Expandable two-dimensional flow for container hierarchy

摘要

Presenting items in a two-dimensional access pane includes presenting a first set of icons arranged contiguously and in two dimensions of the access pane, where each of the icons corresponds to an item and at least some of the items are container icons that represent containers that contain other items and expanding at least one of the container icons to show a first container pane having icons corresponding to items contained in a corresponding container, where icons in the first container pane are arranged contiguously and in two dimensions of the first container pane. At least some of the icons in the first container pane may be container icons that represent containers that contain other items. The items may be files in a file system provided in connection with a personal computer that runs Macintosh OS, MS Windows, and Linux. The items may be data in a database system.

主权项

1. A method of presenting items in a two-dimensional access pane, comprising:
presenting a first set of icons arranged contiguously and in two dimensions of the access pane, wherein each of the icons corresponds to an item and at least some of the items are container icons that represent containers that contain other items; expanding at least one of the container icons to show a first container pane having icons corresponding to items contained in a corresponding container, wherein icons in the first container pane are arranged contiguously and in two dimensions of the first container pane; and expanding at least one of the container icons in the first container pane to show a second container pane having icons corresponding to items contained in a corresponding container, wherein icons in the second container pane are arranged contiguously and in two dimensions of the second container pane and wherein icons in the first container pane are prioritized by moving icons corresponding to unopened containers to reorder icons in the first container pane.