AUTOMATIC BATCHING OF GUI-BASED TASKS

• US 20150205631A1
• Filed: 12/22/2014
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Lin, Qingwei, Li, Fan, Li, Jiang
• Granted Patent: US 9,424,068 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/46 Multiprogramming arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models

Abstract

Described herein are techniques for automatically batching GUI-based (Graphical User Interface) tasks. The described techniques include automatically determining whether a user is performing batchable tasks in a GUI-based environment. Once detected, the described techniques include predicting the next tasks of a batch based upon those detected batchable tasks. With the described techniques, the user may be asked to verify and/or correct the predicted next tasks. Furthermore, the described techniques may include performing a batch and doing so without user interaction.

Claims

1. A method that facilitates automatic batching of batchable Graphical User Interface (GUI) based tasks in a GUI-based environment, the method comprising:

tracking GUI-based tasks of a user within a context of the GUI-based environment;

determining whether the tracked GUI-based tasks of the user are batchable;

anticipating one or more not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks;

verifying, with the user, that one or more anticipated GUI-based tasks match forthcoming GUI-based tasks that the user intends to perform;

locating GUI-based targets of the verified GUI-based tasks;

performing a batch of the verified GUI-based tasks, wherein the performing includes visually simulating a user providing input in performing the GUI-based tasks of the batch.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising storing the tracked GUI-based tasks using a pre-defined format for storing GUI-based tasks.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising parsing each of the tracked GUI-based tasks into one or more invariant portions and one or more variant portions.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising parsing each of the tracked GUI-based tasks into an invariant portion and one or more variant portions, wherein the invariant portion of like tasks does not differ between like tasks and the variant portions of like tasks differ between like tasks.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein the determining comprises:

examining the invariant portion of each task of a sequence of GUI-based tasks;

detecting, in the sequence, a repeated sub-sequence of tasks having a common pattern of invariant portions.

6. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein the determining comprises:

examining the invariant portion of each task of a sequence of GUI-based tasks;

detecting, in the sequence, an adjacent and repeated sub-sequence of tasks having a common pattern of invariant portions.

7. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the anticipating comprises setting values of variant portions of the anticipated not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks.

8. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the anticipating comprises:

selecting one or more defined sequences of values of variant portions of GUI-based tasks;

setting values of the variant portions of the anticipated not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks based upon the selected one or more defined sequences.

9. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the anticipating comprises:

selecting one or more defined sequences of values of variant portions of GUI-based tasks;

obtaining an upper or a lower limit of the selected sequence;

setting values of the variant portions of the anticipated not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks based upon the selected one or more sequences, wherein the upper or the lower limit of set values is defined by the obtained limit.

10. One or more computer-readable media storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations that facilitate automatic batching of batchable Graphical User Interface (GUI) based tasks in a GUI-based environment, the operations comprising:

determining that tracked GUI-based tasks of a user are batchable;

anticipating one or more not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks based upon the determined batchable GUI-based tasks;

verifying, with the user, that one or more anticipated GUI-based tasks match forthcoming GUI-based tasks that the user intends to perform;

performing a batch of the verified GUI-based tasks, wherein the verified GUI-based tasks of the batch are performed without user interaction.

11. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise parsing each of the tracked GUI-based tasks into an invariant portion and one or more variant portions, wherein the invariant portion of like tasks does not differ between like tasks and the variant portions of like tasks differ between like tasks.

12. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein the determining operation comprises:

examining the invariant portion of each task of a sequence of GUI-based tasks;

detecting, in the sequence, a repeated sub-sequence of tasks having a common pattern of invariant portions.

13. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the anticipating operation comprises setting values of the variant portions of the one or more anticipated not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks.

14. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the anticipating operation comprises:

selecting one or more defined sequences of values of variant portions of GUI-based tasks;

setting values of the variant portions of the anticipated not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks based upon the selected one or more defined sequences.

15. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise generating the batch of the verified GUI-based tasks to include multiple repetitions of the determined batchable GUI-based tasks based upon the verified one or more anticipated GUI-based tasks.

16. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein the performing operation comprises visually simulating a user providing input that would cause the performed GUI-based tasks of the batch.

17. One or more computer-readable media storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations that facilitate automatic batching of batchable Graphical User Interface (GUI) based tasks in a GUI-based operating system (OS) environment, the operations comprising:

identifying GUI-based tasks of a user that are batchable;

generating a repeated pattern of multiple not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks based, at least in part, upon the identified batchable GUI-based tasks;

performing a batch of the generated GUI-based tasks.

18. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 17, wherein the identifying operation comprises:

tracking GUI-based tasks of the user within a context of the GUI-based OS environment;

parsing each of the tracked GUI-based tasks into an invariant portion and one or more variant portions, wherein the invariant portion of like tasks does not differ between like tasks and the variant portions of like tasks differ between like tasks;

examining the invariant portion of each task of a sequence of GUI-based tasks;

detecting, in the sequence, a repeated sub-sequence of tasks having a common pattern of invariant portions.

19. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 18, wherein the generating operation comprises:

selecting one or more defined sequences of values of variant portions of GUI-based tasks;

setting values of variant portions of the anticipated not-yet-performed GUI-based tasks based upon the selected one or more defined sequences.

20. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 17, wherein the identified GUI-based tasks of the user occur across multiple GUI-based applications in the GUI-based OS environment.