Methods, systems and computer program products for copying between templates having associated field designations

• US 6,499,041 B1
• Filed: 12/29/1998
• Issued: 12/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rodell, John Ted, Greenstein, Paul Gregory, Breslau, Franklin Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph H.
• Application Number:
  US09/222,690
• Time in Patent Office: 1,456 Days
• Field of Search: 707/513, 707/507-509, 707/1, 707/6, 707/10, 707/101, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/203, 707/530
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products for copying data between templates having data stored in fields. The field designations of the source and target template are read and compared and data is copied between fields having matching field designations. For example, each field in the target template with the same field name and field size as a field in the source template receives the data from the corresponding field of the first template. Non-matching fields are presented to a user to obtain instructions on how to complete the copying operation. The user may specify concatenation, splitting, or renaming/resizing to provide source data for the target template. Alternatively, the non-matching fields in the target template may be left empty or the user may manually enter data by using a clipboard function or keying in new data.

Claims

1. A method for copying data between templates contained on a computer comprising the steps of:

receiving a designation of a first template containing data associated with a plurality of fields;

receiving a designation of a second template to which the data is to be copied;

reading a first plurality of field designations associated with the fields of the first template;

reading a second plurality of field designations associated with a plurality of fields of the second template; and

copying data associated with ones of the plurality of fields of the first template to corresponding ones of the plurality of fields of the second template having field designations matching field designations associated with the fields of the first template.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of receiving a designation of the first template comprises the step of receiving a designation of a portion of the first template containing the data to be copied, the portion including a plurality of the plurality of fields of the first template.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the field designations have an associated name and size and wherein the step of copying data comprises the steps of:

comparing the field designations of the first template to the field designations of the second template to identify ones of the field designations of the first template having associated names and sizes which are identical to ones of the field designations of the second template to determine identical fields; and

copying data associated with identical fields from the first template to the second template.

4. A method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

displaying ones of the first plurality of field designations and ones of the second plurality of field designations having non-matching field designations;

receiving designations of data to be copied into designated ones of the plurality of fields of the second template; and

copying the designated data into the designated ones of the plurality of fields of the second template.

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein the step of receiving designations comprises the step of receiving from a user a designation of a field of the second template to copy data to from a field of the first template designated by the user.

6. A method according to claim 5 wherein the step of receiving from a user a designation comprises the step of receiving from a user a selection of a field designation from the second template to be associated with a field designation selected by the user from the first template for copying data.

7. A method according to claim 4 wherein the step of receiving designations comprises the step of receiving data from a user for placement in a field of the second template selected by the user.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of copying data comprises the steps of:

displaying one of the matching field designations to a user;

receiving from the user a designation of whether copying of a field associated with the displayed field designation is desired;

copying data associated with the field associated with the displayed field designation if the user designations copying as desired; and

repeating the displaying, receiving from the user and copying data associated with the field steps for each of the matching. field designations.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein the reading steps re followed by the steps of:

comparing the field designations of the first template to the field designations of the second template to identify non-matching field designations;

displaying at least one of the non-matching field designations to a user;

receiving from the user a designation of a type of copying to be used for the displaced field designation; and

copying data into a field of the second template responsive to the received designation of a type of copying to be used.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the type of copying is selected from the group consisting of manual copying, renaming, concatenating and splitting.

11. A method according to claim 9 wherein the type of copying is manual copying and the step of copying data into a field comprises the step of placing data received from the user in a field of the second template selected by the user.

12. A method according to claim 9 wherein the type of copying is renaming and the step of copying data into a field comprises the step of at least one of renaming or resizing a field of at least one of the first template or the second template selected by the user to provide a new matching field designation and then copying data into a field of the second template having a field designation corresponding to the new matching field designation from a field of the first template having a field designation corresponding to the new matching field designation.

