US 8,020,110 B2 · Methods for defining queries, generating query results and displaying same

Abstract

Documents are grouped into a plurality of subjects. For documents associated with each subject, a document hierarchy is established that includes a plurality of hierarchical levels. A three-dimensional landscape defined by x, y and z orthogonal axes is displayed on a screen, and a plurality of document stacks are arranged in the landscape. Each document stack in the landscape corresponds to a subject, and has a plurality of layers arranged perpendicular to the length of the stack. Each layer in each document stack corresponds to one of the hierarchical levels of the hierarchy established for the subject corresponding to the stack. Images representing documents assigned to each level of the hierarchy are displayed in the layer of the stack corresponding to such level. A user navigates among the document images displayed in the landscape using a cursor.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A method of defining a query and generating a resulting hierarchical tree comprising:

(a) graphically selecting nodes and one or more edges and graphically placing representations of the selected nodes and one or more edges in a graphical user interface in order to create a vertical stack of nodes and one or more edges respectively representing object types and link types;
(b) defining the query based on the stack;
and
(c) generating the resulting hierarchical tree by applying the query to an underlying data store, wherein a top node of the stack defines one or more top-level elements in the resulting hierarchical tree, a node below the top node of the stack defines child elements of the one or more top-level elements of the resulting hierarchical tree, and an edge of the stack connecting the top node and the node below the top node defines the relationship between the one or more top-level elements and their child elements in the resulting hierarchical tree.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Methods for defining queries, generating query results and displaying same

Life of this patent

Methods for defining queries, generating query results and displaying same

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims10