Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02490330 2004-12-16
A METHOD AND A COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR VERIFYING A
COMPUTER RENDERABLE DOCUMENT FOR ON-SCREEN APPEARANCE
Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer rendering of visual
content; in
particular, to a method and a computer program product for verifying a
computer renderable
document for on-screen appearance.
Background
A computer renderable descriptive mark-up language defined documents contain
visual
elements that use a combination of display device dependent and device
independent
positioning algorithms during rendering. As such, a document may look
acceptable at one
screen resolution but may be unacceptable at another screen resolution. Screen
resolution
here refers to the dimensions (vertical and horizontal) of the screen
presentation usually
specified in pixels. Most display devices support a collection of screen
resolution settings
from a commonly used set of such settings.
The designer of the document would like to be able to verify the appearance of
the document
at a variety of different screen resolutions. Typically this is done by
manually changing the
screen resolution of the display device (e.g. computer monitor) and maximizing
the display
window associated with an application used to render the document (e.g. a
browser
application). These steps must be repeated for each screen resolution setting
that the
document designer wishes to verify.
The above described approach to verifying a computer renderable descriptive
mark-up
language defined document for on-screen appearance at different screen
resolutions can be
labor intensive.
What is needed is a method for verifying a computer renderable document for on-
screen
appearance which mitigates the shortcoming of the above described approach.
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Summary of Invention
Aspects of embodiments of the invention provide a method and a computer
program product
for verifying a computer renderable document for on-screen appearance when
displayed by
an application (e.g. a browser application) adapted to applying any one of a
plurality of
predetermined window resolutions responsive to an input signal. The computer
renderable
document (e.g. a HTML page) can be identified to the application (e.g. a
browser
application) via, for example, a universal resource locator (URL). An input
signal is provided
to the application indicating one of plurality of predetermined window
resolutions. The
predetermined window resolutions may correspond to, for example, a set of
standard
computer monitor sizes (e.g. 1024x768 pixels). Predetermined acceptance
criteria can be
used to determine if the on-screen appearance of the computer renderable
document, at the
input window resolution, is acceptable. The steps of inputting a signal and
accessing the
acceptability of the on-screen appearance can be repeated for other window
resolutions to be
verified.
In accordance with one aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, there
is provided a
method for verifying a computer renderable document for on-screen appearance
when
displayed by an application adapted to applying any one of a plurality of
predetermined
window resolutions responsive to an input signal, the method comprising the
steps of:
identifying the computer renderable document to be verified to for the
application; providing
an input signal to the application indicating one of the plurality of
predetermined window
resolutions; determining if the on-screen appearance of the computer
renderable document
meets predetermined acceptance criteria; and repeating, for other window
resolutions to be
verified, the steps of providing an input signal and determining if acceptance
criteria are met.
In accordance with an aspect of another embodiment of the present invention, a
computer
program product is provided for verifying a computer renderable document for
on-screen
appearance when displayed by an application adapted to applying any one of a
plurality of
predetermined window resolutions responsive to an input signal, the computer
program
product comprising: computer executable instructions for: identifying the
computer
renderable document to be verified to the application; providing an input
signal to the
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application indicating one of the plurality of predetermined window
resolutions; determining
if the on-screen appearance of the computer renderable document meets
predetermined
acceptance criteria; and repeating, for other window resolutions to be
verified, the steps of
providing an input signal and determining if acceptance criteria are met.
Other aspects and features of embodiments of the present invention will become
apparent to
those ordinarily skilled in the art to which it pertains upon review of the
following
description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the
accompanying
figures.
Brief Description of Drawings
At least one embodiment of the present invention will be described in
conjunction with the
drawings in which:
Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of an exemplary means of providing an
input signal to
the application indicating one of plurality of predetermined window
resolutions using a menu
selection.
Fig. 2 is a schematic representation of an exemplary means of providing an
input signal to
the application indicating one of plurality of predetermined window
resolutions using a
command line parameter.
Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of an exemplary means of providing an
input signal to
the application indicating one of plurality of predetermined window
resolutions using an
inter-process procedure call.
Fig. 4 is flow diagram representing the steps in a method for verifying a
computer renderable
document for on-screen appearance when displayed by an application adapted to
applying
any one of a plurality of predetermined window resolutions responsive to an
input signal.
