JP2002024748A - Method for checking screen document layout - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for checking whether a layout set in a screen document file agrees with style guide restrictions or not to improve check efficiency when, in particular, there are a plurality of screen document preparation applications. SOLUTION: A screen document preparation application judging part 03 on a computer 02 accesses a screen document file 01 to distinguish an application forming it. A check element selection part 04 receives a check item selected by a user among a plurality of check items. A screen document definition data sampling part 05 samples data defining a layout from the screen document file 01 by the processing corresponding to the distinguished application to prepare standard type layout definition data. A check processing part 08 checks this layout definition data against the restriction set in style guide restriction information DB11 to check the layout of the screen document file 01.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for checking a layout of a screen file for setting information to be displayed on a display screen and a form file for setting information on an issued form.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the development of a system having a plurality of screen forms, in many cases, guidelines for the screen form layout are prepared in advance in order to make the layout of the screen forms uniform throughout the system, and the screen forms are created. Creates a screen form in a data format according to the contents of these guidelines. In this case, the screen form creator needs to know the contents of the guideline in advance, and when there are a plurality of screen creators, the contents of the guideline must be shared by all the members. Therefore, in the operation of actually creating a screen form, it is necessary to check the contents of the guideline each time an item on the screen is created, often reducing the work efficiency. Further, when the contents of the guideline are changed, it is necessary to check all the items of all the created screen forms again one by one, so that the man-hour required for the correction work is large.

In order to solve this problem, use-prohibited items, button layout conditions, background colors, and the like in each screen form are defined in advance as guideline constraints, and a graphical user interface (hereinafter abbreviated as GUI) is used when a screen is created. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-97415 discloses a technique for automatically checking whether or not each item complies with a guideline constraint by a GUI builder that performs screen layout design.
It is disclosed as an official gazette. With this technology, even when a change occurs in the guideline constraint, the GUI builder specifies the changed portion when correcting each screen, so that the man-hours required for screen creation and correction can be reduced. I have.

[0004]

According to the above-mentioned prior art, a screen form to be newly created can be defined by a layout in accordance with the guideline restrictions. However, when a screen form of an existing system is used, When unifying the layout of screen forms created by multiple workers,
It is necessary to check each screen form using GUI builder to check whether the screen form conforms to the guidelines. Therefore, if there are many screen forms that have already been created, Efficiency does not improve.

Also, when creating a screen form, since the restrictions described in the guideline restrictions are reflected in all screen items, a screen partially different from the guideline restrictions cannot be created, and the screen design is free. Less degree. For example, G
When a UI screen is developed, typical screen layouts include a menu screen, a list display screen, a detail display screen, and the like. If the size is larger than the size, if the button size of the detail screen is defined in the guideline constraint, a problem occurs such that a large button cannot be defined on the menu screen. This can be avoided by defining a plurality of guideline constraints, but in that case, the number of steps required to define the guideline constraints is increased, and work efficiency is considered to be reduced.

In addition, when a screen form is created using a plurality of screen form creation applications, it is necessary to define a guideline constraint for each screen creation application. And the efficiency of the correction is considered to be reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art described above, reduce the man-hours required to unify the layout of screen forms based on the guideline constraints, and improve productivity and maintainability as a whole system development. To make it happen.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for checking whether or not a layout set in a screen file using a computer matches a style guide constraint for setting a constraint relating to the layout. Identifies the application that created the file, extracts information that defines the layout from the screen file by processing corresponding to the identified application, creates layout definition data in accordance with the unified standards, and uses the created layout definition data in the style guide. It is characterized by a screen layout check method of checking the layout of a target screen file by matching with a constraint.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a computer according to the present embodiment and a procedure of processing executed by the computer. When the layout check of the screen form is performed, first, the screen form file 01 on the storage device to be checked is checked.
Is read into the computer 02, and the screen form creation application determining unit 03 specifies the application that created this screen form. The application mentioned here is GU
It is a GUI construction tool like I Builder. Next, the check element selection unit 04 receives the check element selected by the user, and the application-specific processing distribution unit 0
6 and a layout definition data extracting unit 07 that extracts definition data according to the screen report creation application, extracts layout definition information defined in the screen report file 01 by a screen report definition data extracting unit 05, Create layout definition data with data format.

