Extensible system action for sharing while remaining in context.

(54) Title: ACTION OF THE EXTENSIBLE SYSTEM FOR SHARING WHILE IT REMAINS IN CONTEXT.

(54) Title: EXTENSIBLE SYSTEM ACTION FOR SHARING WHILE REMAINING IN CONTEXT.

(57) Summary

An operating system provides an extensible sharing action to a broker content sharing between applications running on a computing platform such as a personal computer, laptop, or smartphone. The share action enables a consistent user experience for content sharing to be implemented across all applications and eliminates users from having to switch from the current application to where they are using some other functionality in order to share content . Applications can participate with the operating system sharing action as source applications and / or target applications. Source applications can describe what content is capable of sharing given the current state of their application when the user chooses to invoke the share action. Target applications can be configured to receive shared content from the source application according to the content type, and will expose a comparison view of your application to the user that is specifically designed to facilitate sharing.

(57) Abstract

An operating system provides an extensible share action to broker content sharing between applications executing on a computing platform such as a personal computer, tablet computer, or smartphone. The share action enables a consistent user experience for content sharing to be implemented across all applications and eliminates users having to switch from the current application they are using to some other functionality in order to share content. Applications can participate with the operating system share action as source applications and / or target applications. Source applications may describe what content is shareable given the current state of their application when the user chooses to invoke the share action. Target applications can be configured to receive the shared content from the source application according to content type, and will expose a companion view of their application to the user that is specifically tailored to facilitate sharing.

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Institute

Mexican Property

Industrial

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MCRBMíÍA nt ίαΚίΟΜΪΛ

PATENT TITLE NO. 336151

Headlines)

MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC

Home:

One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington, 98052, USA

Denomination:

EXTENSIBLE SYSTEM ACTION FOR COMPARISON WHILE IT REMAINS IN CONTEXT

Classification:

lnt.CI.8: G06Q50 / 10

Inventor (s):

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KATIE MESSERLY; CHRISTOPHER CLARK; FENG ZHAO; AHSAN KABIR; OLIVIER TRITSCHLER; JESSE CLAY SATTERFIELD; GINGER GLOYSTEIN;

LIE SUE CHAFINS: PATRIK LUNDBERG: SASHI RAGHUPATHY; MANOJ WAS;

MX / a / 2013/007195

Country:

US

Time: Twenty q $ os

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&amp;

Date:

12 / 974,028 industrial 2031 bre.

Federation (DOF)

Regulations of the Mexican Institute and irritable items, keep the

CITY

Internal filing date of December 2011

PRIORITY December

Number:

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File of Vencli lientos 19 d orga with i

Le latent reference

I agreed with the article · 23 of the tada to paitir of the schi presentation fechi.

cc di “fraction V, 6th fraction lll. and 69 dfla Property Law under this patent will be subject to it and 7 “bis 2 of te. and of 0/1996, 12/26/1997, '/ 05/1999, 04/09/2012); articles 1, 3 'ration V ad Industrial (DOF 12/14/1999, restated the Éite — teae ^ wlifeiBiftalelsBeteiM · Organic

Q an subscribes this Jtufo hge it with foundation

Pi Industrial Piety (Daily

2t) 1/2004, 06/16/2005, 25 / _____ in so a), 4th and 12 * fraction # I and lll d 0 · “of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (DOF 12/27/1999, amended on 10/10/2002, 07/29/2004, 04708/2004 and 09/13/2007); 1, 3 and 5 subsection a) of the Agreement that delegates powers to the Deputy Directors General, Coordinator, Divisional Directors, Holders of the Regional Offices, Divisional Deputy Directors, Departmental Coordinators and other subordinates of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property. (DOF 12/15/1999, amended on 02/04/2000, 07/29/2004, 08/04/2004 and 09/13/2007).

Official of

1/2006, 0105/2009,06/01/2010, 18/

7/2004 and

Issue Date: January 8, 2016

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NAHANNY CANAL REYES

Arenal No. 550_; Floor 1, Col. Pueblo Santa María Tepepan ^ Xochimilco Delegation.