13. A method according to claim 9 wherein the type of copying is concatenating and the step of copying data into a field comprises the step of concatenating a plurality of fields of at least one of the first template or the second template selected by the user and copying data from the concatenated plurality of fields to one of the fields of the other of the first template or the second template selected by the user.

14. A method according to claim 9 wherein the type of copying is splitting and the step of copying data into a field comprises the step of splitting data from a field of at least one of the first template or the second template selected by the user into at least two portions and copying a first one of the portions into a first one of the fields of the other of the first template or the second template selected by the user and copying a second one of the portions into a second one of the fields of the other of the first template or the second template selected by the user.

15. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of copying data comprises the step of copying data using a clipboard function.

16. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of copying data comprises the step of copying data using memory mapping.

17. A template copying system comprising:

means for receiving a designation of a first template containing data associated with a plurality of fields;

means for receiving a designation of a second template to which the data is to be copied;

means for reading a first plurality of field designations associated with the fields of the first template;

means for reading a second plurality of field designations associated with a plurality of fields of the second template; and

means for copying data associated with ones of the plurality of fields of the first template to corresponding ones of the plurality of fields of the second template having field designations matching field designations associated with the fields of the first template.

18. A system according to claim 17 further comprising:

means for displaying ones of the first plurality of field designations and ones of the second plurality of field designations having non-matching field designations;

means for receiving designations of data to be copied into designated ones of the plurality of fields of the second template; and

means for copying the designated data into the designated ones of the plurality of fields of the second template.

19. A system according to claim 17 wherein the means for copying data comprises:

means for displaying one of the matching field designations to a user;

means for receiving from the user a designation of whether copying of a field associated with the displayed field designation is desired; and

means for copying data associated with the field associated with the displayed field designation if the user designations copying as desired.

20. A system according to claim 17 further comprising:

means for comparing the field designations of the first template to the field designations of the second template to identify non-matching field designations;

means for displaying at least one of the non-matching field designations to a user;

means for receiving from the user a designation of a type of copying to be used for the displayed field designation; and

means for copying data into a field of the second template responsive to the received designation of a type of copying to be used.

21. A system according to claim 20 wherein the type of copying is selected from the group consisting of manual copying, renaming, concatenating and splitting.

22. A computer program product for copying data between templates, the computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code leans embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code means comprising;

computer readable program code means for receiving a designation of a first template containing data associated with a plurality of fields;

computer readable program code means for receiving a designation of a second template to which the data is to be copied;

computer readable program code means for reading a first plurality of field designations associated with the fields of the first template;

computer readable program code means for reading a second plurality of field designations associated with a plurality of fields of the second template; and

computer readable program code means for copying data associated with ones of the plurality of fields of the first template to corresponding ones of the plurality of fields of the second template having field designations matching field designations associated with the fields of the first template.

23. A computer program product according to claim 22 further comprising:

computer readable program code means for displaying ones of the first plurality of field designations and ones of the second plurality of field designations having non-matching field designations;

computer readable program code means for receiving designations of data to be copied into designated ones of the plurality of fields of the second template; and

computer readable program code means for copying the designated data into he designated ones of the plurality of fields of the second template.

24. A computer program product according to claim 23 wherein the computer readable program code means for copying data comprises:

computer readable program code means for displaying one of the matching field designations to a user;

computer readable program code means for receiving from the user a designation of whether copying of a field associated with the displayed field designation is desired; and

computer readable program code means for copying data associated with the field associated with the displayed field designation if the user designations copying as desired.

25. A computer program product according to claim 23 further comprising:

computer readable program code means for comparing the field designations of the first template to the field designations of the second template to identify non-matching field designations;

computer readable program code means for displaying at least one of the non-matching field designations to a user;

computer readable program code means for receiving from the user a designation of a type of copying to be used for the displayed field designation; and

computer readable program code means for copying data into a field of the second template responsive to the received designation of a type of copying to be used.

26. A computer program product according to claim 25 wherein the type of copying is selected from the group consisting of manual copying, renaming, concatenating and splitting.