SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERFACE DISPLAY SCREEN MANIPULATION

• US 20140282125A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Partner One Acquisitions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Assima Switzerland SA
• Inventors: Duneau, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 9,285,948 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

A system and method for generation, modification, or manipulation of user interface display screens includes a processor storing display screen templates and instantiation data structures which reference the templates for instantiation of the respective ones of the display screen templates for a plurality of different display screens, where the templates can correspond to respective sub-screens of one or more display screens. The processor can analyze captured display screen data to determine whether the data corresponds to a previously stored one of the templates, and, responsive to a positive result of the determination, store a new instantiation data structure referencing the template to which the data is determined to correspond and otherwise generate a new template to be referenced by the instantiation data structure. Modifications and object associations to a plurality of different display screens can be effected by modification of, or association with, a single one of the templates.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for displaying a user interface display screen, comprising:

obtaining, by a computer processor, an instantiation data structure;

processing, by the processor, the instantiation data structure, the processing including obtaining and instantiating a screen template pointed to by the instantiation data structure; and

outputting, by the processor and in a display device, the instantiated screen template.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the instantiation data structure includes a modification script, and the processing of the instantiation data structure includes executing the modification script to modify the screen template.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

modifying the modification script in accordance with a user input instruction, wherein, in accordance with the modification of the modification script, a user interface object of the display screen output using the modification script is different than those of the captured display screen data on which the screen templates are based.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining an application simulation script for simulation of a portion of a target application, wherein;

the obtaining and processing of the instantiation data structure is performed according to a processing of the application simulation script; and

the instantiation data structure is one of a plurality of instantiation data structures referenced in, and obtained in a sequence defined by, the application simulation script.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the instantiation data structure is one of a plurality of instantiation data structures obtained for generation and display of the user interface display screen, each of the instantiation data structures referencing a different respective screen template, the display screen being constructed of a combination of instantiations of the respective screen templates of the plurality of instantiation data structures.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein one or more of the plurality of instantiation data structures includes a respective modification script to be executed to modify the respectively instantiated screen template for the construction of the display screen.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the modification script identifies data text to be entered by the processor.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

capturing display screen data;

stripping all data text from the display screen data; and

storing the display screen data from which the data text has been stripped as the screen templates.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

modifying the modification script in accordance with a user input instruction, wherein, in accordance with the modification of the modification script, data text of the display screen output using the template instantiations is different than data text of the captured display screen data on which the screen templates are based.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining user input of a modification instruction for modifying the screen template;

responsive to the use input, updating the screen template; and

subsequently outputting a modified version of the user interface display screen by processing the instantiation data structure to obtain and instantiate the modified screen template.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a plurality of different user interface display screens are generated for display by processing respective instantiation data structures that each includes a pointer to the screen template.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of different user interface display screens are generated for display by processing respective instantiation data structures that each includes a pointer to the screen template.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

during execution of a target application, capturing data corresponding to a displayed display screen; and

generating the instantiation data structure and the screen template based on the captured data.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

stripping away some of the captured data, the screen template being based on the remaining portion of the captured data; and

generating a modification script based on the data that has been stripped from the captured data.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

during execution of a target application, capturing data corresponding to a displayed display screen; and

based on the captured data, determining whether the display screen to which the captured data corresponds is a match to any of a plurality of previously stored screen templates, wherein a new screen template is generated for the captured data conditional upon that the determination is that a match is not found.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

during execution of a target application, capturing data corresponding to a displayed display screen; and

based on the captured data, determining whether the display screen to which the captured data corresponds is a match to any of a plurality of previously stored screen templates, wherein, conditional upon that the determination is that a match is found, an instantiation data structure including a pointer to the determined matching one of the previously stored screen templates is generated for the captured data.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in accordance with the instantiation of the screen template, generating a signature of the screen that identifies a context based on user interface components and data components of the instantiated screen template.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

outputting a user tip object associated with the identified context.

19. A computer-implemented simulation generation method, comprising:

during execution of a target application, capturing, by a computer processor, data corresponding to a displayed display screen of the target application;

determining, by the processor, whether a portion of the displayed display screen to which a portion of the captured data corresponds is a match to any of a plurality of previously stored screen templates; and

for the portion of the captured data, generating and storing, by the processor, a respective instantiation data structure referencing a screen template, the instantiation data structure being processable for instantiating the referenced screen template during playing of a simulation of the target application, wherein the referenced screen template is one of the plurality of previously stored screen templates conditional upon that the determination is that a match is found and is otherwise one that is generated based on the portion of the captured data.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

responsive to the determination being that the match is found, if the portion of the displayed screen to which the portion of the captured data corresponds is different than a display screen region of the matching screen template, generating a modification script whose execution results in modification of an instantiation of the display screen region of the matching screen template to re-obtain the portion of the displayed screen to which the portion of the captured data corresponds.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

dividing the captured data into a plurality of portions, each corresponding to a respective sub-screen of the displayed display screen, wherein a respective instantiation data structure, each including a respective pointer to a respective display screen template, is stored for each of the respective sub-screens for, in combination, instantiating the display screen templates referenced by the instantiation data structures of the sub-screens to reconstruct the display screen during the playing of the simulation.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein, for each of one or more of the plurality of portions, the respective instantiation data structure further includes a modification script to be executed to modify the respective instantiated sub-screen template for the reconstruction of the display screen.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

removing objects identified as data text from the captured data, wherein the determining is based on the removal.

24. A computer-implemented display screen modification method, comprising:

obtaining, by a computer processor, user-input of an instruction to modify a characteristic of a portion of a display screen; and

responsive to the instruction, modifying, by the processor, a stored screen template, wherein the screen template is referenced by a plurality of stored instantiation data structures according to which the screen template is instantiable for creation of a respective plurality of different user interface display screens.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

displaying an editable version of one of the plurality of different user interface display screens in an editing interface, wherein the instruction is input by;

user selection of an object of the displayed editable version of the one of the plurality of different user interface display screens; and

input of property data for the selected object.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

obtaining user-input of a second instruction to modify a second characteristic of the portion of the display screen;

responsive to the second instruction, modifying, by the processor, a modification script of one of the plurality of stored instantiation data structures that references the screen template, which modification script is used for modifying an instantiation of the screen template.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the modification to the modification script corresponds to a change in a user interface object of the instantiation.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the modification to the modification script corresponds to a change in data text of the instantiation.

29. A computer-implemented method for output of user tips during running of an application, the method comprising:

determining, by a computer processor, whether a user interface display screen displayed or to be displayed during the running of the application includes a sub-screen that is similar to a screen template with which a tip object is associated; and

responsive to a positive result of the determination, outputting, by the processor, an element defined by the tip object during the running of the application;

wherein the display screen template to which the sub-screen is determined to be similar is also determined to be similar to sub-screens of other different user interface display screens for output of the element defined by the tip object for the other different user interface display screens.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the tip object is associated with a particular object within the screen template.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the determining includes generating a signature based on contents of sub-screens of the display screen and comparing the generated signatures of the display screen to a signature that is dependent on the screen template.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the tip object is displayed responsive to the positive result of the determination conditional upon that specified criteria with which the tip object is associated are satisfied during the running of the application at which the user interface display screen is displayed or is to be displayed.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the criteria includes at least one of, a timing criterion, data being entered, data previously entered at a prior point during the running of the application, and a navigation sequence by which the display screen that is displayed or that is to be displayed is reached.

34. A computer-implemented method for output of user tips during running of an application, the method comprising:

determining, by a computer processor, whether a user interface display screen displayed or to be displayed during the running of the application is similar to a display screen template with which a tip object is associated; and

responsive to a positive result of the determination, outputting, by the processor, an element defined by the tip object during the running of the application;

wherein the display screen template to which the user interface display screen is determined to be similar is also determined to be similar to other different user interface display screens for output of the element defined by the tip object for the other different user interface display screens.