CP 16020. Mexico. DF Tei. (55) 53 34 07 00 www.impi.QOb.mx

THE DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OF PATENTS

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V

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33GiS »

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EXTENSIBLE SYSTEM ACTION FOR SHARING

WHILE IT REMAINS IN CONTEXT

BACKGROUND

Mexican Institute ie Industrial Property

Current electronic device users frequently share content with other users on the network using a variety of different mechanisms including email, social networking sites, instant messaging, photo sharing sites, social dialing sites, and blogs, to name a few. . However, many operating systems running on devices typically do not play a role in facilitating sharing. In turn, for example, users generally have to rely on generic functions like the clipboard to copy and paste content from one application / website to another, or they have to use sharing functionality provided by each individual application / website. Other current content sharing techniques include “drag and drop” to move content from one application / website to another, and use a file manager / browser application such as Windows® Explorer from Microsoft Corporation that exposes ability points extension as COM interfaces (common object model) to allow sharing. Some web browser helper programs may also currently facilitate content sharing.

Although these current mechanisms work .1

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nor satisfactorily in some cases, they have limitations and are not specifically adapted to eMWuto Mexicano for content sharing. i- ^ | dProqpÍ * dad Industrial can often make the user experience when sharing less than ideal. For example, users need to switch from their current application to using the clipboard to share content and applications / website receiving the content to not specifically allow copying and pasting with the clipboard to support sharing. Drag and drop is similarly limited by this lack of specific content sharing enablement which can result in the user experience being unwieldy and not well managed. Using Explorer involves taking steps necessary to store content for sharing locally and works only from Explorer and not for any content displayed by a Windows application. Sharing browser helpers are similarly limited to working right in the browser and cannot be extended to content displayed by a Windows application.

This background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Brief Description of the Invention and Detailed Description below. These Background Information are not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed issue or to be viewed as limiting the claimed issue to implementations that address any or all of the above disadvantages or issues.

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Mexican Institute of Industrial Property sharing

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An operating system provides an extensible action for sharing broker content between applications running on a computing platform such as a personal computer, laptop, or smartphone. The 'share action allows a consistent user experience to be implemented for content sharing across all applications and eliminates users having to switch from the current application they are using to some other functionality in order to share content . Applications can participate with the operating system sharing action as source applications and / or target applications. Source applications can describe what content can be shared given the current state of their application when the user chooses to invoke the share action. Target applications can be configured to receive shared content from the source application according to the content type, and will expose a company view of their application to the user that is specifically created to facilitate sharing.

In several illustrative examples, target applications record the types of content they can accept, and target application developers are responsible for building the specifically crafted company view of the application that (

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It runs on the platform during the edit edit! Uféxj &amp; hn 'user can access the share action at pledo' idútfric action space which is available from anywhere (eg desktop, all user interfaces (Ul), and all applications) at any time. The application space provides a consistent entry point to a group of system actions, one of which is the share action, so if a user is viewing an image using a source application such as an image watcher, and selects the share action from the action space, a filtered list of target applications that can accept content that can be shared by content type (for example, photos in this example) is presented in a sharing ul. Target applications can include any of a variety of applications such as social networking, email, photo sharing, other communication applications, and the like. Target apps make it easy to share content with several different sharing endpoints including websites, individuals, multiple people, or categories of people.

When a user selects a target application from the list, the operating system launches the company view of that application and the user completes its sharing in that application. This interaction means that the source and the target applications need not be aware of each other, they can simply participate in the sharing paradigm by describing shareable content that they can provide as a source application or that they can accept as a target. . The operating system acts as the broker for sharing by passing content and other information such as content properties and metadata in some cases, from the source application to the target application. When the user sharing action is complete, the target application passes a message to the operating system to close the Ul from the company view. It also passes again a shortcut that describes the action that the user just completed. When the user performs a subsequent share, the shortcut may be presented to the user in the Sharing Ul as part of a list of frequently used user actions. The target application can upload the shared content to the appropriate sharing endpoint, for example as a background procedure.

