Generating task flows for an application

• US 9,720,706 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2014
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Armstrong, Andrew Alan, Pilot, Richard William
• Primary Examiner(s): TITCOMB, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US14/473,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20160062559A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 715746
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method for generating task flows for an application. Actions of a user of an application are monitored and key actions carried out by the user in the application are logged. Based on a determined flow of key actions a task flow is formed. A representation of the task flow is stored for access by other users. The stored representation of a task flow is associated with a goal to be achieved in the application. Representations of task flows may be stored locally to the application for access by other users of the application or remotely stored with an indication of the application to which a task flow relates to provide access to the task flows by users of other applications. A list of stored representations of task flows may be provided to enable selection of a task flow.

Claims

1. A method for generating task flows for an application, the method comprising:

receiving user input via at least one input device of a data processing system;

monitoring the user input via a listener component of the data processing system to identify a plurality of actions taken by a user within an application;

comparing each of the plurality of actions to a plurality of predetermined key actions within a key action list stored within the data processing system, wherein the plurality of predetermined key actions represents specific actions taken within the application that include at least one of;

changes that affect an operation of the data processing system for the user; and

changes to a project configuration within the application;

determining, based on the comparing of each of the plurality of actions to the plurality of predetermined key actions, at least one key action from among the plurality of actions taken by the user within the application that matches at least one of the plurality of predetermined key actions;

logging the at least one key action within the data processing system;

determining whether the at least one key action is associated with at least one previous key action taken that is logged within the data processing system;

in response to determining the at least one key action is associated with at least one previous key action, linking the at least one key action to the at least one previous key action to form a task flow; and

storing, in a data store, a representation of the task flow for access by other users of the application.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring user actions by at least one user of the application to identify a changing usage of the application; and

dynamically updating one or more representations in the data store based on the changing usage.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

weighting the task flow by at least one of a frequency of occurrence of the task flow and one or more similar task flows.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

associating the representation of the task flow with a goal to be achieved in the application.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data store is locally accessible by the application.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

remotely storing, in a remote storage repository, the representation of the task flow with an indication of the application, wherein the representation of the task flow is accessible by other applications.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising:

obtaining, from the remote storage repository, an updated list of recorded task flows;

dynamically updating the one or more representations in the data store based on the updated list.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the one or more representations in the data store are updated responsive to a predetermined time period expiring.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the one or more representations in the data store are updated responsive to a starting of the application.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

providing a selection list of one or more stored representations associated with one or more task flows;

receiving a selection of a selected representation from among the one or more stored representations in the selection list; and

displaying, on an output device, the selected representation to carry out the task flow.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

ordering the one or more stored representations in the selection list based on a corresponding weighting of each stored representation.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

weighting the task flow by at least one of a frequency of retrieval and a usage of the task flow.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining the at least one key action is not associated with at least one previous key action;

determining an end action of a previous task flow; and

starting a new task flow with the at least one key action.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving a selection of a particular representation, increasing a weighting associated with the particular representation.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the task flow is similar to at least one existing task flow in the data store;

in response to determining the task flow is similar to at least one existing task flow, increasing the weighting of the at least one existing task flow.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein determining whether the task flow is similar to at least one existing task flow in the data store further comprises:

determining whether the one or more key actions in the task flow are identical to one or more existing key actions in at least one existing task flow.

17. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein determining whether the task flow is similar to at least one existing task flow in the data store further comprises:

determining whether an end action of the task flow is similar to at least one existing task flow.

18. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of actions is monitored during an uptime of the application in which the user is interacting with the application.