Creating a self-service application in a self-service terminal

• US 20080163172A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Rossmann, Wolf D., Savage, John G.
• Application Number:
  US11/981,286
• Publication Number:
  US 20080163172A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/656 while running

Abstract

A self-service terminal (SST) is configured for operation under control of an application in a manner that allows updates to the application at the SST without redistribution of executable files and without a shutdown or restart of the SST. One technique for accomplishing this involves storing computer-executable objects that, when executed, serve as components of the self-service application; and storing one or more structural files that together define relationships among the computer-executable objects such that, when the computer-executable objects are executed, the relationships defined by the structural files govern operational flow of the self-service application. The technique also involves storing one or more computer-executable files that, when executed, cause the self-service terminal to instantiate the computer-executable objects that serve as components of the self-service application, and configure the objects for operation according to the relationships defined in the one or more structural files.

Claims

1. A method for use in configuring a self-service terminal for operation under control of a self-service application, the method comprising:

storing computer-executable objects that, when executed, serve as components of the self-service application;

storing one or more structural files that together define relationships among the computer-executable objects such that, when the computer-executable objects are executed, the relationships defined by the structural files govern operational flow of the self-service application; and

storing one or more computer-executable files that, when executed, cause the self-service terminal to;

instantiate the computer-executable objects that serve as components of the self-service application; and

configure the objects for operation according to the relationships defined in the one or more structural files.

2. The method of claim 1, where the method includes executing the self-service application to cause the self-service terminal to engage in a self-service transaction with a human user of the self-service terminal.

3. The method of claim 2, where executing the self-service application includes executing one of the computer-executable objects that is defined as a top-level object by the one or more structural files.

4. The method of claim 1, where storing the computer-executable objects includes storing the objects within an object library in the self-service terminal.

5. The method of claim 4, where storing the computer-executable objects within an object library includes storing the objects among other computer-executable objects that serve as components of one or more applications other than the self-service application.

6. The method of claim 1, where storing the computer-executable objects includes storing an updated version of at least one of the computer-executable objects in the self-service terminal.

7. The method of claim 1, where storing the one or more structural files includes storing a network configuration file that defines relationships that are to exist among the computer-executable objects in each of multiple copies of the self-service application stored across multiple self-service terminals within a network of self-service terminals.

8. The method of claim 7, where storing the one or more structural files also includes storing an SST-specific configuration file that further defines the relationships that are to exist among the computer-executable objects that serve as components of the self-service application in the self-service terminal.

9. The method of claim 1, where storing one or more structural files includes storing one or more markup-language documents.

10. The method of claim 9, where storing one or more markup-language documents includes storing one or more documents that comply with the Extensible Markup Language (XML) standard.

11. The method of claim 1, where storing the one or more structural files includes storing one or more files that define, in addition to the relationships among the computer-executable objects, one or more configuration parameters that govern operation of the self-service application upon execution of the computer-executable objects.

12. The method of claim 1, where storing the one or more structural files includes storing an updated version of at least one of the structural files.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing the self-service application to cause the self-service terminal to engage in a self-service transaction with a human user of the self-service terminal and, upon doing so:

concluding that one or more changes have occurred in the one or more structural files since the computer-executable objects were instantiated and configured; and

again instantiating and reconfiguring one or more of the computer-executable objects as necessary to comply with the changes in the structural files.

14. A method for use in configuring a self-service terminal for operation under control of a self-service application, the method comprising:

creating a copy of the self-service application by;

executing one or more computer-executable files that cause the self-service terminal to instantiate within the self-service terminal copies of one or more computer-executable objects that, when executed, serve as components of the self-service application; and

accessing one or more structural files that together define relationships among the computer-executable objects such that, when the computer-executable objects are executed, the relationships defined by the structural files govern operational flow of the self-service application; and

at some point thereafter, executing the self-service application to cause the self-service terminal to engage in a self-service transaction with a human user of the self-service terminal.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising again executing the one or more computer-executable files after one or more changes have been made to one or more of the computer-executable objects.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising again executing the one or more computer-executable files after one or more changes have been made to one or more of the structural files.

17. The method of claim 14, where accessing the one or more structural files includes reading from the files one or more configuration parameters that govern operation of the self-service application upon execution of the computer-executable objects.

18. The method of claim 14, where accessing the one or more structural files includes accessing a network configuration file that defines relationships that are to exist among the computer-executable objects in each of multiple copies of the self-service application stored across multiple self-service terminals within a network of self-service terminals.

19. The method of claim 18, where accessing the one or more structural files also includes accessing an SST-specific configuration file that further defines the relationships that are to exist among the computer-executable objects that serve as components of the self-service application in the self-service terminal.

20. The method of claim 14, where accessing the one or more structural files includes accessing one or more markup-language documents.

21. The method of claim 20, where accessing the one or more markup-language documents includes accessing one or more documents that comply with the Extensible Markup Language (XML) standard.

22. The method of claim 14, where executing the self-service application includes executing one of the computer-executable objects that is defined as a top-level object by the one or more structural files.