CA2243701A1 - Multi-dimensional data storage and presentation using a standard internet web browser - Google Patents
Multi-dimensional data storage and presentation using a standard internet web browser Download PDFInfo
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Abstract
A method of viewing and manipulating multi-dimensional data using an HTML-compliant client supporting a graphical user interface, a browser, and the execution of a context-dependent software program within the browser. The method begins as an encoding of multi-dimensional data onto an HTML
page. In response to loading the page in the browser, a viewing program, referred to on the page, is also loaded.
The viewing program is launched by the browser whereupon it reads the multi-dimensional data from the HTML page and presents it to the user.
page. In response to loading the page in the browser, a viewing program, referred to on the page, is also loaded.
The viewing program is launched by the browser whereupon it reads the multi-dimensional data from the HTML page and presents it to the user.
Description
MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DATA STORAGE AND PRESENTATION USING A
STANDARD INTERNET WEB BROWSER
Field of the Invention This invention relates to computer-based networks such as the Internet and Intranet and more particularly to systems and methods for storing multi-dimensional data in HTML pages and presenting that data for viewing and manipulation by a user of a web browser operating in the network.
Background of the Invention The ever-increasing popularity of computers in the home and office environment has resulted in the development of wide area computer-based networks which allows greater accessibility and versatility. One of the most widely used computer-based networks is the World Wide Web (WWW) which permits homes and offices alike to access the Web through both private access providers and on-line service providers.
The World Wide Web operates under a common protocol known as hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Additionally, the Web employs a common language known as Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML). The global-wide utilization of a common protocol and language allows all subscribers to the service to access data retained within widely dispersed servers in the network. Such data is conveniently stored in HTML files which are known as web pages. HTML allows for presentation of information in various formats such as text, graphics, video and sound. Another important feature of HTML is that it permits developers to build in links from one server and file~ within that server to other files and servers within the network. These links are known as uniform resource locators (URL).
One of the features which has popularized the World Wide Web in recent time is the Web Browser which operates software installed on a user's computer, also known as a client, and which allows for simple graphical user interface (GUI)-based access to the network servers.
In addition to the Internet networks, private networks referred to as Intranets provide similar environments to a selected population. Intranets use technology identical to that of the Internet in order to leverage the global efforts to evolve that technology. Intranets are not directly part of the public Internet and are usually somewhat isolated from it by a "firewall" server. The firewall server allows the passage of Web traffic under restrictions set by the corporation or other entity which owns or administers the Intranet. Each of the clients in the Intranet or Internet environment may run a browser.
All forms of information contained in web pages are in binary coded form, using 8- or 16-bit representations.
Differences in the semantics associated with the pages and the elements within those pages imply different interpretations of the binary information. In HTML, the information is interpreted as text characters; these in turn are interpreted as "tags" specifying the roles of enclosed text strings, and the contents of those strings. Strings so tagged may be text which will be directly presented to the user, presentation modifiers of text strings (e.g., "Bold"), URLs to other pages, or specifications of elements which are not contained within the page but are to be loaded and presented on the page. These external elements may be the video and audio mentioned earlier, or Java applets. Other types of HTML content are possible, and other types of external element are possible. Current definitions of HTML
do not include multi-dimensional data as a tagged element.
Brief Summary of the Invention It is thus a primary ob~ect of this invention to enhance the operation of the Internet and Intranet environments by defining a) a method for the extraction, storage and presentation of multi-dimensional data; b) a computer medium containing an HTML file encoded thereon, the HTML file containing a representation of the multi-dimensional data of interest, and a reference to a viewing program for that data, and the viewing program itself, and c) a system for presenting data on a client connected to a network via the viewing program.
The method comprises: a) extracting data of interest from one or more databases; b) deriving a multi-dimensional subset of the data summarizing the information content of the data of interest; c) creating an HTML file containing the multi-dimensional subset; d) making the HTML file available on a server for download by the client; and e) providing on the server a program to process and display the data in the HTML file on the client in response to user requests.
The system for presenting data on a client connected to a network comprises the following: a) means for extracting data of interest from one or more databases; b) means for deriving a multi-dimensional subset of the data summarizing the information content of the data of interest; c) means for creating an HTML file containing the multi-dimensional subset; and d) a server for making the HTML file available for download by the client, the server storing a program (the viewing program) to process and display the data in the HTML file on the client in response to user requests.
It is another more particular object of the invention to use an Hypertext Mark-up Language comment (e.g., via an HTML comment tag) or an application parameter (e.g., via a UparamN statement within an "applet/' tag) in a web page to store the multi-dimensional data, making it available to a presentation application.
Another particular object of the invention is to provide novel and useful elements in the viewing program for manipulating the view of the multi-dimensional data it is presenting.