Subsequently, a check processing unit 08 comprising a standard check processing unit 09 for performing a standard check on the layout of the screen form and an extended check processing unit 10 for performing a process specific to the project, converts the screen form file 01 from the screen form file 01. A layout check is performed by comparing the extracted layout definition data with the style guide constraint information defined in the style guide constraint information DB 11 on the storage device. If a definition that does not comply with the style guide constraint is created, error data is output. The editing unit 12 edits the error data into a format that can specify the position of the data item on the screen, and outputs the error data 14 to a display device or a printing device. If the screen form file 01 is only information for screen display, it can be called a screen file. Alternatively, if there is only information for form output, it can be called a form file.

It is possible to store the program of the processing section shown in the storage medium, read the program on the storage medium into the memory of the computer 02 via a driving device (not shown), and execute the program by the computer 02.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data structure of the layout definition data 33 created according to the unified standard by extracting the definition data of the screen form file 01. Layout definition data 3 created for each screen form file 01
3 has a data format independent of the application that created the screen form file 01, and is divided into a common part definition table 46 and a detailed part definition table 47. The common section definition table 46 is layout definition data for the entire screen form, and has a screen size for setting the vertical and horizontal sizes of a logical screen, a margin area for setting the size of the top, bottom, left, and right margins of the screen form. The detailed part definition table 47 has a data item size, a data item position, and the like set for each data item. The file name is the file name of the screen form file 01, the object is the object to be checked, and the setting value is the value set in the screen form file 01 for the definition.

FIG. 3 shows a style guide constraint information DB 11.
The data processing of the error data 14 and the layout definition data 33 are compared with the style guide constraint information DB 11 to execute a check process. As a result, if the set value of the object to be checked does not match the reference value of the style guide constraint, the error data FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining a process of outputting the information 14; Style guide constraint information DB1
1 is divided into a common definition item which is a check item for the entire screen form and a detailed definition item which is a check item for a data item, and sets a reference value and an allowable range for each object. The allowable range indicates a range of deviation from the reference value. Style guide constraint information DB11
Are composed of a standard check target object and an extension check target object set for each project. The error data 14 indicates, for each error item, a file name, an object name, a position when the object is a data item, and an error content.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the flow of processing executed by the computer 02. When the program of this processing is started, the style guide constraint information DB 11
(Step 1)
5). The update status of the style guide constraint information DB 11 is
Judgment and determination can be made automatically from the update date and version number of the style guide restriction information DB 11 or through display on the display device and instruction from the user. If the style guide constraint information DB 11 does not exist or has not been updated, a style guide constraint reading process is performed (step 16), and the latest style guide constraint information is read into the style guide constraint information DB 11.

Next, the user accesses the screen form file 01 to be checked and reads its file name and the like.
It is determined whether the processing program can process the screen form file 01 (step 17). For example, if the storage format of the screen form file 01 is a format output by an application that cannot be handled by this processing program, it cannot be processed. If the determination is negative (NO), a file name of the screen form file 01 and a message indicating that processing is impossible are output to the display device, and the execution of the program is terminated.
If it can be handled by this processing program, the application that created the screen form file 01 is specified, a menu of elements to be checked is displayed on the display device, and a selection input by the user is accepted (step 04). The elements to be checked are check items such as a screen size, a font, a ruled line, a margin, a start position of each data item, and a data item size, and a plurality of elements can be selected.

Next, the screen form file 01 is read, and control is passed to the definition data extracting unit relating to the recognized application in accordance with the recognized application (step 0).
6) The screen form definition data extraction processing is performed by the definition data extraction unit, and the layout definition data 3 is stored in the memory.
3 is created (step 07).

