Generic Controls for Community Framework Adaptability

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current collaborative computing environments are rigid and inflexible, lacking customization and adaptability, making it difficult for users to tailor collaboration experiences across distributed computing environments.

Innovation Solution

A community framework that provides a membership-based desktop within a portal, allowing users to define access to applications and content, with features like extensible controls, dynamic content, and resource interlinking, enabling a more fluid and adaptable collaboration experience.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a rigid and inflexible collaborative computing environment is used, then system stability and ease of implementation are improved, but adaptability and customization capability deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecustomization capabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments collaborative computing functionality into independent, reusable control components that can be individually selected and configured. Each control represents a discrete functional unit that can be assembled into customized collaboration environments, allowing adaptability without requiring complete system redesign.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements universal control components that can serve multiple collaboration scenarios. These controls are designed to be context-independent and can be applied across different collaboration types (e.g., document editing, video conferencing, project management), providing adaptability through a standardized set of reusable elements.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Productivity

If customized collaboration environments are enabled, then user productivity and collaboration efficiency are improved, but system complexity and implementation difficulty increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecollaboration efficiencyVSAvoidimplementation ease

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by pre-defining standardized control components with established functionality and interfaces. These controls are prepared in advance with built-in collaboration capabilities, so that implementation involves selecting and configuring pre-built components rather than developing customization logic from scratch, thereby maintaining ease of implementation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent enables copying of standardized control components across different collaboration instances. Once a control is defined, it can be replicated and reused multiple times with minimal modification, allowing rapid deployment of customized environments without repeating implementation effort for each customization scenario.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Adaptability or versatility

If extensible controls with dynamic content are provided, then adaptability and user interaction are improved, but system complexity and resource requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontrol extensibilityVSAvoidresource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements nesting by embedding dynamic content within standardized control structures. Dynamic elements are contained within the boundaries of defined controls, allowing extensibility at the content level while maintaining the structural integrity and resource management of the parent control framework. This nested approach enables adaptability without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #7Nested doll (Nesting)

Data Source

PatentUS7493329B2System and method for providing generic controls in a communities framework

Publication Date: 2009.02.17 ORACLE INT CORP

AI summary

A community that is accessed via a portal is disclosed, for maintaining user membership during collaboration on a project. A repository containing resources is provided wherein the data is stored nodes and each node is associated with a collaboration resource. The resources can each have a set of properties or attributes. A content object can be provided for wrapping each node and for specifying what type of resource the node holds data for. A generic control can be implemented in order to handle various business logic for the developer in terms of the collaboration resources. The generic control can deal with the content object wrappers instead of nodes. Developers can use the generic controls in order to obtain an abstracted interface to the content management system API. The generic control can also contain an extensible control for performing CRUD operations on the data nodes.