Method and apparatus for delivering a dynamic context sensitive integrated user assistance solution

• US 6,307,544 B1
• Filed: 07/23/1998
• Issued: 10/23/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Harding, Andrew R.
• Primary Examiner(s): DELA TORRE, CRESCELLE N
• Application Number:
  US09/121,637
• Time in Patent Office: 1,188 Days
• Field of Search: 345/338, 345/336, 345/337, 345/326, 345/333, 345/334, 345/335, 345/339, 345/346, 345/347, 345/352, 345/353, 707/10
• US Class Current: 715/709
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

Proactive and dynamic assistance is provided to a user of a computer system. In particular, the present invention provides a navigation model that integrates help information, task guide information, interactive wizard information or other user assistance information, for example, into a single user assistance system. Additionally, code for the user assistance system is maintained separately from code for an application program for the computer system.

Claims

1. A method of providing assistance to a user of an application program running on a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) determining when a user needs assistance by monitoring events indicating user activity;

(b) proactively determining a context object identifying the context of the user in the application program, wherein said context object comprises information obtained from a Graphical User Interface (GUI) control;

(c) dynamically building an assistance object key using the context object; and

(d) displaying an assistance object view to the user based on the assistance object key.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the assistance object view presents an assistance navigation menu listing one or more categories of information.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the assistance object view presents one or more assistance objects.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of:

(e) progressively displaying cascading levels of the assistance navigation menu.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein a meaning of the assistance object key is readily apparent from a name of the assistance object key.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining when a user needs assistance comprises the step of

(a)(i) detecting when a mouse event occurs in an interface window of the application program.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of dynamically determining the context object comprises the step of retrieving a context key indicating the context of the user in the application.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of dynamically determining the context object comprises the step of dynamically determining the user'"'"'s context in the application program.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein after step (c), the method further comprises the steps of:

(c)(i) retrieving an assistance object definition associated with the assistance object key from an object definition repository; and

(c)(ii) using information derived from the assistance object definition to dynamically build the assistance object view.

10. The method according to claim 2, wherein the categories of information provide links to the assistance objects.

11. The method according to claim 2, wherein the categories of information include procedures, overviews, tips, tasks, examples, concepts and reference.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the object definition repository is a repository of Extensible Markup Language (XML) files.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein the object definition repository is a Database Management System (DBMS).

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein code for providing assistance to the user of the application is independent from code for the application program, such that the code for providing assistance to the user may be modified without having to modify the code for the application program and code for the application program may be modified without having to modify the code for providing assistance to the user.

15. A method of providing assistance to a user of an application program running on a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) determining when a user needs assistance by monitoring events indicating user activity;

(b) proactively determining a context object identifying the context of the user in the application program;

(c) dynamically building an assistance object key using the context object;

(d) retrieving a pre-existing assistance object associated with the assistance object key; and

(e) displaying an assistance object view associated with the assistance object to the user, wherein said assistance object view comprises an interactive wizard.

16. A computer system for providing assistance to a user of an application program, the computer system comprising:

(a) a system manager for determining when a user needs assistance by monitoring events indicating user activity, proactively determining a context object identifying the context of the user in the application program, wherein said context object comprises information obtained from a Graphical User Interface (GUI) control, and dynamically building an assistance object key using the context object; and

(b) a display for displaying an assistance object view to the user based on the assistance object key.

17. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein the assistance object view presents an assistance navigation menu listing one or more categories of information.

18. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein the assistance object view presents one or more assistance objects.

19. The computer system according to claim 17, wherein the display progressively displays cascading levels of the assistance navigation menu.

20. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein a meaning of the assistance object key is readily apparent from a name of the assistance object key.

21. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein the system manager determines when a user needs assistance by:

(a)(i) detecting when a mouse event occurs in an interface window of the application program.

22. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein the system manager dynamically determines the context object by retrieving a context key from a source in the application program indicating the context of the user in the application.

23. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein the system manager dynamically determines the context object by dynamically determining the user'"'"'s context in the application.

