Multi-act creation user interface element

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9672276-B2
Application number	US-201414231883-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 1, 2014
Priority date	Sep 30, 2013
Publication date	Jun 6, 2017
Grant date	Jun 6, 2017

Abstract

A multi-act creation user interface element that is displayed when a user instructs a computing system to initiate creation of a resource that has multiple associated creation processing acts. For each of some or all of the creation processing acts, the multi-act creation user interface element causes a set of one or more controls to appear, which the user may then enter creation information into. The multi-step creation user interface element persists creation information so entered so that the creation information is available for further creation processing acts.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer hardware storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to operate using an architecture which governs creation of a complex resource, and wherein the architecture of the computing system comprises three tiers of user interface (UI) elements, comprising:
a first tier that comprises a provisioning UI element that receives an instruction to initiate creation of a complex resource and wherein the provisioning UI element creates an edit scope used to persist data that represents a set of creation processing acts for the complex resource;
a second tier that comprises a wizard UI element instantiated by a signal from the provisioning UI element in response to the received instruction;
a third tier that comprises a creation processing act UI element used to generate a creation processing act form for each creation processing act in the set of creation processing acts for a given complex resource; and
wherein the wizard UI element of the second tier is configured to perform the following:
causes a first set of one or more creation input controls to be displayed during initiation of a first creation processing act of the set of multiple creation processing acts;
saves a configuration input for the first creation processing act using the first set of one or more creation input controls;
based on dependency relationships between creation processing acts in the set, determines when the first creation processing act has proceeded to a point where another creation processing act may begin;
wherein the first set of one or more creation input controls is displayed as a first form created in the creation processing act UI element of the third tier, wherein some fields in the first form are populated using data from the edit scope, and wherein the first form receives and collects some user information to populate other fields in the first form;
validates the user information based on a first set of persisted validation rules;
once the corresponding form is completed, persists the corresponding form at the edit scope;
repeats the foregoing process until all creation processing acts of the set of multiple creation processing acts are completed for the complex resource; and
wherein a corresponding form for each creation processing act is added to an extendable canvas when each creation processing act is initiated, and the corresponding form is removed from the extendable canvas when the corresponding creation processing act is completed; and

replacing the provisioning UI element of the first tier with a resource created status UI element that is thereafter used to select any complex resource created.

2. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , wherein each creation processing act of the set of multiple creation processing acts is associated with a corresponding indicator that is emphasized when a corresponding creation processing act is initiated.

3. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the first set of one or more creation input controls is provided by a first application running in a system, and at least one other additional set of one or more creation input controls is provided by a second application running in the system.

4. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the first set of one or more creation input controls is provided by a system, and at least one other additional set of one or more creation input controls is provided by an application running in the system.

5. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the first set of one or more creation input controls is provided by a system, and at least one other additional set of one or more creation input controls is provided by the system itself.

6. The computer program product in accordance with claim 3 , wherein:
the first set of one or more creation input controls performs validation checking based on a first set of persisted validation rules; and
the at least one other additional set of one or more creation input controls performs validation checking based on a second set of persisted validation rules.

7. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the first set of one or more creation input controls performs the first resource creation processing act upon successful validation of the first form.

8. A computer-implemented method which governs creation of a complex resource, the computer-implemented method being performed by one or more processors executing computer-executable instructions for the method, and wherein the computer-implemented method comprises:
at a first user interface (UI) tier instantiating a provisioning UI element that:
receives an instruction to initiate creation of a complex resource, wherein the complex resource requires a set of multiple creation processing acts provided by different applications and that requires orchestration of the set of multiple creation processing acts among client and server side interactions; and
creates an edit scope used to persist data that represents the set of creation processing acts;

at a second UI tier, instantiating a wizard UI element in response to the received instruction;
at a third UI tier, instantiating a creation processing act UI element used to generate a creation processing act form for each creation processing act in the set of creation processing acts for a given complex resource; and
wherein the wizard UI element of the second tier performs the following:
causes a first set of one or more creation input controls to be displayed during initiation of a first creation processing act of the set of multiple creation processing acts;
saves a configuration input for the first creation processing act using the first set of one or more creation input controls;
based on dependency relationships between creation processing acts in the set, determines when the first creation processing act has proceeded to a point where another creation processing act may begin;
wherein the first set of one or more creation input controls is displayed as a first form created in the creation processing act UI element of the third tier, wherein some fields in the first form are populated using data from the edit scope, and wherein the first form receives and collects some user information to populate other fields in the first form;
validates the user information based on a first set of persisted validation rules;
once the corresponding form is completed, persists the corresponding form at the edit scope;
repeats the foregoing process until all creation processing acts of the set of multiple creation processing acts are completed for the complex resource; and
wherein a corresponding form for each creation processing act is added to an extendable canvas when each creation processing act is initiated, and the corresponding form is removed from the extendable canvas when the corresponding creation processing act is completed.

9. The computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 8 , wherein each creation processing act of the set of multiple creation processing acts is associated with a corresponding indicator that is emphasized when a corresponding creation processing act is initiated.

10. The computer-implemented method in accordance with claim 8 , wherein the first set of one or more creation input controls is provided by a first application running in a system, and at least one other additional set of one or more creation input controls is provided by a second application running in the system.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Welicki Leon Ezequiel
• Olenick Brad
• Joshi Vishal R
• Birck Andrew
• Dias Alvaro Rahul
• Kumaraguru Guru
• Armas Federico Silva
• Danton Stephen Michael
• Alexander Brendyn
• Anson David
• Guopil Jean-Sebastien
• Millington Bradley D
• Abdelhamed Adam
• Francisco Jesse David
• Yuen Wai Man
• Harris Jon
• Sterling Jonah Bush
• Anand Karandeep Singh
• Staples William J
• Joshi Madhur
• Totten Nathan J

Classifications

• G06F9/452

  Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation (protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131) · CPC title

• G06F40/117 Primary

  Tagging; Marking up (details of markup languages G06F40/143); Designating a block; Setting of attributes (style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154) · CPC title

• G06F9/451

  Execution arrangements for user interfaces · CPC title

• G06F3/04842

  Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F3/0485

  Scrolling or panning · CPC title