Inline tree filters

1. An apparatus for selectively structuring data represented in a hierarchical format, comprising:

a data access facility for hierarchically representing on a display device data stored in electronic format by a data processing system;

an information filtration mechanism comprising an arbitrary search mechanism, responsive to user instructions, for enabling selective display of said data without altering behavior and interaction of said data access facility;

means for determining what filter criteria a user has entered into said information filtration mechanism;

means for traversing through said data; and

means for showing only the data that match said filter criteria.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said data access facility comprises a tree viewer.

3. An apparatus for selectively structuring data represented in a hierarchical tree format, comprising;

a tree viewer for hierarchically representing on a display device data stored in electronic format by a data processing system; and

at least one inline tree filter for enabling selective data display without altering behavior and interaction of said tree viewer, said one inline tree filter comprising an arbitrary search mechanism embedded within said tree viewer;

means for determining what filter criteria a user has entered into an at least one inline tree filter text field;

means for traversing through said data;

means for showing only the data that match said filter criteria;

wherein one or more inline tree filters may be embedded directly into any portion of said tree viewer; and

wherein a selective set of objects is affected by said inline tree filter.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, said inline tree filter further comprising:

an inline tree filter command displayed in a pop-up menu for inserting an inline tree filter into said tree viewer.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, said inline tree filter search mechanism further comprising:

a type-in text field;

a button responsive to a user gesture or command for operating an inline tree filter; and

an optional explanatory data field.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, said inline tree filter search mechanism further comprising:

up and down arrows for browsing search results.

7. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein any available action may be applied to said search results.

8. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said inline filters are independent of a type of data that appears in said tree viewer, wherein various object types are heterogeneously represented in said tree viewer.

9. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein one or more attributes or properties of said data may be used as critieria upon which said objects are filtered.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein any available attributes may be used as critieria upon which said objects are filtered.

11. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein an arbitrary number of inline tree filters may be inserted into said tree viewer.

12. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein inline tree filters may be placed inside of each other to allow multiple nesting at different levels of said tree viewer.

13. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein filter creation may be accomplished by any of a display-based gesture or a non-cursor based metaphor, including any of a menu, keyboard, and voice.

14. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said inline tree filter applies an attribute against which it filters and, optionally, a relationship between said attribute and a value.

15. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising:

a mechanism for selectively enabling and disabling said inline tree filters.

16. A method for selectively structuring data represented in a hierarchical tree format, comprising the steps of:

providing a tree viewer for hierarchically representing on a display device data stored in electronic format by a data processing system;

providing at least one inline tree filter comprising an arbitrary search mechanism embedded within said tree viewer for enabling selective data display without altering behavior and interaction of said tree viewer;

determining what filter criteria a user has entered into an inline tree filter text field;

traversing through said data; and

showing only the data that match said filter criteria.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein each node within said tree viewer for which an inline filter is provided has an instance of its own filter panel.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step:

selectively adding or removing data from a tree viewer node with said inline tree filter based on filter criteria.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of:

dynamically generating contents for said tree viewer by replacing said data with only those data that match said filter criteria.

20. A method for selectively structuring data represented in a hierarchical tree format, comprising the steps of:

attaching a unique filter panel to a tree node, said filter comprising an arbitrary search mechanism;

allowing said filter panel to manipulate a list of child nodes beneath a parent node;

executing a filter method with said filter panel to determine an appropriate list of children that should be made visible; and

optionally enabling and disabling filtering capability for parent nodes that support filtering;

wherein said filter method comprising:

determining what filter criteria a user has entered into said filter panel; and

traversing through said data.