The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 05, 2012
Filed:
Dec. 18, 2009
James Randall Flynn, Seattle, WA (US);
Shung Lai Franky Lam, Bothell, WA (US);
James Randall Flynn, Seattle, WA (US);
Shung Lai Franky Lam, Bothell, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
The structuring of data items in a hierarchical structure. A user interface permits a user to define, for each generation of a hierarchical tree, the child characteristics for child data items of particular nodes in the hierarchical tree. Then, a query, or a query template, may be formulated using the child characteristic and the designated parent data item. This may be repeatedly performed to allow for multiple generations of data items to be formed. The query may, at some point, be submitted to identify which data items are child data items or the parent data item. The data items that result from the query (or at least a portion of the data items) may then be assigned as child data items of the parent data item. The query may be postponed until the node is expanded by the user.