Patent Application
20080134062
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a tool to assist in user interface processing, and in particular relates to a tool for obtaining user interface information such as a dialogue box or other type of graphical user interface (GUI) information from executable program code.
2. Description of the Related Art
When translating a software program into multiple languages, one problem with current technology is that in order to verify the translation, testers must install the translated software and go to each screen to verify that the contents were translated correctly and displayed appropriately. This is a time consuming, cumbersome, and expensive process.
Another problem that exists is that the current methods for translating such a software program are not fail-safe in displaying every possible screen. Unless specific instructions are given, a person/tester may not know how to navigate the user interface in order to access and capture every possible dialog. Even if those instructions were provided, there is no acknowledgement or confirmation that all possible screens have been accessed and captured.
Yet another problem pertains to translation verification testing (TVT) methods and associated labor-intensiveness, where a program is executed and a user interacting with the program manually captures and saves screen images in an appropriate format that can be used by TVT testers.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a computer implemented method, apparatus and computer usable program code that facilitates the automatic obtaining or extracting of dialogs and other screens from executable program code and saving a snapshot of such dialogues in a graphical format.
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code are provided to facilitate the automatic obtaining or extraction of dialogues or screens such as a graphical user interface from executable program code and saving a snapshot of such dialogues or screens in a graphical format. The executable program code is scanned or searched for particular modules within such program code that are used to generate a user interface or dialogue. Each one of these identified GUI-accessible modules is then processed in order to generate, display, and capture their associated user interface(s) or dialogue(s). Any requisite user input or sample data that is required by these modules is automatically generated and provided to assist in the generation, display, and capture of the interfaces/dialogues.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
With reference now to the figures and in particular with reference to
Computer 100 may be any suitable computer, such as an IBM® eServer™ computer or IntelliStation® computer, which are products of International Business Machines Corporation, located in Armonk, N.Y. Although the depicted representation shows a personal computer, other embodiments may be implemented in other types of data processing systems, such as a network computer. Computer 100 also preferably includes a graphical user interface (GUI) that may be implemented by means of systems software residing in computer readable media in operation within computer 100.
With reference now to
In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter 212 is coupled to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 and audio adapter 216, keyboard and mouse adapter 220, modem 222, read only memory (ROM) 224, universal serial bus (USB) ports and other communications ports 232, and PCI/PCIe devices 234 are coupled to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 238, and hard disk drive (HDD) 226 and CD-ROM drive 230 are coupled to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 240. PCI/PCIe devices may include, for example, Ethernet adapters, add-in cards, and PC cards for notebook computers. PCI uses a card bus controller, while PCIe does not. ROM 224 may be, for example, a flash binary input/output system (BIOS). Hard disk drive 226 and CD-ROM drive 230 may use, for example, an integrated drive electronics (IDE) or serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface. A super I/O (SIO) device 236 may be coupled to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204.
An operating system runs on processor 206 and coordinates and provides control of various components within data processing system 200 in
Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented programming system, and applications or programs are located on storage devices, such as hard disk drive 226, and may be loaded into main memory 208 for execution by processor 206. The processes of the illustrative embodiments may be performed by processor 206 using computer implemented instructions, which may be located in a memory such as, for example, main memory 208, read only memory 224, or in one or more peripheral devices.
The hardware in
In some illustrative examples, data processing system 200 may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), which is generally configured with flash memory to provide non-volatile memory for storing operating system files and/or user-generated data. A bus system may be comprised of one or more buses, such as a system bus, an I/O bus and a PCI bus. Of course the bus system may be implemented using any type of communications fabric or architecture that provides for a transfer of data between different components or devices attached to the fabric or architecture. A communications unit may include one or more devices used to transmit and receive data, such as a modem or a network adapter. A memory may be, for example, main memory 208 or a cache such as found in north bridge and memory controller hub 202. A processing unit may include one or more processors or CPUs. The depicted examples in
The description provided herein provides for a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for processing executable code. The methods of the illustrative embodiments may be performed in a data processing system, such as data processing system 100 shown in
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code are provided to facilitate the automatic obtaining or extraction of dialogues from executable program code and saving a snapshot of such dialogues in a graphical format. A preferred processing flow is shown in
If a customized screen capture script is not needed, as determined by block 318, an existing screen capture application or script is used to invoke the screen capture at 322 (e.g. for a relatively simple GUI interface). The image of the screen capture is then saved at 324, and processing then continues at 306 to determine whether any more items are contained on the GUI-accessible object list for processing. If so, processing continues as described above regarding blocks 310-324, and if not, processing terminates at 308.
Thus, the illustrative embodiments as described above provides a technique for facilitating the automatic obtaining or extraction of dialogues from executable program code and saving a snapshot of such dialogues in a graphical format.
The invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.
Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any tangible apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk—read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk—read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.
A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution.
Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers.
Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.
The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
