Hierarchical representation of contextual information
View Patent ↗Method and system enabling a user to select a data element out of a set of available data elements through the use of a hierarchical view (e.g. a tree). Whenever the user needs to choose a data element, the system collects the descriptions of all data elements that are both available and relevant in accordance with the specific use from a set of available data elements through the use of a hierarchical view. The tree represents each entity (data element) as a node and the properties of each entity as sub-nodes under it, possibly grouped into property groups represented as tree nodes. The system hides all implementation aspects of the data structure from the user—selection of the required value causes the underlying system to automatically perform all required actions in order to retrieve, calculate or search for the desired data element.
1. A method for managing and displaying data in a hierarchical structure over a graphical user interface, wherein said data comprises data elements each having data properties of different data entities within a development environment, said method comprising the steps of:
selecting data elements and applicable properties that are relevant to context of each use of said data elements at this point available locally at development environment;
providing a data model representing interplays between the various collected data elements, their corresponding properties names and levels of abstractions, wherein the data elements are collected from different applications and different data entities; and
creating a hierarchical structure on-the-fly automatically which is available to the user at development environment providing only the relevant and usable data elements to current usage according to context of each use at this point of the development, specifying the data elements to be used in runtime, which are available locally in runtime environment, wherein the relevant data elements are related to each other in accordance with the corresponding provided data model and are arranged in a hierarchical order according to said provided data model and according to context of each use.
2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising presenting the hierarchical structure and enabling navigation through the hierarchical structure thus enabling finding and selecting desired data element which are applicable to the current programmatic usage.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein presenting the relevant data in a hierarchical structure is preceded by filtering out unusable data elements and retaining only data elements that are relevant for the context of the use of said data.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein presenting the relevant data elements in a hierarchical structure comprises presenting different levels of data within each data element.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the hierarchy in the tree represents entities references.
6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising enabling a runtime engine to retrieve actual value stored on said data elements in accordance with the hierarchical position of said data elements in said hierarchical structure.
7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein enabling a runtime engine to retrieve actual value stored on said data elements is performed by at least one database query.
8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising presenting said properties to a user automatically on a graphical user interface.
9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein enabling a runtime engine to retrieve actual value stored on said data elements is based on a calculation.
10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said method is implemented within a software development tool, modeling tool or rule-management tool.
11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein said software is flow-based software.
12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein said flow-based software is implementing business logic rules.
13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said business logic rules are used across mobile data applications.