Presentation of help information via a computer system user interface in response to user interaction

• US 6,300,950 B1
• Filed: 04/02/1998
• Issued: 10/09/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dobson, Adam Alexander, Goodchild, Simon Peter, Smith, Andrew John, Clark, David J, Trainer, Raymond
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Joseph, Thomas J
• Application Number:
  US09/054,025
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: 345/341, 345/342, 345/336-337, 345/333, 345/334, 345/339, 345/338
• US Class Current: 715/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

Provided is a framework supporting presentation of help information via a computer system user interface in response to the proximity of an input device pointer to an interface area associated with a user interface component. The framework provides generic methods which remove from user interface components much of the task of managing the presentation of help information. The framework supports presentation of help information for a platform-independent component programming environment and supports presentations in a plurality of different styles (such as text, audio, animating graphics, etc) by means of selectable presentation methods.

Claims

1. A presentation manager framework for supporting presentation of help information for user interface (UI) entities via a computer system user interface in response to a user interaction with a UI entity, the presentation manager framework including:

a UI entity definition component comprising an object class, instantiable for encapsulating interface area definitions and associated help information for each of a plurality of UI entities, instances of said object class being adapted to receive notifications in response to a user moving an input device pointer into areas of the computer system user interface respectively corresponding to interface area definitions of said plurality of UI entities and, in response to said receipt, to send notifications to a selected one of a plurality presentation components each implementing a presentation interface thereby to actuate said selected presentation component for performing presentation of help information for each of said plurality of UI entities independently of state transitions of said plurality of UI entities; and

said presentation interface providing a set of one or more generic help information presentation methods for implementation by said plurality of presentation components each in accordance with a respective presentation style, wherein instances of said object class each having a group identifier and a priority value, and said framework including means for ensuring that at any one time help information is presented for only a highest priority instance of a plurality of notified instances having the same group identifier.

2. A presentation manager implementing a framework according to claim 1, including a plurality of selectable presentation components each implementing the presentation interface for presentation of help information according to a different one of a plurality of predefined presentation styles.

3. A presentation manager according to claim 2, including:

means for selecting one of said presentation components according to a desired presentation style for presentation of information for one of said UI entities;

means for actuating the selected presentation component in response to user interaction with said UI entity.