Advantageously, the present sharing action allows users to maintain the context of an interaction with a given application without having to stop what they are doing, start another application, or open another tab in a browser, and then perform multiple steps to implement sharing using current techniques. Using the companion view of the target application further enhances the user experience when sharing by tailoring the Ul and sharing functionality specifically when compared to the sub-optimal experience commonly experienced when using techniques.

Generic Institute. ΙβΧίΟΠΠΟ of Ια Property This brief description of the invention provides Industrial to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form which is further described below in the Detailed Description. This brief description of the invention is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed topic, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed topic.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows an illustrative computing environment in which the present extensible system action for sharing can be implemented;

Figure 2 shows illustrative functional components, typically implemented in software, that can be run on a computing platform as well as local capture devices;

Figure 3 shows illustrative system actions that can be implemented by an operating system;

Figure 4 shows an illustrative arrangement in which discovered or locally produced / captured content is shared with sharing endpoints as facilitated by the present sharing extensible system action;

Figure 5 illustratively shows how the operating system can act as a broker to facilitate the transfer of a

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from a font application to an application^s^^orl^F

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Industrial displays a target data group sharing workflow;

The Illustrative Figure to allow a user to share content while remaining in context;

Figure 7 illustrates an illustrative window in which a company application can draw its user interface ("Ul");

Figure 8 shows an illustrative Ul running on a computing platform where the Ul includes a group of icons arranged in an action space to initiate a group of system actions, one of which is a share action;

Figure 9 shows an illustrative Ul provided by the share system action;

Figure 10 shows an illustrative workflow associated with a sharing shortcut;

Figure 11 shows various Ul screens supported by a company application that is started to facilitate content sharing;

Figure 12 shows a workflow associated with the load performed by the target application as a background procedure; and

Figure 13 shows an illustrative method by which the operating system adds the target application to a list of procedures that are exempt from being closed.

Similar reference numbers indicate similar elements in

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the drawings. Items are not drawn to scale unless otherwise noted.

Jgjtttuto Hexlcanc Property

Industrial

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figure 1 shows an illustrative computing environment 100 in which the present action of the extensible system for sharing can be implemented and includes a number of users 1 05_{1&gt; 2},.._N that interact with respective 110i computing platforms. ₂..n- Computing platforms 110 may, in this illustrative example, include any of a variety of devices such as desktop and laptop PCs, game consoles, mobile phones, smart phones, personal email devices, media players personal, personal digital assistants, GPS devices (Global Positioning System), laptops, digital cameras, and the like.

As shown, users 105 can communicate with each other and interact with various services and the World Wide Network using public network infrastructure such as the Internet 115. The services in this example include a news service 120_Ί, a social network service 120₂, photo sharing service 120₃, and various other services or websites as representatively indicated by reference number 120_N.

Figure 2 shows various illustrative functional components 205 that commonly run on one or more platforms.

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computation 110. It is observed that the components shown in H ^¹^⁰

Mexican

Figure 2 are not intended to be exhaustive and other components

Industry 'supported or run on a given platform as needed to satisfy the requirements of a particular implementation. In many cases, components 205 are implemented using code expressed in software instructions that is stored on one or more machine-readable media, however, components can also be implemented using firmware, hardware, or various software combinations or sub-combinations. , firmware, and hardware. As shown, components 205 include applications 210 and an operating system 215. Applications 210 illustratively include web applications 210_1tlocal applications 210₂, client-server applications 210₃, and other applications 210_N.

Operating system 215 is configured, in this illustrative example, to perform various actions 220 and expose various interfaces 225. Actions 220 are described in more detail in the accompanying text to Figure 3. Interfaces 225 may include, for example, drivers allowing applications 210 to communicate with local capture devices 230 such as a digital camera 230i, a web camera, 230₂, and a 230 scanner_N.

