Automatically Generating Documentation for a Diagram Including a Plurality of States and Transitions

• US 20100293480A1
• Filed: 05/14/2009
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Soni, Ritesh Kumar, Neumann, Nicholas G., Shivananda, Praveen
• Granted Patent: US 9,047,168 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/73 Program documentation

Abstract

System and method for generating documentation for a diagram including states and transitions. The diagram may be received or otherwise stored and may specify a plurality of states and a plurality of transitions between the states. The first diagram also specifies first functionality. User documentation may be automatically generated for the first diagram based on the first diagram. The user documentation may describe the first diagram, e.g., the plurality of states and the plurality of transitions of the first diagram. Automatic generation of the user documentation may be performed without manual user input specifying the user documentation. The user documentation may be displayed on a display and/or stored in a memory medium.

Claims

1. A computer accessible memory medium storing program instructions executable by a processor to:

store a first diagram, wherein the first diagram specifies a plurality of states and a plurality of transitions between the states, wherein the first diagram specifies first functionality;

automatically generate user documentation for the first diagram based on the first diagram, wherein the user documentation describes the first diagram, wherein the user documentation describes the plurality of states and the plurality of transitions of the first diagram, and wherein automatic generation of the user documentation is performed without manual user input specifying the user documentation; and

display the user documentation on a display.

2. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein said automatically generating the user documentation comprises:

analyzing information corresponding to each state;

generating user documentation for each state based on the analysis;

analyzing information corresponding to each transition; and

generating user documentation for each transition based on the analysis.

3. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of states comprises one or more substates.

4. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first diagram comprises inputs or outputs with one or more types, and wherein the user documentation describes each of the one or more types of the first diagram.

5. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein behavior of one or more of the plurality of states and transitions is specified according to a graphical data flow language, and wherein the user documentation describes graphical data flow code specifying the behavior of the one or more of the plurality of states and transitions.

6. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the user documentation indicates an execution target for the first diagram.

7. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first diagram is an executable diagram.

8. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the user documentation comprises one or more markup language files.

9. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the user documentation comprises one or more images illustrating the first diagram.

10. The memory medium of claim 1, wherein the user documentation comprises one or more content files and one or more template files, wherein the one or more template files are configurable to modify appearance of the user documentation.

11. A method, comprising:

storing a first diagram, wherein the first diagram specifies a plurality of states and a plurality of transitions between the states, wherein the first diagram specifies first functionality;

automatically generating user documentation for the first diagram based on the first diagram, wherein the user documentation describes the first diagram, wherein the user documentation describes the plurality of states and the plurality of transitions of the first diagram, and wherein automatic generation of the user documentation is performed without manual user input specifying the user documentation; and

storing the user documentation on a memory medium.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said automatically generating the user documentation comprises:

analyzing information corresponding to each state;

generating user documentation for each state based on the analysis;

analyzing information corresponding to each transition; and

generating user documentation for each transition based on the analysis.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first diagram comprises inputs or outputs with one or more types, and wherein the user documentation describes each of the one or more types of the first diagram.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein behavior of one or more of the plurality of states and transitions is specified according to a graphical data flow language, and wherein the user documentation describes graphical data flow code specifying the behavior of the one or more of the plurality of states and transitions.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the user documentation indicates an execution target for the first diagram.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the plurality of states comprises one or more substates.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the user documentation comprises one or more markup language files.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the user documentation comprises one or more images illustrating the first diagram.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the user documentation comprises one or more content files and one or more template files, wherein the one or more template files are configurable to modify appearance of the user documentation.

20. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a display coupled to the processor; and

a computer accessible memory medium coupled to the processor, wherein the memory medium stores program instructions executable by the processor to;

receive a first diagram, wherein the first diagram specifies a plurality of states and a plurality of transitions between the states, wherein the first diagram specifies first functionality;

automatically generate user documentation for the first diagram based on the first diagram, wherein the user documentation describes the first diagram, wherein the user documentation describes the plurality of states and the plurality of transitions of the first diagram, and wherein automatic generation of the user documentation is performed without manual user input specifying the user documentation; and

display the user documentation on the display.