Abstract:
A user interface is composed using methods and systems that allow modifying or re-using existing user interfaces, or creating new user interfaces. In providing for such interfaces, context-sensitive or context specific attributes that are associated with a particular user, user groups, and/or application(s) are used as the basis of composition. This allows for the dynamic creation of user interfaces based upon the situation.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
   A user interface or UI is used by an operator or user to interact with an application program or programs (application) resident on a computer. The UI may or may not be part of the application. In certain cases, a UI may be called by an operating system running on the computer. Typically, the user UI is specific to the application, particularly tailored to specific users, and/or specific to a system under management (i.e., computer) that is running the application. 
   UIs may implement graphic objects, such as buttons and menus, which are represented to a user on a screen or display. Particular state transitions (transitions) and actions may be associated with specific graphic objects. For example, transitions and actions occur when the user activates a particular graphic object. Through the UI, the activation causes the particular graphic object to perform a specific task or cause a specific action. These graphic objects, and their associated transitions and actions, are particularly hard-coded into the UI, meaning that the graphic objects, and their associated transitions and actions, are written to handle specific situations. In other words, user interfaces and tools that implement UIs are generally monolithic and non-reusable. 
   There are cases when it is desirable to provide a different or modified UI to support different applications, users, and/or systems under management. For example, there may be a situation when it is desirable to provide a different transition or action associated with a graphic object in the UI. However, providing different or new UIs may involve extensive knowledge of the application and/or preexisting UI that supports the application. Furthermore, extensive revisions to preexisting UI code or new user UI code may be needed. 
   SUMMARY 
   Methods and computing devices are provided that enables the composition of context-sensitive user interface. Data objects that describe actions performed through a user interface, and acting on one ore more application programs are associated with context-sensitive attributes. A user interface is generated based on the associations, and provided to a user. 
   This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, or is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS 
     The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference number in different figures indicates similar or identical items. 
       FIG. 1  is an illustration of an exemplary server-client system that supports declarative and compositional user interface control generation. 
       FIG. 2  is an illustration of an exemplary client computer that provides a declarative and compositional user interface. 
       FIG. 3  is an illustration of an exemplary server computer that provides management models and user interface models. 
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a process for generating a declarative and compositional user interface. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a process that supports a user interface that is declaratively defined and composed. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     FIG. 1  shows an exemplary system  100  that supports declarative and compositional user interface control generation at a client computer  102 . In other implementations, system  100  may include multiple client computers, collectively the multiple computers may be viewed as a “system under management”. The client computer  102  may be one of various computing devices, including a desktop personal computer (PC), laptop PC, mainframe, etc. A user interface or UI  104  is provided and displayed on a display device or screen  106  which is connected to client computer  102 . The example UI  104  is generated and provided using the methods described below. In cases where a “system under management” is applicable, the particular UI  104  may be used by each of the multiple computers and/or multiple users of a division. Interaction with the UI  104  may be provided through one of various user operated devices (not shown for clarity), such as a keyboard, touchpad, mouse, etc. 
   In certain implementations, client computer  102  is a standalone device; however, in this example, client computer  102  is included in system  100 , along with a server computer  108 . Client computer  102  is connected to server computer  108  by a network  110 . The network  110  may include one or more networks, including the Internet. In particular, server computer  108 , as further discussed below, may provide management models and user interface (UI) models that allow customizable or configurable user interfaces (UI), such as UI  104 , at client computer  102 . Client computer  102  may also be connected to other computers, computing devices, storage devices, etc. through network  110 . 
   Client computer  102  includes a central processing unit, or one or more processors, as represented by processor  112 . Processor  112  may control or access a storage device or a memory  114 . Client computer  102  includes an operating system  116 , which in certain implementations, may reside in memory  114 . The client computer  102  includes one or more application programs or application(s)  118  that are controlled by the processor  112 . In particular, one or more of the applications  118  may be accessed or controlled by the UI  104 . 
