Universal Visualization Platform

Abstract

The invention relates to a framework system and methods for connecting a plurality of tools. The system comprises a plug-in mechanism configured to dynamically load the plurality of tools, a data pool having storage space configured to store data sets associated with the plurality of tools, a linking mechanism configured to establish communications links between the loaded plurality of tools to enable coordinated operation of the loaded plurality of tools, a session component configured to record the process history of the operations of the loaded plurality of tool and the system states corresponding to the process history of the operations and an annotation module configured to associate user-provided data corresponding to one or more of the stored data sets.

1 . A data versioning method for restoring data to an earlier state, the method comprising:
 recording an initial data set;   performing a plurality of operations on the initial data set to produce a plurality of resultant modified data sets, each of the plurality of the modified data sets representing a corresponding version of the modified data set;   recording in a log the plurality of operations performed on the initial data set; and   re-generating one of the plurality of modified data set corresponding to a particular version of the data set by performing on the initial data set the sequence of operations recorded in the log that produced the one of the plurality of modified data sets.   
     
     
         2 . The data versioning method of  claim 1 , further comprising recording at least some of the produced plurality of resultant modified data sets. 
     
     
         3 . The data versioning method of  claim 2 , wherein regenerating one of the plurality of modified data sets comprises:
 identifying from the recorded initial data set and the at least some of the recorded plurality of resultant modified data sets the data set corresponding to the most recent version of the data set preceding the version corresponding to the data set to be re-generated; and   performing the sequence of operations following the identified data set to re-generate the one of the plurality of modified data sets.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising recording system states corresponding to each of the recorded plurality of operations. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein each of the system states includes an associated platform state and an associated tool state. 
     
     
         6 . A method for displaying data, the method comprising:
 graphically representing, using a graphical object, characteristics of values of a data record;   receiving data from an interacting user to alter the graphical object;   performing operations on the graphical object based on the data from an interacting user; and   causing the data of the data record to be displayed based on the operations performed on the graphical object.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the graphical object includes an anchor. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the operations include at least one of: overlapping interaction operator, avoidance interaction operator, switching interaction operator, bounded interaction operator, unbounded interaction operator, bounded group operator, and bound group and switching interaction operator.