Apparatus and method for providing a condition builder interface

• US 7,899,836 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2008
• Issued: 03/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pereira, Eduardo Jose, Springgay, David Douglas, Qadri, Nashib, McGuire, Kevin T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Saeed; Usmaan
• Application Number:
  US12/170,603
• Publication Number:
  US 20080276219A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing a user interface through which a user may generate a conditional expression are provided. The user interface provides guidance to a user as to the proper parts of the conditional expression to include in the conditional expression as the user constructs the conditional expression. Thus, as the user completes parts of the conditional expression, the guidance that is offered is updated based on the current context of the conditional expression. This guidance may include listings of variables, attributes and/or functions that are most appropriate to be entered next in the conditional expression, help text, and the like.

Claims

1. A computer program product in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereto instructions executed by a computer for providing an interface for generating a conditional expression for use with a computer application, comprising:

first instructions for generating an initial user interface having a conditional expression component, an entry suggestion list component, and a hint message component, wherein the conditional expression component provides a current context of the conditional expression and includes one or more tokens for the conditional expression, wherein the one or more tokens for the conditional expression includes at least one hyperlink token that is selectable by a user, wherein the entry suggestion list component includes a listing of templates for conditional expressions, wherein at least one template in the listing of templates includes one or more hyperlink tokens that is selectable by a user, and wherein the hint message component includes a hint message identifying an action to be performed, or an input to be provided, by a user in association with the position in the conditional expression;

second instructions for receiving user input from a user to the conditional expression component that builds the conditional expression, wherein the user input is one of a selection of a token in the one or more tokens and a modification of a token in the one or more tokens to update the current content of the conditional expression, wherein if the at least one hyperlink token for the conditional expression is selected by the user and if a hyperlink token of the at least one template in the listing of templates is selected by the user to form a selected hyperlink token, the entry suggestion list is updated to include entries for replacement of the selected hyperlink token;

third instructions for dynamically updating the entry suggestion list component based on the user input to the conditional expression component responsive to receiving the user input, wherein the updated entry suggestion list component identifies one or more selectable entries for inclusion in the conditional expression at a position in the conditional expression corresponding to the user input, wherein user input is received for each of the one or more tokens to generate the conditional expression, and dynamically updating the hint message by the hint message component to include a message identifying an action to be performed, or an input to be provided, by a user in association with the position in the conditional expression corresponding to the user input;

wherein the third instructions for dynamically updating the entry suggestion list component based on the user input to the conditional expression component include;

instructions for generating a reference set of data identifying possible entries for a conditional expression;

instructions for determining a token type for a selected token in the one or more tokens for the conditional expression;

instructions for matching the token type to data types for entries in the reference set of data; and

instructions for generating a listing of entries from the reference set of data which have data types that match the token type; and

fourth instructions for replacing the one or more tokens for the conditional expression with the at least one selectable entry of the one or more selectable entries from the updated entry suggestion list component responsive to selecting at least one selectable entry of the one or more selectable entries from the updated entry suggestion list component.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the conditional expression component includes a representation of the conditional expression in a hierarchical tree format.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the hierarchical tree format includes conditional expressions that must both be satisfied being depicted as connected by solid lines.

4. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the hierarchical tree format includes conditional expressions that may alternatively be satisfied being depicted as connected by dotted lines.

5. An apparatus for providing an interface for generating a conditional expression for use with a computer application, comprising:

means for generating by use of a processor, an initial user interface having a conditional expression component, an entry suggestion list component, and a hint message component, wherein the conditional expression component provides a current context of the conditional expression and includes one or more tokens for the conditional expression, wherein the one or more tokens for the conditional expression includes at least one hyperlink token that is selectable by a user, wherein the entry suggestion list component includes a listing of templates for conditional expressions, wherein at least one template in the listing of templates includes one or more hyperlink tokens that is selectable by a user, and wherein the hint message component includes a hint message identifying an action to be performed, or an input to be provided, by a user in association with the position in the conditional expression;

means for receiving user input from a user to the conditional expression component that builds the conditional expression, wherein the user input is one of a selection of a token in the one or more tokens and a modification of a token in the one or more tokens to update the current content of the conditional expression, wherein if the at least one hyperlink token for the conditional expression is selected by the user and if a hyperlink token of the at least one template in the listing of templates is selected by the user to form a selected hyperlink token, the entry suggestion list is updated to include entries for replacement of the selected hyperlink token;

means for dynamically updating the entry suggestion list component based on the user input to the conditional expression component responsive to receiving the user input, wherein the updated entry suggestion list component identifies one or more selectable entries for inclusion in the conditional expression at a position in the conditional expression corresponding to the user input, wherein user input is received for each of the one or more tokens to generate the conditional expression, and dynamically updating the hint message by the hint message component to include a message identifying an action to be performed, or an input to be provided, by a user in association with the position in the conditional expression corresponding to the user input;

wherein the means for dynamically updating the entry suggestion list component based on the user input to the conditional expression component include;

means for generating a reference set of data identifying possible entries for a conditional expression;

means for determining a token type for a selected token in the one or more tokens for the conditional expression;

means for matching the token type to data types for entries in the reference set of data; and

means for generating a listing of entries from the reference set of data which have data types that match the token type; and

means for replacing the one or more tokens for the conditional expression with the at least one selectable entry of the one or more selectable entries from the updated entry suggestion list component responsive to selecting at least one selectable entry of the one or more selectable entries from the updated entry suggestion list component.