Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-16
2002-08-06
Mizrahi, Diane D. (Department: 2175)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06430574
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention relate to text and graphical data user interfaces. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to displaying and scrolling a hierarchical data structure.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Modern computers and data processing devices typically utilize displays such as CRT's (Cathode Ray Tubes) and LCD's (Liquid Crystal Displays) to display text and graphics data. A user interacts with an application program that allows the creation, viewing and/or editing of a data file or document on the display device.
Data files or documents often contain a large amount of text and graphics data that cannot be displayed simultaneously on a display. Examples of documents include word processing documents, spread sheet documents, e-mail documents, etc. For example, many application programs produce display output in a format known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), which produces a screen display substantially identical to a printed output. WYSIWYG output may include text of varying font sizes, types, etc. using a variety of formatting. Because a data file rendered according to WYSIWYG typically occupies many pages, only a portion of the document can displayed at one time.
Computing devices typically can execute a technique known as scrolling to permit a user to navigate through a document. Scrolling is an operation in which a user issues commands to a computing device to instruct it to display a particular portion of data on a display. The user scrolls a document by issuing commands through a keyboard or mouse.
Known scrolling controls include a scroll bar, consisting of an icon displayed on the display, that allows the user to instruct the computer (via a pointing device such as a mouse) to display a different portion of the document. Conventional scrolling controls provide a wide range of functionality, typically allowing the user to scroll data up, down, left or right.
FIG. 1A
shows a conventional user interface with scrolling functionality. Typically the user interface depicted in
FIG. 1A
may be implemented in a windows environment but can also be applicable to a non-windows environment. In one embodiment, the conventional user interface is a graphical user interface (GUI). The user interface depicted in
FIG. 1A
includes an arrangement of control icons for performing scrolling operations. Window
105
consists of a display area
110
, left scrolling button
150
, right scrolling button
170
, horizontal scroll bar
160
, up scrolling button
120
, down scrolling button
140
, and vertical scroll bar
130
. When a user selects any of left scrolling button
150
, right scrolling button
170
, up scrolling button
120
or down scrolling button
140
by clicking on the respective scrolling button using a mouse, window
105
scrolls in the respective direction. The scrolling windows includes portions of data
14
-
26
. The position of the horizontal scroll bar
160
showing that additional data can be displayed to the left and the right, and the position of the vertical scroll bar
130
showing that additional data can be displayed to the top and the bottom. The user may also scroll window
105
by clicking and dragging horizontal scroll bar
160
or vertical scroll bar
130
in the desired direction of scrolling.
FIG. 1B
illustrates a known layout of a conventional user interface in relationship to an underlying data file or document
210
. Document
210
contains text or graphics data that cannot be practicably displayed within display area
110
of window
105
, e.g., data
11
-
31
. Thus, typically only a portion of the data of document
210
is displayed within display area
110
of window
105
, e.g., portions of data
14
-
26
.
Known scrolling methods are not sensitive to the structure of the data to be displayed. Data is often implicitly or explicitly structured hierarchically. For example, a word processing document of a book can be divided into a set of chapters, each chapter further divided into a number of subsections, and so on. A hierarchical relationship inherent in a set of data can be represented using a tree data structure that consists of a set of parent and child nodes, each node corresponding to a particular data object. For example, using the prior example of a book word processing document, the data could be represented using multiple trees, with each chapter comprising a root node of a distinct tree data structure. Each section within a chapter could be represented as a child node of the root. Furthermore, each subsection could be represented as a child node of a corresponding section child node, and so on. In another embodiment, a book document could contain a book root node with the chapters being child nodes of the book root node.
FIG. 2
shows a diagram depicting an example of a tree data structure. Tree
205
includes root node
210
, non-terminal nodes
215
, and terminal (i.e., leaf) nodes
220
arranged in a parent-child structure. Root node
210
is the ancestor of every node in tree
205
. Non-terminal nodes
215
are typically characterized as having an ancestor node and at least one child node. Terminal nodes
220
are typically characterized as having an ancestor node and no child nodes.
Due to limitations of conventional scrolling methods a display output may not show pertinent hierarchical relationships, which can result in confusion and inefficiency for the user. For example, when perusing hierarchical data it can be advantageous that the hierarchical structure of data be conveyed to the user. For example, a text document may consist of a number of headers, each header associated with a set of subordinate body lines. An example of this structure is a newspaper document, consisting of a set of headlines (headers) and corresponding body lines correspond to the text pertaining to each particular headline. If a user were to peruse a paper newspaper, and a story were continued from the front page to an inner page, the inner page would typically contain the headline text at an appropriate position where the story was continued so that the user could quickly move to this section. However, if a user were to scroll a document containing a new articles using conventional scrolling methods, the body of the news story can be displayed without the corresponding headline when the headline has been scrolled off of the display.
FIG. 3
illustrates a display of data in a conventional scrolling user interface. Display area
310
shows data including first data header
310
, second data header
320
, and third data header
330
. Below first data header
310
is displayed subordinate data
311
-
314
, below second data header
320
is displayed subordinate data
321
-
325
, and below third data header
330
is displayed subordinate data
331
-
334
. Each of header data headers
310
,
320
,
330
, together with their respective subordinate data, correspond to an underlying hierarchical tree structure,
301
-
303
.
FIG. 3
does not include information indicating what proportion of the subordinate data of a data header is currently displayed (e.g., whether data header
330
only has subordinate data
331
-
334
, or whether data header
330
has additional subordinate data in addition to subordinate data
331
-
334
).
FIG. 5
illustrates the hierarchical relationship of the data displayed in
FIGS. 3-4
. Specifically, data trees
301
-
304
of
FIG. 5
respectively contain root nodes
310
-
340
. Root nodes
310
-
340
respectively correspond to the data headers
310
-
340
of
FIGS. 3-4
. Data trees
301
-
304
of
FIG. 5
respectively contain a set of child leaf nodes
311
-
314
,
321
-
325
,
331
-
335
, and
340
-
344
.
FIGS. 3-4
display varied portions of the data headers
310
-
340
and subordinate data
311
-
314
,
321
-
325
,
331
-
335
, and
340
-
344
corresponding to the root nodes
310
-
340
and child leaf nodes
311
-
314
,
321
-
325
,
331
-
335
, and
340
-
344
of FIG.
5
.
FIG. 4
illustrates a display of data in a conventional scrolling user interface aft
AT&T Corp.
Kenyon & Kenyon
Mizrahi Diane D.
Veillard Jacques
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