It is observed that the operating system 215 is not typically configured identically in each case of a computing platform 110. In other words, differences in characteristics, functionalities, structures, and methods implemented by the operating system 215, among other things, can be expected. according to the needs of a platform

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However, the principles of the present system action for sharing can be adapted to various operating systems. That is, the share action can be easily adapted to a variety of operating systems, computing platforms, usage scenarios, and environments.

Figure 3 shows a group of illustrative system actions 220 that can be implemented by operating system 215 (Figure 2). As shown, some of the system 220 actions are included in a group (i.e. a subgroup of the system 220 actions), as indicated by reference number 305, which provides consistent entry points to workflows details that are exposed to the user 105 through an action space as described in more detail below. These system actions illustratively include share 305i, favorite 305₂, search 305₃, and other actions 305_NThese actions representatively facilitate a user to implement sharing; connect to different devices; look for; and perform other actions. This subgroup 305 of system actions exposed in the action space can typically be invoked by user 105 from anywhere on the co mputer at any time. Operating system 215 will typically implement other actions 310 that are outside the scope of the present disclosure.

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Figure 4 shows an illustrative arrangement 400 erWa c uncovered content 405 or lo ΛΒΙ ^ ΠΨ'® 'content¹⁰Produced / Captured Industr 410 is provided as shared content

415 User 105 with share endpoints, as collectively identified by reference number 420, as provided by operating system 215 and share action 305i. For example, discovered content 405 could be identified by user 105 when browsing the network, while locally produced / captured content 410 could be captured by a digital camera or produced on computing platform 110 using applications such as a word processor or drawing application. Accordingly, 415 shared content may include 415i links such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) links, 415 photos₂, videos 415₃, documents 415₄, and other files of various types as indi cated by reference number 41 5_N.

As shown in Figure 5, applications 210 can include both 505 source applications and 510 target applications. Depending on the wishes of a given application developer, an application 210 can be a 505 source application as well as a 510 target application. , can be one or the other, or neither a font application nor a target application. To be a 505 source application, an application may simply register that it can provide content that can be shared in response to the user's sharing action. Such a record may

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be implemented, for example, as a statement of execution where the source application can rule time, W^tut0

Mexican

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respectively record depending on your given instant. For example, in one state, it may have content that can be shared in a state that lacks such content that it has been in any source application while in another it can share. In some cases, a 505 font application does not even need to produce the same content that can be shared because operating system 215 can provide content capture using a system option or action such as a screen shot. Target applications 510 will also record the types of content they accept so that a filtered list of target applications can be presented to user 105 during the course of the sharing workflow as shown in Figure 6 and as described in the accompanying context. Typically, such registration can occur when the target application 510 is installed on the computing platform 110.

As shown in Figure 5, operating system 215 essentially acts as a broker (as indicated by reference number 515) by invoking share action 305i to facilitate the passage of a reference 520 to shared content 415. from source application 505 to target application 510. Such a broker action advantageously eliminates the need for source application 505 and target application 510 to be aware of each other. The

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Content sharing can be implemented simply ^^ Jj ^ ® by registering the content types as described above. In addition, since é &amp; iWAP Industrial Age can implement sharing as a functionality supported by the operating system, this sharing action is native to the computing platform where the operating system is installed and, unlike installing sharing applications on the platform of computation (which may come pre-installed in some cases), the user typically will not have to install any of the special programs or engage in complex configuration properties in order to use the sharing. Furthermore, starting the sharing feature in the operating system ensures extensibility to other communication mechanisms that may be developed or implemented in the future as long as they adapt to the current sharing paradigm.

In this illustrative example, shared content 415 is named with a data group reference 520 so that the properties and / or metadata (indicated by reference number 525) associated with shared content 415 can also be passed to target application 510 Such a property / metadata 525 may include, for example, the title of the linked web page or other descriptive data. Reference 520 is received by operating system 215 and passed to target application 510 which then reads the data set.

