Custom language support for project documentation and editing

• US 8,181,157 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Ericsson, Matthew R., Belcher, John E., Curry, David R., Stanek, Christopher E., Malaspina, Fabio, Bliss, Ronald E.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAVIS, JOHN Q
• Application Number:
  US11/537,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20080127091A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,055 Days
• Field of Search: 717/123
• US Class Current: 717/123
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/73 Program documentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

Abstract

A software documentation system is provided. This includes a documentation object to store documentation data of an application. One or more custom language components are stored with the documentation objects to provide language display options for the application. The custom language components can be applied as a tag to indicate that tagged data items are to remain in a designated form such as a string name that is to remain in the designated language of the documentation designer. The custom language components can also be specified as differing forms of a similar language.

Claims

1. A software documentation system, comprising:

a memory communicatively coupled to a processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement the documentation system, including;

a documentation object configured to store documentation data of an application in multiple language formats; and

one or more custom language components configured to facilitate selection of a current language, from the multiple language formats, in which to display the documentation data, wherein a custom language component of the one or more custom language components is configured to be applied as a tag to a selected data item of the documentation data to indicate that the selected data item is to remain in a designated language form regardless of the current language.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more custom language components are specified as differing forms of a similar language or specified as differing forms of a user-defined language.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more custom language components include at least a first custom language component associated with a verbose format of a given language and a second custom language component associated with a terse format of the given language, and wherein the first custom language component comprises fewer words than the second custom language component.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more the custom language components is associated with a language dialect.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more custom language components is associated with a role.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the role is at least one of an operator role, a designer role, a maintenance role, a security role, or a managerial role.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the a first custom language component of the one or more custom language components is associated with a security identifier that allows the first custom language component to be accessed during a log-in session associated with the security identifier.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a selection component configured to trigger activation of a programming language editor.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the programming language editor is associated with at least one of ladder logic, a sequential function chart, a tag editor, a properties editor, a function block editor, or a structured text editor.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one configuration menu configured to provide configuration options for the one or more custom language components.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the configuration menu is configured to provide an interface to allow the one or more custom language components to be selectively associated with a root language.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein association with the root language causes the one or more custom language components to appear in a selection list with other custom language components associated with the root language.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration menu includes a component to localize the one or more custom language components.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a project documentation manager configured to manage a current language in which the documentation data is to be displayed in response to a request for the documentation data, a default language in which the documentation data is to be displayed no current language being specified, and one or more custom languages defined for the documentation data.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a naming convention component configured to format names, designated for the one or more custom language components, to conform with at least one naming standard.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the naming convention component is associated with a naming standard.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a language switch configured to alter a display of the documentation data between one or more of the multiple language formats.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a data structure stored thereon to facilitate documentation, comprising:

a first data field to specify a current language in which to display stored documentation data;

a second data field to specify one or more custom languages associated with the stored documentation data;

a third data field to bind the one or more custom languages to the first data field to allow the current language to be switched to a selected one of the one or more custom languages; and

a tag field to identify a portion of the stored documentation data that is to remain as non-localized text regardless of the current language of the selected one or more custom languages.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising a role field to associate the one or more custom languages with respective roles.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the role field is associated with at least one of a security role, a maintenance role, an operator role, a designer role, a managerial role, or a developer role.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising a verbose field to specify which of a long form of the documentation data or a short form of the documentation data is to be displayed.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising a switch field to indicate a change from the current language to at least one of the one or more custom languages.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising at least one configuration field for the one or more custom languages.

24. A method for generating project documentation, comprising:

employing a processor to facilitate executing computer-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium to implement acts, including;

defining one or more comments in a current language;

defining one or more other comment forms for the current language;

displaying the one or more comments in a selected one of the one or more other comment forms;

tagging a first comment of the one or more comments as an un-localizable form; and

maintaining, in response to the tagging, a same language form for the first comment across the one or more other comment forms.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising automatically generating a name for at least one of the one or more custom language forms.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising switching between the one or more custom language forms via a user interface.

27. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable components that, in response to execution, cause a computing system to perform operations including:

displaying a documentation object according to a current language context;

storing custom language data, associated with the documentation object, representing at least one alternative form of the current language context;

displaying the documentation object according to the at least one alternative form in response to a switching instruction;

tagging a subset of the documentation object as a custom language name; and

maintaining, in response to the tagging, a same language form for the subset of the documentation object for the current language context and the at least one alternative form.