including first widget 126A, second widget 126B, etc. In this manner, service data for all the user-selected widgets of dashboard panel 122 is retrieved by service data retriever 304 for display. As shown in
In step 210, a view of the dashboard panel is composed that includes views of the widgets incorporating the widget data. In embodiments, dashboard panel composer 306 receives service data 318 retrieved by service data retriever 304, accesses configuration information 314, and accesses widget library 316. Dashboard panel composer 306 is configured to compose a document that describes a view of each widget for rendering. For example, in an embodiment, dashboard panel composer 306 is configured to generate a dashboard panel view 326 that is an XML document, an HTML document, or other format document that contains DOM code descriptive of dashboard panel 122 for rendering. In this manner, a rendering engine may be used to render the DOM code into dashboard panel 122.
In embodiments, to compose dashboard panel view 326, dashboard panel composer 306 accesses widget manifests in widget library 316 for descriptions of each present widget, including an image for a widget's particular state, any widget-specific properties, and any further widget parameters described above with respect to
In step 212, the dashboard panel view is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas. In an embodiment, dashboard panel renderer 308 receives dashboard panel view 326 (e.g., in document form), and causes dashboard panel view 326 to be rendered into dashboard panel view 328 (e.g., in the form of pixel data). For example, with reference to
In an embodiment where dashboard panel view 326 has the form of a DOM document, dashboard panel renderer 308 may include a rendering engine similar to that of a web browser but without other browser functionality (e.g., without a browser user interface) to conserve resources. In this manner, the rendering engine may be caused to perform page layout and rendering of content within each widget view frame. Examples of applicable rendering engines include Gecko™ used in the Mozilla Firefox® web browser, the WebKit™ engine used by the Apple Safari browser, Trident™ (MSHTML) used in Internet Explorer™, and Blink™ used in the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Browsers. In another embodiment, dashboard panel renderer 308 accesses a rendering engine external to dashboard panel application 118 to cause dashboard panel view 326 to be rendered.
Note that steps 204-212 may be repeated periodically. For example, step 202 of flowchart 200 may be performed to initiate dashboard panel application 118 and render an initial view of dashboard panel 122, and subsequently dashboard panel 122 may be updated and re-rendered in the updated form. Step 204 may be repeated based on the already user selected widgets, and on any further widgets selected by the user since the last time dashboard panel 122 was rendered. Steps 206 and 208 may be repeated to retrieve updated service data for the widgets, and steps 210 and 212 may be repeated to update the rendered view of dashboard panel 122, including updating the rendered views of the widgets within. Steps 204-212 may be repeated in response to an interaction of the user with dashboard panel 122 (e.g., selecting a refresh UI), on a periodic basis (e.g., every 15 minutes), and/or in another manner. In another embodiment, each widget may be individually refreshed according to a schedule indicated for the widget (e.g., in the widget manifest), according to a signal received from the corresponding service, based on the user interacting with a refresh UI control of the widget, or on another basis, by retrieving updated service data for the widget (by steps 206 and 208), then re-rendering dashboard panel 122 with the updated service data for the widget (by steps 210 and 212).
Accordingly, views of a variety of widgets may be displayed within dashboard panel 122, in respective view frames with corresponding varieties of data. Such a rendered dashboard panel may be arranged in various ways.
For instance,
In
In an embodiment, widgets, such as widgets 506A-506F, may have a custom or a standardized display format. For instance, in a standardized display format example, each widget may have a full background image, margins at all four edges, with each edge having a predetermined width in pixels, an application attribution area (e.g., a header region along the length of the top edge), and a content area within the margins. In other embodiments, widgets may have other standardized display formats. In an embodiment, clicking the attribution area may cause the widget's application to be invoked or website to be launched (both being invoked outside of dashboard panel application 118) as specified in the widget manifest. Alternatively, a widget may have a custom display format in which a user is enabled to configure display aspects of the widget, such as a border thickness, a background color, information shown on the widget (e.g., choosing a different city for a weather widget or adding stocks to a watchlist), etc.
UI control 512 is a UI element (e.g., a graphical button) that a user can interact with to add additional widgets to dashboard panel 122, as further described below. UI control 512 is shown displayed above dashboard panel 504 in
Furthermore, as described herein, a widget may be interacted with to access further information regarding the widget, such as by invoking a web page at a website associated with the widget that provides the further information. For instance, as shown in
Alternatively, UI control 514 may be interacted with by a user to invoke an application associated with the widget and installed on computing device 102. The application is invoked outside of dashboard panel 122 and may be thereafter interacted with by the user outside of dashboard panel application 118. Note that in an embodiment, a widget may enable one-click actions. For instance a user may be enabled to approve a screen time request from child by clicking on a UI control displayed within a family widget; a user may be enabled to click on a join meeting UI control within a web conferencing widget; or a user may be enabled to click on a to-do item displayed within a tasks widget to indicate item completion. Respective indications of the selected one-click actions (and/or other actions) may be transmitted to the respective service (e.g., first service 112A or second service 112B) over a network (e.g., network 108 of
Note that UI controls 512 and 514 may be of any suitable type, including a pointer-clickable button (as in
As illustrated by the embodiment of
As mentioned with respect to
For instance,
Flowchart 700 of
In step 704, one or more account types indicated in widget manifests of available widgets supported for the available widgets are determined. In step 706, whether the user account is one of the one or more supported account types is determined. These two steps are described together as follows.
