Abstract:
A computer managed communication network with user interactive access via a plurality of display terminals and including a plurality of network objects, each respectfully associated with one of a plurality of linked network nodes. The network includes means such as databases for storing data representing attributes of network objects. There is graphically displayed on at least one of said display terminals, at least a portion of said linked network nodes and associated objects. In addition, there is a user interactive implementation for activating a transient display of a selected attribute of one of said displayed objects proximate to said object in combination with user interactive means for selecting the attribute to be transiently displayed. Preferably, the attribute is dynamically selected by user interactive means for activating the display of an attribute menu during the time of said transient display so that another attribute may be selected during said time.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED COPENDING PATENT APPLICATIONS 
     The following two patent applications which have the same inventorship as the present invention and are assigned to a common assignee cover subject matter related to the subject matter of the present invention: A SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING A COMPUTER MANAGED NETWORK LAYOUT WITH A FIRST TRANSIENT DISPLAY OF A USER SELECTED PRIMARY ATTRIBUTE OF AN OBJECT AND A SUPPLEMENTARY TRANSIENT DISPLAY OF SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES, R. R. Scaer et. al., (Ser. No. 08/972,052), and A SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING A COMPUTER MANAGED NETWORK LAYOUT WITH VARYING TRANSIENCE DISPLAY OF USER SELECTED ATTRIBUTES OF A PLURALITY OF DISPLAYED NETWORK OBJECTS, R. R. Scaer et. al., (Ser. No. 08/971,252) 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to computer managed communication networks and particularly to computer controlled user interactive display terminals for graphically displaying portions of such networks including linked nodes and associated network objects. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The 1990&#39;s decade has been marked by a societal technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry, the communications industry and the consumer electronics industry. This advance has been even further accelerated by the extensive consumer and business involvement in the internet over the past two years. As a result of these changes, it seems as if virtually all aspects of human endeavor in the industrialized world will potentially involve human-computer interfaces, and especially such interfaces to communication networks such as the internet. As a result of these profound changes, there is a need to make computer directed activities accessible to a substantial portion of the world&#39;s population which, up to a year or two ago, was computer-illiterate, or at best computer indifferent. In order for the vast computer supported market places to continue and be commercially productive, it will be necessary for a large segment of computer indifferent consumers, workers and business people to be involved in computer interfaces. In addition because of the vast amount of information potentially available through networks such as the internet, there has been an increasing demand on the part of relatively sophisticated users for implementations which make display terminal access to the internet less cluttered and confusing and of course easier to use. 
     The present invention is directed to the problems of providing less cluttered and easier graphical display access to communication network nodes, objects associated with such nodes, as well as the attributes of such objects. In solution of such problems, it makes use of transient displays in which user selected attributes of such nodes and objects may be displayed. 
     In the past, transient displays have been used effectively in connection with user interactive graphical interfaces to computer functions which use interfaces utilizing icon arrays. For simplicity and ease of use, such icons may not have adjacent alphanumeric descriptors. However, in order to help new users to become familiar with the icon functions, some recent interface systems have been set up so that if the user via his mouse or otherwise controlled cursor hovers on or near an unmarked icon, there will appear a transient display of the icon descriptor. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a computer managed communication network with user interactive access via a plurality of display terminals and including a plurality of network objects, each respectfully associated with one of a plurality of linked network nodes. The network includes means such as databases for storing data representing attributes of network objects. Means are provided for graphically displaying on at least one of said display terminals, at least a portion of said linked network nodes and associated objects. In addition, there is provided user interactive means for activating a transient display of a selected attribute of one of said displayed objects proximate to said object in combination with user interactive means for selecting the attribute to be transiently displayed. Preferably, the attribute is dynamically selected by user interactive means for activating the display of an attribute menu during the time of said transient display so that another attribute may be selected during said time. 
     It should be noted that the stored data representing the object attributes is not necessarily stored static data. The data storage means for providing the selected attribute may be dynamic i.e., the selected data attributes may be calculated when selected or it may be dynamically combined from several databases. 
     In accordance with another aspect of this invention, means are provided for displaying the selected attribute of said transient display in a portion of said display apart from said transient display and beyond the duration of said transient display. This additional display may be maintained until another transient display of an object is activated. 
