Patent ID: 7337401

Claim:
A method of processing a request to perform an operation on a hierarchical representation of a user interface element, the method comprising: receiving the request to perform the operation, wherein the operation is performable on a full view of the hierarchical representation and the operation is performable on a simplified view of the hierarchical representation, and wherein the operation comprises adding one or more child nodes to a node in the hierarchical representation; and responsive to receiving the request to perform the operation comprising adding the one or more child nodes to the node in the hierarchical representation, performing the operation for the simplified view of the hierarchical representation of the user interface element by adding the one or more child nodes to a descendant of the node in the hierarchical representation instead of adding the one or more child nodes to the node in the hierarchical representation, wherein nodes are designated as selectively exposable in the hierarchical representation by setting properties on the nodes in the hierarchical representation, and wherein the descendent of the node is associated with a property designating the descendent of the node as receiving simplified view children; wherein definition of the hierarchical representation indicates at least one node is selectively exposable; and the at least one node indicated as selectively exposable is not exposed for the simplified view.