Patent Publication Number: US-2010131889-A1

Title: User interface to explore data objects and their related supplementary data objects

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention generally relates to the field of computer generated user interfaces. More particularly the invention relates to an user interface for exploring data objects and their related supplementary data objects. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The user interfaces currently available typically do not allow a user to explore data objects in an intuitive way. The amount of information presented to the user is also limited to immediate context of the data object being presented. If the user wishes to explore the data objects further, he may have to leave his current use context to log on to a different application or a system or another user interface to access other information related to the data object he is currently viewing. For example, conventional user interfaces are limited to displaying customer information such as a customer name, address, contact person, customer identification, and sales orders related to the customer. If the user wishes to explore further details such as details of each of the sales order of the customer or the materials in the sales order, the user has to typically log into a different application or refer to another user interface to see the details. This is not very convenient because the user may have to switch between various user interfaces to comprehend all the details of a particular data object, and in that process, may lose the context of the information. The user may face this problem often since the contextual information of a data object is typically not presented in a single user interface. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Described herein is a user interface for interactively exploring data objects associated with a business context. The user interface includes a business data explorer having an object navigation panel and a side panel. The object navigation panel is operable for displaying a first one of the data objects as a data object of current interest to a user for further exploration. The side panel is operable for displaying a second one of the data objects as a supplementary data object, based at least in part on the business context defined at least in part by an application having the data objects. The business data explorer is operable for displaying the second one of the data objects in the object navigation panel as the data object of current interest to the user for further exploration and in response to a second user selection of a portion of the second one of the data objects, presenting at least one additional supplementary data object based at least in part on the business context defined by the user selected portion of the second one of the data objects. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The following description includes discussion of figures having illustrations given by way of example of implementations of embodiments of the invention. The drawings should be understood by way of example, and not by way of limitation. As used herein, references to one or more “embodiments” are to be understood as describing a particular feature, structure, or characteristic included in at least one implementation of the invention. Thus, phrases such as “in one embodiment” or “in an alternate embodiment” appearing herein describe various embodiments and implementations of the invention, and do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. However, they are also not necessarily mutually exclusive. 
         FIG. 1  is an example screen display of a business data explorer to display a first data object of current interest in an object navigation panel and a second data object as a supplementary data object in a side panel of the business data explorer according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is an exemplary screen display of the business data explorer of  FIG. 1  for exploring a user selected supplementary data object according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 3  is an exemplary screen display of the business data explorer of  FIG. 2  for displaying a list of additional supplementary data objects based on a business context defined by a user selected portion of the supplementary data object according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 4  is an exemplary screen display of the business data explorer for displaying an additional supplementary data object which is selected from the list of additional supplementary data objects of  FIG. 3  according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 5  is an exemplary screen display of a query view in the side panel to view and search for additional supplementary data objects based on a keyword according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 6  is an exemplary screen display of a dashboard view in the business data explorer according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a block diagram of a system for displaying the business data explorer user interface panel according to an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  is an example screen display of an user interface panel of a business data explorer  100  operable for displaying a first data object  110  of current interest in an object navigation panel  105  and a second data object as a supplementary data object in a side panel  115  of the business data explorer  100  according to an embodiment of the invention. The object navigation panel  105  displays a first data object  110  that is of current interest to the user. The side panel  115  displays one or more supplementary data objects that are related to the first data object  110  based on a business context of the application. The business context is defined by the application. In one embodiment, a data object is any data entity that represents information about another entity. The data objects could include but are not limited to, records in a data base, data tables, data fields, analytics, business objects, charts, images, textual description, etc. 
     For example, in a product lifecycle management application when a user is exploring a material object  110 , the supplementary data objects related to the material object  110  include, but are not limited to, a list of customers to whom the material object  110  is sold, analytics about the history of the quality notifications received for the material object  110 , various quality notifications received for the material object  110 , a bill of material in which the material object  110  is used, a list of changes made to the material object  110 , and a list of customers to whom the material object  110  is sold. All or a subset of the supplementary data objects are displayed in the side panel  115 . 
