Object oriented apparatus and method for providing a graphical user interface for host-based software applications

• US 6,342,905 B1
• Filed: 01/14/2000
• Issued: 01/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ruhlow, Randy William, Diedrich, Richard Alan, Even, Mark Matthew, Ryba, Bruce Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thai, Cuong T.
• Application Number:
  US09/484,106
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 345/335, 345/333, 345/334, 345/339, 345/329, 345/744, 345/762, 345/763, 345/764, 345/733, 395/682, 395/680, 395/500, 709/203, 709/219
• US Class Current: 715/746
• 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 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

An object oriented computer apparatus and method provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for existing host-based (i.e., green screen) applications by defining some object oriented classes that reside on the client workstation, and by substituting function calls for display data in the green screen application with function calls that interface with the object oriented GUI defined by the classes. In this manner the present invention takes advantage of the processing power of client workstations in a network computing environment by having the client run the GUI. The underlying green screen application is modified to replace all display function calls with new function calls to the GUI, but this change is relatively minor and does not affect the underlying core logic of the application. In addition, the new function calls access the GUI screens directly without having to determine which screen is being displayed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a plurality of screen formats residing in the memory, each screen format corresponding to a display screen that may be displayed on a dumb terminal;

a computer program residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the computer program generating from the plurality of screen formats a plurality of object-oriented screen classes that correspond to the plurality of screen formats.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the computer program generates from each screen format a corresponding object oriented screen class.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the plurality of object-oriented screen classes each include a plurality of object methods that allow a client to interact with data that corresponds to data on a display screen.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the plurality of object methods include:

a loadParms( ) object method that loads the parameters for the display screen in the host-based application;

a getInputField( ) object method that retrieves the data from a specified input field in the display screen in the host-based application;

an addResponseField( ) object method that compiles user input into different fields in the display screen in the host-based application;

a sendResponse( ) object method that sends all user input to the host-based application; and

a getNextScreen( ) object method that retrieves the next screen from the host-based application.

5. A method for providing a graphical user interface (GUI) for an existing host-based application, the method comprising the steps of:

automatically generating a plurality of object oriented screen classes from a plurality of pre-existing screen formats, each pre-existing screen format corresponding to a display screen that may be displayed on a dumb terminal; and

modifying the plurality of screen classes to define a plurality of screens in the GUI.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of automatically generating the plurality of screen classes comprises the step of automatically generating from each pre-existing screen format a corresponding screen class.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the plurality of screen classes each include a plurality of object methods that allow a client to interact with data that corresponds to data on a display screen for the existing host-based application.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the plurality of object methods include:

a loadParms( ) object method that loads the parameters for the display screen in the host-based application;

a getInputField( ) object method that retrieves the data from a specified input field in the display screen in the host-based application;

an addResponseField( ) object method that compiles user input into different fields in the display screen in the host-based application;

a sendResponse( ) object method that sends all user input to the host-based application; and

a getNextScreen( ) object method that retrieves the next screen from the host-based application.