JP2549244B2 - Hierarchical structure data display system and display method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of displaying data having a hierarchical structure (particularly a tree structure), and particularly to a data display for automatically expanding or omitting the display of the data by moving a cursor on the screen. Regarding the scheme.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Data such as graph representations and program texts represented by organization charts generally have a hierarchical structure. Since data having such a hierarchical structure has a large amount of information to be displayed, even if all of them are displayed on the screen, they often cannot fit on one screen. In such a case, it is common practice to scroll the screen to display the desired data portion.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional display example of program text (the broken line portion represents a unit of one physical screen of the display). In this example, the logical structure of the program text (for example, with or without loops or branches)
Regardless of, the display target is scrolled line by line.
The user must keep scrolling the screen until the desired text portion is displayed within the physical display area of the screen.

FIG. 2 shows a conventional display example of a graph representation for an organization chart (the meaning of the broken line portion is the same as in FIG. 1). Also in this example, the display target is scrolled in screen units regardless of the logical structure (tree structure) of the organization chart. Therefore, the user must repeatedly scroll the screen to display the desired tissue portion.

[0005]

As described above, in the prior art, the data is not displayed on the screen in consideration of the logical structure of the data, but the data is displayed according to the physical constraints of the screen. Therefore, it is necessary to perform scrolling operation many times to display desired target data on the display.

Further, it is extremely difficult to understand the relationship between the hierarchical portion of the data currently displayed and the overall structure of the data or another hierarchical structure from the display screen based on the conventional display method.

In view of these problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a data display system that matches the structural characteristics of data having a hierarchical structure (particularly a tree structure) with simpler operability. Is.

[0008]

According to the present invention, regarding data having a hierarchical structure, only the hierarchical data desired by the user is specifically displayed, and the other parts are omitted and displayed.
Provide a data display method that can be easily controlled only by moving the cursor. Specifically, 1 for each layer of data
Alternatively, a plurality of cursor movable ranges (indicated by horizontal lines or brackets in the embodiment) are displayed, and in response to cursor movement on the cursor movable range or between the cursor movable ranges, corresponding to a necessary hierarchical portion. Only the data is automatically expanded and displayed, and the other data is appropriately omitted. By adopting this method, only the minimum necessary display can be automatically performed for the user to recognize the target data having a hierarchical structure.

It can be said that such a display system of the present invention is a technique in which the movement of the viewpoint of the user is substituted by the movement of the cursor. In other words, the minimum necessary logical range corresponding to the location of the user's viewpoint (cursor position) is displayed (expanded) in detail, and when the viewpoint (cursor) moves, the display of the parts up to that point is automatically omitted. , The moving destination of the viewpoint (cursor) is developed again. Therefore, an ergonomically excellent data display method can be provided.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, an outline of the present invention will be described, and then an application example of the present invention will be given in which an organization chart and program text are taken as examples of hierarchical structure data.

A. System Configuration of the Present Invention FIG. 3 shows an example of the overall configuration of the present invention. The arrows in the figure show the flow of data. First, the display target data from the storage device 11 is input, and the hierarchical structure analysis unit 12 extracts the hierarchical structure information of the data. Based on this hierarchical structure information, the display layout control unit 21 writes the position information on the display device 13 in the layout information buffer 23. The display control unit 22 determines from the layout information in the buffer 23 that
The hierarchical structure data is actually displayed on the display device 15.

By operating keys on the input device 14 or the like,
When the operation to move the cursor on the display screen is performed,
The input device control unit 15 transmits information about the moving direction of the cursor to the display layout control unit 21. The display layout control unit 21 determines a portion to be expanded or displayed in the hierarchical structure of the data according to the moving direction of the cursor, recalculates the arrangement on the display screen, and rewrites the contents of the layout information buffer 23. It When the buffer 23 is rewritten, the display control unit 22 also changes the hierarchical structure data on the display device 13. 21, 22, and 23 constitute a display control mechanism as a whole.

B. Outline of the Present Invention In the present invention, one or a plurality of cursor movable ranges (for example, indicated by a predetermined line segment or a bracket) corresponding to each layer of data.
Is displayed on the screen. In the description of this column, for convenience, (N,
Each range of motion shall be identified in the form of M). Where N
Represents a hierarchical level of the cursor movable range (however, N = 1 is the highest level), and M represents a serial number assigned to different cursor movable ranges of the same hierarchical level.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the cursor movable range (N, M) when the organization chart is taken as an example. In this example, the line segment connecting the nodes functions as the cursor movable range. Note that the value of N increases from 1 to 3 as the hierarchical level of cursor excursion goes down. Also, N
Also note that there are two cursor excursions at the = 2 hierarchical level, which are identified as (2,1) and (2,2) respectively.