24. The computer system according to claim 16, further comprising:

(c) an assistance object definition repository for storing assistance object definitions; and

(d) a definition handler for retrieving one of the assistance object definitions associated with the assistance object key from the assistance object definition repository, the assistance object key having been provided to the definition handler by the system manager; and

(e) wherein information derived from the assistance object definition is used to dynamically build the assistance object view.

25. The computer system according to claim 17, wherein the categories of information provide links to the assistance objects.

26. The computer system according to claim 17, where the categories of information include procedures, overviews, tips, tasks, examples, concepts and reference.

27. The computer system according to claim 24, wherein the object definition repository is a repository of Extensible Markup Language (XML) files.

28. The computer system according to claim 24, wherein the object definition repository is a Database Management System (DBMS).

29. The computer system according to claim 16, wherein code for providing assistance to a user of the application program is independent from code for the application program, such that the code for providing assistance to a user may be modified without having to modify the code for the application program and the code for the application program may be modified without having to modify the code for providing assistance to the user.

30. A computer system for providing assistance to a user of an application program, the computer system comprising:

(a) a system manager for determining when a user needs assistance by monitoring events indicating user activity, proactively determining a context object identifying the context of the user in the application program, wherein said context object comprises information obtained from a Graphical User Interface (GUI) control, dynamically building an assistance object key using the context object and retrieving a preexisting assistance object associated with the assistance object key; and

(b) a display for displaying to the user an assistance object view associated with the assistance object.

31. A program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for providing assistance to a user of an application program running on a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) determining when a user needs assistance by monitoring events indicating user activity;

(b) proactively determining a context object identifying the context of the user in the application program;

(c) dynamically building an assistance object key using the context object; and

(d) displaying an assistance object view to the user based on the assistance object key, wherein said assistance object view comprises an interactive wizard.

32. The program storage device according to claim 31, wherein the assistance object view presents one of an assistance navigation menu listing one or more categories of information.

33. The program storage device according to claim 31, wherein the assistance object view presents one or more assistance objects.

34. The program storage device according to claim 31, further comprising the step of:

(e) progressively displaying cascading levels of the assistance navigation menu.

35. The program storage device according to claim 31, wherein a meaning of the assistance object key is readily apparent from a name of the assistance object key.

36. The program storage device according to claim 31, wherein the step of determining when a user needs assistance comprises the step of

(a)(i) detecting when a mouse event occurs in an interface window of the application program.

37. The program storage device according to claim 31, wherein the step of dynamically determining the context object comprises the step of retrieving a context key indicating the context of the user in the application.

38. The program storage device according to claim 31, wherein the step of dynamically determining the context object comprises the step of dynamically determining the user'"'"'s context in the application program.

39. The program storage device according to claim 31, wherein after step (c), the method further comprises the steps of:

(c)(i) retrieving an assistance object definition associated with the assistance object key from an assistance object definition repository; and

(c)(ii) using information derived from the assistance object definition to dynamically build the assistance object view.

40. The program storage device according to claim 32, wherein the categories of information provide links to the assistance objects.

41. The program storage device according to claim 32, where the categories of information include procedures, overviews, tips, tasks, examples, concepts and reference.

42. The program storage device according to claim 39, wherein the object definition repository is a repository of Extensible Markup Language (XML) files.

43. The program storage device according to claim 39, wherein the object definition repository is a Database Management System (DBMS).

44. The program storage device according to claim 31, wherein code for performing the steps of the method is independent from code for the application program, such that the code for providing assistance to a user may be modified without having to modify the code for the application program and the code for the application program may be modified without having to modify the code for providing assistance to the user.

45. A program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for providing assistance to a user of an application program running on a computer system, the method comprising the steps of.

(a) determining when a user needs assistance by monitoring events indicating user activity;

(b) proactively determining a context object identifying the context of the user in the application program, wherein said context object comprises information obtained from a Graphical User Interface (GUI) control;

(c) dynamically building an assistance object key using the context object;

(d) retrieving a pre-existing assistance object associated with the assistance object key; and

(e) displaying an assistance object view associated with the assistance object to the user.