   The client computer  102  includes a user interface (UI) engine or UI compositor  120 , which is farther described below. UI compositor  120  may be part of a platform and particularly support operating system  116 , or may be included in a development kit of applications that is used by client computer  102 . Some of the functions UI compositor  120  provides include instantiating user interfaces such as UI  104 ; accepting user activated instructions (e.g., mouse clicks); deciding based on the user activated instructions which of available transitions to invoke; and determining queries to run, where a query is used to determine a set of objects and actions to display after a transition. 
   A client side library  122 , which is further described below, is included in client computer  102 . Client side library  122  may include and provide data objects, which can be discrete UI code, to UI compositor  120 . Data objects, along with particular examples of data objects, are described below. The client side library  120  may also include management models and user interface (UI) models that are used by or provided to UI compositor  120 . 
   Management models and UI models, collectively referred to as “models” may be described or written using “system definition model” or SDM. SDM is a schema, construct, or modeling language that describes the behavior of applications (e.g. applications  118 ), and the relationships and/or interaction of components of different applications. In particular, SDM is an extensible markup language or XML based application modeling language. A modeling language, such as SDM, may be used to create definitions of distributed systems; a distributed system being a set of related software and hardware resources working together to accomplish a common function. In the examples that are described, SDM is referred to; however, it is contemplated that other constructs or modeling languages may be employed. In specific, modeling languages can allow a user interface, such as UI  104 , to be built declaratively. Such UIs may also be associated with specific components of a computer or “system under management”, by associating corresponding models. The models, in combination with UI compositor  120  can provide for a flexible, customizable, and extensible user interface (UI) framework to manage applications (e.g., applications  118 ). 
   The client computer  102  further includes external or real world interfaces  124  which may include interfaces to other non-SDM objects such as “.NET” objects, and interfaces to particular operating systems and platforms such as UNIX or Microsoft Windows® operating systems and platforms. Client computer  102  includes input/output  126  which may support the sending and receiving of communication data over network  110  and server computer  108 . For example, particular transportation protocols, such as remote desktop protocol (RDP), and communication protocols, such as transmission control protocol over Internet protocol (TCP/IP), may be implemented using input/output  126  which may include the proper encoders, decoders, and other devices to support such protocols (i.e., communication). 
   The server computer  108  includes a central processing unit, or one or more processors as represented by processor  128 . Processor  128  may control or access a storage device or a memory  130 . Server computer  108  includes an operating system  132  which may reside in memory  130 . The server computer  108  includes one or more application programs or applications  134  controlled by processor  128 . Applications  134  may particularly include SDM applications. The SDM applications may include applications that access the client side library  122  of client computer  102 . Specific examples of SDM applications are applications directed to, based upon information in the management model, enforce the configuration, deploy an application or configuration to a system, discover the configuration of a system, or monitor the configuration of a system. 
   Server computer  108  may include an SDM service  136  that provides models (i.e., management models and user interface models) to client computer  102 . An input/output  138  is included in server computer  108 , which supports communication over network  110  and to client computer  102 . As discussed above, particular transportation protocols, such as RDP, and communication protocols, such as TCP/IP, may be used in sending and receiving of communication data over network  110 . Input/output  138  may include the necessary encoders, decoders, and other devices to support communication over network  110  and to client computer  102 . In particular, through the input/output  138 , applications  134  may communicate or access the client side library  122 . 
     FIG. 2  shows client computer  102  and UI  104  that is a declarative and compositional user interface. Artifacts are presented on UI  104 , where artifacts are graphical objects that include buttons, menus, etc. which may be activated by a user. In particular, the user interface  104  allows context-sensitive selection of the artifacts, and navigation between the artifacts or sets of the artifacts. 
   Data objects may be defined as models or code that describe or provide for UI (e.g., UI  104 ) behavior or actions. Examples of data objects include user interface controls  200 , tasks  202 , available transitions  204 , and management objects  206 . Controls  200  may provide or describe actions that are performed when an artifact is activated or initiated by a user. The management objects  206  may be scoped to a given context by a query performed against the SDM store, which contains a representation of the system to be managed. 
