BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a prior art method for selecting and manipulating nodes of an XML formatted document associated with a user interface.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for selecting and manipulating nodes of an XML formatted document associated with a user interface according to the preferred embodiment of this invention, and is suggested for printing on the first page of the issued patent.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a parsed XML document.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a computing device.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Overview
User interface artifacts, their attributes, and the relationship among the different artifacts are specified in an XML document. Each attribute of a user interface artifact is represented as a node in the XML document. An XPath expression is used to locate a set of nodes, i.e. user artifacts, in the XML document, and to access a set of user interface artifacts that share a common characteristic and/or property. Non-proprietary application program interfaces (APIs) are used to communicate with the XPath selected artifacts and to modify them as a group selection.
Technical Details
XPath is a language for finding information in an XML document. XPath is used to navigate through elements and attributes in an XML document. XPath uses path expressions to select nodes or node-sets in an XML document. In XPath, there are seven kinds of nodes: element, attribute, text, namespace, processing-instruction, comment, and document (root) nodes. XML documents are based upon a hierarchy and are treated as digital trees with nodes in the tree representing select elements of the document. The root of the tree is called the document node (or root node).
FIG. 2 is a flow chart (100) illustrating a method for modifying user interface artifacts described in an XML document on a dynamic basis. An XML formatted document is used to describe user interface artifacts, the attributes of the artifacts, and the relationship among the artifacts. This XML document is retrieved (102), and parsed (104). As noted above, an XML document is a predefined organizational structure. The XML document is parsed at step (104) to identify the elements of the document that make up the nodes of the hierarchical tree structure. The process of parsing the XML document is to place the attributes of the user interface into a tree structure with a root node, child nodes, sibling nodes, grand-children nodes, etc. Following step (104), the internal representation of the XML hierarchy is built (106). Typically, it is built in the computer'memory device. The internal representation is needed to facilitate navigation through the hierarchy. In one embodiment, the implementation may be in the form of document object model (DOM). Following step (106), an XPath expression is used to select a set of user interface artifacts, i.e. nodes, that have a common characteristic and/or property and are present in the XML document (108). A node set selected by a given location path can produce one or many artifacts. Following the selection, it is determined whether the selection returned one or more user interface artifacts (110). The manipulation of the user interface artifacts requires one or more artifacts be present in the selection process. If the response in step (110) is positive, the returned node set is modified (112). The modification at step (112) encompasses modifying a single attribute present in each of the user interface artifacts represented in the returned node set through a mechanism that indicates the changes to be applied to the selected node set. In one embodiment, the mechanism is an application program interface (API). If the response in step (110) is negative, the process returns to step (108) to satisfy the requirement of selection of a set of user interface artifacts with a common characteristic and/or property. Following step (112), it is determined whether to modify another user interface artifact (114). A positive response in step (114) causes the process to return to step (108) to satisfy the requirement of selection of a set of artifacts with a common characteristic and/or property. However, a negative response in step (114) will result in conclusion of the user interface modification process (116). The process outlined in FIG. 2 demonstrates activity of a single thread. In one embodiment, multiple threads may use the logic shown in FIG. 2 to independently modify separate sets of nodes simultaneously or near-simultaneously. The process demonstrated in FIG. 2 is not limited to user interface artifacts described in an XML document. Rather, the same process may be applied to identify and select nodes represented in any XML document that share a common characteristic. Accordingly, the process outline in FIG. 2 is an illustration of selecting a set of nodes in an XML formatted document that share a common characteristic in the form of a user interface artifact, and using a single communication to modify a single attribute present in the select set of nodes.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram (200) of an example of a parsed XML document. As shown, the XML document in this example pertains to a user interface presentation system. In the example shown in FIG. 3, there are six categories of artifacts shown in the parsed document. There is a frame (202) that serves as the root element. There are a set of children nodes (212), (214), and (216). In the example of FIG. 3, One of the children nodes (212) represents a pull down menu, and the other two children nodes (214) and (216) each represent panels in the user interface presentation. One of the child nodes (214) has a further generation of nodes (222), (224), and (226) with nodes (222) and (224) representing text boxes, and nodes (226) representing a button. In addition, one of the child nodes (216) has a further generation of nodes (232), (234), and (236) with each of these nodes representing a panel in the user interface presentation. The first of these child nodes (232) has a child node (242) in