     As illustrated in the business data explorer  100 , the material object  110 , which is the object of current interest to the user, is presented in the object navigation panel  105 . The object navigation panel  105  presents details of material object  110  such as a material number, material name, material description, a picture of a material, a unit of measure, and dimensions of the material. The side panel  115  presents the supplementary data objects such as analytics about the quality notifications history  120  for the material object  110 , quality notifications  125  received for the material object  110 , a bill of materials  130  in which the material object  110  is used, and a list of changes  135  done to the material object  110 . 
     The supplementary data objects may be displayed in various formats that include but are not limited to, a chart, a picture, a table and a text. For example, the quality notifications history  120  is displayed as a line chart and the bill of materials  130  in which the material object  110  is used is displayed as a table in the side panel  115 . Furthermore, the display of each of the supplementary data objects may be customized. The customization options include but are not limited to, changing the order in which the supplementary data objects are displayed, changing a format, minimizing, hiding, adding, and removing the supplementary data objects. Furthermore, the business data explorer  100  may be configured to change position of the side panel  115  on either left side or right side of the business data explorer  100 . The side panel also has a query view  140  and a dashboard view  145  that display various additional supplementary data objects as explained further below with reference to  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 . 
       FIG. 2  is an exemplary screen display of the business data explorer of  FIG. 1  for exploring a user selected supplementary data object according to an embodiment of the invention. The business data explorer  200  allows the user to further explore any of the supplementary data objects displayed in side panel  210 . The user may further explore the supplementary data object in the side panel  210  by bringing it to the object navigation panel  205 . For example, the supplementary data object, quality notification history  215 , may be brought to the object navigation panel  205  by user actions such as dragging or double clicking the quality notification history  215  chart. 
     The quality notification history  225  displayed in the object navigation panel  205  may be further explored in various ways using data object settings  220 . For example, format of quality notification history  225  may be changed from chart to any other format such as a table, the chart type may be changed to a bar chart, the X-axis and Y-axis values may be changed and the X-axis and Y-axis may be swapped. In an embodiment, the X-axis of the chart which is scaled on Month/Year basis may be scaled down to Week/Month or Day/Week to explore the quality notifications received on a daily or weekly basis. Similarly, the X-axis may also be scaled up to Quarter/Year or Half/Year. In another embodiment, the Y-axis value may be changed from Complaint quantity to say, for example, average time taken to solve the complaint. Furthermore, the period for which the quality notifications are shown may also be changed. 
       FIG. 3  is an exemplary screen display of the business data explorer of  FIG. 2  for displaying a list of additional supplementary data objects based on a business context defined by a user selected portion of the supplementary data object according to an embodiment of the invention. The user may further explore the supplementary data object by selecting a portion of the supplementary data object and fetching a list of additional supplementary data objects that are related to the supplementary data object based on a business context of the application and the selected portion of the supplementary data object. 
     For example, the user may select a data point  310  on the quality notification history  305  chart and obtain a list of queries  315  that in turn is operable for obtaining additional supplementary objects related to the chosen data point  310 . In an embodiment, the list of queries  315  is generated in the business data explorer  300  when the data point  310  is selected via a mouse click. Queries in the list of queries  315  are related to the data point  310  based on a business context of the data point  310 . In one embodiment, the business context can be determined my matching the attributes of the data point  310  with queries that take data values of these attributes as input. For example, attributes of the data point  310  such as a material number of material object  110 , an X co-ordinate and Y co-ordinate attribute names (e.g., quantity of complaints and months, respectively) are used to find queries that take these attributes as input. After the list of queries  315  is generated, the user may choose a query from the list of queries  315  to obtain the additional supplementary data object that is related to the data point  310 . On choosing the query, the additional supplementary data object is displayed in the business data explorer. 