   For artifacts that are shown on UI  104 , there may be a set of available transitions  204  which are stored as part of meta-data or a UI model for a current view of UI  104 . Examples of available transitions include the following actions: “display all of the computers which host this application”; “display all the groups that this user is a member of”; and “display all of the user objects in the engineering department”. The available transitions  204  may be specified by a UI model stored in the client side library  122 . UI models may be connected to an artifact either directly (i.e. the transition is defined directly on the class of the selection) or via inheritance (i.e. the transition is defined on a class from which the selected object or artifact class inherits). 
   To further illustrate available transitions  204 , an example of a user role is described. A “user role” is defined as the function a user or group of users (e.g., administrator, help desk engineer, end-user) has in an organization. Because a user role may have particular characteristics or requirements, the UI for the user role may be context-sensitive or based on the particular requirements of the user role. A context-sensitive UI or user experience generation may be applicable to situations other than user roles, such as computer roles, geographic locations or divisions in an organization. A context-sensitive UI can be driven by any available characteristic of the user, computer, or grouping that is appropriate. A UI model for the particular user role, such as administrator, may describe a list view for displaying collections of artifacts which represent UI data objects. Each of the artifacts or data objects would be displayed in the list view, a type specific to the administrator user role. A UI model for a different user role, such as a help desk engineer, may describe an alternative view, such as a topology view, for displaying the same collection of artifacts which represent UI data objects. Therefore, a UI (e.g. UI  104 ) could dynamically generate a UI based upon the user&#39;s role, displaying the appropriate view. In this example, there may be a base user role UI model. The base user role UI model would have attached to it a transition called “display contained objects”. The administrator UI model, inherits from the base user role UI model and overrides a query specification to indicate exactly how contained objects (i.e., data objects) are queried for, providing a declarative mechanism for specifying UI available transitions. 
   Using a similar mechanism as described above in regards to available transitions  204 , an artifact or data object may also be associated with a set of operations or tasks  202 . Tasks  202  may include a specification as to how a task is exposed (i.e., accessed); a specification as to how the task is performed, including pointers to executives, operating system shells, and/or command line script; and a specification as to how completion of the task is notified, results returned, and displayed to a user. 
   A UI model (i.e., set of meta-data) may be associated with each artifact or data object. In particular, the UI model may describe how an artifact is displayed. Information in the UI model may include specifications for format of data display, information (i.e., meta-data) sufficient for data binding, and differentiation information describing UI controls that are used for which user and machine roles. When other differentiators may be needed, the UI model may provide for several functions, including describing how to display a particular class of artifacts or data objects as part of a list, how to display and edit the attributes of the particular artifact or data objects, and other miscellaneous information. 
   The structure of a UI model may be attached in parallel to class definition hierarchy of an artifact or data object classes, allowing for the provision of a scaled mechanism for customization and tailoring of a UI to specific task collections, and specific user skill sets or attributes as to a particular UI (e.g., attributes for a division). This example structure allows for a way of filtering properties, so that only specified properties are available to a particular UI; a way to attach code fragments to implement business logic to specific UI events; a way to chose different standard controls to display a particular artifact or display object type, and specify data bindings of a UI to an artifact or display object type; allow for replacement of the UI (i.e. specify an assembly containing a new control, and the data bindings that connect it to the object type); and allow a UI to inherit from one class to another, making it easier to create a UI for a new component of a system without the need to do a lot of custom work. 
     FIG. 3  shows server computer  108  which provides management models and UI models. A memory or SDM data store  300  that is included as part of SDM service  138  which is used to store the available management and UI models, and the representation of the system under management. As discussed above, SDM service  136  supports or provides “models” to client computer  102 . In particular, management models  302  and UI models  304  are used to describe a UI, such as UI  104 . Management models  302  and UI models  304  specifically define or describe the behavior or interrelationship of parts that are used to compose a UI. 
   In this example, the server computer  108  through its SDM service  136  provides predefined “models” in management models  302  and UI models  304 ; however, it is contemplated, that a user or other party may modified “models” of management models  302  and UI models  304  to compose or provide a unique or particular UI to client computer  102 . 