Next, after a check process is performed by the check processing unit 08 shown in FIG. 5, as a result, a definition violating the style guide restriction exists in the layout definition data 33, in other words, in the screen form file 01 to be checked. If it is (YES in step 18), the error data editing unit 12 edits the contents of the error into an error output format, outputs it as error data 14 to a display device or a printing device (step 19), and ends the processing.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of the processing of the check processing unit 08. The processing repeats steps 22 to 26 as long as there are remaining check elements, that is, executes steps 22 to 26 for each check element as many as the number of check elements. Is completed (steps 21 and 27).

The check processor 08 first reads standard style guide constraint information on the check element from the style guide constraint information DB 11 (step 2).
2) The reference value is used as layout definition data 3 in the memory.
Then, it is determined whether or not the set value matches the set value of the check target object 3 (step 23). As a result, if there is an unmatched definition (step 23YE
S), the screen form file name, the name of the object, the position of the erroneous item, and the error content are stored in the memory (step 13).

Next, in order to perform a project-specific process to which the present process relates, the project-specific style guide constraint information related to the check element is read from the style guide constraint information DB 11 (step 24), and its reference value is stored in a memory. An extended check process is performed by matching the set value of the check target object in the layout definition data 33 (step 25). As a result, if there is an unmatched definition (step 25 YES), the error information is stored in the memory as in step 23 (step 13). Next, the number of check elements is reduced by 1 (step 26), and a check process is performed for the next check element.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the screen form definition data extraction unit 05 in more detail. The screen form file 01 depends on the data format defined by the application that created it. Therefore, the screen form definition data extraction unit 05 is provided with a layout definition data extraction unit 07 corresponding to each screen form creation application, and based on the application identified by the file name of the screen form file 01 and the like, the layout form data extraction unit 07 The process is distributed (step 06). Each layout definition data extraction unit 07 creates definition data having a common data format independent of the screen form creation application from the read screen form file 01, and outputs the layout definition data 33. For example, if the screen form is A
When the screen form file is created by the company-based screen form creation application, the application-specific processing sorting unit 06 sorts the processing so that the screen form file is processed by the company A screen form layout definition data extraction unit 07-1.
If the screen form is created by the screen form creation application manufactured by Company B, the processing is distributed to be processed by the screen form layout definition data extraction unit 07-2 manufactured by Company B, so that the screen form creation application is dependent on the screen form creation application. Realize extraction of layout definition data with a common interface that does not. Layout definition data extraction unit 07
Are divided into a common definition data extraction processing unit 28 and a detailed definition data extraction processing unit 29. The common definition data extraction processing unit 28 generates a common unit definition table 46 from the definition information and setting values of the screen form file 01, and the detailed definition data extraction processing unit 29 generates a detailed unit definition table 47 from the definition information and setting values. I do.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configuration of the check processing unit 08. The check processing unit 08 incorporates a standard check processing unit 09 and an extended check processing unit 10. The standard check processing section 09 refers to the common section definition table 46 and checks definition information relating to the entire screen form, and refers to the detailed section definition table 47 and relates to each data item arranged on the screen. It comprises a detailed definition check processing unit 31 for checking definition information. The common definition check processing unit 30 is composed of a single check processing component 34 to 38 having a common data input / output interface, and since the format of the input data to the check processing and the format of the output result of the check processing are common, It is possible to respond to specification change and registration of additional specifications of the check processing component. For example, when the contents of the margin check processing unit 37 that performs a margin area check are upgraded, the change of the check processing can be absorbed by replacing only this with the upgraded margin check processing unit 37. By making the individual check processes independent in this way, it is possible to easily cope with a version upgrade of the check function. The user additional item processing unit 38
Check processing is performed on the check items added by the user for the entire screen form.

