Method, system, and computer-readable medium for creating and laying out a graphic within an application program

A METHOD, APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM ARE PROVIDED FOR CREATING AND LAYING OUT A GRAPHIC WITHIN A DRAWING APPLICATION PROGRAM (10). THE METHOD INCLUDES RECEIVING (510) A DATA MODEL (30) DEFINING A SET OF DATA AND DATA RELATIONSHIPS TO BE REPRESENTED IN THE GRAPHIC (24), RECEIVING (520) A GRAPHIC DEFINITION (40) DESCRIBING THE MAPPING OF THE DATA FROM THE DATA MODEL (30) TO A SET OF ALGORITHMS (60), ALGORITHM PARAMETERS, CONSTRAINTS, CONSTRAINT RULES, AND SHAPE PROPERTIES, DETERMINING A SHAPE SIZE AND POSITION FOR THE LAYOUT NODES (50) UTILIZING THE SET OF ALGORITHMS, CONSTRAINTS AND CONSTRAINT RULES FROM THE GRAPHIC DEFINITION (40), AND CREATING A LIST OF SHAPES (70) AND SHAPE PROPERTIES FOR THE GRAPHIC, INCLUDING SIZE AND POSITION. THE METHOD FURTHER INCLUDES DETERMINING (550) IF THE GRAPHIC FITS A GIVEN LAYOUT INTO A SPECIFIC AREA BASED ON THE SET OF CONSTRAINT VALUES AND IF THE GRAPHIC DOES NOT FIT THE SPECIFIC AREA, THEN MODIFYING (560) THE SET OF CONSTRAINT VALUES USING THE CONSTRAINT RULES.