Figure 6 shows a sharing workflow 600

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Illustrative institute to allow user 105 (Figure 1) to share content of the Property while remaining in context without the need to switch to the JlKklStFial application. When working with a font application 505, user 105 can open the action space, as indicated by reference number 605, in order to expose consistent entry points to workflows 305 (as shown in Figure 3 and as described in the attached text) for the user. In some cases, the action space can be opened using a dedicated hardware key, for example, while in other cases the action space can be opened using a software command, using a predefined gesture such as finger validator on a predetermined portion of a touch screen on a computing platform, or it can be automatically opened through an action of a sharing application when it detects that the sharing may be desired by the user 105. The action space will typically graphically present the actions of available systems, including the sharing action in this example. . Font application 505 can optionally be configured in some cases to allow user 105 to explicitly specify content to be shared. However, it is noted that such optional configuration may not be necessary frequently because shared content exposed by the source application can be expected to be easily identifiable without explicit user action 105. In some cases, for example, the interaction of the user with the application of

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Source 505 will provide sufficient content by itself to allow accurate shared content identification.

efe Ía Propiedac Industrial

In an alternative implementation, a share button can be hosted by a font application. In this case, share 5 can be initiated by user 105 from within that source application rather than through the use of consistent entry point application space supported by the operating system.

When the user selects the share action, as indicated by reference number 610, a target selector 620 10 is exposed so that user 105 can specify a share end point 420 (Figure 4). Typically the user can specify a sharing endpoint by choosing a selection from a displayed list of shortcuts (as described in more detail below) and target applications 510 (Figure 5), as indicated by reference number 625. Shortcuts and target applications 510 are filtered by operating system 215 so that only shortcuts and target applications that register to receive the type of content provided by source application 505 are presented in target selector 620.

When the user 105 selects the sharing target / shortcut application, the target application 510 will start its companion application which will present a sharing screen 630 (ie Ul) to the user. As shown in Figure 7, the operating system 215 will provide a drawing window 705 in which the companion application (indicated by part number 710) can draw its Ul. By allowing qu || pstltutc

Mexican target application draw its own Ul through the app (laP &lt;npiedCK tndusw company 710 can be expected to further improve the extensibility of the present sharing action to future applications and communication mechanisms. In many typical implementations of the sharing action, the Companion App 710 is configured as a small, lightweight, and focused app that operates quickly with little impact on system resources.

Returning to Figure 6, the sharing screen 630 can provide a preview of shared content to the user 105 and Ul control objects (collectively indicated by the reference number 640) which can be used, for example, to allow the user to execute the sharing or, in some cases, providing annotations, comments, or other input to accompany the shared content.

Optionally, as indicated by reference number 635, the sharing screen 630 can also expose an interface to allow user 105 to choose a particular person to receive the shared content.

When the user executes content sharing, as indicated by reference number 645, the sharing screen 630 provided by the company application collapses and the workflow control returns to the source application 505, as indicated by the reference number 650. In this way, the present sharing action allows the user 105

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I instituted taking few simple steps to share content without having rMpxtean dBfaProper to leave the context provided by the 505 font application. | NdUStr^:

Figure 8 shows an illustrative Ul 800 supported on a display screen 805 of a laptop 110₃. Although a laptop is shown illustratively, it is noted that the Ul for other devices can be expected to appear and function in a substantially similar way. The Ul 800 includes a group of icons 810 arranged in an action space 815 to initiate a group of system actions, one of which is a share action that can be invoked by the user through manipulation of button 820. In this example, as shown, action space 815 is located along the right edge of the Ul window. However, other settings for the action space can also be used according to the needs of a particular implementation. In this example, user 105 is interacting with a source application 505 that implements an image watcher using a watcher window 8 25. Observer window 8 25 shows a photograph of a group of pyramids that thereby represents the content that user 105 wishes to share.