In an embodiment, widget selector 312 performs steps 704 and 706 so as to avoid displaying widgets that the user is prohibited from selecting, such as due to the user not having an account type supported by the widget. As such, in step 704, widget selector 312 determines for each available widget the account types supported by the widget. For instance, widget selector 312 may access the widget manifest for each widget, such as a third widget manifest in widget library 316 for a third widget, to determine the corresponding supported account types as indicated in supported account types 404 (
In step 708, the widget lacking a match is not displayed by the widget selector. In step 710, the available widget having a match is displayed. In an embodiment, widget selector 312 is caused to render widget selector UI 604 (which may be displayed overlaying dashboard panel 122 of
In step 712, a user selection is received of at least one available widget of the displayed widget(s). In an embodiment, the user may select any of the displayed widgets in widget selector UI 604, such as third widget 606C, including any number of displayed widgets. The user may select a displayed widget in any manner, such as by voice command, by a pointer click on the displayed selectable widget, by pointer click on a widget adder control displayed within the selectable widget such as UI control 610, or in another suitable manner. In an embodiment, an entry is made in configuration information 314 (
In step 714, a dashboard panel view is composed and caused to be rendered that includes a view of the selected at least one widget. In an embodiment, after the user selects one or more available widgets, dashboard panel 122 may be recomposed and rendered with the selected widget(s) according to steps 210 and 212 of
Flowchart 800 of
For example, as described above, dashboard panel composer 306 may generate dashboard panel view 326 that contains DOM code. To compose dashboard panel view 326 as a second dashboard panel view containing added widgets, dashboard panel composer 306 accesses widget manifests in widget library 316 for descriptions of each widget, previously selected and newly selected, including an image for a widget's particular state, any widget-specific properties, and any further widget parameters described above with respect to
In step 804, the second dashboard panel view is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas, the view of the second widget providing a UI control configured to enable customization of the third widget. With reference to
Note that in an embodiment, newly added widgets may be rendered to be displayed at the bottom of widget pane 124 (after the previously present widgets), or in another embodiment, rendered to be displayed at the top of widget pane 124. In another embodiment, the newly added widgets may be rendered for display in other positions, such as being inserted alphabetically into an alphabetical widget ordering, being included in a widget subject category, etc. Furthermore, note that dashboard panel 122 may be configured to enable displayed widgets to be reordered by the user, such as by the user dragging and dropping the widgets into revised positions.
In step 806, user provided customization data is received for the third widget by interaction with the UI control. In embodiments, a user may be enabled to customize a newly added widget, as well as to modify the configuration of a previously customized widget. A user may be enabled to provide customization data for a widget in various ways. For instance, with reference to
In embodiments, the widget customization UI may have any form, including a pop-up window with selectable controls. For instance, in the case of a selectable widget size, the text selections of “Small”, “Medium,” and “Large” may be displayed, from which one may be interacted with to select the corresponding display size for the widget. Such sizes may correspond to the image files present in the widget manifest. Furthermore, a “Remove widget” selection may be displayed with which a user may interact to delete the widget from the dashboard panel. Still further, additional customization selections may be present in the widget customization UI and/or a “Customize widget” selection may be displayed with which a user may interact to perform further customizations of the widget. Such customizations may include one or more of a location setting, a user account to be used for the widget (which may be, for example, user-entered via keyboard, or selected from a list of accounts known to the operating system's account manager), and any other widget settings.
Note that any customizable settings for a widget may alternatively be set within the widget selector UI 604 immediately after selection of the widget for inclusion in dashboard panel 122. Any customization settings received via widget selector 312 and/or widget configurer 310 are stored in configuration information 314. For example, customization settings applied to first widget 126A (
As mentioned above, a user may interact with a displayed widget to cause a web content pane to be displayed that shows further information regarding the widget. This display of the web content pane may be enabled in various ways. For instance,
Flowchart 900 of
In step 904, a network address for a web page associated with the first widget is determined from the first widget manifest. For example, interacting with UI control 514 of
In step 906, web content is retrieved from the determined network address. In an embodiment, service data retriever 304 may be configured to navigate the network address (e.g., URL) to retrieve a web page document.
In step 908, a second view of the dashboard panel is composed that includes the views of the first and second widgets and a view of the web content. As described above, dashboard panel composer 306 is configured to generate a dashboard panel view 326, which includes DOM code descriptive of dashboard panel 122. Dashboard panel composer 306 may compose this DOM code to include both widget pane information corresponding to the user-selected widgets as well as web content page information corresponding to the retrieved web page document. Alternatively, dashboard panel composer 306 may compose a second DOM code that includes just the retrieved web page document.
In step 910, the second view of the dashboard panel is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas. As described above, dashboard panel renderer 308 may cause the composed DOM code to be rendered into widget pane 124. Furthermore, dashboard panel renderer 308 may cause the retrieved web page document portion of the DOM code, or separately generated second DOM code corresponding to the retrieved web page document, to be rendered into the web content pane 128 that includes the retrieved web page document rendered as web content 146. In the weather widget example, the web page may show more detailed weather information for the user's location. However, if the user interacts with the web page displayed as web content 146 (e.g., clicks on a URL displayed therein), a web browser independent of dashboard panel application 118 may be invoked to render any resulting invoked content in a web browser window outside of dashboard panel 122. Any interactions with this resulting invoked content may be managed by the web browser outside of the scope of dashboard panel application 118.
As such, dashboard panel application 118 provides many benefits by presenting widgets to users via dashboard panel 122. Furthermore, note that a widget developer can offer multiple types of widgets for the same service or application. Each widget may represent a particular aspect of the service or application's purpose. For example, a family widget can have a first widget that shows a single child and their driving history. A second widget can show the locations of all of the family members.
