US 7,689,583 B2Granted

Flexible data presentation enabled by metadata

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsDavid M. Bozich, Jeanine E. Spence, Kathleen Linscott, Rob Nichols, Wai Chan, Scott Neilson, Craig Combel

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Abstract

Architecture that defines a document or portions thereof as data elements that are related and categorized. A data catalog is created that uses a schema for the data elements and a set of relationships, attributes and values that further define the data elements, all stored as metadata about the data elements. The metadata is employed to enable the application, display surface, and user to see only data relevant to the task at hand. The positioning and grouping of controls, control characteristics, and control behavior at the display surface is facilitated by forms which are dynamically populated for presentation and which are driven directly by the data catalog. The catalog can be made aware of device parameters, for example, the display size and resolution thereby enabling data to be displayed differently based upon the device parameters.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented system that facilitates data management, the computer-implemented system having a processing unit executing computer-executable components stored in memory comprising:

an information model for specifying information from one or more documents, wherein a document accessed by a user on a computer is broken down into data elements as the user makes changes to the document, each data element representing a subset of data included in the document, the data elements stored in a database on the computer as a data catalog of unique data elements and data element relationships in metadata, the metadata associated with each unique data element in the data catalog defining one or more data sources for accessing the data element, a context for the data element based on user interaction with the document, and priority information for prioritizing the one or more data sources and prioritizing the data element for viewing, wherein the metadata in the data catalog is updated when other documents that reference a same unique data element identified in the data catalog are changed using one or more applications;
and
a display component driven by the information model for automatically displaying relevant data elements across multiple documents that are identified in the data catalog, the relevant data elements accessed from the one or more data sources and surfaced to a display layer for viewing based on the priority information defined by the metadata associated with the relevant data elements and a current user activity determined to be relevant to the context defined by the metadata associated with the relevant data elements, wherein the relevant data elements across multiple documents are surfaced and viewed even if one or more of the applications are unavailable.

A computer-implemented method of managing data, comprising:

specifying a document accessed by a user on a computer;
breaking down the document into a set of data elements as the user makes changes to the document, each data element representing a subset of data included in the document;
storing each data element as a unique entity that has a relationship to another unique entity in a database on the computer as a data catalog organized as a set of related data elements;
storing attributes and relationships of the related data elements in metadata in the data catalog, the metadata data for each unique entity defining one or more source locations for accessing the entity, a context for the entity based on user interaction with the document, and priority information for prioritizing the one or more source locations and prioritizing the entity for viewing;
updating the metadata in the data catalog when other documents that reference a same unique data entity identified in the data catalog are changed using one or more applications;
and
driving a flexible display layer directly from the data catalog for automatically displaying relevant unique entities across multiple documents that are identified in the data catalog, the relevant unique entities accessed from the one or more source locations and surfaced to a display layer for viewing based on the priority information defined by the metadata for the relevant entities and a current user activity determined to be relevant to the context defined by the metadata associated with the relevant entities, wherein the relevant unique entities across multiple documents are surfaced and viewed even if one or more of the applications are unavailable.

4 more elements

A computer for data management, comprising:

computer-implemented means for defining a schema for storing data from one or more documents generated by an application, wherein a document accessed by a user on a computer is broken down into data elements as the user makes changes to the document using the application, each data element representing a subset of data included in the document, the data elements stored in a database on the computer as a data catalog of unique data elements;
computer-implemented means for describing a set of relationships, attributes and values of the unique data elements in metadata in the data catalog, the metadata for each unique data element defining one or more data sources for accessing the data element, a context for the data element based on user interaction with the document, and priority information for prioritizing the one or more data sources and prioritizing the data element for viewing, wherein the metadata in the data catalog is updated when other documents that reference a same unique data element identified in the data catalog are changed using one or more applications;
computer-implemented means for automatically sensing availability of the data elements from the one or more data sources defined by the metadata;
computer-implemented means for automatically surfacing relevant data elements across multiple documents that are identified in the data catalog and related data, the relevant data elements accessed from the one or more data sources and surfaced to a first display layer for viewing based on the priority information defined by the metadata associated with the relevant data elements and user interaction with the first display layer determined to be relevant to the context defined by the metadata associated with the relevant data elements, wherein the relevant data elements across multiple documents are surfaced and viewed even if one or more of the applications are unavailable, and wherein the related data is surfaced and viewed in a second display layer;
and
computer-implemented means for adjusting presentation of the relevant data elements and the related data by the computer based on device parameters.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.