     The system of the present invention may further include means for sorting said displayed network objects according to the value of a selected attribute whereby the said transient display may be activated for said displayed network objects in the order of said sort. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a data processing system including a central processing unit which is capable of implementing the transient display of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a generalized diagrammatic view of an internet portion upon which the present invention may implemented; 
     FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a display screen on which a network portion is graphically represented; 
     FIG. 4 is the display screen view of FIG. 3 with an interactive menu for selecting attributes to be displayed transiently; 
     FIG. 5 is the display screen view of FIG. 3 with the value of the selected attribute of a designated object transiently displayed; 
     FIG. 6 is the display screen of FIG. 5 after the transient display with a menu from which the next attribute may be selected; 
     FIG. 7 is the display screen of FIG. 5 but with the menu from which the next attribute is to be selected and displayed during the previous transient display; 
     FIG. 8 is the display screen of FIG. 6 with the value of the next selected attribute transiently displayed; 
     FIGS. 9 and 10 are display screens like that of FIG. 3 to illustrate an object sort routine with FIG. 9 representing the screen before a sort based on the object-type attribute, and FIG. 10 representing the screen after the sort; 
     FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the development of a transient display process of the present invention; 
     FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the running of the transient display process described with respect to FIG. 11; and 
     FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the steps in a general sort routine which may be used in sorting displayed network objects according to values of selected attributes. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Before going into the details of specific embodiments, it will be helpful to understand from a more general perspective the various elements and method which may be used to implement the present invention. Since the present invention is directed to transient display expedients to improve the user-friendliness of graphical display interfaces to network object attributes, we will not go into great detail in describing the networks to which the present invention is applicable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,244, Dev et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,399, Kuwamoto et al. adequately detail conventional networks to which the present invention would be applicable including appropriate network management and display terminal access to such networks. Reference has also been made to the applicability of the present invention to a global network such the internet. For details on internet nodes, objects and links, reference is made to the text,  Mastering the Internet , G. H. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc. Alameda, Calif., 1996. 
     Any data communication system which interconnects or links computer controlled systems or network objects at various sites or network nodes defines a communications network. A network may be as simple as two linked computers or it may be any combination of LANS (Local Area Networks) or WANS (Wide Area Networks). Of course, the internet is a global network of a heterogeneous mix of computer technologies and operating systems. At each level in a network hierarchy, the unit may considered as a network object. For example, since the internet connects networks of computers, a particular corporate network could be an internet object. Then the particular LAN of each department in the corporate network would be an object. At high levels, regional networks representative of cities could be objects. Likewise, computer controlled objects could be linked together by function to form networks which in turn could be linked into the internet backbone as network objects characterized by functions as accounts receivable/payable or video-on-demand distribution. Higher level objects are linked to the lower level objects in the hierarchy through a variety of network server computers. For example a video-on-demand distribution network could comprise several video server repository sites each having its unique collection of stored films; each of the sites would be network objects and the video distribution network itself would be an object on the internet. Of course at each level in the hierarchy, each object is associated with its own node. 
     In the subsequent, more specific descriptions of the preferred embodiment, the attributes and the storage of attributes will be discussed. It will be understood that the data representing particular object attributes or the data from which such particular attributes may be calculated dynamically may be stored in association with the object itself, a computer server managing the object or in a broad database associated with the overall network management. 
     In addition, for convenience in description of the operation of the various transient display implementations of the present invention, some simple object attributes may be used. It will be understood, that the implementations should be equally applicable in the reading of more complex attributes. 
     Referring to FIG. 1, a typical data processing system is shown which may function as the computer controlled display terminal used in implementing the transient display functions in the present invention. A central processing unit (CPU), such as one of the PowerPC microprocessors available from International Business Machines Corporation (PowerPC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation) is provided and interconnected to various other components by system bus  12 . An operating system  41  runs on CPU  10  and provides control and is used to coordinate the function of the various components of FIG.  1 . Operating system  41  may be one of the commercially available operating systems such as DOS, or the OS/2 operating system available from International Business Machines Corporation (OS/2 is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation). A programming system application  40  to be subsequently described in detail runs in conjunction with operating system  41  and provides output calls to the operating system  41  which implement the various functions to be performed by the application  40 . 
     A read only memory (ROM)  16  is connected to CPU  10 , via bus  12  and includes the basic input/output system (BIOS) that controls the basic computer functions. Random access memory (RAM)  14 , I/O adapter  18  and communications adapter  34  are also interconnected to system bus  12 . It should be noted that software components including the operating system  41  and the application  40  are loaded into RAM  14  which is the computer system&#39;s main memory. I/O adapter  18  may be a small computer system interface (SCSI) adapter that communicates with the disk storage device  20 , i.e. a hard drive. Communications adapter  34  interconnects bus  12  with an outside network enabling the data processing system to communicate with other such systems over a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) which includes of course the internet. I/O devices are also connected to system bus  12  via user interface adapter  22  and display adapter  36 . Keyboard  24 , trackball  32 , mouse  26  and speaker  28  are all interconnected to bus  12  through user interface adapter  22 . It is through such input devices that the user interactive functions involved in the transient displays of the present invention may be implemented. Display adapter  36  includes a frame buffer  39  which is a storage device that holds a representation of each pixel on the display screen  38 . Images may be stored in frame buffer  39  for display on monitor  38  through various components such as a digital to analog converter (not shown) and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capable of inputting information to the system through the keyboard  24 , trackball  32  or mouse  26  and receiving output information from the system via speaker  28  and display  38 . In the preferred embodiment which will be subsequently described, the mouse will be the input means through which the user will interface with the system. The display terminal of FIG. 1 communicates with the network such as the internet through communications adapter  34 . 