The display layout control unit 21 manages the information in order to indicate whether the corresponding hierarchy of each cursor moving range is displayed in the expanded or omitted form. For example,
A predetermined bit area is provided for each cursor movable range, and a value of 1 is set for expanded display and 0 for omitted display.
The value is set. Hereinafter, such an operation will be referred to as “setting the expanded (or omitted) display”.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of the present invention.
First, the hierarchical structure analysis unit 12 extracts information on the hierarchical structure from the data to be displayed, and the display control mechanism 20
Then, the setting of the above-mentioned cursor movable range is judged from the vertical relation between the respective layers (501). At this point, all the cursor movable areas are set to “abbreviated display”. The initial values of N and M can be set to any values, but here, 1 is substituted into N and M as the initial screen display (5
02). Next, the cursor movable range (N, M) is set to the expanded display (503), and layout information on the display screen is generated (504). Using this layout information, the hierarchical data is actually displayed on the display device, and the cursor is moved to (N, M) which is the current movable range (505). Thereafter, the cursor movement operation using the cursor keys or the like is monitored by the input control device unit 15, and the display control mechanism 20 performs different processing depending on the mode of movement between the hierarchy levels.

When the cursor is moved from the lower level to the upper level of the hierarchical structure (510) and the corresponding upper level exists (511), the current movable range before the cursor is moved is set to the omitted display, The value of the movable range of the movement destination is substituted for (N, M) (512), and the process returns to step 504. As a result, the re-display that reflects the omitted display is performed.

When the cursor is moved from the upper level to the lower level of the hierarchical structure (520) and the corresponding lower level exists (521), the value of the lower cursor movable range after the cursor movement is set to (N , M) and substitute (52
2) and returns to step 503. As a result, redisplay is performed with the new current cursor movement range additionally developed.

When the cursor is moved in the movable range of the same level of the hierarchical structure (530), if the cursor is still in the current movable range of the cursor, redisplay is not performed (531). When there is another cursor movable area at the same hierarchical level in the cursor movement direction and the cursor moves to that area (532), the current cursor movable area before the movement is set to the abbreviated display, and the cursor of the movement destination is set. The value of the range of motion is (N,
Substituting for M) (533), the process returns to step 503. As a result, the moving range of the movement source is omitted and displayed, and the moving range of the movement destination is newly displayed in a re-display.

C. Application Example in Organization Chart FIG. 6 shows an application example of the present invention to an organization chart as data having a typical hierarchical structure. The organizational chart here is shown in Figure 2.
It targets the same organizational structure as. In this figure, line segments that connect the nodes of the organization chart (especially the horizontal line)
Functions as a cursor motion range corresponding to each layer of data. Basically, the cursor moves on or between the movable ranges. All these movements are controlled by cursor keys. A specific operation example is shown below.

(1) When the cursor is on the line segment immediately below "President", the managers A and B belonging to the hierarchy immediately below the president are expanded and displayed, and are further below the directors A and B. The hierarchical organization is abbreviated (small circles in the figure mean abbreviated display). The range of motion where the cursor is located is
It is highlighted (displayed in bold, colored with a different color, etc.) to distinguish it from other lines.

(2) When the cursor position is located above the A director on the range of motion (line segment) displayed under "President",
When the down cursor key (↓) is pressed, the tissue under the section A chief is expanded and displayed, and the cursor moves to the line segment immediately below the section A chief. In this example, the section C is moved to just above the section chief, but it may be configured to move to just above the section D chief.

(3) When the upward cursor key (↑) is pressed, the cursor moves again to the line segment displayed immediately above the section A chief, and the cursor disappears in the hierarchical organization below the section A chief. In response to this, the display is omitted again.

(4) When the rightward cursor key (→) is pressed, the cursor moves from above the A section length to above the B section length along the line segment.

(5) When the cursor position is on the B section manager on the range of motion (line segment) displayed under "President",
When the down cursor key (↓) is pressed, the organizations under the section B manager, specifically, section managers E, F and G are expanded and displayed. In this example, the cursor has moved onto the line segment just above Section Manager E. From the display screen shown in this figure, it is understood that the organization exists under the section manager G, but the display is omitted until the cursor moves to a predetermined position.

(6) When the rightward cursor key (→) is pressed, the cursor is displayed in the order of Section Manager E, Section Manager F, Section Manager G in this order.
Move on the line segment above it.

(7) If the down cursor key (↓) is pressed when the cursor is on the line segment directly above the section manager,
The section manager H is expanded and displayed as a hierarchical organization under the section manager G, and the cursor moves onto the line segment displayed immediately above the section manager.

In this way, only the organization of the data corresponding to the range of motion where the cursor is positioned and its upper organization are automatically expanded and displayed, so that the minimum necessary display is performed on the display screen. Therefore, even if it is a large organization chart (graph) that normally does not fit on one screen, only the minimum necessary organization (node) is expanded and displayed, and it is possible to fit the entire organization on one screen. Becomes

D. Application Example in Program List FIG. 7 shows an application example in the program list (FIG. 1). Here, IF-THEN-E in the program
LSE and LOOP range (scope) in angle brackets ([)
Is expressed in. This form of expression is
This is a diagram that is generally used as a diagram in CASE tools (for details, see "Structured Techniques").
: The Basis for CASE ", 1988, 1985 by JamesMartin a
nd Carma McClure, Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs,
See NJ07632ISBN 0-13-854936). The scope indicated by the brackets corresponds to the range of each layer in the tree structure, and the brackets function as the cursor movable range of each layer. In this embodiment, the movement of the cursor on and between the brackets is controlled by the cursor keys.

