Building Finite State Machine Model

• US 20080270101A1
• Filed: 07/11/2006
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Suomen 3C OY (3C Europe Oy)
• Original Assignee: Suomen 3C OY (3C Europe Oy)
• Inventors: Salmela, Marko
• Application Number:
  US11/994,946
• Publication Number:
  US 20080270101A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4498 Finite state machines

Abstract

A solution for building a finite state machine model is provided. The solution comprises: displaying (300) on a display a state associated with at least one modelling component, the component comprising information about available triggering events, detecting (302) the state and a modelling component obtaining focus, searching (304) for possible outgoing state transitions and destination states related to the state with which the at least one modelling component is associated, displaying (306) the detected outgoing state transitions and destination states, receiving (308) selections of the state transitions and destination states, and adding (310) the selections to the model describing the finite state machine model.

Claims

1. A method of building a finite state machine model, the method comprising:

displaying (300) on a display a state associated with at least one modelling component, the component comprising information about available triggering events,

detecting (302) the state and modelling component obtaining focus,

characterized by

searching (304) for possible outgoing state transitions and destination states related to the state with which the at least one modelling component is associated,

displaying (306) the found outgoing state transitions and destination states,

receiving (308) selections of the state transitions and destination states, and

adding (310) the selections to the model describing the finite state machine model.

2. The method of claim 1, characterized by

detecting that a state and modelling component associated with the state obtains focus,

checking whether the component provides triggering events with available state transitions and destination states not included in the finite state machine,

displaying the detected state transitions and destination states on the display.

4. The method of claim 1, characterized in that the finite state model describes behaviour of the user interface of an electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1, characterized in that the model is a Unified Modelling Language state chart.

6. The method of claim 1, characterized in that indicators indicating an error or a warning are displayed along with states.

7. The method of claim 1, characterized in that a modelling component which is associated with a state comprises subcomponents.

8. The method of claim 1, characterized by a subcomponent comprising subcomponents.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, characterized by a subcomponent providing triggering events with state transitions and destination states.

3. The method of claim 3, characterized by displaying the state transitions and destination states included in the finite state machine emphasised compared to state transitions and destination states which are not included in the finite state machine.

10. An electronic device comprising a processor (102), a display (104), and input means (106) operatively connected to each other, the processor (102) being configured to create a finite state machine model using modelling components associated with states of the state machine, the component comprising information about available triggering events, the device being configured to

display on the display (104) a state associated with at least one modelling component,

detect the state and modelling component obtaining focus,

characterized by the device being further configured to

search for possible outgoing state transitions and destination states related to the state with which the at least one modelling component is associated,

display the found outgoing state transitions and destination states,

receive with the input means (106) selections of the state transitions and destination states, and

add with the processor (102) the selections to the model describing the finite state machine.

11. The device of claim 10, characterized by the device being further configured to

detect that a state and modelling component associated with the state obtains focus,

check whether that the component provides triggering events with available state transitions and destination states not included in the finite state machine,

display the detected state transitions and destination states on the display (104).

12. The device of claim 10, characterized by the device being further configured to

display the state transitions and destination states included in the finite state machine emphasised compared to state transitions and destination states which are not included in the finite state machine.

13. The device of claim 10, characterized by the device being further configured to display indicators indicating an error or a warning along with states.

14. A computer program product encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for building a finite state machine model, the process comprising:

displaying (300) on a display a state associated with at least one modelling component, the component comprising information about available triggering events,

detecting (302) the state and modelling component obtaining focus,

characterized by the process further comprising;

searching (304) for possible outgoing state transitions and destination states related to the state with which the at least one modelling component is associated,

displaying (306) the found outgoing state transitions and destination states,

receiving (308) selections of the state transitions and destination states, and

adding (310) the selections to the model describing the finite state machine.

15. A computer program distribution medium readable by a computer and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for building a finite state machine model, the process comprising:

displaying (300) on a display a state associated with at least one modelling component, the component comprising information about available triggering events,

detecting (302) the state and modelling component obtaining focus,

characterized by the process further comprising;

searching (304) for possible outgoing state transitions and destination states related to the state with which the at least one modelling component is associated,

displaying (306) the detected outgoing state transitions and destination states related to the state the modelling component is associated with,

receiving (308) selections of the state transitions and destination states, and

adding (310) the selections to the model describing the finite state machine.

16. The computer program distribution medium of claim 15, the distribution medium including at least one of the following media:

a computer-readable medium, a program storage medium, a record medium, a computer-readable memory, a computer-readable software distribution package, a computer-readable signal, a computer-readable telecommunications signal, and a computer-readable compressed software package.