As mentioned, a widget can support multiple instances. Users can add multiple instances of the same widget. Each separate instance of the widget displayed in a dashboard panel has its own configuration information (customization data). For example, two family widgets may be customized for two children, and two weather widgets may be customized for two cities. When a new instance of a widget is added, it first shows up in the default state, and a user can then go to the widget customization page to configure it differently. Maximum number of widget instances 414 shown in
A widget may be configured to display relevant content by default before customization. For example, a family widget could show information about one child by default, before the user has chosen for which child they want to the widget to display information. The user can then customize the widget and select which child they prefer to see information about. Likewise, a weather widget may local information by default, and a stock widget may show major market indexes by default before enabling users to customize.
In an embodiment, when dashboard panel application 118 is invoked “cold” before a widget has downloaded any service data, dashboard panel application 118 attempts to navigate to the widget's endpoint for service data (content). If able to obtain content, the widget view is caused to be rendered in the dashboard panel with up-to-date content. If unable to obtain content, dashboard panel application 118 causes the widget view to show the widget's error state because there will be no cached content.
In an embodiment, when dashboard panel application 118 has been previously invoked, the dashboard panel displays content from a last service data refresh. Widgets may be configured to determine when the dashboard panel is visible to users through an API. A widget may be configured to keep its content fresh, or to communicate to the user if the content is stale by displaying a timestamp in the widget of last time of update.
In an embodiment, when the dashboard panel is not visible, each widget's refresh timer may be configured to fire when the dashboard panel is unsuspended. When a widget's refresh timer fires, the widget determines whether it needs to refresh according to its refresh strategy. For example, program code of the widget may be configured to perform the refresh strategy of the widget, while the widget is displayed in the dashboard panel, such as being configured to fire the refresh timer and perform a real-time update of the widget according to any suitable frequency.
In an embodiment, dashboard panel application 118 is configured to check for a network connection before refreshing displayed widgets. If there is no network connection, dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to cause to render a Global Offline State. An API may be available for widgets to determine whether the user is offline. No action is required from widgets when the user is offline. Because dashboard panel application 118 may check for a network connection before refreshing, in the scenario where the user has dashboard panel application 118 open and loses connection for a short amount of time (e.g., 10 seconds), the UI does not suddenly switch to the Global Offline State.
In some embodiments, a widget may support pagination to handle content overflow or navigate between similar types of content. For instance, UI controls, such as arrows, may be displayed to enable users to paginate between different items associated with the widget. For example, the navigation arrows in a photos widget can navigate to other photos.
In embodiments, to respect users' privacy settings with each service, dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to not pass location information to widgets. Widgets may be managed to honor whichever location/privacy settings their service already has. Privacy settings for a widget may be controlled by its corresponding service. Users may be enabled to opt in or out of sharing particular information for any services, including all services, as desired, as well as being enabled to control display of shared data, to correct data, and/or perform other functions with regard to data privacy and privacy settings.
In embodiments, developers are enabled to register their widgets with dashboard panel application 118. For instance, each widget owner/developer may provide a widget manifest (e.g., a JSON file of metadata) with a designated name, such widget_manifest.json. The manifest, and any assets (e.g., image files) pointed to by it, are provided for incorporation into dashboard panel application 118, and may be provided as part of the above-mentioned initialization contract. These files are known as registration files. In an embodiment, developers may be allowed to provide updated widget manifests that replace existing widget manifests to enable modified (e.g., increased, decreased) widget functionality.
In some embodiments, in addition to, or alternatively to, displaying widgets, a dashboard panel application may display content from other sources, such as a content feeds service (e.g., a news feeds service). For example, the dashboard panel application may be configured to display headlines from online news articles, highlights from various webpages, weather data from a weather application, sports data, financial data, blog posts, etc. A feeds service may aggregate content from a plurality of content sources. In some embodiments, the feeds service may be configured to identify content that is relevant to a user or an account based on an account profile. The account profile may include explicit or implied user preferences, geographic location information, demographic information, etc. The feeds service may be executed on the local computing device on which the content is to be surfaced (e.g., the client), in the cloud, or partially locally and partially in the cloud. The content feeds service may be configured to communicate with one or more services that aggregate content, to obtain content to be displayed in a dashboard panel at a user computing device. In some embodiments, a user may select from one or more user accounts to access content from the content feeds service (e.g., by entering, or selecting from, user account information in a dashboard UI settings menu). Moreover, in some embodiments, the same user account information that is utilized to retrieve service data for the widgets may be utilized to access content from a content feeds service.
In some embodiments, dashboard panel 118 may be configured to manage a content immersion experience by facilitating context continuity that allows a user to scroll through headlines and highlights from multiple endpoints, delve deeper into a topic that catches their interest, and concurrently continue to skim the headlines from where they left-off. The content immersion experience may be administered by presenting scrollable content cards (e.g., feed service cards and/or widgets) and, in response to a selection of a content card, surfacing side by side panes including one pane with the scrollable content cards and an independently scrollable content immersion view pane comprising additional or expanded content associated with the selected content card.