The invention is preferably implemented in a computer having a processor, an operating system, a graphical user interface and an HTTP-compliant browser. In such case, the novel and advantageous features of the invention are achieved using a first means for encoding a multi-dimensional data object onto an HTML page, and a second means for di~playing information from the information object on the graphical interface using the referenced viewing program.
Brief Description of the Drawings The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
Figure 1 illustrates a client computer supporting an HTML-compliant World Wide Web browser;
Figure 2 is a flowchart diagram of a preferred method of creating and then displaying a multi-dimensional data element encoded on an HTML page;
Figure 3 is a diagram of the system for producing HTML pages containing multi-dimensional data and serving them to Web browsers;
Figure 4 shows a representative graphical user interface for a multi-dimensional data viewing program;
Figure 5 is a repre~entative web page illustrating an encoding of multi-dimensional data on an HTML page;
Figure 6 is a representation of the graphical user interface showing the variable positioning of a control panel with respect to the application's drawing area; and Figure 7 is a flow diagram of a menu selecting implementation for use with the viewing program.
Detailed Description of the Invention Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a representative client computer in which the present invention may be implemented. The client 1 includes a system bus 21 to which various components are coupled and by which communication between the various components i6 accomplished. Although only a single bus 21 is shown in Figure 1 it is to be understood that a plurality of system buses may exist within CA 0224370l l998-09-lO
client 1. A microprocessor 6 is connected to the bus 21 and is supported by read only memory (ROM) 7 and the random access memory (RAM) 4 which is also connected to bus 21.
ROM 7 contains among other code the code which controls basic hardware operations such as the interaction between the disc drives 12 and 13, the CD ROM 14 and the keyboard 18. The RAM 4 is the main memory into which the operating system 2 and application programs such as the browser 3 and any program used by the browser is loaded. The memory management unit 5 is connected to the system bus 21 and controls direct memory access operation including passing data between the RAM 4 and hard disc drive 12 and floppy disc drive 13. The CD ROM 14 also coupled to the system bus 21 i6 used to store a large amount of data, e.g. a multi-media program or large database.
Also connected to the sy~tem bus 21 are various I/O
controllers: the keyboard controller 15, the mouse controller 16, and the video controller 17. The keyboard controller 15 provides the hardware interface for the keyboard 18, the mouse controller 16 provides the hardware interface for the mouse or similar point and click device 19, and the video controller 17 is the hardware interface for the display 20. The client may additionally include an audio controller and multi-media speakers. A modem 8 or an Ethernet card 10 enables communication over networks 9 and 11 to other computers or clients. Other storage devices, controllers and I/O devices may be connected to the system bus or otherwise be part of the client computer.
Operating system 2 may be any of the well-known ~ystems such as DOS etc. It is to be understood that browser 3 is HTTP-compliant such as Netscape Navigator, etc. The present invention is designed to operate within the known or developing web browsers which are preferably modified as described herein to achieve the dynamic loading and execution of viewing software for multi-dimensional data stored on HTML pages. RAM 4 may support services other than the web browser such as mail transfer protocol or E-mail, file transfer protocol (FTP), network news transfer protocol (NNTP) or Usenet and remote terminal access Telnet.
One of the features of HTML is the use of so-called "tags" which are denoted by the symbols o. The tag portion of the message is contained between the brackets. Such tags have a beginning tag and an ending section shown as <tag>, </tag> respectively. Conventionally, there are many link tags in Hypertext Mark-up Language so that a viewer of an HTML document is able to move conveniently from place to place in the same document to another document or to create and move by way of a remote link to another server. There are also numerous element reference tags in HTML to indicate the loading of resources relevant to, and integral parts of the contents of the HTML page. One type of reference tag is an active element tag (e.g. <applet>) which is used to indicate that a software element written in Java or other language is to be loaded and run by the browser as part of the page content. The active element tag in turn may have parameters which modify its action or appearance or which provide data to the active el¢ment. The active element may also extract parameters from elsewhere on the HTML page in which it resides, i.e. outside of its own start and end tags including from contents on the HTML page.
According to the present invention, a multi-dimensional data object is preferably placed within a comment tag of a web page or within a parameter to an active element such as a Java applet referred to on the page. A particular web page may have multiple multi-dimensional data objects and/or multiple active elements. One or more data objects may be associated with any one active element and conversely, one or more active elements may be associated with any one multi-dimensional data object on a given page. A multi-dimensional data object may have no active element associated with it on the page; that viewing element reference being made or implied elsewhere in the system.
