Styleable transitions

Abstract

The described technology is directed towards determining the rendering of user interface (UI) elements, referred to as views, based upon styleable transitions between possible states of a view. Transitions may include animation, such as to smoothly enter a view into or exit a view out of a scene over a number of rendering frames. Transitions also may be applied to view state changes related to a UI element, such as to indicate hovered over, focused, listening (for speech), selected and/or pressed. View state changes also may be animated.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 changing a view from a connected state to an entering state, in which the connected state corresponds to the view being in a view tree and not in a scene, and the entering state corresponds to the view being moved at least partly into the scene;   determining one or more transitions associated with the entering state; and   using the one or more transitions to determine the appearance of the view entering the scene.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein using the one or more transitions to determine the appearance of the view in the scene comprises using animation data to move the view into the scene over a plurality of rendering frames. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein using the one or more transitions to determine the appearance of the view in the scene comprises using at least one transition to vary color, size, position, orientation or opacity. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising, detecting a change to a view state, determining one or more view state transitions associated with the view state change, and using the one or more view state transitions to modify the appearance of the view in the scene to represent the view state change. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein using the one or more view state transitions to modify the appearance of the view in the scene includes animating the view to represent the view state change. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  wherein determining the one or more view state transitions associated with the view state comprises obtaining information indicating that the view state corresponds to one or more of: a hovered view state, a focused view state, a listening view state, a pressed view state, or a selected view state. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the view state change corresponds to at least two view state transitions, and wherein using the view state transitions to modify the appearance of the view comprises applying the transitions in a precedence order. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining the one or more transitions associated with the entering state comprises using one or more override styles associated with a parent of the view. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining the one or more transitions associated with the entering state comprises using one or more override styles associated with a parent of the view, and overriding at least one override style of the parent of the view with an override style of a higher-level parent of the parent. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising, changing the view from the entering state to an exiting state, including determining one or more exiting transitions associated with the exiting state and using the one or more exiting transitions to determine the appearance of the view exiting the scene. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein using the one or more exiting transitions to determine the appearance of the view exiting the scene comprises animating the view to move the view out of the scene. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10  further comprising, changing the view from the exiting state to a disconnected state in which the view is not part of a view tree. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10  further comprising, reverting the view from the exiting state to another instance of the entering state. 
     
     
         14 . A system comprising:
 a view, the view associated with a current presence state of a set of possible presence states, the current presence state associated with one or more transitions; and   a view state manager, the view state manager configured to determine rendering data for the current presence state based at least in part on the one or more transitions associated therewith, the view state manager coupled to the view to use the rendering data to modify a presentation of the view to a user that is based upon the current presence state.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the current presence state comprises an entering state, and wherein the rendering data includes animation data that is used to transition the view over a plurality of rendering frames into a scene. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14  wherein interaction with the view corresponds to a view state change, and wherein the view state manager is further configured to determine view state rendering data based upon the view state change including one or more view state transitions associated therewith, the view state manager coupled to a rendering mechanism of the view to use the view state rendering data to modify a presentation of the view. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the view state transition causes an animated visual change to the view to represent the view state change. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the view state change corresponds to one or more of: a hovered view state, a focused view state, a listening view state, a pressed view state, or a selected view state. 
     
     
         19 . One or more machine-readable storage media having machine-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:
 using one or more styleable transitions to enter a view into a scene, including animating entry of the view into the scene;   detecting a view state change;   using one or more styleable transitions to change the appearance of the view based upon the view state change, including animating the appearance of the view to indicate the view state change; and   using one or more styleable transitions to exit the view from the scene, including animating the exiting of the view from the scene.   
     
     
         20 . The one or more machine-readable storage media of  claim 19  wherein using the one or more styleable transitions to enter the view into the scene, comprises overriding a styleable transition associated with the view with a styleable transition associated with a parent of the view.