US 10,380,778 B2Granted

Automated chart generation within a document generation application using heuristic model with predefined data types

AssigneeDropbox, Inc.

InventorsRenuka Apte, Jennifer Lee, Jan Spidlen

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for generating charts within a document generation application is provided. The method comprises, within a document generation application, tabular data; associating, for each column and each row of the tabular data, the labels and the numerical data contained therein with one of a plurality of data types; determining, without user input, that the tabular data is one of column-oriented or row-oriented; selecting the first column or the first row as corresponding to an x-axis, respectively; applying a heuristic model resulting in a selection of a chart type of a plurality of chart types, the selection made without user input; automatically generating a chart of the selected chart type depicting a graphical representation of the labels and the numerical data.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

at one or more computing devices comprising one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs executed by the one or more processors to perform the method, performing operations comprising:
obtaining tabular data organized into a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows;
within a document generation application, associating each of the plurality of columns and each of the plurality of rows with one predefined data type of a plurality of predefined data types;
wherein associating a particular column or row with one predefined data type of the plurality of predefined data types is based on:
determining that tabular data in the particular column or row encompasses two or more predefined data types of the plurality of predefined data types,
accessing a hierarchy of predefined data types to determine which of the two or more predefined data types is a most specific predefined data type among the two or more predefined data types, the hierarchy having two or more hierarchical levels, each predefined data type of the two or more predefined data types belonging to a different hierarchical level of the two or more hierarchical levels, and
selecting, as the one predefined data type to associate with the particular column or row, the predefined data type of the two or more predefined data types that is the most specific data type according to the hierarchy of predefined data types;
determining that the tabular data is one of:
column-oriented or row-oriented, based on the predefined data types associated with the plurality of columns and the predefined data types associated with the plurality of rows;
based on whether the tabular data is determined to be column-oriented or row-oriented, applying a heuristic model to the predefined data types associated with the plurality of columns or the plurality of rows, respectively, to select a chart type of a plurality of chart types;
and
automatically generating a chart of the selected chart type comprising the tabular data.

9 more elements

A system comprising:

one or more processors;
and
non-transitory computer-readable memory storing one or more programs executed by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
obtaining tabular data organized into a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows;
within a document generation application, associating each of the plurality of columns and each of the plurality of rows with one predefined data type of a plurality of predefined data types;
wherein associating a particular column or row with one predefined data type of the plurality of predefined data types is based on:
determining that tabular data in the particular column or row encompasses two or more predefined data types of the plurality of predefined data types,
accessing a hierarchy of predefined data types to determine which of the two or more predefined data types is a most specific predefined data type among the two or more predefined data types, the hierarchy having two or more hierarchical levels, each predefined data type of the two or more predefined data types belonging to a different hierarchical level of the two or more hierarchical levels, and
selecting, as the one predefined data type to associate with the particular column or row, the predefined data type of the two or more predefined data types that is the most specific data type according to the hierarchy of predefined data types;
determining that the tabular data is one of:
column-oriented or row-oriented, based on the predefined data types associated with the plurality of columns and the predefined data types associated with the plurality of rows;
based on whether the tabular data is determined to be column-oriented or row-oriented, applying a heuristic model to the predefined data types associated with the plurality of columns or the plurality of rows, respectively, to select a chart type of a plurality of chart types;
and
automatically generating a chart of the selected chart type comprising the tabular data.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.