Detailed Description of the Embodiments of the Invention
The embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method and a
computer program
product for verifying a computer renderable document for on-screen appearance
when
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displayed by an application adapted to applying any one of a plurality of
predetermined
window resolutions responsive to an input signal. The application can be, for
example, a
web browser or similar application that provides for the rendering of visual
elements in the
document on to a viewing screen such as, for example, a computer monitor.
The computer renderable document is one that contains renderable visual
elements defined in
any or a combination of description mark-up languages such as, for example,
HTML, XML
and other similar descriptive mark-up languages. The rendered contents of the
document are
often referred to as a page in the context of the application. The computer
renderable
document is identified to the application via a well known location mechanism
such as, for
example, a universal resource locator (URL), a file system pathname/filename
or other
similar document location mechanism.
An input signal is provided to the application indicating one of plurality of
predetermined
window resolutions to be applied. The predetermined window resolutions
corresponding to,
for example, a set of standard computer monitor sizes such as, for example,
640x480,
800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 pixels. A computing platform on
which the
application executes preferably includes a display monitor having a resolution
equal or
greater than the largest window resolution indicated by the input signal. The
predetermined
window resolutions allows the application to be used to emulate the rendered
on-screen
appearance for computing platforms having smaller display monitors of sizes
corresponding
to the predetermined window resolutions.
The input signal to the application can take the form of a menu selection, a
command key
sequence (a.k.a. hot-key combination), a command line parameter, a inter-
process procedure
call and other similar signal input mechanisms. Fig. 1 is a schematic
representation of an
exemplary means of providing an input signal to the application indicating one
of plurality of
predetermined window resolutions using a menu selection. Fig. 2 is a schematic
representation of an exemplary means of providing an input signal to the
application
indicating one of plurality of predetermined window resolutions using a
command line
parameter. Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of an exemplary means of
providing an input
signal to the application indicating one of plurality of predetermined window
resolutions
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using an inter-process procedure call. The inter-process procedure call
mechanism can be
one of dynamic data exchange (DDE), component object model (COM), remote
procedure
call (RPC) and other similar inter-process procedure call mechanisms.
Predetermined acceptance criteria are used to determine if the on-screen
appearance of the
computer renderable document, at the input window resolution, is acceptable.
Acceptability
of the on-screen appearance can be directed to aspects of comprehensibility,
aesthetics and
combinations thereof. The determination of acceptability can be made by a
human operator
where the outcome is one of acceptable and unacceptable.
The steps of inputting a signal and accessing the acceptability of the on-
screen appearance
are repeated for other window resolutions to be verified. This approach can be
use to quickly
and efficiently verify the on-screen appearance of a computer renderable
document by an
application for a plurality of window resolutions representing standard screen
sizes.
Fig. 4 is flow diagram representing the steps in a method 100 for verifying a
computer
renderable document for on-screen appearance when displayed by an application
adapted to
applying any one of a plurality of predetermined window resolutions responsive
to an input
signal according to the present invention. In step 110 the computer renderable
document is
identified to the application. This permits the application to render and
display the visual
element contents of the document in the form of a display page. In step 120,
an input signal
is provided to the application indicating one of the plurality of
predetermined window
resolutions. The different window resolutions are used to emulate the
rendering of on-screen
appearance for computing platforms having display monitors of sizes
corresponding to the
predetermined window resolutions. In step 130, the acceptability of the on-
screen
appearance of the computer renderable document, for the window resolution
input in step
120, can be determined using predetermined acceptance criteria. A human
operator can
make the determination of acceptable or unacceptable based on aspects of
comprehensibility,
aesthetics and combinations thereof. In step 140, the steps of inputting a
signal 120 and
determining the acceptability of the on-screen appearance 130, can be repeated
for other
window resolutions in the plurality of predetermined window resolutions until
all window
resolutions of interest are verified.
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The embodiment of a method according to the present invention can be
implemented by a
computer program product comprising computer executable instructions adapted
to execute
the steps of the method as described above. Such a computer program product
can be
executed on any of a number of general purpose and purpose-built computing
platforms.
It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that numerous modifications and
departures from
the specific embodiments described herein may be made without departing from
the spirit
and scope of the present invention.
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