Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1997-07-10
2001-03-27
Amsbury, Wayne (Department: 2771)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06208985
ABSTRACT:
MICROFICHE APPENDIX
This application includes a microfiche appendix, including 3 sheets of microfiche and a total of 138 frames.
The file of this patent contains 23 sheets of formal drawings executed in color. Copies of this patent with color drawings will be provided by the Patent and Trademark Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.
BACKGROUND
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to user interfaces for querying databases, and more particularly to graphical user interfaces providing for graphical query construction and result presentation.
2. Background of Invention
Conventionally, database query and retrieval systems perform several basic types of retrieval operations. In a relational model, these include restricting operations that retrieve from a set of records, a subset of records that satisfies specified conditions. For the purposes of the present invention, restricting operations are referred to as “refine” operations, and may be further categorized as either filter or tag operations, depending on how the resulting information is displayed to the user. In a filter operation, only the retrieved subset of records is displayed to the user; in other words, the operation filters a subset of records from a larger set of records. In a tag operation, both the original set of records and the retrieved subset are displayed, but the retrieved subset is visually distinguished within the context of the larger set of records.
Various approaches have been made to providing graphical user interfaces for database systems. At best, these user interfaces focus solely on the problem of query construction, and as a result provide only graphical tools to construct queries for the database. Existing approaches have a number of significant difficulties:
Conventional systems do not provide the visual metaphor of the filtering and tag operations. Conventional systems do not recognize the distinction between filtering and tagging, and hence provide no visual distinction between the different presentations of filtering and tag operations.
Conventional systems provide little or no graphical visual feedback about the status of the filtering or tag operation.
Conventional systems typically do not provide a drag-and-drop mechanism for visually constructing refining operations using direct manipulation. Typically, the user must type in the criteria or parameters for each operation.
Conventional systems require the user to leave one window and go to a dialog box to define query parameters, and thereby do not provide a single integrated user interface for both query construction and result presentation.
Conventional systems do not support multiple concurrent tag operations using multiple tagging criteria. This prevents the user from seeing and interpreting the results of several different tag operations simultaneously. As a result, the user must iteratively perform tag operations.
Conventional systems do not provide graphical, qualitatively interpretable feedback of the quantitative effects of applying filters and tags to data directly integrated in a single visual space with the query construction representation. Rather, conventional systems merely return data results in a separate visual space. At best, query results are provided in graphical format, such as a bar chart, pie chart, or the like, but this graphical representation is unrelated to any visual metaphor or representations used for query construction.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved, integrated, direct manipulation user interface for graphically constructing database queries and presenting query results using a common visual metaphor and graphical representations for query construction and result presentation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention overcomes the limitations of conventional graphical query systems by integrating graphical query construction and graphical representations of query results into a single user interface. The integrated user interface enables the user to both construct database queries in a graphical, direct manipulation manner using different iconographic representations of filtering and tag operations, and to view graphical representations of the quantitative impact of such operations. The user not only can view the graphical representations of query results, but can also perform subsequent tasks and functions in either in a table presentation of tagged or filtered data, or in the graphical query construction area, based on the data the user is viewing in either area.
In one embodiment, the present invention operates in conjunction with a conventional database management system for storing and retrieving a plurality of records or items. The present invention provides a graphical user interface display that includes two display portions: a top portion making up what is hereinafter referred to as the query construction area and the bottom portion making up what is hereinafter referred to as the Refiner Control tabs. The query construction area may be understood as a graphical area for displaying graphical representations of a refine operation, and of database items prior to and after execution of the refine operation. A first area of the query construction area is for graphically representing a first plurality of items in the database prior to a refine operation, which may be a filter operation or a tag operation, depending on its placement in the query construction area. The graphical representation is preferably sized to represent the quantity of these items prior to the refine operation. A second area of the query construction area is for graphically representing a second plurality of items that is a subset of the first plurality, and that result from the processing of the refine operation on the first plurality of items. By representing both first and second sets of items in the query construction area, a common visual metaphor is provided that enables the user to manipulate and interpret query results directly in the context of query construction.
Displayed between the first area and the second area in the query construction area is an icon bay, a shaped protuberance, that receives a correspondingly shaped refine icon representing and associated with at least one refine operation. Where the icon bay is defined as processing filter operations, then the icon bay is called a filter bay, and a refine icon placed therein is a filter icon visually indicating a filter operation. For example, a filter bay may have a rectangular shape and a filter icon have a corresponding rectangular shape that fits inside the filter bay. The filter operation associated with the filter icon is defined by the user to filter the first plurality of items by satisfying various criteria or tests, for example, by having certain values for certain data fields or attributes. By way of example, in a database of dated records, a filter operation that may be associated with a filter icon is to filter items having a certain date value.
For a filter operation, the user defines the refine operation and places its icon in the filter bay. A first graphical representation of the first plurality of items input into the filter operation is displayed. The filter operation associated with the filter icon is executed on the first plurality of items, and thereby identifies or selects the second plurality of items. A graphical representation for the second plurality of items is determined and displayed in the second area of the query construction area. This second graphical representation is sized relative to a first graphical representation of the first plurality of items in approximately the same ratio as the second plurality of items is to the first plurality of items. For example, if the first plurality of items is 100 items, and as a result of the filter operation, the second plurality of items contains 50 items, then the second graphical representation is about half as large as the first graphical representation shown in the first area of the graphical construction area.
Where the icon bay is defi
Amsbury Wayne
Caseventure LLC
Fenwick & West LLP
Lewis Cheryl
LandOfFree
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