System and method for automating manual transactions between disjoint systems

• US 20060190835A1
• Filed: 02/22/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Martin, James A. Jr., Hicks, Scott D., Rauch, Diane C., Cunningham, Bruce R., Rigoni, Jamie P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,735,017 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A system, method and program product for copying data between disjoint data processing applications. A system is disclosed that includes: a source application having a system for selecting a data record and a triggering agent that extracts relevant data from the selected data record, launches a dialog box and displays the extracted relevant data in the dialog box; and a data transfer system having a keystroke simulator for copying and pasting data from the dialog box to an interface window in a target application based on a set of data transfer rules.

Claims

1. A system for copying data between disjoint applications, comprising:

a source application having a system for selecting a data record and a triggering agent that extracts relevant data from the selected data record, launches a dialog box and displays the extracted relevant data in the dialog box; and

a data transfer system having a keystroke simulator for copying and pasting data from the dialog box to an interface window in a target application based on a set of data transfer rules.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dialog box includes a field for temporarily storing target data generated by the target application.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected data record comprises time and billing data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the data transfer rules provide a mapping of the data from the dialog box to the interface window in the target application.

5. A program product stored on a computer readable medium for copying data between disjoint applications, comprising:

program code configured to allow a user to select a data record;

program code configured to extract relevant data from the selected data record, launch a dialog box and display the extracted relevant data in the dialog box; and

program code configured for copying and pasting data from the dialog box to an interface window in a target application based on a set of data transfer rules.

6. The program product of claim 5, wherein the dialog box includes a field for temporarily storing target data generated by the target application.

7. The program product of claim 5, wherein the selected data record comprises time and billing data.

8. The program product of claim 5, wherein the data transfer rules provide a mapping of the data from the dialog box to the interface window in the target application.

9. A method of copying data between disjoint applications, comprising:

selecting a data record in a source application;

extracting data from the data record;

launching a dialog box;

displaying the extracted data in the dialog box;

displaying a target application window; and

copying and pasting the extracted data into the target application window in accordance with a set of data transfer rules.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising the further steps of:

generating target data within the target application;

copying and pasting the target data to the dialog box;

displaying the target data in an imported target data field in the dialog box;

navigating to a subsequent window in the target application; and

copying and pasting the target data from the dialog box into the subsequent window.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the extracted data record comprises time and billing data.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the data transfer rules provide a mapping of the data from the dialog box to the target application interface window.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the copying and pasting steps are performed using a keystroke simulator.

14. A method for deploying an application for copying data between disjoint data processing applications, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to;

select a data record;

initiate a triggering agent to extract relevant data from the selected data record, launch a dialog box and display the extracted relevant data in the dialog box; and

copy and paste data from the dialog box to an interface window in a target application based on a set of data transfer rules.

15. Computer software embodied in a propagated signal for copying data between disjoint data processing applications, the computer software comprising instructions to cause a computer to perform the following functions:

select a data record;

initiate a triggering agent to extract relevant data from the selected data record, launch a dialog box and display the extracted relevant data in the dialog box; and

copy and paste data from the dialog box to an interface window in a target application based on a set of data transfer rules.