Graphical programming system and methods for assisting a user with creating screen objects on a screen device

• US 5,745,712 A
• Filed: 12/28/1995
• Issued: 04/28/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Borland Software Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Borland International, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Brown, Kevin Lane, Turpin, William Monroe, Bogrett, Steven Ward
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): dela Torre, Crescelle N.
• Application Number:
  US08/580,224
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• Field of Search: 395/333, 395/334, 395/335, 395/339, 395/347, 395/348, 395/975, 395/977, 395/766, 395/767, 395/768, 395/133
• US Class Current: 715/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

A system for creation and completion of goal oriented electronic forms creates a graphical image data file which defines: a graphical image of a form for display and printing; a graphical image of tree branches, tree nodes, and conclusions in association with fields of the form; reading and writing links between form fields and data sources and destinations; and links to other forms which, with the original form, comprise a related stack of forms. The system includes a form creation mode and a run time mode. The trees are defined by an application developer using the form creation mode to establish both qualitative and quantitative relationships between the various fields on the forms thereby providing the basis for the goal oriented prompting for the application user using the run time mode.

Claims

1. In a computer system, a method for assisting a user with creating screen objects on a screen device, the method comprising:

(a) displaying an object bar on the screen device, said object bar having a plurality of icons for representing a respective plurality of types of objects to be created, each type of object having a set of properties;

(b) receiving a first request for inspecting and setting the default values for the set of properties for a desired type of object, said first request including a first signal from a pointing device for selecting the icon which represents the desired type of object;

(c) in response to said first request, (i) displaying a list of properties for the desired type of object and (ii) setting at least one default value for the set of properties for the desired type of object to user-specified values;

(d) receiving at least one second request for creating a screen object of said desired type of object, said second request including a second signal from a pointing device for selecting the icon which represents said desired type of object; and

(e) for each said at least one second request received in step (d), creating an object of said desired type on the screen device, each object being created with said at least one of the default values for the set of properties set equal to said user-specified values that were set in step (c).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said types of objects includes a selected one of a field object, a button object, a table object, a rectangle object, a line object, and a graphics object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said object bar is displayed along one side of said screen device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said pointing device is a mouse device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said mouse device includes two buttons for generating right and left mouse button signals, wherein said first signal comprises a left mouse button signal, and wherein said second signal comprises a right mouse button signal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said default set of properties includes properties of color and width.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said screen objects include selected ones of text and graphic objects.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said screen objects include properties which may be altered by a user with an input device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said screen objects comprise static and dynamic objects, the static objects including selected ones of text and graphic, and the dynamic objects including at least one field for receiving information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said at least one field receives information from data entered with said input means.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

establishing a data link between said at least one field and at least one external data source; and

reading information from said at least one external data source, wherein information read is stored in said at least one field.

12. In a computer system, a method for assisting a user with creating screen objects on a screen device, the method comprising:

(a) displaying an object bar on the screen device, said object bar having a plurality of icons for representing a respective plurality of types of objects to be created, each type of object having a set of properties, with first and second of said types of objects having respective first and second sets of properties that are different from each other but have a particular property in common;

(b) receiving a first request for inspecting and setting values for the set of properties for said first type of object, said first request including a first signal from a pointing device for selecting the icon which represents said first type of object;

(c) in response to said first request, setting said particular property for said first type of object to a user-specified value without affecting a current value for the particular property for the second type of object;

(d) receiving a second request for creating a screen object of said first type of object, said second request including a second signal from a pointing device for selecting the icon which represents said first type of object; and

(e) for each said at least one second request received in step (d), creating an object of said first type on the screen device, each object being created with said particular property set equal to said user-specified value that was set in step (c).

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said types of objects includes a selected one of a field object, a button object, a table object, a rectangle object, a line object, and a graphics object.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said object bar is displayed along one side of said screen device.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said pointing device is a mouse device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said mouse device includes two buttons for generating right and left mouse button signals, wherein said first signal comprises a left mouse button signal, and wherein said second signal comprises a right mouse button signal.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein step (c) includes:

displaying a dialog listing properties available for the desired type of object.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein said default set of properties includes properties of color and width.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein said screen objects include selected ones of text and graphic objects.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein said screen objects include properties which may be altered by a user with an input device.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein said screen objects comprise static and dynamic objects, the static objects including selected ones of text and graphic, and the dynamic objects including at least one field for receiving information.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said at least one field receives information from data entered with said input means.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

establishing a data link between said at least one field and at least one external data source; and

reading information from said at least one external data source, wherein information read is stored in said at least one field.

24. A method for creating application software, the method comprising:

(a) displaying a form object on a screen device;

(b) displaying a toolbar menu hating a plurality of uninstantiated screen objects of respective types;

(c) in response to a user event occurring at a particular one of the uninstantiated screen objects in the toolbar, the particular uninstantiated screen object having a particular type, providing a mechanism for a user to inspect, and if desired, change, default attributes of the particular uninstantiated screen object;

(d) in response to user input, changing at least one default attribute of the particular uninstantiated screen object; and

(e) visually creating the application software by instantiating selected ones of the screen objects on the form object, wherein, if the screen objects, so instantiated, include an instance of the particular type of screen object, the particular type of screen object is instantiated with the at least one attributes changed as a result of step (d).

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said plurality of screen objects include:

selected ones of a text object, a field object, a button object, a table object, and a graphic object.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein step (c) includes:

selecting at least one screen object from the toolbar with a pointing device.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein said user event is a right mouse button down event, and wherein each of said uninstantiated screen objects is represented on the toolbar by a single screen icon.