the form of a listbox in the user interface presentation. The second of these child nodes (234) has two children nodes (244) and (246) in the form of text boxes in the user interface presentation. The third of these children nodes (236) has two children nodes (248) and (250) each in the form of radio buttons in the user interface presentation. An XPath expression is used to select a set of user interface artifacts with a common characteristic and/or property. For example, based on the parsed XML document shown in FIG. 3, such characteristics include a frame, a pull down menu, a panel, a text box, a list box, and a radio button. An XPath expression that selects the frame artifact will return a node set with only one node present, e.g. (202). However, an XPath expression that selects a panel artifact will return a node set with five nodes present, e.g. (214), (216), (232), (234), and (236). As noted above, the XPath expression is used to select one or more nodes in the XML parsed document, and a mechanism, such as an API, is then used to modify a characteristic and/or property of the selected node(s). Examples of user interface APIs include, but are not limited to, retrieving the current value of an attribute, setting the value of an attribute, registering an event handler to be called back when a user interface event occurs, unregistering an event handler, painting the artifacts selected, and erasing the artifacts selected. When an XPath expression calls one of the supported APIs, the user interface presentation system locates all of the nodes in the parsed XML document representing the user interface that satisfy the XPath expression and performs the requested action. For example, an API may be implemented that calls to set the value of a font in the panel in the user interface. The XPath expression selects all user interface artifacts that are identified as panels, and then the API changes the font attribute of all of the panels in the XML parsed document. Following the setting of the value of the font, a second API may be enacted to actually paint the selected artifacts so that the changed font attribute takes effect.
In one embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, etc. The invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Embodiments within the scope of the present invention also include articles of manufacture comprising program storage means having encoded therein program code. Such program storage means can be any available media which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such program storage means can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired program code means and which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. Combinations of the above should also be included in the scope of the program storage means.
The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk, and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk B read only (CD-ROM), compact disk B read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.
A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution.
Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers.
In one embodiment, a selection manager is provided in software or hardware. With respect to the software implementation, the manager may include, but is not limited to, firmware, resident software, microcode, etc. The software implementation can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-useable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. FIG. 4 is a block diagram (400) illustrating placement of the manager in the system hardware. The illustration shows a computing device (402) with memory (404). As shown, the computing device (402) may communicate across a network (450) through a network adapter (406). User interface artifacts are stored in an XML document (not shown) that may reside in local data storage (408) and (410), or remote data storage (not shown) that is accessible through communications across the network (450). A manager (412) is shown residing in memory (404) of the computer device (402). The manager may implement instructions to select a specific XML document describing the user interface artifacts. Following the selection of the XML document, the manager may implement instructions to navigate the hierarchy of the selected document to select a set of artifacts to process. In one embodiment, an XPath expression is used by the manager to select a set of nodes in the XML document that are relevant to the user interface artifacts. The manager evaluates and manipulates the selected set of artifacts.
For the purposes of this description, a computer-useable or computer-readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, wireless and Ethernet adapters are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.
Advantages Over the Prior Art
The use of an XPath expression to selected a set of nodes in an XML document, enables modification of the selected set through a single communication. The XPath expression is used to select a set of nodes within the document that share a common characteristic and/or property. The selected set of nodes can be unrelated in the sense of the parent-child relationship. A mechanism that indicates what changes are to be applied to the selected node sent, such as an API, proprietary or non-proprietary, is then used to modify the selected set of nodes in a single communication.
Alternative Embodiments
It will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In particular, the user interface presentation system may retrieve an XML document containing the data necessary to dynamically render a user interface from media in the form of a hard drive, optical drive, network drive, or message queue. Similarly, the invention should not be limited to an XML document that describes user interface artifacts. Rather, the invention may be applied to any XML document and selection and manipulation of a set of nodes from the XML document that share a common characteristic. Accordingly, the scope of protection of this invention is limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.
Patent Application
20070282885