     A generalized diagram of a portion of an internet to which the computer controlled display terminal  51  used for the transient display of the present invention is connected is shown in FIG.  2 . Terminal  51  is the computer system shown in FIG.  1  and connection  52  (FIG. 2) is the network connection shown in FIG.  1 . Some typical major objects connected to the net are user network  58  connected through server  59  at node  53 . In such a server network, the individual users&#39; workstations  61  are connected through telephone modems  62  and  63  to the server  59 . Of course at the next level, each of the user workstations  61  may be considered as network objects. Among the other illustrative network objects are ethernet  64  at node  60  and a LAN at node  54  consisting of server  65  and workstations  66 . At node  55 , the connected object is a corporate WAN consisting of network server  67  and sub-networks  68 . In addition, functional networks such as financial services network  69  and video/film distribution network  70  may be considered as objects, respectively connected at nodes  56  and  57 . It should be noted that a variety of databases,  71  through  79  are shown respectively associated with network objects at various levels. These databases represent the various locations and repositories at which attributes and attribute values which may be transiently displayed in accordance with the present invention are stored. Thus, when the obtaining or fetching of attributes values are subsequently described, it should be understood that they may be obtained from such databases or combination of databases throughout the network using any conventional network expedient for obtaining data. 
     There will now be described a simple illustration of the present invention with respect to the display screens of FIGS. 3 through 10. When the screen images are described, it will be understood that these may be rendered by storing an icon creation program such as those in Windows 95 or OS-2 operating systems in the RAM  14  of the system of FIG.  1 . The operating system is diagrammatically shown in FIG. 1 as operating system  41 . 
     An embodiment of the present invention will be described commencing with the display screen shown in FIG.  3 . This initial display screen is presented to the viewer on display monitor  38  of FIG.  1 . In accordance with conventional techniques, the user may control the screen interactively through a conventional I/O device such as mouse  26  of FIG. 1 which operates through user interface  22  to call upon programs in RAM  14  cooperating with the operating system  41  to create the images in frame buffer  39  of display adapter  36  to control the display on monitor  38 . 
     The initial display screen of FIG. 3 shows a graphic representation of a portion of a network in which network objects are represented as icons such as objects  80 ,  81 , and  82  respectively connected at node representations  83 ,  84  and  85  to network bus representation  86 . 
     In the display screen shown in FIG. 4, an attribute is selected by clicking on attribute window  87  by a user interactive I/O device such as mouse  26 , FIG.  1 . This brings down attribute menu  88 , from which the user selects the attribute which in the present case is “vendor”. Now, the user must select one of the objects so that the programming process may fetch an attribute value for that object. With reference to the same display screen shown in FIG. 5, the user has made a selection of object  80  by moving his cursor in a gesture not shown under control of mouse  26 , FIG. 1 to the object  80 . In the present control system, this selection gesture merely involved hovering (maintaining the cursor without clicking the mouse) in the vicinity of object icon  80  for a brief time period set by the program. As a result, the vendor attribute value, i.e., “DEC” appears in the transient display area  89 . As will be hereinafter described with respect to the flowcharts of FIGS. 11 and 12, this value may obtained from any appropriate database  71 - 79  in FIG. 2 or it may be dynamically calculated from data in one or more of these databases or it may be retrieved from the node via a network request. The system program uses conventional means for setting the time that the transient display  89  will be on. If the display system needs the attribute and its value beyond the time of the transient display, a secondary display area  90  may be set up to retain this information until either a subsequent object, attribute or attribute value is developed or chosen. 
     Now, with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7, there will now be described the selection of a subsequent attribute for transient display. In the display screen of FIG. 6, a new attribute is selected by clicking on attribute window  87  to bring down menu  88  from which the attribute “if descriptions”, interface descriptions is selected. The display screen of FIG. 7 serves the same function as that of FIG. 6 except that the time of the transient display of the previous attribute value  89  is such that it is retained during the selection of the next attribute and value in a dynamic manner until as shown in the next screen of FIG. 8, it is replaced in transient display  89  by the subsequently selected interface attribute and value. When the program is operated in this fashion, once an object is selected, it is possible to run through a sequence of attributes and values for it dynamically without the transient display box terminating or disappearing between selections. 