Figures 2 and 3, respectively, illustrate a method and system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Looking initially at Figure 3, the network elements involved in the operation of the preferred embodiment include database 62 which contains the data from which the multi-dimensional data object is obtained. In Figure 3 a single database is shown but it is to be understood that the system may draw data from several databases within the network. A description of the desired presentation characteristics for the data taken from database 62 is contained in a separate file 60. Again, it is to be understood that the desired presentation characteristics can, as an alternative, be generated dynamically by a user of the system. The presentation information 60 and the raw data taken from database 62 are combined by program 64 to produce an HTML file 66. The HTML
file 66 includes the presentation specification 68 the reference to the viewing software and a multi-dimensional representation of the data of interest 70. A sample HTML
file is shown in Figure 5.
The HTML file 66 can be dealt with as any other HTML
file. Typically, it will be placed in the accessible region of a server machine 74 for distribution to clients 78 which may be of th¢ type shown in Figure 1. In the current implementation a reference to the viewing software 72, written in Java, is also placed on the HTML page. To make use of the HTML file 66 the client requests the HTML file and the server 74 transmits it over the network 76 to the client 78, i.e. the HTML page is downloaded. From the reference 68 on the HTML page, the client requests the viewing software which may be on the same server as the HTML
page or elsewhere.
The flowchart of Figure 2 sets out the steps involved in the process. These include step 30 which as~umes that data exists in the database and this data is read in response to a request by the user. The steps included by solid line 40 in the process include: step 32) connect to the database as specified in the description file; step 34) create an HTML file containing a description of the data and its sourcei ~tep 36) extract the data of interest from the data source; and step 38) store the multi-dimensional data onto the HTML page. As shown at step 42 the HTML file is typically placed within an accessible region of the web server space 74.
The sequence of steps covered by the solid line 52 shows the process involved in making use of the HTML file.
First, at step 44 the HTML page is downloaded by a web browser operated by the software 3 in Figure 1. Once downloaded and running as shown at step 46 the viewing software loads the multi-dimensional data from the HTML page be it in comment or parameter format as shown at step 48.
The current implementation uses the parameter format. The viewing software having been allocated a drawing area on the client's pre~entation area for the HTML page or having been provided with a window of its own uses its drawing area as shown in step 50 to present the user an initial view of the data. Once initialized in this way the viewing software can present the data in many different ways and for many different purposes at the request of the user via the graphical user interface.
Figure 4 shows a presentation of the multi-dimensional data as generated by the viewing software in the current implementation of the invention. The presentation in Figure 4 illustrates only one of many formats that the multi-dimensional data may take. In this particular example the sale in dollar value for a group of products over a calendar year is displayed. According to the invention this same information may be displayed in a variety of formats as requested by the user.
The view in Figure 4 contains indicators of the data title at reference numeral 110, the content at 108 and of the current viewing parameter~. As shown, the view also contains controls for changing the viewing parameters.
These controls include the graph type and table presentation style controls 90, 91, 92, 93 and 94. The history, 80, 82 and 83 and bookmarks 84 are for saving and reviewing specific views. Controls 97, 102, 104 and 106 are for changing the selection of the subset of data viewed in the data viewing area, these being the axis controls. Control 97 is representative of the axis controls in the Axis Control Bar 100 which are variable in number as required (four are shown in Figure 4). Control 104 is representative of a "collapsed" axis level in the hierarchy for the given axis control 102. Control 85 is for saving the current view of the data and control 86 is for retrieving elements of the original data from the server. Control 87 is for setting viewing preferences such as text font size and which of the other controls are visible and/or active. Control 88 is for making visible and active a panel containing a colour palette used to effect changes in colour and other visible elements. Control 89 is for making visible and active a panel containing a hierarchical view of the data axes pertaining to the current data set, modeled after the Windows Explorer application which is used to view the file hierarchy in the Windows operating system. Control 95 is for making visible and active a panel containing controls for selectively modifying the contents of the data set for the purpose of exploring hypothetical scenarios. Control 98 is for bringing forward HTML pages describing the GUI of the viewing software itself. Control 99 is for opening an independent window into which another instance of the viewing software will be launched to create a second independent view of the current data set. Control 96 is for altering the order of the data axes including exchanging hidden axes contained in the axis bar with either the vertical or the horizontal axis.
The viewing software is not restricted to contain only the indicators and controls described herein, nor are all of the indicators and controls described herein necessary for the viewing of the multi-dimensional data.
Part of the GUI for the viewing application is a set of status/control panels which can be~made visible or invisible using the controls made above, but which can also be slid into and out of view using a click-and-drag mouse operation.
This part of the GUI is illustrated in Figure 6. The novel part of this element of the viewing application is the variability of the panel's position with respect to one edge of the application's drawing area through a drag operation.