For instance,
Dashboard panel application 118 is described above with respect to composing and rendering widgets in dashboard panel 122, however, dashboard panel application 118 may be additionally configured to compose and cause rendering of various types of content cards such as content feed cards that may display data received from feeds service server 1050. Feeds service server 1050 may be configured to retrieve and aggregate content (e.g., news articles, webpages, books, audio series', videos, weather data, sports data, financial data, blog posts) from a plurality of content sources, and deliver updated content over time to computing device 102. For example, content search engine 1052 may be configured to retrieve content items from a plurality of content providers (e.g., digital news publishers, various websites, social media posts) and store the content items in content storage 1054. Content classifier 1056 may be configured to classify and/or categorize content stored in content storage 1054 with respect to, for example, topics, popularity, trending status, target demographic, geographic location, and temporal freshness. Content selector 1058 may be configured to identify one or more content items that are relevant to one or more user accounts, by comparing or matching account profile data 1060 and the classification information associated with a content item. For example, in addition to account credentials information (e.g., user identifiers (IDs) and passwords), account profile data 1060 may include explicit or implied content preferences for a user, or a group of users, associated with an account (e.g., preferences input by a user via a configuration menu, preferences derived from user activity in applications, browsing history). Although feeds service server 1050 is shown in a cloud computing environment relative to computing device 102 (e.g., a client), the functionality described with respect to feeds service server 1050 may be executed on computing device 102 (where the content cards are to be displayed), in the cloud (e.g., feeds service server 1050), or partially locally and partially in the cloud. Content selector 1058 may be configured to select one or more categorized content items for a particular content feed (e.g., a news feed) to be displayed in dashboard panel view 1022 on computing device 102.
In some embodiments, dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to cause the rendering of an interactive menu for personalizing a content feed (e.g., a news feed). The menu may be provided as an in-line card with other content cards in scrollable arrangement 1024, or as a pop-up menu, for example. In this regard, a user may select controls displayed in the menu card that define which topics a user would like to receive in their news feed (e.g., movies, travel, technology, food, gaming, streaming). The user's selections may be associated with their account(s) and utilized by content selector 1058 to filter content for their news feed. Alternatively, or in addition, for some content feeds, content selector 1058 may select a default set of content items (e.g., rather than content customized for a particular user or group account).
Once account credentials are authenticated for a user, dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to automatically retrieve newly published and/or updated content over time from feeds service server 1050 via network 108 for the user. For each content item selected for a content feed, feeds service server 1050 may provide a subset of the content item or a reduced volume of content that represents the content item (e.g., news headlines, text summaries, quotes, representative photographs, graphics) and/or related information (e.g., authors, content sources) in a feed content component to computing device 102. Dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to cause content received in a feed to be rendered into one or more respective content elements (e.g., content cards) in scrollable arrangement 1024, in dashboard panel 122. For example, the content cards may comprise first content card 1026A through Nth content card 1026N. The content cards may be referred to as content feed cards, view frames, or news cards, for example. Each displayed content card may include a subset of a respective content item, or information related to the respective content item, received from feeds service server 1050 or from an original content source (e.g., a website). A content card may comprise interactive elements (e.g., click targets) that provide a navigation link to the full respective content item (e.g., at the feeds service server 1050 or at another resource such as a website where the respective content item may have been originally accessed). For example, an entire content card may comprise a click target. A plurality of content cards may be displayed in dashboard panel 1022 and may be scrollable. For example, a plurality of content cards (e.g., content cards 1026A-1026N) may be arranged in scrollable arrangement 1024 of dashboard panel view 1022, and a user may interact with the scrollable arrangement to scroll through the cards (e.g., swipe up/down or left/right in a touch screen, turn a mouse wheel, click and/or drag a scroll bar, use a keypad direction key such as up, down, left, or right keys, input a voice command via a microphone).
Dashboard panel application 118 of
As shown in
Processor(s) 106 may be configured to execute dashboard panel application 118, for example, upon initiation by a user. Content retriever 1204 may be configured to log into feeds service server 1050 utilizing credentials entered by a user, or stored in user account information 1236 (e.g., credentials utilized to log into OS 116 or selected from an account manager). Content retriever 1204 may access a content feed from feeds service server 1050, which may comprise a plurality of feed content components (as described above with respect to
Flowchart 1100 of
Dashboard panel composer 1206 may be configured to access and/or select one or more cached content card components 1252A-1252N and may access content card customization data 1232 and/or dashboard settings data 1234 for composing dashboard panel view 1022 comprising scrollable arrangement 1024. Content card customization data 1232 may comprise parameters for design features of content cards (e.g., shapes, sizes, borders, focus). Dashboard settings 1234 that may comprise design parameters for configuring scrollable arrangement 1024 (e.g., screen position of the scrollable arrangement 1024, orientation of the scrollable arrangement, a side-by-side pattern of cards in the scrollable arrangement, a cascaded pattern of cards in the scrollable arrangement, theme (e.g., light, dark) for the scrollable arrangement). Dashboard settings 1234 may also include parameters for determining what kinds of cards will be included in dashboard panel view 1022 (e.g., content cards, feed content cards, widgets) (see
Dashboard panel renderer 308 may comprise a rendering engine that may be configured to render the DOM code into dashboard panel view 1022 comprising scrollable arrangement 1024. For example, dashboard panel renderer 308 may receive a dashboard panel view 1260 (e.g., in document form), and render dashboard panel view 1260 into dashboard panel view 1262 (e.g., in the form of pixel data). Dashboard panel view 1022 may be displayed based upon dashboard panel view 1262 and may include rendered views of scrollable arrangement 1024 comprising at least a portion of the content cards 1026A-1026N. In some, embodiments, not all of content cards 1026A-1026N may fit on display screen 110 together. For example, at any one time, some of the content cards may not be visible but may be surfaced or rotated in scrollable arrangement 1024, e.g., as a result of user scrolling input (described above). As described above, dashboard panel renderer 308 may include a rendering engine similar to that of a web browser but without full browser functionality. The rendering engine may be configured to perform page layout and rendering of content within each content card view frame of the scrollable arrangement 1024.