     For example, on choosing a query “Quality Issue Analysis by Damage Code”  320 , the business data explorer  400  presents the additional supplementary data object  405  that displays all damages reported for the material in the month “May 2008” as illustrated in  FIG. 4 . Similarly, the list of queries  315  contains queries such as “Sales Orders”  325  that displays a list of sales orders for that material in “May 2008” and “Stock History for Material”  330  that displays stock history of the material in “May 2008”. 
     The business data explorer as explained in figures  FIG. 1 ,  FIG. 2 ,  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4  enables a user to explore a data object and various supplementary data objects that are related to the data object by coordinating the navigation through a single user interface panel. The business data explorer obtains the supplementary data objects from various systems and presents them in a single user interface without requiring the user to leave their current user interface context. 
       FIG. 5  is an exemplary screen display of a query view in the side panel to view and search for additional supplementary data objects based on a keyword according to an embodiment of the invention. The query view  520  in the side panel  505  allows the user to search for additional supplementary data objects related to the data object displayed in the object navigation panel  510 . For example, the user may search for stock information of the material object  110  by entering a search keyword “Materials in Stock”  530  in the query view  520 . Query list  535  displays additional supplementary objects having stock related information of the material object  110 . The user may choose a query from the query list  535  to display the additional supplementary object in the object navigation panel  510 . For example, the query “Stock Overview”  525  displays additional supplementary data object, “Stock Overview last 12 months”  515  in object navigation panel  510  of business data explorer  500 . 
     In an embodiment, the query view  520  retrieves a list of all available supplementary data objects that are related to the material object  110  if no keyword is entered in the query view. 
       FIG. 6  is an exemplary screen display of a dashboard view in the business data explorer of  FIG. 1  according to an embodiment of the invention. The user may switch to dashboard view  600  by clicking the tab dashboard  145  in the side panel  115 . The user gets a comprehensive view of various supplementary data objects related to the material object  110  in the dashboard view  600 . For example, dashboard view  600  displays additional supplementary data objects such as quality notification history  605 , reasons for damages as a bar chart  610 , reasons for damages as a pie chart  615 , a net sales per customer  620 , list of sales orders for material  625 , and where-used in BOMs  630 . 
     Further the user may customize the dashboard view  600  in various ways that include but are not limited to, changing an order of displaying the additional supplementary data objects, changing a format, minimizing, hiding, adding, and removing the additional supplementary data objects. 
       FIG. 7  is a block diagram of a system for displaying the business data explorer user interface panel according to an embodiment of the invention. System  700  includes a processor  715  that executes the instructions provided by memory  720  to generate the business data explorer user interface panel  710  in the electronic display device  705 . The system  700  obtains data objects, supplementary data objects and additional supplementary data objects from one or more applications over a communication network. For example, in an enterprise business scenario, the data objects, the supplementary data objects and the additional supplementary data objects may be obtained from applications including but not limited to supply relationship management application, customer relationship management application, supply chain management application, product lifecycle management application and human resource management application. 
     Embodiments of the invention may include various steps as set forth above. The steps may be embodied in machine-executable program code which causes a general-purpose or special-purpose processor to perform certain steps. Alternatively, these steps may be performed by specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components. 
     Embodiments of the present invention may also be provided as a machine-readable medium for storing the machine-executable instructions. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, flash memory, optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of machine-readable media suitable for tangibly storing electronic instructions. The machine readable medium can provide the instructions stored therein to a computer system comprising a processor capable of reading and executing the instructions to implement the method steps described herein. 
     It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to one embodiment or an embodiment means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. These references are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined as suitable in one or more embodiments of the invention. 
     Throughout the foregoing description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details were set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. The detailed description as set forth above includes descriptions of method steps. However, one skilled in the art will understand that the order of the steps set forth above is meant for the purposes of illustration only and the claimed invention is not meant to be limited only to the specific order in which the steps are set forth. Accordingly, the scope and spirit of the invention should be judged in terms of the claims which follow.