The panel 122 can be fully hidden behind one edge of the viewing area 120, fully extended from that edge, or at any extension between these two extremes. The click-and-drag is done on a designated region of the viewing area, in this implementation, a tab 124 at the edge of the panel.
Another element of the GUI for the viewing application is a novel pop-up menu for various choice lists. This menu element has modes of operation common to other implementations and one novel mode of operation. One common mode consistR of the following: when the menu header (a button) i~ clicked down the menu list appears. Dragging the pointer into the list highlights each entry in turn.
Releasing the mouse button over a given item causes that item to be selected and the menu disappears; once again only the button iB visible. The second mode of operation is as follows: clicking and releasing the menu button causes the menu list to appear. Clicking and releasing on a list item simultaneously causes the item to be selected and the menu to disappear. Novel in this implementation is a mode of operation which provides a means to make repeated selections from the list without having to re-establish the menu list on the screen; it rem~inR visible between selections. The new mode of operation as illustrated in the flow diagram of Figure 7. At state box 130 the menu button only is visible.
By clicking down on a point and click operator with the pointer over the menu button, a current view of the menu or list of choices becomes visible (state box 132). The right hand side of the flow diagram of Figure 7 including state box 134 represents the known implementation of a GUI viewing application. The novel aspect of the present application is shown in the left hand section of the drawing including state box 136. Clicking and releasing on a list item causes the item to be selected, but the list of choices remains visible. Subsequent clicks and releases on list items cause those items to be selected. Only when the menu button is clicked and released a second time, or when a click occurs outside the menu list and menu button areas, is the menu list removed from view.
Although the invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will recognize that various modifications of the invention can be practiced within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Thus, for example, further graphing types may be made available in the viewing software.
Moreover, although in the preferred embodiment it is envisioned that the hypertext document associated with the multi-dimensional data, and the viewing software for that data, are located on a remote server, this is not a limitation of the invention. The display of the data may be effected as described regardless of the location of the HTML
files and viewing software involved. Also, while the preferred embodiment has been described in the context of an Internet browser, the techniques of this invention apply whether or not the files and software involved are accessed through the Internet, through a private network (an Intranet, or other private network), or directly from the machine running the client.
Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is set forth in the following claims.
STANDARD INTERNET WEB BROWSER
Field of the Invention This invention relates to computer-based networks such as the Internet and Intranet and more particularly to systems and methods for storing multi-dimensional data in HTML pages and presenting that data for viewing and manipulation by a user of a web browser operating in the network.
Background of the Invention The ever-increasing popularity of computers in the home and office environment has resulted in the development of wide area computer-based networks which allows greater accessibility and versatility. One of the most widely used computer-based networks is the World Wide Web (WWW) which permits homes and offices alike to access the Web through both private access providers and on-line service providers.
The World Wide Web operates under a common protocol known as hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Additionally, the Web employs a common language known as Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML). The global-wide utilization of a common protocol and language allows all subscribers to the service to access data retained within widely dispersed servers in the network. Such data is conveniently stored in HTML files which are known as web pages. HTML allows for presentation of information in various formats such as text, graphics, video and sound. Another important feature of HTML is that it permits developers to build in links from one server and file~ within that server to other files and servers within the network. These links are known as uniform resource locators (URL).
One of the features which has popularized the World Wide Web in recent time is the Web Browser which operates software installed on a user's computer, also known as a client, and which allows for simple graphical user interface (GUI)-based access to the network servers.
In addition to the Internet networks, private networks referred to as Intranets provide similar environments to a selected population. Intranets use technology identical to that of the Internet in order to leverage the global efforts to evolve that technology. Intranets are not directly part of the public Internet and are usually somewhat isolated from it by a "firewall" server. The firewall server allows the passage of Web traffic under restrictions set by the corporation or other entity which owns or administers the Intranet. Each of the clients in the Intranet or Internet environment may run a browser.
All forms of information contained in web pages are in binary coded form, using 8- or 16-bit representations.
Differences in the semantics associated with the pages and the elements within those pages imply different interpretations of the binary information. In HTML, the information is interpreted as text characters; these in turn are interpreted as "tags" specifying the roles of enclosed text strings, and the contents of those strings. Strings so tagged may be text which will be directly presented to the user, presentation modifiers of text strings (e.g., "Bold"), URLs to other pages, or specifications of elements which are not contained within the page but are to be loaded and presented on the page. These external elements may be the video and audio mentioned earlier, or Java applets. Other types of HTML content are possible, and other types of external element are possible. Current definitions of HTML
do not include multi-dimensional data as a tagged element.
Brief Summary of the Invention It is thus a primary ob~ect of this invention to enhance the operation of the Internet and Intranet environments by defining a) a method for the extraction, storage and presentation of multi-dimensional data; b) a computer medium containing an HTML file encoded thereon, the HTML file containing a representation of the multi-dimensional data of interest, and a reference to a viewing program for that data, and the viewing program itself, and c) a system for presenting data on a client connected to a network via the viewing program.