(1) While the cursor key for upward or downward is kept pressed, the cursor moves on the leftmost bracket ([). At this time, the display is omitted in the scopes of LOOP and IF-THEN-ELSE, which are the hierarchy of the lower level.

(2) When the right cursor key (→) is pressed, the cursor is moved to the physically closest lower level movable range ([) on the right side, and the statements included in the scope are expanded and displayed. To be done. In this example, LO
The scope of OP-ENDLOOP corresponds to this. The IF-ENDIF scope to which the cursor has not moved is not expanded and is left as is omitted.

(3) While the down cursor key (↓) is kept pressed, the cursor moves on the bracket ([) representing the scope of LOOP-ENDLOOP. Here, the cursor is moved to the last part of LOOP-ENDLOOP.

(4) If the cursor is moved to the end of the LOOP-ENDLOOP scope and the down cursor key (↓) is still pressed, the IF of the next scope
-The cursor moves to the beginning of ENDIF. Thus, the movement of the cursor between different scopes of the same hierarchical level can be controlled only by operating the up / down cursor keys.

(5) From the scope of IF-ENDIF,
Another outer scope (higher level hierarchy)
When returning to, by pressing the left cursor key (←), the IF-ENDIF scope is displayed in abbreviated form, and the cursor moves to the opening bracket ([) representing the PROC-ENDPROC scope on the outside.

Although two examples using cursor keys have been shown above, any input device (mouse, track ball, etc.) capable of controlling a position indicator (cursor) on the screen can be used. It's obvious. Further, the method of the present invention can be applied to any data as long as it has a hierarchical structure, and therefore, it can be expected to be applied to a wide range of techniques such as graph display and program creation tools.

[0036]

According to the present invention, when data having a hierarchical structure is displayed, the cursor can be moved corresponding to each hierarchy, and only the necessary hierarchical data is responded to in response to the movement of the cursor. Is automatically expanded / abbreviated and displayed, it is possible to obtain a desired data display in a minimum necessary range by a simple cursor operation without performing an unnecessary scroll operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a display example of program text in a conventional technique.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example of an organization chart in a conventional technique.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a cursor movable range according to the present invention, taking an organization chart as an example.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an application example of the present invention in an organizational chart.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an application example of the present invention in a program text.

[Description of sign]

 11. . Storage device 12. . Hierarchical structure analysis unit 13. . Display device 14. . Input device 15. . Input device control unit 20. . Display control mechanism 21. . Display layout control unit 22. . Display control unit 23. . Layout information buffer

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A data display system capable of displaying one or a plurality of cursor movable areas corresponding to respective hierarchies of data having a hierarchical structure and moving a cursor on or between the movable areas. Then, by controlling the hierarchical structure analysis means for analyzing the above-mentioned data retrieved from the storage device to obtain the hierarchical structure information of the data, and the input device for operating the cursor on the display device, The display control means includes input device control means for acquiring movement information, and display control means for controlling display of the data in response to the hierarchical structure information and movement information of the cursor. However, (a) when moving from the upper range of motion to the lower level of motion in the hierarchical structure, the data corresponding to the lower level of motion is expanded and displayed, and (b) below the hierarchical structure. When moving from the movable range of the level excursion higher level, omit displaying data corresponding to a movable range of the lower position level, the display of hierarchical data system. 2. The display control means, when the cursor moves between different movable ranges on the same level of the hierarchical structure, expands and displays the data corresponding to the movable range of the move destination, and displays the data of the move source. The display system according to claim 1, wherein the data corresponding to the range of motion is omitted and displayed. 3. The display system according to claim 1, wherein movement of the cursor is designated by a cursor key. 4. The display system according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the data having the hierarchical structure is program text. 5. The display system according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the data having the hierarchical structure is a graph representation including an organizational chart. 6. A data processing system in which data having a hierarchical structure is displayed on a display device together with one or a plurality of movable ranges corresponding to respective layers, and a cursor is moved on or between the movable ranges. When the cursor moves from the upper range of motion of the hierarchical structure to the lower level of motion, the data corresponding to the lower level of motion is expanded and displayed, and the cursor moves to the lower level of the hierarchical structure. When moving from the movable range of to the movable range of the upper level, the data corresponding to the movable range of the lower level is omitted and displayed. 7. When the cursor moves between different movable ranges at the same level of the hierarchical structure, data corresponding to the movable range of the moving destination is expanded and displayed, and corresponds to the movable range of the moving source. The display method according to claim 6, wherein the data is displayed in abbreviated form. 8. The display method according to claim 6, wherein the movement of the cursor is designated by a cursor key.