     In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the displayed network objects may be sorted according to any selected attribute. Any conventional sorting routine may be used for this purpose. With reference to FIG. 9, the objects, all of which may be designated  91  for purposes of this description, are to be sorted based upon the “object-type” attribute. The display screen of FIG. 10 shows the network of objects after they are thus sorted. 
     Now with reference to FIGS. 11,  12  and  13 , we will describe a process implemented by the present invention in conjunction with the flowcharts of these figures. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the development of a transient display process of the present invention. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the running of the transient display process described with respect to FIG.  11 . FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the steps in a general sort routine which may be used in sorting displayed network objects according to values of selected attributes. 
     With reference to FIG. 11, first, process step  101 , in developing the program, a determination should be made as to which objects are to be monitored for attributes. It could range from a major internet portion objects, FIG. 2, to a local network having a handful of objects. Next, step  102 , a program process for accessing the attribute data for the objects is set up. For simplicity in illustration, the attribute data could be considered as stored the databases  71  through  79 , FIG. 2, associated with the various-objects. Accessing of the databases and the fetching of attribute data could involve any conventional network routines for data acquisition. The display screen layouts of icons representative of objects together with appropriate interconnections as in the illustrative layouts of FIGS. 3-10 are set up using conventional user interfaces provided by operating systems such as “Windows 95”, (a ™ of Microsoft Corp.) or “X-Windows” are created and stored, step  103 . Then, step  104 , using the same layout design program, layouts for the transient displays such as those in FIGS. 5,  7  and  8  are developed. Then, step  105 , a procedure is developed for selecting and controlling the time periods for which the transient displays will be on or for establishing the control events determining the period of the transient display. The control event could be the expiration of a timer or even the movement of a mouse controlled cursor. Also, a procedure is set up through which the user will be able to interactively select through interfaces such as those of FIGS. 3-10, objects and their attributes in a dynamic manner, step  106 . Finally, step  107 , a process is set up for sorting the displayed network objects according to their attributes. 
     The process is now set up for operation, some illustrations of which will be now described with respect to FIG.  12 . In following some typical routines, the step in FIG. 12 will be given together with a reference to the display screen of FIGS. 3-10 which best illustrates the step. The program is run, step  110 , and a network layout is displayed, step  111 , as in FIG.  3 . Next, step  112 , an object attribute is selected as “vendor” in the FIG. 4 display. Then, step  113 , an object is selected, object  80 , FIG. 5 layout which sets off a transient display of the value of the selected attribute for the selected object, i.e., transient display  89 , “Vendor:DEC”. At this point, step  114 , a process is started for controlling the period during which transient display  89  is maintained. Also, step  115 , the appropriate attribute value for the object is obtained and maintained in the transient display. During the time that the transient display is maintained, the time is tracked, decision step  116 . If there is time left, t&gt;0, the transient display is maintained, and the flow goes to decision step  119  where a determination is made as to whether the user has changed the attribute before the previous attribute transient display has timed out. If “Yes”, then we have the situation illustrated in the screen of FIG. 7 where the user is selecting the “If” attribute while the previous transient display of the “vendor” value is still on. In such a case, the process proceeds back to step  113  where the value of the selected attribute is displayed. Let us assume that the user has not changed the object, and thus as shown in FIG. 8, the value of the new attribute of object  80  is shown in transient display  89 . Since the next step  114  sets a new transient display time, a succession of attributes for a selected object may thus be displayed dynamically if the set transient time is long enough for the user to select a subsequent attribute before the time runs out. 
     Returning now to decision step  116 , if there is no time left on the transient display, then the transient display is turned off, step  117 , FIG.  12  and the procedure moves to decision step  118  where a determination is made as to whether the session is over. If Yes, then it is ended. If No, then the session is returned to step  113  via branch “A” and the above procedure is repeated. Then if in the course of this procedure, step is reached again and if the user does not change the attribute, i.e., the decision from step  119  is No, then the user may at this point wish to sort the displayed objects according to this attribute. The decision from step  120  is thus Yes and the flow branches via entry “C” to the sort routine of FIG.  13 . If the decision from step  120  is No, then the flow return to step  113  via branch “A”. 
     At this point let us consider how a simple sort could be run if the decision from decision step  120  were Yes. Step  121 , FIG. 13, the sort commences. The selected attribute is maintained, step  122  which in the case of the network display screen of FIG. 9 would be object-type. An object-type first value would be selected and the process would go to next object, step  123 , on which, decision step  124 , a determination would be made as to whether it had the selected value. If Yes, then, step  125 , the object icon would be moved to the screen area in which the sorted object icons having the selected value were to be stored. After each object sort step, a decision, step  126 , would have to made as to whether the sorted object was the last. If Yes, the sort would be terminated, step  127 . If No, then the process would be returned to step  123  and the sort continued. After the completion of the sort, there would be the sorted arrangement shown on the screen of FIG.  10 . 
     Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.