The item type check processing section 42 of the detailed definition check processing section 31 has a data item of a numeric field,
Check for attributes such as character fields. Further, the display format processing unit 43 checks, for example, a display format of a number indicating a date, a display format of a number having a large number of digits with a comma (,), and the like. User additional item processing unit 44
Performs a check process on check items added by the user for each data item. Like the common definition check processing unit 30, the detailed definition check processing unit 31
It is composed of independent check components 40 to 44 having a common data input / output interface, and can easily cope with version upgrade of the check component. Also, when a user newly adds a check function, the user additional item processing section 44 is replaced with a user additional item processing section 44 incorporating a new check function, or another user additional item processing section 44 is additionally registered. This makes it possible to easily add a check function.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, by referring to the output error data 14, the user can easily grasp a portion of the target screen or form that does not match the style guide restriction. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the number of steps required for unifying the screen layout. Also, since not all the contents defined in the style guide constraint information DB 11 are checked, but a check process is performed for the selected check element, first, a loose check condition is set and common definition data for integrating the entire screen layout. Check processing of
Next, by selecting strict check elements for screens with similar layouts and performing detailed definition data check processing, it is possible to perform checks with a high degree of freedom according to the purpose of use of the screen form. It can proceed efficiently.

[0026]

A first effect of the present invention is that the process of checking whether or not the layout of a screen form created by a plurality of screen form creators is created in accordance with the style guide restriction is facilitated. When creating a screen, the screen creator creates a screen form after understanding only the outline of the style guide constraints, and after completing the creation, first performs a rough layout check of the screen form with loose check elements, and then performs a detailed check By performing a strict layout check by applying elements, the layout can be efficiently unified.

A second effect is that the layout can be unified in accordance with the unified standard even when screen forms are created using different screen creation applications. Even in an environment where different GUI build applications are mixed, a process for extracting the definition data of the screen form is prepared for each design application, and the same style guide constraint information is applied by extracting the definition data in a uniform format. Can be unified.

A third effect is that existing system assets can be efficiently diverted and utilized. In the conventional system, since the consistency with the style guide restriction is checked at the time of screen creation, if there are many screens of the conventional system, it takes time to open and check each screen with the screen creation application . According to the present invention, since check conditions can be set in multiple stages and a large number of screens can be checked at once, analysis of existing system resources and correction points can be quickly grasped.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a computer that performs a screen report check according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of layout definition data 33 according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a check process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart (continued) showing the flow of processing of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram describing in detail a process of a screen form definition data extraction unit 05 of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a check processing unit 08 according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

01: screen form file, 03: screen form creation application discriminating section, 04: check element selecting section, 05: screen form definition data extracting section, 06: application-specific processing distribution section, 07: layout definition data extracting section, 0
8: Check processing unit, 11: Style guide constraint information D
B, 33: layout definition data

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A method for checking whether a layout set in a screen file using a computer conforms to a style guide constraint for setting a constraint related to a layout, comprising: identifying an application that created the screen file; Information defining a layout is extracted from the screen file by processing corresponding to the identified application to create layout definition data according to a unified standard, and the created layout definition data is matched with the style guide constraint. Checking a layout of the screen file by checking the layout of the screen file. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a check item specified by a user is checked among a plurality of check items set by the style guide constraint.
How to check the described screen layout. 3. The screen according to claim 1, wherein the check items set by the style guide constraint are roughly divided into check items for the entire screen and check items for data items. How to check the layout. 4. A storage medium for storing a program stored on a computer-readable storage medium and executed by the computer, the program having the following functions: (a) accessing a screen file for storing screen information, A function of identifying an application that has created the screen file; (b) a function of extracting information defining a layout from the screen file by a process corresponding to the identified application and creating layout definition data according to a unified standard; And (c) a function of checking the layout of the screen file by matching the created layout definition data with a style guide constraint for setting a constraint on the layout. 5. A storage medium for storing a program according to claim 4, further comprising a function of checking a check item specified by a user among a plurality of check items set by said style guide constraint.