The method comprises: a) extracting data of interest from one or more databases; b) deriving a multi-dimensional subset of the data summarizing the information content of the data of interest; c) creating an HTML file containing the multi-dimensional subset; d) making the HTML file available on a server for download by the client; and e) providing on the server a program to process and display the data in the HTML file on the client in response to user requests.
The system for presenting data on a client connected to a network comprises the following: a) means for extracting data of interest from one or more databases; b) means for deriving a multi-dimensional subset of the data summarizing the information content of the data of interest; c) means for creating an HTML file containing the multi-dimensional subset; and d) a server for making the HTML file available for download by the client, the server storing a program (the viewing program) to process and display the data in the HTML file on the client in response to user requests.
It is another more particular object of the invention to use an Hypertext Mark-up Language comment (e.g., via an HTML comment tag) or an application parameter (e.g., via a UparamN statement within an "applet/' tag) in a web page to store the multi-dimensional data, making it available to a presentation application.
Another particular object of the invention is to provide novel and useful elements in the viewing program for manipulating the view of the multi-dimensional data it is presenting.
The invention is preferably implemented in a computer having a processor, an operating system, a graphical user interface and an HTTP-compliant browser. In such case, the novel and advantageous features of the invention are achieved using a first means for encoding a multi-dimensional data object onto an HTML page, and a second means for di~playing information from the information object on the graphical interface using the referenced viewing program.
Brief Description of the Drawings The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
Figure 1 illustrates a client computer supporting an HTML-compliant World Wide Web browser;
Figure 2 is a flowchart diagram of a preferred method of creating and then displaying a multi-dimensional data element encoded on an HTML page;
Figure 3 is a diagram of the system for producing HTML pages containing multi-dimensional data and serving them to Web browsers;
Figure 4 shows a representative graphical user interface for a multi-dimensional data viewing program;
Figure 5 is a repre~entative web page illustrating an encoding of multi-dimensional data on an HTML page;
Figure 6 is a representation of the graphical user interface showing the variable positioning of a control panel with respect to the application's drawing area; and Figure 7 is a flow diagram of a menu selecting implementation for use with the viewing program.
Detailed Description of the Invention Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a representative client computer in which the present invention may be implemented. The client 1 includes a system bus 21 to which various components are coupled and by which communication between the various components i6 accomplished. Although only a single bus 21 is shown in Figure 1 it is to be understood that a plurality of system buses may exist within CA 0224370l l998-09-lO
client 1. A microprocessor 6 is connected to the bus 21 and is supported by read only memory (ROM) 7 and the random access memory (RAM) 4 which is also connected to bus 21.
ROM 7 contains among other code the code which controls basic hardware operations such as the interaction between the disc drives 12 and 13, the CD ROM 14 and the keyboard 18. The RAM 4 is the main memory into which the operating system 2 and application programs such as the browser 3 and any program used by the browser is loaded. The memory management unit 5 is connected to the system bus 21 and controls direct memory access operation including passing data between the RAM 4 and hard disc drive 12 and floppy disc drive 13. The CD ROM 14 also coupled to the system bus 21 i6 used to store a large amount of data, e.g. a multi-media program or large database.
Also connected to the sy~tem bus 21 are various I/O
controllers: the keyboard controller 15, the mouse controller 16, and the video controller 17. The keyboard controller 15 provides the hardware interface for the keyboard 18, the mouse controller 16 provides the hardware interface for the mouse or similar point and click device 19, and the video controller 17 is the hardware interface for the display 20. The client may additionally include an audio controller and multi-media speakers. A modem 8 or an Ethernet card 10 enables communication over networks 9 and 11 to other computers or clients. Other storage devices, controllers and I/O devices may be connected to the system bus or otherwise be part of the client computer.
Operating system 2 may be any of the well-known ~ystems such as DOS etc. It is to be understood that browser 3 is HTTP-compliant such as Netscape Navigator, etc. The present invention is designed to operate within the known or developing web browsers which are preferably modified as described herein to achieve the dynamic loading and execution of viewing software for multi-dimensional data stored on HTML pages. RAM 4 may support services other than the web browser such as mail transfer protocol or E-mail, file transfer protocol (FTP), network news transfer protocol (NNTP) or Usenet and remote terminal access Telnet.
One of the features of HTML is the use of so-called "tags" which are denoted by the symbols o. The tag portion of the message is contained between the brackets. Such tags have a beginning tag and an ending section shown as <tag>, </tag> respectively. Conventionally, there are many link tags in Hypertext Mark-up Language so that a viewer of an HTML document is able to move conveniently from place to place in the same document to another document or to create and move by way of a remote link to another server. There are also numerous element reference tags in HTML to indicate the loading of resources relevant to, and integral parts of the contents of the HTML page. One type of reference tag is an active element tag (e.g. <applet>) which is used to indicate that a software element written in Java or other language is to be loaded and run by the browser as part of the page content. The active element tag in turn may have parameters which modify its action or appearance or which provide data to the active el¢ment. The active element may also extract parameters from elsewhere on the HTML page in which it resides, i.e. outside of its own start and end tags including from contents on the HTML page.
According to the present invention, a multi-dimensional data object is preferably placed within a comment tag of a web page or within a parameter to an active element such as a Java applet referred to on the page. A particular web page may have multiple multi-dimensional data objects and/or multiple active elements. One or more data objects may be associated with any one active element and conversely, one or more active elements may be associated with any one multi-dimensional data object on a given page. A multi-dimensional data object may have no active element associated with it on the page; that viewing element reference being made or implied elsewhere in the system.
Figures 2 and 3, respectively, illustrate a method and system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Looking initially at Figure 3, the network elements involved in the operation of the preferred embodiment include database 62 which contains the data from which the multi-dimensional data object is obtained. In Figure 3 a single database is shown but it is to be understood that the system may draw data from several databases within the network. A description of the desired presentation characteristics for the data taken from database 62 is contained in a separate file 60. Again, it is to be understood that the desired presentation characteristics can, as an alternative, be generated dynamically by a user of the system. The presentation information 60 and the raw data taken from database 62 are combined by program 64 to produce an HTML file 66. The HTML
file 66 includes the presentation specification 68 the reference to the viewing software and a multi-dimensional representation of the data of interest 70. A sample HTML
file is shown in Figure 5.
The HTML file 66 can be dealt with as any other HTML
file. Typically, it will be placed in the accessible region of a server machine 74 for distribution to clients 78 which may be of th¢ type shown in Figure 1. In the current implementation a reference to the viewing software 72, written in Java, is also placed on the HTML page. To make use of the HTML file 66 the client requests the HTML file and the server 74 transmits it over the network 76 to the client 78, i.e. the HTML page is downloaded. From the reference 68 on the HTML page, the client requests the viewing software which may be on the same server as the HTML
page or elsewhere.
The flowchart of Figure 2 sets out the steps involved in the process. These include step 30 which as~umes that data exists in the database and this data is read in response to a request by the user. The steps included by solid line 40 in the process include: step 32) connect to the database as specified in the description file; step 34) create an HTML file containing a description of the data and its sourcei ~tep 36) extract the data of interest from the data source; and step 38) store the multi-dimensional data onto the HTML page. As shown at step 42 the HTML file is typically placed within an accessible region of the web server space 74.
The sequence of steps covered by the solid line 52 shows the process involved in making use of the HTML file.
First, at step 44 the HTML page is downloaded by a web browser operated by the software 3 in Figure 1. Once downloaded and running as shown at step 46 the viewing software loads the multi-dimensional data from the HTML page be it in comment or parameter format as shown at step 48.
The current implementation uses the parameter format. The viewing software having been allocated a drawing area on the client's pre~entation area for the HTML page or having been provided with a window of its own uses its drawing area as shown in step 50 to present the user an initial view of the data. Once initialized in this way the viewing software can present the data in many different ways and for many different purposes at the request of the user via the graphical user interface.
Figure 4 shows a presentation of the multi-dimensional data as generated by the viewing software in the current implementation of the invention. The presentation in Figure 4 illustrates only one of many formats that the multi-dimensional data may take. In this particular example the sale in dollar value for a group of products over a calendar year is displayed. According to the invention this same information may be displayed in a variety of formats as requested by the user.
The view in Figure 4 contains indicators of the data title at reference numeral 110, the content at 108 and of the current viewing parameter~. As shown, the view also contains controls for changing the viewing parameters.
These controls include the graph type and table presentation style controls 90, 91, 92, 93 and 94. The history, 80, 82 and 83 and bookmarks 84 are for saving and reviewing specific views. Controls 97, 102, 104 and 106 are for changing the selection of the subset of data viewed in the data viewing area, these being the axis controls. Control 97 is representative of the axis controls in the Axis Control Bar 100 which are variable in number as required (four are shown in Figure 4). Control 104 is representative of a "collapsed" axis level in the hierarchy for the given axis control 102. Control 85 is for saving the current view of the data and control 86 is for retrieving elements of the original data from the server. Control 87 is for setting viewing preferences such as text font size and which of the other controls are visible and/or active. Control 88 is for making visible and active a panel containing a colour palette used to effect changes in colour and other visible elements. Control 89 is for making visible and active a panel containing a hierarchical view of the data axes pertaining to the current data set, modeled after the Windows Explorer application which is used to view the file hierarchy in the Windows operating system. Control 95 is for making visible and active a panel containing controls for selectively modifying the contents of the data set for the purpose of exploring hypothetical scenarios. Control 98 is for bringing forward HTML pages describing the GUI of the viewing software itself. Control 99 is for opening an independent window into which another instance of the viewing software will be launched to create a second independent view of the current data set. Control 96 is for altering the order of the data axes including exchanging hidden axes contained in the axis bar with either the vertical or the horizontal axis.
