Simulated visual hierarchy while facilitating cross-extension communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11210106-B2
Application number	US-202016775264-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2020
Priority date	Jan 28, 2020
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

To provide a hierarchical visual paradigm while maintaining the communication advantages of sibling extensions, a visual hierarchy simulation extension generates and maintains placeholders in a visually hierarchical manner, with the visual positioning of such placeholders informing the visual positioning of overlays of frames hosting the visual output of sibling extensions. Such a visual hierarchy simulation extension is utilized to layout and establish a desired visual hierarchy. One or more modules of computer-executable instructions are invoked to provide the relevant functionality, including the obtaining of the visual positioning of placeholders, the relevant visual translation between the visual positioning of placeholders and the visual overlaying of corresponding frames, the generation and movement of the corresponding frames, and the instantiation of extension content within the corresponding frames. The visual hierarchy simulation extension is hosted independently from the one or more modules.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system comprising:
a first computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a module comprising instructions which, when executed by a browser application program in rendering a first webpage, cause the browser to:
create a first placeholder as part of the rendering of the first webpage;
obtain a first placeholder location of the first placeholder in the rendered first webpage, the first placeholder location being a visual area within the rendered first webpage;
determine a first frame location based on the first placeholder location to visually overlay a first frame over the first placeholder;
generate the first frame at the first frame location such that the first frame visually overlays the first placeholder;
render content from a second webpage in the first frame;
obtain overflow information for a parent of the first placeholder; and
monitor for an event changing a visual appearance of the parent, the monitoring being informed by the obtained overflow information.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the rendering of the first webpage is in a second frame, the second frame being at a same document object model hierarchical level as the first frame.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein when the instructions of the module are executed by the browser application program in rendering the first webpage, they further cause the browser to:
create a second placeholder as part of the rendering of the first webpage, the second placeholder being hierarchically lower in a document object model of the first webpage than the first placeholder;
obtain a second placeholder location of the second placeholder in the rendered first webpage;
determine a second frame location based on the second placeholder location to visually overlay a second frame over the second placeholder;
generate the second frame at the second frame location such that the second frame visually overlays the first placeholder; and
render content from a third webpage in the second frame;
wherein the second frame is at a same document object model hierarchical level as the first frame.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein when the instructions of the module are executed by the browser application program in rendering the first webpage, they further cause the browser to:
create a second placeholder as part of the rendering of the first webpage;
obtain a second placeholder location of the second placeholder in the rendered first webpage;
determine a second frame location based on the second placeholder location to visually overlay a second frame over the second placeholder;
generate the second frame at the second frame location such that the second frame visually overlays the first placeholder; and
render content from a third webpage in the second frame;
wherein the browser chooses a z-order of the first frame and the second frame based on at least one of the content of the second webpage or the content of the third webpage.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein when the instructions of the module are executed by the browser application program in rendering the first webpage, they further cause the browser to:
determine a new first placeholder location of the first placeholder subsequent to detecting the event changing the visual appearance of the parent;
determine a new first frame location based on the new first placeholder location so as to continue to visually overlay the first frame over the first placeholder; and
move the first frame to the new first frame location such that the first frame continues to visually overlay the first placeholder.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining the first frame location comprises adjusting the first placeholder location to account for differences between a first frame of reference within which the first placeholder location was obtained and a second frame of reference within which the first frame location will be utilized.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining the first frame location comprises setting a clip path to prevent display of at least a portion of the first frame.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second webpage is specified at run-time.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the rendering of the content from the second webpage in the first frame is performed in accordance with stylistic instructions provided by the first placeholder, the stylistic instructions specifying at least one of: a font, a color or a visual theme.

10. A method of displaying outputs of web extensions, the method comprising:
creating a first placeholder as part of a rendering of a first webpage comprising a tag invoking the creation of the first placeholder;
obtaining a first placeholder location information of the first placeholder in the rendered first webpage, the first placeholder location information delinating a visual area within the rendered first webpage;
providing the first placeholder location information;
receiving, in response to the providing, a first frame identifier of a first frame that was overlaid over the first placeholder, the first frame having content of a second webpage rendered within the first frame, the second webpage being one of the web extensions;
obtaining overflow information for a parent of the first placeholder; and
monitoring for an event changing a visual appearance of the parent, the monitoring being informed by the obtained overflow information;
wherein the web extensions are a same document object model hierarchical level; and
wherein further the displaying of the outputs of the web extensions simulates a multi-level visual hierarchy.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first webpage is rendered within a second frame, the first and second frames being at the same document object model hierarchical level.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
obtaining a new first placeholder location information of the first placeholder subsequent to detecting the event changing the visual appearance of the parent; and
providing the new first placeholder location information together with the first frame identifier.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
creating a second placeholder as part of the rendering of the first webpage, the first webpage comprising the tag invoking the creation of the second placeholder, the second placeholder being hierarchically lower in a document object model of the first webpage than the first placeholder;
obtaining a second placeholder location of the second placeholder in the rendered first webpage;
providing the second placeholder location information; and
receiving, in response to the providing the second placeholder location information, a second frame identifier of a second frame that was overlaid over the second placeholder, the second frame having content of a third webpage rendered within the second frame, the third webpage also being one of the web extensions that are at the same document object model hierarchical level.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
obtaining a new first placeholder location information of the first placeholder subsequent to detecting the event changing the visual appearance of the parent; and
providing the new first placeholder location information.

15. A method of displaying outputs of web extensions, the method comprising:
receiving a first placeholder location information of a first placeholder in a rendered first webpage, the first placeholder location delineating a visual area within the rendered first webpage;
determining a first frame location based on the first placeholder location information to visually overlay

Assignees

• Binger Julia Margaret
• Barber Timothy Daniel
• Maeda Masato
• Wilson Matthew James
• Aeron Rayman Faruk
• Guo Amber Tianqi
• Satheesh Shanmugha Priya
• Schultz Benjamin M
• Tripathi Jyotirmaya
• Lee Jong Gyu
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Binger Julia Margaret
• Barber Timothy Daniel
• Maeda Masato
• Wilson Matthew James
• Aeron Rayman Faruk
• Guo Amber Tianqi
• Satheesh Shanmugha Priya
• Schultz Benjamin M
• Tripathi Jyotirmaya
• Lee Jong Gyu

Classifications

• G06F9/44526 Primary

  Plug-ins; Add-ons · CPC title

• G06F9/547

  Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services · CPC title

• G06F16/958

  Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking · CPC title

• G06F16/986

  Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions · CPC title

• G06F3/04845

  for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour · CPC title