In step 1104, a selection of a first content card of the plurality of content cards is received, and in response, the following steps are performed. For example, a user may interact with a control element within a particular card of the content cards 1026A-1026N (e.g., via a mouse click, a touch input, a cursor hover, a voice input via a microphone). The control element may comprise a navigation link to a content provider (e.g., feeds service server 1050, a website, or another resource) that provides access to the respective content item related to the selected content card.
In step 1106, a first scroll state of the scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards in the first dashboard panel view is stored. For example, in response to detecting the user interaction with (e.g., selection of) the first content card, immersion experience manager 1002 may be configured to store the state of scrollable arrangement 1024 of dashboard panel view 1022. For example, in one embodiment, immersion experience manager 1002 may be configured to record which components of content components 1252A-1252N and which parameters (e.g., content card customization data 1232 and/or dashboard settings data 1234) were utilized to compose the content cards of the current scrollable arrangement 1024. Also, immersion experience manager 1002 may be configured to store the current scroll state of the content cards (e.g., which content cards 1026A-1026N were visible in dashboard panel view 1022 when the user interaction input was received).
In step 1108, the first dashboard panel view is dismissed from display. For example, further in response to detecting the user interaction with the particular content card, immersion experience manager 1002 may be configured to begin controlling the processes of reflowing the first dashboard panel view 1022 to present an immersion experience. The immersion experience may comprise display of the additional or expanded content, which is related to the selected particular content card, in content immersion viewer pane 1028 along with (e.g., side by side with) a second version of the scrollable arrangement 1024. The second version of scrollable arrangement 1024 may be modified in size and/or position to accommodate display of the content immersion viewer pane 1028 within a second dashboard panel view 1022. Dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to discontinue display of the first version of dashboard panel view 1022. However, a user may not perceive a blank screen during the transition from the first displayed dashboard panel view 1022 to a second displayed dashboard panel view 1022 as the first displayed view may be maintained until the next view is displayed, or other effects may be displayed for the transition between views.
In step 1110, additional content of the respective content item associated with the selected first content card may be displayed in a first content immersion viewer pane on the base graphical canvas in the display screen. For example, immersion experience manager 1002 may be configured to control content retriever 1204 to navigate via network 108 to a content provider, and access a respective content item (additional or expanded content) corresponding to the content component 1252 of the selected content card (e.g., utilizing a network address (e.g., a URL) interacted with in the content card). The respective content item may be retrieved from feeds service server 1050 or another content resource that stores the respective content item (e.g., a website or other server). Immersion experience manager 1002 may control content immersion viewer 1222 to compose and render content immersion pane 1028 on base graphical canvas 120. Content immersion pane 1028 may comprise additional content view 1046 of the respective content item (e.g., a full article, images, video, audio) related to the selected content card. For example, if a news headline was displayed in the selected content card, the corresponding additional content view 1046 may display the full news corresponding to the news headline.
Content immersion viewer 1222 may comprise, for example, a web viewer, video viewer, photo viewer, and/or graphics viewer that may be configured to allow a user to view and interact with the respective content item, but may not include all the features of a full web browser, such as an address bar, a search bar, specialized navigation buttons, etc. Content immersion viewer 1222 may be implemented in various ways. For example, content immersion viewer 1222 may be integrated or embedded inside dashboard panel application 118. Alternatively, or in addition, content immersion viewer 1222 or a portion of the viewer (e.g., a subset of functions of the viewer) may be implemented as a separate or stand-alone application(s) running in computing device 102. Moreover, in some embodiments, dashboard panel composer 1206 and/or dashboard panel renderer 308 may perform some or all of the functions of content immersion viewer 1222.
In step 1112, a second dashboard panel view may be rendered on the base graphical canvas with the first content immersion viewer pane. The second dashboard panel view may comprise a second scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards. For example, immersion experience manager 1002 may be configured to control dashboard panel application 118 to compose a second version of scrollable arrangement 1024. Dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to retrieve the stored scroll state which may indicate which of content components 1252A-1252N and which parameters (e.g., content card customization data 1232 and/or dashboard settings data 1234) were utilized to compose the content cards of the prior scrollable arrangement 1024. Dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to utilize the retrieved parameters and/or additional parameters to compose a second dashboard panel view 1260 (e.g., in document form), that is composed to be positioned along with (e.g., side by side with) content immersion viewer pane 1028. The second dashboard panel view 1260, which may be modified in size, shape, orientation, or other aspects relative to the first (prior) dashboard panel view 1260 based on configuration data 1230. Dashboard panel renderer 308 may be configured to receive second dashboard panel view 1260 and render second dashboard panel view 1260 into a second dashboard panel view 1262 (e.g., in the form of pixel data). A second dashboard panel view 1022 may be displayed based upon pixel data of second dashboard panel view 1262 and may include a rendered view of the second version of the scrollable arrangement 1024.
In step 1114, the first scroll state may be applied to the second dashboard panel view. For example, the second version of the scrollable arrangement of content cards 1024 may comprise at least a portion content cards 1026A-1026N, where at any one time, some of the content cards may not be visible on display screen 110, but may be surfaced in scrollable arrangement 1024 as a result of a user's scrolling input (as described above). At the time when the user selected or interacted with a content card in the first (prior) version of scrollable arrangement 1024, content cards 1026A-1026N may have been displayed in a particular position and/or order. By storing the scroll state, the context of scrollable content cards (e.g., including position and/or order) was preserved and may be restored in the second version of scrollable arrangement 1024 by applying the stored parameters of the scroll state.