   Server computer  108 , and particularly SDM service  136 , includes an SDM store  300 . As described above, the server computer  108  may provide management models  302  and UI models  304 . In this example, management models  302  and UI models  304  are written or described in SDM. Furthermore, management models  302  and UI models  304  to support particular users, implementations, and/or applications as desired. 
     FIG. 4  shows a process  400  that provides for declarative and compositional user interface generation. The process  400  is illustrated as a collection of blocks in a logical flow graph, which represent a sequence of operations that can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. In the context of software, the blocks represent computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, perform the recited operations. Although described as a flowchart, it is contemplated that certain blocks may take place concurrently or in a different order. 
   At block  402 , attributes or requirements for a particular user interface or UI for a specific user or user group, such as a division, are defined. The attributes may be directed as to how particular artifacts of a UI are presented to the user or user group, how transitions are to perform when a user activates an artifact on the UI, and specific tasks to be performed for the user or user group. A management model may be created or defined with the particular user or user group attributes. The management model may either be provided through a computer or device (e.g., server computer  108 ) than the computer or device (e.g., client computer  102 ) that implements the UI. 
   At block  404 , the attributes for particular applications that are controlled by the UI are defined. Furthermore, attributes associated with the computer, or multiple computers (computer group) or a “system under management”, are defined. Such attributes are unique to the application and/or or system under management, and are particular to the UI. The management model described in block  402  may be provided with these particular application specific attributes. 
   At block  406 , other attributes may be defined for other contexts. Examples of different contexts include individual users, particular application programs, and any exception situations. The management model that is described in block  402  may be provided with these particular attributes. The attributes that are defined are context-sensitive and particular to the UI. 
   At block  408 , based on the defined attributes described in blocks  402 ,  404 , and  406 , data objects are determined. The determining is particularly directed to the data objects and the defined attributes as processed by the management model described in block  402 . Examples of data objects in which the associations are performed include UI controls, tasks, available transitions, and management objects. The data objects performed particular actions that support the UI. Associations of data objects may be based on inheritance, where a particular association inherits from a higher level association. 
   At block  410 , the data objects and their associations with the defined attributes are processed. The processing may be performed through the management model. A UI model that defines how artifacts that represent the data objects are presented in a UI to a user. The UI based on the UI model, and composed and generated based on the described and defined attributes is presented to the user. 
     FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a process that supports a user interface that is declaratively defined and composed. The process  500  is illustrated as a collection of blocks in a logical flow graph, which represent a sequence of operations that can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. In the context of software, the blocks represent computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, perform the recited operations. In an implementation, the user interface compositor  120  as described in  FIGS. 1 and 2  above may implement process  500 . Although described as a flowchart, it is contemplated that certain blocks may take place concurrently or in a different order. 
   At block  502 , management models and UI models that support a particular UI or UIs is received and process. A particular management model and UI model may be provided for a UI specific to a user or user group. Furthermore, customizing of a UI may also directed, for example, compositing a UI from different applications into a single application without having to re-write the UI. 
   At block  504 , data objects, such as UI controls, tasks, available transitions, and management objects are received and process according to the management model of block  502 . The UI, and particularly UI artifacts, are displayed according to the UI model of block  502 . The UI model may include specifications directed to the format of data display (which includes data binding), UI control differentiation, the display of different classes of artifacts or data objects, and display attributes of particular artifacts. 
   At block  506 , a user may activate artifacts on the UI, where artifacts are associated with particular data objects. User commands activating the artifacts (data objects) may be through one of various UI devices, such as a mouse. Initiating a UI device action, such as a mouse click, initiates the commands, or recycle the process (i.e. if it&#39;s a transition it will cycle back through painting the UI again). 
   At block  508 , through the management model, and particularly the associations of data objects with particular actions as defined by the management model, application programs or applications supported by the UI are acted upon. For example, a user may activate an artifact on the UI, where the artifact is associated with a particular data object. Based on how the management model defines the data object, particular actions are performed by the data object. 
   CONCLUSION 
   The above-described methods and devices describe composing and generating a context-sensitive user interface. Although the invention has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing the claimed invention.