Patent ID: 6559860
Filing Date: 2003-05-06
Classification: G06T,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for joining graphical objects displayed on a graphical window of a display screen of a computer system so that movement of one of said graphical objects will correspondingly move another one of said graphical objects joined therewith, said method comprising:operating the computer system in an object-oriented environment; providing a server operatively connected with the computer system and adapted to communicate data across a network; providing first and second graphical objects; dragging a representation of the first graphical object in the graphical window in response to position commands from a user interface coupled with the computer system to position the representation of the first graphical object in the graphical window in a desired orientation; dragging a representation of the second graphical object in the graphical window in response to position commands from the user interface to position the representation of the second graphical object in the graphical window in a desired orientation relative to the position of the representation of the first graphical object, said steps of dragging the representations of the respective first and second graphical objects occurring in a design state; operatively joining said first and second graphical objects at an anchor point, wherein one of the graphical objects has an anchor property corresponding to the graphical object's position relative to the anchor point; communicating across the network with the server to automatically, without user interaction, receive data from an automated component where such data corresponds to a position change of one said graphical objects; and moving one of said graphical objects in response to its receipt during a runtime state of said data corresponding to a position change and correspondingly moving another one of said graphical objects joined therewith.