Scrollable arrangements 1024 may be displayed in various ways. For example,
Immersion experience manager 1002 of
Flowchart 1700 of
In step 1704, the second dashboard panel view with the second scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards may continue to be displayed. For example, dashboard panel application 118 may continue to display second scrollable arrangement 1024 and may maintain and update the scrollable state of second scrollable arrangement 1024 according to user input (e.g., content card scrolling input) in content cards of the second scrollable arrangement 1024.
In step 1706, additional content of a respective content item associated with the second selected content card in may be displayed in a second content immersion viewer pane on the base graphical canvas with the second dashboard panel view. For example, immersion experience manager 1002 may control content retriever 1204 to retrieve a second respective content item related to the second selected content card (e.g., from feeds service server 1050 or another content resource indicated by the interacted with navigation link). Immersion experience manager 1002 may control content immersion viewer 1222 to compose and render the second respective content item in a second content immersion viewer pane 1028 on the base graphical canvas 120, as second additional content view 1046 of the respective second content item (e.g., as a second full news article) related to the second selected content card. The second content immersion viewer pane 1028 may be displayed in a second tab relative to a first tab comprising the first content immersion viewer pane 1028, or the first content immersion viewer pane 1028 may be dismissed before the second content immersion viewer pane 1028 is displayed.
Immersion experience manager 1002 of
Flowchart 1800 of
In step 1804, at least one of a second scroll state of the second dashboard panel view or a scroll state of the first content immersion viewer pane is stored. For example, immersion experience manager 1002 may store a second scroll state of second scrollable arrangement 1024 and/or a scroll state of first immersion viewer pane 1028 to preserve the context of the user's experience in display screen 110. For example, information such as a scroll position, content card customization data 1232, dashboard settings data 1234 pertaining to the second scrollable arrangement 1024 at or about the time of the interaction with the navigation link interaction, may be stored for a potential later application.
In step 1806, an external application may be invoked to navigate to a resource specified by the navigation link, where resulting content from the specified resource is displayed by the external application in the display screen. For example, in response to a user interaction with navigation link 1602 (e.g., network address or URL), immersion experience manager 1002 may be configured to invoke an external application (e.g., web browser application 1070 of
In some embodiments, if a user interaction is received that causes a return from the external application (e.g., web browser application 1070 is closed), immersion experience manager 1002 may be configured to control dashboard panel application 118 to render a third dashboard panel view 1022 comprising a third scrollable arrangement 1024 of the plurality of content cards 1026A-1026N on the base graphical canvas 120 in display screen 110, and may control content immersion viewer 1222 to render a second content immersion viewer pane 1020 comprising second additional content view 1046. Any previously stored scroll state of the second scroll state of the second dashboard panel view 1022 or a scroll state of the first content immersion viewer pane 1028, may be applied to the third dashboard panel view 1022 or the second content immersion viewer pane 1028. In some embodiments, the stored scroll state(s) may expire after a specified period of time. If the stored scroll state(s) expire before a user closes the external application, dashboard panel application 118 may be configured to display the first scrollable arrangement 1024 or a default scrollable arrangement 1024 after the user closes the external application (web browser 1070).
In another embodiment, second scrollable arrangement 1024 may continue to be displayed side by side with the browser interface displaying the navigated webpage.
The systems and methods described above with reference to
The illustrated mobile device 1900 can include a controller or processor referred to as processor circuit 1910 for performing such tasks as signal coding, image processing, data processing, input/output processing, power control, and/or other functions. Processor circuit 1910 is an electrical and/or optical circuit implemented in one or more physical hardware electrical circuit device elements and/or integrated circuit devices (semiconductor material chips or dies) as a central processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, a microprocessor, and/or other physical hardware processor circuit. Processor circuit 1910 may execute program code stored in a computer readable medium, such as program code of one or more applications 1914, operating system 1912, any program code stored in memory 1920, etc. Operating system 1912 can control the allocation and usage of the components 1902 and support for one or more application programs 1914 (a.k.a. applications, “apps”). Application programs 1914 can include common mobile computing applications (e.g., email applications, calendars, contact managers, web browsers, messaging applications) and any other computing applications (e.g., word processing applications, mapping applications, media player applications).
As illustrated, mobile device 1900 can include memory 1920. Memory 1920 can include non-removable memory 1922 and/or removable memory 1924. The non-removable memory 1922 can include RAM, ROM, flash memory, a hard disk, or other well-known memory storage technologies. The removable memory 1924 can include flash memory or a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, which is well known in GSM communication systems, or other well-known memory storage technologies, such as “smart cards.” The memory 1920 can be used for storing data and/or code for running operating system 1912 and applications 1914. Example data can include web pages, text, images, sound files, video data, or other data sets to be sent to and/or received from one or more network servers or other devices via one or more wired or wireless networks. Memory 1920 can be used to store a subscriber identifier, such as an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), and an equipment identifier, such as an International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI). Such identifiers can be transmitted to a network server to identify users and equipment.
A number of programs may be stored in memory 1920. These programs include operating system 1912, one or more application programs 1914, and other program modules and program data. Examples of such application programs or program modules may include, for example, computer program logic (e.g., computer program code or instructions) for implementing the systems described above, including the embodiments described with reference to
Mobile device 1900 can support one or more input devices 1930, such as a touch screen 1932, microphone 1934, camera 1936, physical keyboard 1938 and/or trackball 1940 and one or more output devices 1950, such as a speaker 1952 and a display 1954.
Other possible output devices (not shown) can include piezoelectric or other haptic output devices. Some devices can serve more than one input/output function. For example, touch screen 1932 and display 1954 can be combined in a single input/output device. The input devices 1930 can include a Natural User Interface (NUI).
Wireless modem(s) 1960 can be coupled to antenna(s) (not shown) and can support two-way communications between processor circuit 1910 and external devices, as is well understood in the art. The modem(s) 1960 are shown generically and can include a cellular modem 1966 for communicating with the mobile communication network 1904 and/or other radio-based modems (e.g., Bluetooth 1964 and/or Wi-Fi 1962). Cellular modem 1966 may be configured to enable phone calls (and optionally transmit data) according to any suitable communication standard or technology, such as GSM, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. At least one of the wireless modem(s) 1960 is typically configured for communication with one or more cellular networks, such as a GSM network for data and voice communications within a single cellular network, between cellular networks, or between the mobile device and a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Mobile device 1900 can further include at least one input/output port 1980, a power supply 1982, a satellite navigation system receiver 1984, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, an accelerometer 1986, and/or a physical connector 1990, which can be a USB port, IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port, and/or RS-232 port. The illustrated components 1902 are not required or all-inclusive, as any components can be not present and other components can be additionally present as would be recognized by one skilled in the art.
Furthermore,
As shown in
Computing device 2000 also has one or more of the following drives: a hard disk drive 2014 for reading from and writing to a hard disk, a magnetic disk drive 2016 for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 2018, and an optical disk drive 2020 for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 2022 such as a CD ROM, DVD ROM, or other optical media. Hard disk drive 2014, magnetic disk drive 2016, and optical disk drive 2020 are connected to bus 2006 by a hard disk drive interface 2024, a magnetic disk drive interface 2026, and an optical drive interface 2028, respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer. Although a hard disk, a removable magnetic disk and a removable optical disk are described, other types of hardware-based computer-readable storage media can be used to store data, such as flash memory cards, digital video disks, RAMs, ROMs, and other hardware storage media.
A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk, magnetic disk, optical disk, ROM, or RAM. These programs include operating system 2030, one or more application programs 2032, other programs 2034, and program data 2036. Application programs 2032 or other programs 2034 may include, for example, computer program logic (e.g., computer program code or instructions) for implementing the systems described above, including the embodiments described above with reference to
A user may enter commands and information into the computing device 2000 through input devices such as keyboard 2038 and pointing device 2040. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, a touch screen and/or touch pad, a voice recognition system to receive voice input, a gesture recognition system to receive gesture input, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to processor circuit 2002 through a serial port interface 2042 that is coupled to bus 2006, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game port, or a universal serial bus (USB).
A display screen 2044 is also connected to bus 2006 via an interface, such as a video adapter 2046. Display screen 2044 may be external to, or incorporated in computing device 2000. Display screen 2044 may display information, as well as being a user interface for receiving user commands and/or other information (e.g., by touch, finger gestures, a virtual keyboard, by providing a tap input (where a user lightly presses and quickly releases display screen 2044), by providing a “touch-and-hold” input (where a user touches and holds his finger (or touch instrument) on display screen 2044 for a predetermined period of time), by providing touch input that exceeds a predetermined pressure threshold). In addition to display screen 2044, computing device 2000 may include other peripheral output devices (not shown) such as speakers and printers.
Computing device 2000 is connected to a network 2048 (e.g., the Internet) through an adaptor or network interface 2050, a modem 2052, or other means for establishing communications over the network. Modem 2052, which may be internal or external, may be connected to bus 2006 via serial port interface 2042, as shown in
As used herein, the terms “computer program medium,” “computer-readable medium,” and “computer-readable storage medium” are used to generally refer to physical hardware media such as the hard disk associated with hard disk drive 2014, removable magnetic disk 2018, removable optical disk 2022, other physical hardware media such as RAMs, ROMs, flash memory cards, digital video disks, zip disks, MEMs, nanotechnology-based storage devices, and further types of physical/tangible hardware storage media (including system memory 2004 of
As noted above, computer programs and modules (including application programs 2032 and other programs 2034) may be stored on the hard disk, magnetic disk, optical disk, ROM, RAM, or other hardware storage medium. Such computer programs may also be received via network interface 2050, serial port interface 2052, or any other interface type. Such computer programs, when executed or loaded by an application, enable computing device 2000 to implement features of embodiments discussed herein. Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of the computing device 2000.
Embodiments are also directed to computer program products comprising computer code or instructions stored on any computer-readable medium. Such computer program products include hard disk drives, optical disk drives, memory device packages, portable memory sticks, memory cards, and other types of physical storage hardware.