When the share button 820 of the action space 815 is actuated, the target selector is presented in the Ul 800 as indicated by the reference number 905 in Figure 9. As with the action space 815 (Figure 8), A graphical configuration of the 905 Target Selector may vary from what is illustrated. In est

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For example, a thumbnail 910 is presented to provide the Property with visual confirmation to the user 105 of the selected content that the QdUSffial will share. Additional information such as a 915 content title and descriptive information or metadata can also be presented as indicated by reference number 920.

Target selector 905 also presents a list of shortcuts indicated by the reference number 925 and a list of sharing applications indicated by the reference number 930. The presentation of the shortcuts in the sharing applications may vary but may typically include an icon and some associated descriptive text. For example, the shortcut 935 (shown in an enlarged view in Figure 9) represents a sharing action that user 105 has taken in the past for sharing content that is posted to the user's wall on such a social networking site. like Facebook. Similarly, a sharing application 940 (shown in an enlarged view in Figure 9) represents a sharing action that user 105 can take to send the selected content to a sharing endpoint using email, which in this case s supported by Hotmail application. The target Facebook and Hotmail applications are presented in the target selector 905 because they have been registered as being able to receive photo content. In comparison, a target application that is not capable of receiving photo content (for example, a text-based instant messaging application) could not be presented by

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Institute target selector 905 in this illustrative example. Mexican dsla Propiedc

Figure 10 shows a 1000 Tlustr ^ | feg $ tr workflow associated with one of the 925 share shortcuts (Figure 9). Here, source application 505 passes shared content to target application 510, as indicated by reference number 1005. Target application 510 in turn will report detailed action on user action to operating system 215, as indicated by the reference number 1010. The operating system will use the target application report 510 in order to generate a list of frequently used actions, as indicated by reference number 1015, which can then be used for 925 sharing shortcuts.

Figure 11 shows a series of Ul 1105, 1110, and 1115 screens supported by the companion application to the Hotmail application shown in Figure 9. The companion application starts when the 940 icon is selected by user 105 (Figure 1) and first presents the Ul 1105 screen to expose a list of receivers 1120 that user 105 has recently sent by mail. If the desired sharing endpoint is not shown in list 1120, then user 105 can press button 1125 to upload the user's Hotmail calendar displayed on the screen Ul 1110. In this example, the calendar includes typical icons 1130 to allow the user to locate the email addresses to Ifabetically. Accordingly, a number of email addresses 1135 are provided, and in this case

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Institute are associated with the letter "A" 1140, as shown in a v¡WSXÍ^spoutele the extended property. When working through the phonebook, the user 105 pu Industrial will pick up receivers for the shared content which are confirmed on the Ul 1115 screen, as indicated by the reference number. The companion application may support additional interfaces to allow user 105 to provide annotations, comments, or other input to accompany the shared content. In this case as indicated by the reference number 1150, user 105 has entered a short note within a text entry window that is provided by the company application.

When the user 105 is ready to share the content, the user can press the share button 1155 to complete the share action. As shown in the workflow 1200 illustrated in Figure 12, with the actuation of the share button 1155, the Ul supported by the companion application is closed (as indicated by reference number 1205) and the target application 510 will load the data group associated with the shared content to the selected sharing endpoint

420 typically as a background procedure (as indicated by part number 1210).

By implementing loading as a background procedure, user 105 can quickly return to font application 505 (Figure 5) so that the context of the user experience associated with the font application is maintained. As shown in Figure 13, in order to ensure that the load

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_J Background institute is completed to meet that ^formMeÁR ^ ino user expectations 105 regarding the share sharing action, the identity of a target application 510 that is currently participating in loading to a share endpoint 420 is added to a list 1305 of procedures that are exempt from closure to via operating system 215. The associated 505 font application can also be added to list 1305. For example, if target application 510 is reading a large group of data, it is not interrupted by prematurely closing the source application. Font application 505 and target application 510 are removed from list 1305 when the upload is complete.

Although the topic has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it should be understood that the topic defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are described as illustrative ways of implementing the claims.