DIALOGS POSITIONED WITH ACTION VISUALIZATION
Dialogs within a user interface. The user interface has one or more selectable elements, the selection of each of which initiating a corresponding action. Each time that any of the elements is selected, and a corresponding action initiated, there is the potential for the user interface to display a dialog associated with the initiated action. The dialogs are displayed so as to be positioned with respect to the element whose selection caused the corresponding action to be initiated.
1 . A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to instantiate and/or operate the following:
a user interface presentation component capable of presenting a user interface with a plurality of selectable elements, each initiating an action upon selection;
a dialog determination component that determines when actions are to have an associated dialog appear on the user interface; and
a dialog presentation component configured to, for each of a plurality of actions that the dialog determination component determines that are to have an associated dialog, present a dialog on the user interface in a manner positioned on the user interface with respect to the selectable element whose selection caused the corresponding action to be initiated.
2 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , wherein for each of at least a majority of the dialogs presented by the dialog presentation component on the user interface, the corresponding dialog appears underneath the selectable element whose selection initiated the action, the corresponding dialog also including a set of one or more resolution elements appearing in the upper half of the corresponding dialog.
3 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , wherein for each of at least a majority of the dialogs presented by the dialog presentation component on the user interface, the corresponding dialog has an adornment that identifies a visualization of the corresponding action initiated by the corresponding selectable element.
4 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the user interface displays a plurality of hierarchically structured selectable elements that includes at least a first selectable element, a parent element, that contains a plurality of child elements,
the dialog presentation component configured to display a dialog for the parent element in a consistent manner as it would a dialog for a particular child element of the plurality of child elements.
5 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 4 , the plurality of selectable elements being positioned on a canvas that extends in an extendable dimension, the parent element being a blade that occupies the canvas over a given extent along the extendable dimension.
6 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 5 , the particular child element being a part of a blade.
7 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 5 , the particular child element being an item from a list.
8 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , the dialog presentation module presenting dialogs without blocking work on the user interface.
9 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , the dialog presentation module capable of presenting multiple dialogs, each for different actions, simultaneously.
10 . A method for presenting a dialog associated with an action, the method comprising:
an act of presenting a user interface having a selectable element that initiates an action upon selection;
an act of determining that a user has selected the selectable element;
an act of initiating a computing action corresponding to the selected element in response to determining that the user has selected the selected element; and
an act of presenting a dialog associated with the computing action on the user interface so as to be positioned with respect to the selected element.
11 . The method in accordance with claim 10 , further comprising:
an act of determining that a user has performed a resolution action with respect to the presented dialog; and
an act of removing the dialog in response to the resolution action.
12 . The method in accordance with claim 11 , the selected element being a first selected element, the computing action being a first computing action, and the dialog being a first dialog, the method further comprising:
an act of determining that a user has selected a second selectable element;
an act of initiating a second computing action corresponding to the second selected element in response to determining that the user has selected the second selected element; and
an act of presenting a second dialog associated with the second computing action on the user interface so as to be positioned with respect to the second selected element.
13 . The method in accordance with claim 12 , the act of initiating the second computing action occurring after the act of initiating the first computing action, and before the resolution action of the first dialog associated with the first computing action.
14 . The method in accordance with claim 12 , wherein the act of presenting the second dialog occurs while the first dialog is still presented on the user interface.
15 . The method in accordance with claim 11 , the dialog including a request for confirmation that the user wants the computing action to occur, and the resolution action includes the user confirming that the user wants the computing action to occur.
16 . The method in accordance with claim 11 , the dialog including a request for confirmation that the user wants the computing action to occur, and the resolution action includes the user indicating that the user does not want the computing action to occur.
17 . The method in accordance with claim 11 , the dialog being a message.
18 . The method in accordance with claim 17 , the resolution action being confirmation that the message has been viewed by the user.
19 . The method in accordance with claim 10 , the dialog being a progress indicator for the computing action.
20 . A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to present a dialog associated with an action, the method comprising:
in response to determining that a user has selected a selectable element, an act of initiating a computing action corresponding to the selected element; and
an act of presenting a modeless dialog associated with the computing action on the user interface so as to be positioned with respect to the selected element.