Method and apparatus for cataloging screen shots of a program

• US 20070168379A1
• Filed: 01/17/2006
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Keiichi, Yu, Kin, Patel, Sushma
• Application Number:
  US11/333,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168379A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A screen shot of a window of a program is taken. A computer program queries data structures that are a source for aspects of the screen shot. The program objects return text strings associated with the window to the computer program. The computer program associates a unique identifier, the screen shot and the text strings together into a second data structure.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for associating text in a data structure describing a set of graphical objects with a resultant image of a displayed graphical object on a computer display comprising:

introspecting the data structure to obtain a text string;

storing the text string in a second data structure;

associating a unique identifier with the second data structure; and

associating the resultant image to the second data structure.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein storing further comprises storing an object identifier and an object coordinate in the second data structure.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein introspecting further comprises:

requesting a handle from an operating system;

receiving the handle; and

traversing the data structure for each graphical object in the data structure.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein requesting further comprises:

identifying a window of a graphical user interface.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

creating a root node of a tree.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein associating the unique identifier further comprises:

storing the unique identifier to the second data structure.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein storing further comprises:

selecting the unique identifier wherein the unique identifier is distinct from a second unique identifier associated with a third data structure.

8. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for associating text in a data structure describing a set of graphical objects with a resultant image of a displayed graphical object on a computer display, said computer program product including;

computer usable program code for introspecting the data structure to obtain a widget string;

computer usable program code for storing the widget string in a second data structure;

computer usable program code for associating a unique identifier with the second data structure; and

computer usable program code for associating the resultant image to the second data structure.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein computer usable program code for storing further comprises:

computer usable program code for storing a object identifier and a object coordinate to a second data structure.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein computer usable program code for introspecting further comprises:

computer usable program code for requesting a handle from an operating system;

computer usable program code for receiving the handle; and

computer usable program code for traversing the data structure for each widget in the data structure.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein computer usable program code for requesting further comprises:

computer usable program code for identifying a window of a graphical user interface.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein usable program code further comprises:

computer usable program code for creating a root node of a tree.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein computer usable program code for associating further comprises:

computer usable program code for storing the unique identifier to the second data structure.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein computer usable program code for storing further comprises:

computer usable program code for selecting the unique identifier wherein the unique identifier is distinct from a second unique identifier associated with a third data structure.

15. A data processing system comprising:

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein computer usable code is located in the storage device;

a communication unit connected to the bus;

a processing unit connected to the bus, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable code to introspect a data structure to obtain a text string;

store the text string in a second data structure;

associate a unique identifier with the second data structure; and

associate a resultant image to the second data structure, wherein the resultant image is derived from the data structure.

16. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein in executing the computer usable code to store the processing unit further executes the computer usable code to:

store a object identifier and a object coordinate in the second data structure.

17. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein in executing the computer usable code to introspect the processing unit further executes the computer usable code to:

request a handle from an operating system;

receive the handle; and

traverse the data structure for each graphical object in the data structure.

18. The data processing system of claim 17, wherein in executing the computer usable code to request the processing unit further executes the computer usable code to:

identify a window of a graphical user interface.

19. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein in executing the computer usable code to query the processing unit further executes the computer usable code to:

create a root node of a tree.

20. The data processing system of claim 15, wherein in executing the computer usable code to associate the processing unit further executes the computer usable code to:

store the unique identifier in the second data structure.