Method, system and article of manufacture to capture a workflow

• US 20060036958A1
• Filed: 08/12/2004
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dreher, Brian Scott
• Granted Patent: US 7,594,183 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/543 User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Various embodiments of a method, apparatus and article of manufacture that captures a workflow are provided. A capture application automatically stores at least a portion of a copied screen of a source application from a clipboard to provide a captured screen. The capture application repeats the automatic storing to provide a set of captured screens. In various embodiments, a document is built based on the set of captured screens.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of capturing a workflow comprising:

automatically storing, by a capture application, at least a portion of a copied screen of a source application from a clipboard to provide a captured screen; and

repeating said automatically storing, by said capture application, to provide a set of captured screens.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the source application is a workflow application.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

copying at least a portion of a displayed screen of the source application to the clipboard to provide said copied screen.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

building a document based on at least a subset of said set of captured screens.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

identifying one or more inputs to said at least a subset of said set of captured screens, wherein said building stores said one or more inputs in said document.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein said set of captured screens is associated with a software test, and said document provides a record of said software test.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein said document comprises one or more captured screens of said set of captured screens.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein said building further comprises:

comparing one of said captured screens to another one of said captured screens; and

indicating changes between said one of said captured screens and said another one of said captured screens in said document.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein said method further comprises:

determining whether a comment is associated with said copied screen; and

in response to said determining, storing said comment such that said comment is associated with said captured screen that is associated with said copied screen,

wherein said building also stores said comment in said document.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said storing stores said copied screen if said copied screen is different from a previous captured screen.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying said captured screen.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to a play activation, sequentially displaying at least a subset of said set of captured screens.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said captured screens are text-based screens.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said captured screens are bit-mapped images.

15. An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium embodying one or more instructions executable by a computer for performing a method of capturing a workflow, said method comprising:

automatically storing at least a portion of a copied screen of a source application from a clipboard to provide a captured screen; and

repeating said automatically storing to provide a set of captured screens.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the source application is a workflow application.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein said method further comprises:

copying at least a portion of a displayed screen of the source application to the clipboard to provide said copied screen.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein said method further comprises:

building a document based on at least a subset of said set of captured screens.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18 wherein said method further comprises:

identifying one or more inputs to said at least a subset of said set of captured screens, wherein said building stores said one or more inputs in said document.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 18 wherein said set of captured screens is associated with a software test, and said document provides a record of said software test.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 18 wherein said document comprises one or more captured screens of said set of captured screens.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 18 wherein said method further comprises:

comparing one of said captured screens to another one of said captured screens; and

indicating at least a subset of changes between said one of said captured screens and said another one of said captured screen in said document.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 18 wherein said method further comprises:

determining whether a comment is associated with said copied screen; and

in response to said determining, storing said comment such that said comment is associated with said captured screen that is associated with said copied screen,

wherein said building also stores said comment in said document.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein said storing stores said copied screen if said copied screen is different from a previous captured screen.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein said method further comprises:

displaying said captured screen.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein said method further comprises:

in response to a play activation, sequentially displaying at least a subset of the set of captured screens.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein said captured screens are text-based screens.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein said captured screens comprise bit-mapped images.

29. An apparatus for capturing a workflow comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing one or more instructions that;

automatically store at least a portion a copied screen of a source application from a clipboard to provide a captured screen; and

repeat said automatically storing to provide a set of captured screens.

30. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the source application is a workflow application.

31. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein said one or more instructions also:

copy at least a portion of a displayed screen of the source application to the clipboard to provide said copied screen.

32. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein said one or more instructions also:

build a document comprising at least a subset of said set of captured screens.

33. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein said one or more instructions also:

identify one or more inputs to said set of captured screens, wherein said building stores said one or more inputs in said document.

34. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein said set of captured screens is associated with a software test, and said document provides a record of said software test.

35. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein said document comprises one or more captured screens of said set of captured screens.

36. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein said one or more instructions also:

compare one of said captured screens to another one of said captured screens; and

indicate changes between said one of said captured screens and said another one of said captured screens in said document.

37. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein said storing stores said copied screen if said copied screen is different from a previous captured screen.

38. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein said one or more instructions also:

determine whether a comment is associated with said copied screen; and

store said comment such that said comment is associated with said captured screen that is associated with said copied screen,

wherein said building also stores said comment in said document.

39. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein said captured screens comprise text.

40. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein said captured screens comprise bit-mapped images.