Generating User Help Information for Customized User Interfaces

• US 20110289409A1
• Filed: 05/13/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lawson, Keir, Haragan, Christy, Bhasin, Saurabh, Webster, Christopher M., Batey, Christopher M., Horsman, Steven J., Shepherd, Katie
• Granted Patent: US 8,943,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

A method for generating user help information for a customized user interface, the customized user interface including one or more user interface components from a library of user interface components, the method comprising the steps of: associating library component help information with each user interface component in the library of user interface components; identifying component help information from the library component help information for each component in the customized user interface; aggregating the identified component help information into user help information for presentation to a user of the customized user interface.

Claims

1. A method for generating user help information for a customized user interface, the customized user interface including at least one user interface component from a library of user interface components, the method comprising the steps of:

associating library component help information with each user interface component in the library of user interface components;

identifying component help information from the library component help information for each component in the customized user interface; and

aggregating the identified component help information into user help information for presentation to a user of the customized user interface.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a definition of at least one user interface control for each user interface component in the library of user interface components.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting, from the library of user interface components based on at least one user task to be performed by a user, particular user interface components to be included in the customized user interface.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising defining, for a user role, the at least one user task.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising including a reference to an associated user interface component for identifying the user interface component.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising including an indication of a type of user interface control with the component help information for, in the step of aggregating, ordering the component help information in the user help information based on the type.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising including priority information with the component help information for, in the step of aggregating, ordering the component help information in the user help information based on the priority information.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the component help information with the user interface components in the library of user interface components.

15. A computer program element comprising computer program code stored thereon to cause the computer to perform, when loaded into a computer system and executed thereon, the steps of the method of claim 1.

9. An apparatus for generating user help information for a customized user interface, the customized user interface including at least one user interface component from a library of user interface components, the apparatus comprising:

an associator for associating library component help information with each user interface component in the library of user interface components;

an identifier for identifying component help information from the library component help information for each component in the customized user interface; and

an aggregator for aggregating the identified component help information into user help information for presentation to a user of the customized user interface.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein each user interface component in the library of user interface components includes a definition of at least one user interface control.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the component help information includes a reference to an associated user interface component for identifying the user interface component.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the component help information includes an indication of a type of user interface control for use by the aggregator to order the component help information in the user help information based on the type.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the component help information includes priority information for, in the step of aggregating, ordering the component help information in the user help information based on the priority.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

a central processing unit;

a memory subsystem;

an input/output subsystem; and

and a bus subsystem interconnecting the central processing unit, the memory subsystem, the input/output subsystem.