The viewing software is not restricted to contain only the indicators and controls described herein, nor are all of the indicators and controls described herein necessary for the viewing of the multi-dimensional data.
Part of the GUI for the viewing application is a set of status/control panels which can be~made visible or invisible using the controls made above, but which can also be slid into and out of view using a click-and-drag mouse operation.
This part of the GUI is illustrated in Figure 6. The novel part of this element of the viewing application is the variability of the panel's position with respect to one edge of the application's drawing area through a drag operation.
The panel 122 can be fully hidden behind one edge of the viewing area 120, fully extended from that edge, or at any extension between these two extremes. The click-and-drag is done on a designated region of the viewing area, in this implementation, a tab 124 at the edge of the panel.
Another element of the GUI for the viewing application is a novel pop-up menu for various choice lists. This menu element has modes of operation common to other implementations and one novel mode of operation. One common mode consistR of the following: when the menu header (a button) i~ clicked down the menu list appears. Dragging the pointer into the list highlights each entry in turn.
Releasing the mouse button over a given item causes that item to be selected and the menu disappears; once again only the button iB visible. The second mode of operation is as follows: clicking and releasing the menu button causes the menu list to appear. Clicking and releasing on a list item simultaneously causes the item to be selected and the menu to disappear. Novel in this implementation is a mode of operation which provides a means to make repeated selections from the list without having to re-establish the menu list on the screen; it rem~inR visible between selections. The new mode of operation as illustrated in the flow diagram of Figure 7. At state box 130 the menu button only is visible.
By clicking down on a point and click operator with the pointer over the menu button, a current view of the menu or list of choices becomes visible (state box 132). The right hand side of the flow diagram of Figure 7 including state box 134 represents the known implementation of a GUI viewing application. The novel aspect of the present application is shown in the left hand section of the drawing including state box 136. Clicking and releasing on a list item causes the item to be selected, but the list of choices remains visible. Subsequent clicks and releases on list items cause those items to be selected. Only when the menu button is clicked and released a second time, or when a click occurs outside the menu list and menu button areas, is the menu list removed from view.
Although the invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will recognize that various modifications of the invention can be practiced within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Thus, for example, further graphing types may be made available in the viewing software.
Moreover, although in the preferred embodiment it is envisioned that the hypertext document associated with the multi-dimensional data, and the viewing software for that data, are located on a remote server, this is not a limitation of the invention. The display of the data may be effected as described regardless of the location of the HTML
files and viewing software involved. Also, while the preferred embodiment has been described in the context of an Internet browser, the techniques of this invention apply whether or not the files and software involved are accessed through the Internet, through a private network (an Intranet, or other private network), or directly from the machine running the client.
Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is set forth in the following claims.
Claims (17)
1. A method of presenting multi-dimensional data on a client connected to a network, comprising the steps of:
a) extracting data of interest from one or more databases, b) deriving a multi-dimensional subset of said data summarizing the information content of said data of interest, c) creating an HTML file containing said multi-dimensional subset, d) making said HTML file available on a server for download by the client, and e) providing on said server a program to process and display the data in said HTML file on the client in response to user requests.
a) extracting data of interest from one or more databases, b) deriving a multi-dimensional subset of said data summarizing the information content of said data of interest, c) creating an HTML file containing said multi-dimensional subset, d) making said HTML file available on a server for download by the client, and e) providing on said server a program to process and display the data in said HTML file on the client in response to user requests.
2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein said client is connected to the Internet.
3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein said client is connected to an Intrenet.
4. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein said database is located in said client.
5. A computer medium containing an HTML file encoded thereon, said HTML file containing as part of its content a representation of a multi-dimensional set of data, that data being encoded in the form of a tagged element.