In one embodiment, a computing device comprises at least one processor circuit, a display that has a display screen, and an operating system (OS) configured to be executed by the at least one processor circuit. The OS is configured to render a base graphical canvas on the display screen. The computing device also comprises at least one memory that stores program code configured to be executed by the at least one processor circuit. The program code is configured to cause a first dashboard panel view to be rendered on the base graphical canvas that includes a first scrollable arrangement of a plurality of content cards. Each content card comprises information related to a respective content item. In response to receiving a selection of a first content card of the plurality of content cards a first scroll state of the scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards in the first dashboard panel view is stored. The first dashboard panel view is dismissed from display and additional content of the respective content item associated with the selected first content card in a first content immersion viewer pane is displayed on the base graphical canvas in the display screen. A second dashboard panel view is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas with the first content immersion viewer pane. The second dashboard panel view comprises a second scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards. The first scroll state is applied to the second dashboard panel view.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computing device, the plurality of content cards comprises at least one of content feed cards or widgets.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computing device, a content immersion viewer that causes the content immersion viewer panes to be rendered is integrated within the program code that causes the dashboard panel views to be rendered.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computing device, the second dashboard panel view is positioned on a first side of the display screen and the first content immersion viewer pane is positioned on a second side of the display screen.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computing device, the second dashboard panel view and the first content immersion viewer pane are each independently scrollable.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computing device, the program code is further configured to, in response to receiving a second selection of a second content card of the plurality of content cards in the second dashboard panel view, continue to display the second dashboard panel view with the scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards and display additional content of a respective content item associated with the second selected content card in a second content immersion viewer pane on the base graphical canvas with the second dashboard panel view.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computing device, the program code is further configured to, in response to receiving an interaction with a navigation link in the additional content of the respective content item associated with the first selected content card in the first content immersion viewer pane, store at least one of a second scroll state of the second dashboard panel view or a scroll state of the first content immersion viewer pane and invoke an external application to navigate to a resource specified by the navigation link, where resulting content from the specified resource is displayed by an external browser application in the display screen.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computing device, in response to an interaction that causes a return from the external application, a third dashboard panel view comprising a third scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas with the first content immersion viewer pane. Any previously stored scroll state of the second scroll state of the second dashboard panel view and the scroll state of the first content immersion viewer pane are applied.
In one embodiment, a method is implemented by a computing device, which includes at least one processor, an operating system (OS) configured to be executed by the at least one processor, and an associated display that has a display screen. The OS is configured to render a base graphical canvas on the display screen. The method comprising causing a first dashboard panel view to be rendered on the base graphical canvas, which includes a first scrollable arrangement of a plurality of content cards, where each content card comprises information related to a respective content item. In response to receiving a selection of a first content card of the plurality of content cards, a first scroll state of the scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards in the first dashboard panel view is stored. The first dashboard panel view from display and additional content of the respective content item associated with the selected first content card is displayed in a first content immersion viewer pane on the base graphical canvas in the display screen. A second dashboard panel view is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas with the first content immersion viewer pane. The second dashboard panel view comprises a second scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards. The first scroll state is applied to the second dashboard panel view.
In an embodiment of the foregoing method, the plurality of content cards comprises at least one of content feed cards or widgets.
In an embodiment of the foregoing method, a content immersion viewer that causes the content immersion viewer panes to be rendered is integrated within the program code that causes the dashboard panel views to be rendered.
In an embodiment of the foregoing method, the second dashboard panel view is positioned on a first side the display screen and the first content immersion viewer pane is positioned on a second side of the display screen.
In an embodiment of the foregoing method, the second dashboard panel view and the first content immersion viewer pane are each independently scrollable.
In an embodiment of the foregoing method, in response to receiving a second selection of a second content card of the plurality of content cards in the second dashboard panel view, continue to display the second dashboard panel view with the scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards and display additional content of a respective content item associated with the second selected content card in a second content immersion viewer pane on the base graphical canvas with the second dashboard panel view.
In an embodiment of the foregoing method, in response to receiving an interaction with a navigation link in the additional content of the respective content item associated with the first selected content card in the first content immersion viewer pane, store at least one of a second scroll state of the second dashboard panel view or a scroll state of the first content immersion viewer pane and invoke an external application to navigate to a resource specified by the navigation link. The resulting content from the specified resource is displayed by an external browser application in the display screen.
In an embodiment of the foregoing method, in response to an interaction that causes a return from the external application, a third dashboard panel view comprising a third scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas with the first content immersion viewer pane and apply any previously stored scroll state of the second scroll state the second dashboard panel view and the scroll state of the first content immersion viewer pane.
In an embodiment, a computer-readable storage medium has program instructions recorded thereon. The program instruction, when executed by one or more processors, perform a method comprising causing a first dashboard panel view to be rendered on the base graphical canvas that includes a first scrollable arrangement of a plurality of content cards. Each content card comprises information related to a respective content item. In response to receiving a selection of a first content card of the plurality of content cards, a first scroll state of the scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards in the first dashboard panel view is stored. The first dashboard panel view is dismissed from display. Additional content of the respective content item associated with the selected first content card is displayed in a first content immersion viewer pane on the base graphical canvas in the display screen. A second dashboard panel view is caused to be rendered on the base graphical canvas with the first content immersion viewer pane. The second dashboard panel view comprises a second scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards. The first scroll state is applied to the second dashboard panel view.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computer-readable storage medium, the second dashboard panel view is positioned on a first side the display screen and the first content immersion viewer pane is positioned on a second side of the display screen
In an embodiment of the foregoing computer-readable storage medium, the second dashboard panel view and the first content immersion viewer pane are each independently scrollable.
In an embodiment of the foregoing computer-readable storage medium, the method further comprises, in response to receiving a second selection of a second content card of the plurality of content cards in the second dashboard panel view, continue to display the second dashboard panel view with the scrollable arrangement of the plurality of content cards and display additional content of a respective content item associated with the second selected content card in a second content immersion viewer pane on the base graphical canvas with the second dashboard panel view.
While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. It will be understood by those skilled in the relevant art(s) that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Accordingly, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17348032 | Jun 2021 | US |
| Child | 17360627 | US |
