US 11,636,255 B2Granted

Methods for displaying and interfacing with polymorphic data in spreadsheets

AssigneeOracle International Corporation

InventorsKelsey Von Tish, Edmund Alex Davis

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Abstract

A spreadsheet user interface shows polymorphic records. The records include global fields, discriminator fields, and context-sensitive fields. A context-sensitive field is available or unavailable dependent on a discriminator field value. Record fields associate with spreadsheet columns, regardless of field availability. User confusion is prevented by marking a record's unavailable context-sensitive fields as unavailable and visually distinguishing them from available fields. A user-requested operation spanning multiple rows and columns is supported by testing whether a source cell and source data is available, a destination cell is available, and skipping the operation for those records whose source and/or destination cell is required but unavailable. An embodiment supports interfacing with a single record in a spreadsheet form by applying global form templates associated with global fields, and context-dependent form templates associated with specific discriminator field values.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method to display records from a polymorphic data source in a spreadsheet table on a display screen of a computer, wherein:

the spreadsheet table includes cells organized in a first dimension and a second dimension that are orthogonal to each other;
the computer performs the method and shows the spreadsheet table in a graphical user interface on the display screen;
and
the spreadsheet table associates cells with records in the first dimension and with fields in the second dimension;
the method comprising:
(a) retrieving one or more records from the polymorphic data source;
(b) associating a first of the one or more retrieved records with a first group of cells in the first dimension, marking the first of the one or more retrieved records as a current record, and marking the first group of cells in the first dimension as a current group in the first dimension;
(c) determining a record structure based on a discriminator field value in the current record, wherein the record structure specifies available fields and unavailable context-sensitive fields;
(d) associating fields in the current record with cells in the current group in the first dimension, marking cells associated with unavailable context-sensitive fields as unavailable, and marking cells associated with available fields as available;
(e) making cells marked as unavailable visually distinct from cells marked as available;
(f) setting data types and values of cells marked as available in accordance with their respective associated fields in the current record;
(g) determining if a last of the one or more retrieved records has been associated with a group of cells in the first dimension;
and
(h) upon determining that the last of the one or more retrieved records has not been associated with a group of cells in the first dimension, associating a next of the one or more retrieved records with a next group of cells in the first dimension, marking the next of the one or more retrieved records as the current record, and marking the next group of cells in the first dimension as the current group in the first dimension, and returning to step (c).

11 more elements

A method for displaying a record from a polymorphic data source in a spreadsheet form on a display screen of a computer, wherein

The computer performs the method and shows the spreadsheet form in a graphical user interface on the display screen;
the spreadsheet form comprises spreadsheet cells each including a data type and a value;
and
the polymorphic data source comprises records comprising one or more global fields including one or more discriminator fields, and comprising one or more context-sensitive fields, wherein a context-sensitive field is either available or unavailable depending on a value of one of the one or more discriminator fields;
the method comprising:
(a) Retrieving the record from the polymorphic data source;
(b) displaying a first label, associated with one of the one or more global fields in the spreadsheet form, in accordance with a global template associated with the polymorphic data source, wherein the global template includes a location in the spreadsheet form where the first label is displayed;
(c) setting a spreadsheet cell's data type and value to a data type and value of the one of the one or more global fields, wherein a location of the spreadsheet cell is included in the global template;
(d) marking a first of the one or more discriminator fields as a current discriminator field;
(e) determining a value of the current discriminator field and, based on the current discriminator field value, retrieving a first context-dependent template, wherein the first context-dependent template is associated with the polymorphic data source;
(f) displaying a second label, associated with one of the one or more context-sensitive fields, in the spreadsheet form in accordance with the first context-dependent template, wherein the one of the one or more context-sensitive fields is an available context-sensitive field and wherein the first context-dependent template determines a location in the spreadsheet form where the second label is displayed;
(g) determining if the current discriminator field is a last of the one or more discriminator fields;
and
(h) upon determining that the current discriminator field is not the last of the one or more discriminator fields, marking a next of the one or more discriminator fields as the current discriminator field and returning to step (e).

11 more elements

A system to display records from a polymorphic data source in a spreadsheet table including cells on a display screen of a computer, wherein the spreadsheet table includes cells organized in a first dimension and a second dimension that are orthogonal to each other, the system comprising:

a data storage device with non-transitory memory storing the polymorphic data;
an application server operable to access the data storage device and the polymorphic data;
a web server operable to provide access to the application server through a data network;
a client device operable to access the web server through the data network, wherein the client device includes one or more processors, a short-term memory, a non-transitory long-term memory, a network interface coupled to the data network, a data bus coupled with the one or more processors, short-term memory, long-term memory, network interface, and is coupled directly or indirectly with the display screen, wherein the one or more processors execute software instructions to display the spreadsheet table on the display screen, and the software instructions are operable to:
(a) retrieve one or more records from the polymorphic data source;
(b) associate a first of the one or more retrieved records with a first group of cells in the first dimension, mark a first of the one or more retrieved records as a current record, and mark a first group of cells in the first dimension as a current group in the first dimension;
(c) determine a record structure based on a discriminator field value in the current record, wherein the record structure specifies available fields and unavailable context-sensitive fields;
(d) associate fields in the current record with cells in the current group in the first dimension, mark cells associated with unavailable context-sensitive fields as unavailable, and mark and cells associated with available fields as available;
(e) make cells marked as unavailable visually distinct from cells marked as available;
(f) set types and values of cells marked as available in accordance with their respective associated fields in the current record;
(g) determine if a last of the one or more retrieved records has been associated with a group of cells in the first dimension;
and
(h) upon determining that the last of the one or more retrieved records has not been associated with a group of cells in the first dimension, associate a next of the one or more retrieved records with a next group of cells in the first dimension, mark the next of the one or more retrieved records as the current record, mark the next group of cells in the first dimension as the current group in the first dimension, and return to step (c).

10 more elements

A tangible non-transitory processor-readable medium including instructions executable by one or more processors to display records from a polymorphic data source in a spreadsheet table on a display screen of a computer, wherein:

the spreadsheet table includes cells organized in a first dimension and a second dimension that are orthogonal to each other;
the computer shows the spreadsheet table in a graphical user interface on the display screen;
and
the spreadsheet table associates cells with records in the first dimension and with fields in the second dimension;
and wherein the instructions when executed are operable for:
(a) retrieving one or more records from the polymorphic data source;
(b) associating a first of the one or more retrieved records with a first group in the first dimension, marking the first of the one or more retrieved records as a current record, and marking the first group in the first dimension as a current group in the first dimension;
(c) determining a record structure based on a discriminator field value in the current record, wherein the record structure specifies available fields and unavailable context-sensitive fields;
(d) associating fields in the current record with cells in the current group in the first dimension, and marking cells associated with unavailable context-sensitive fields as unavailable and cells associated with available fields as available;
(e) making cells marked as unavailable visually distinct from cells marked as available;
(f) setting types and values of cells marked as available in accordance with their respective associated fields in the current record;
(g) determining if a last of the one or more retrieved records has been associated with a group in the first dimension;
and
(h) upon determining that the last of the one or more retrieved records has not been associated with a group in the first dimension, associating a next of the one or more retrieved records with a next group in the first dimension, marking the next of the one or more retrieved records as the current record, and marking the next group in the first dimension as the current group in the first dimension, and returning to step (c).

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.