6. A computer medium as defined in claim 5 wherein said tagged element comprises text in an HTML comment form.
7. A computer medium as defined in claim 5 wherein said tagged element comprises a parameter to a viewing program.
8. A system for presenting data on a client connected to a network, comprising:
a) means for extracting data of interest from one or more databases;
b) means for deriving a multi-dimensional subset of said data summarizing the information content of said data of interest;
c) means for creating an HTML file containing said multi-dimensional subset; and d) a server for making said HTML file available for download by said client, said server storing a program to process and display said data in said HTML file on said client in response to user requests.
a) means for extracting data of interest from one or more databases;
b) means for deriving a multi-dimensional subset of said data summarizing the information content of said data of interest;
c) means for creating an HTML file containing said multi-dimensional subset; and d) a server for making said HTML file available for download by said client, said server storing a program to process and display said data in said HTML file on said client in response to user requests.
9. In a system for displaying a multi-dimensional data set on a client connected to a network, a method of presenting positions of a user in a hierarchical arrangement containing a root, a current viewing level and a plurality of intermediate levels representing axes of said data set, said method comprising:
a) presenting a name of an axis acting as the root of the hierarchy, b) presenting data labels at said current viewing level, c) presenting levels of hierarchy between said root and said current viewing level in the form of graphical icons, each representing a category at one of said plurality of intermediate levels, and d) smoothly presenting a transition between one such view and another using an animation of said graphical icons.
a) presenting a name of an axis acting as the root of the hierarchy, b) presenting data labels at said current viewing level, c) presenting levels of hierarchy between said root and said current viewing level in the form of graphical icons, each representing a category at one of said plurality of intermediate levels, and d) smoothly presenting a transition between one such view and another using an animation of said graphical icons.
10. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein said graphical icons are displayed in the form of columns of rows.
11. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein said graphical icons are displayed in the form of rows of columns.
12. In a client computer having a processor, an operating system and a graphical user interface a method of presenting configuration information and user interface controls on said graphical user interface in a manner which allows their position in a graphical area to be altered via a "drag" operation, comprising:
a) providing in said graphical area a separate panel, containing said configuration information and said user interface controls, and b) providing a control surface in said panel for dragging said panel thereby changing its position in the overall graphical area;
a) providing in said graphical area a separate panel, containing said configuration information and said user interface controls, and b) providing a control surface in said panel for dragging said panel thereby changing its position in the overall graphical area;
13. A method as defined by claim 12 wherein dragging said panel changes the degree to which it is visible.
14. In a system for presenting multi-dimensional data on a client in a network a method for a user to exchange data axis positions and roles in a graphical representation of said multi-dimensional data, comprising:
a) providing a graphical icon associated with some or all of the data axes, b) providing means for recognizing the intent of said user to change the status of a given axis;
c) providing means for detecting the intended destination of a moving axis, and d) providing means for changing the positions and roles of source and destination axes once the user's intentions have been made clear.
a) providing a graphical icon associated with some or all of the data axes, b) providing means for recognizing the intent of said user to change the status of a given axis;
c) providing means for detecting the intended destination of a moving axis, and d) providing means for changing the positions and roles of source and destination axes once the user's intentions have been made clear.
15. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein the intent of a user to change the status of a given axis is provided through a down click of a mouse on a graphical icon associated with said given axis.
16. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein the intended destination of said moving axis is detected through dragging an icon associated with said axis to a position of another graphical icon.
17. In a client computer having a processor, an operating system, a graphical user interface and a point and click system operator, a method of selectively presenting a menu list and menu list choices comprising:
a) clicking and releasing said operator on a menu button associated with said menu list to reveal said list choices;
b) clicking and releasing said operator on selected ones of said list choices thereby presenting said choices without removing from view said list of choices; and c) selectively deleting said list of choices by clicking and releasing said operator on said menu button or outside of a graphical area associated with said list of choices and said menu button.
a) clicking and releasing said operator on a menu button associated with said menu list to reveal said list choices;
b) clicking and releasing said operator on selected ones of said list choices thereby presenting said choices without removing from view said list of choices; and c) selectively deleting said list of choices by clicking and releasing said operator on said menu button or outside of a graphical area associated with said list of choices and said menu button.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US93576997A | 1997-09-23 | 1997-09-23 | |
| US08/935,769 | 1997-09-23 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2243701A1 true CA2243701A1 (en) | 1999-03-23 |
Family
ID=25467635
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2243701 Abandoned CA2243701A1 (en) | 1997-09-23 | 1998-09-10 | Multi-dimensional data storage and presentation using a standard internet web browser |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA2243701A1 (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN113160426A (en) * | 2021-03-31 | 2021-07-23 | 北京晟世天安科技有限公司 | Novel multi-dimensional data model display method |
-
1998
- 1998-09-10 CA CA 2243701 patent/CA2243701A1/en not_active Abandoned
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN113160426A (en) * | 2021-03-31 | 2021-07-23 | 北京晟世天安科技有限公司 | Novel multi-dimensional data model display method |
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