JP2007011532A - Automatic generation device of operating procedure manual - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic generating device of an operating procedure manual which simply generates an operating procedure manual. <P>SOLUTION: The display screen data of an application is acquired every time an operation event to the application occurs, and the data are stored in association with numbers indicating operating sequence and transition levels. When a user gives instructions for generating a normal-system procedure manual, a screen of normal transition is automatically selected and employed in the procedure manual. A transition screen of abnormal system can be also selected. Further, a user can select, on manual, a screen used for a procedure manual. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic generation apparatus that automatically creates an operation procedure manual for an application.

  When constructing a system, a user can construct a system relatively easily by creating a manual of verified procedures in various middleware installations and environment settings. In order to make the procedure manual easy for the user to use, it is necessary to create a procedure manual that explains the construction procedure with images. However, the following problems can be raised when creating such an environment construction manual.

・ Procedure description and images need to be processed separately.
-Manuals cannot be created while building a system.
・ If TRY & Error is being performed, it is necessary to consider the transition at the time of error, and a manual cannot be created automatically from various transitions in system construction.
-There is no consideration for creating a manual that focuses on abnormal system transitions during system construction.

Conventionally, when creating an operation manual for an application, the application is actually operated to capture a screen or input an operation to a document system. As a technique for reducing the trouble of manually creating an operation manual in this way, the following patent document 1 automatically records an operation event and a screen image when operating an application. Techniques for creating prototypes are described.
JP-A-10-105444

  When a user who is not familiar with an application creates an operation manual, for example, when an OA manager in a department creates an operation manual for each member to install an application, the OA The person in charge operated the application, established an optimal operation procedure after trial and error, and created an operation manual by performing the operation again based on the operation procedure.

This requires two steps: a “trial and error step” that establishes the operation procedure by performing the actual operation and a “manual creation step” that creates the operation manual by recording the established operation and recording it. It was very annoying for users.
The subject of this invention is providing the automatic generation apparatus of the operation procedure manual which can produce an operation procedure manual easily.

  The automatic generation apparatus of the present invention is an apparatus that is controlled by a program that causes a computer to implement an automatic generation method for creating a procedure manual that explains an operation procedure of an application, and that is triggered by an event that occurs as the application is operated. In addition, the display screen data of the application when the event occurs is acquired, and in response to the acquired screen data, the user inputs an explanation as necessary, and the user acquires the screen This is realized by a program for causing a computer to realize an automatic generation method characterized by designating a data selection method and creating an operation procedure manual using screen data and a description selected according to the designation.

  According to the present invention, the screen data used in the operation procedure manual at the same time as the operation of the application is recorded together with the operation content. Therefore, when the operation procedure manual is created manually or automatically later, the screen data can be easily obtained. And an operation event when the screen data is acquired can be associated, and an operation procedure manual can be easily created.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, an operation event and a screen image are automatically recorded when performing a “trial and error step” operation in the case of creating an operation procedure manual in the prior art. At that time, by recording information on whether normal operation (pressing the OK button, etc.) or abnormal operation (pressing the cancel button, etc.), only the normal operation is extracted from the “trial and error step”. create. By doing so, it is possible to create an operation manual only by performing “trial and error steps”.

For this purpose, the following functions are realized.
-Start the GUI operation recording application and record the GUI in the DB.
-Simultaneously with these operations, the monitor screen is automatically acquired as an image for each event.
Then, these operations are combined with this image. Furthermore,
・ By acquiring the screen image and writing the Tips at the same time, the operation procedure is automatically made into an article when creating the procedure manual.
-The screen flow is managed by "work unit" and "hierarchy level", and the screen image at the time of operation is automatically mapped to "work unit" and "hierarchy level" by GUI operation on the screen. It is registered as a screen image attribute as “work / transition level number”.

  As a result, it is possible to automatically determine normal screen transitions for various screen transitions due to TRY & errors and reflect them in the procedure manual. In addition, a procedure manual can be created for abnormal screen transitions.

  Therefore, it is easy to create a document with two patterns, a procedure manual based on normal screen transitions and a procedure manual based on abnormal screen transitions, and a document for identifying the cause of errors during system configuration. Can be used as

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a method of managing a screen that changes according to an operation and its transition level. Strictly speaking, the screen is different for each hierarchical level, but the same screen is used in the figure for simplicity.
When the application operation is first started, the initial screen is stored as a level 1 screen. Here, it is assumed that when the “cancel”, “close”, and “complete” buttons are pressed, the work unit is finished. Further, it is assumed that when the “return” button is pressed, “hierarchy level is lowered”, and when the “OK” button is pressed, “hierarchy level is raised”. If this is followed, it will be recognized that the operation | work A was started when the initial screen was stored. A number assigned according to a predetermined rule is added to the initial screen. If the “OK” button is pressed on the initial screen that is level 1 of the work A, it is “hierarchy level rise”, so the next screen is stored as a level 2 screen. At this time, the fact that the stored screen is level 2 is represented by the leftmost three-digit number “002” of the number “A-002-001-001” in the case of FIG. Furthermore, when the “OK” button is pressed on this screen, the next screen goes up to level 3. The fact that this screen is a level 3 screen means that “A-003-001” represented by the leftmost three-digit number “003” of the number “A-003-001-001” added to the screen. When a parameter is input on the “001” screen, a number “A-003-001-002” is added to the screen after the parameter is input. In this number, the rightmost three-digit number “002” indicates the second screen after the level 3 transition. If the user notices that the operation is wrong, the user presses a “return” button. This means “down in the hierarchy level”, so the screen returns to level 2. The number “A-002-002-001” is added to this screen. This number indicates that the leftmost three-digit number is the level 2 screen, and the middle three-digit number indicates that the screen has been returned after making a single operation error. The rightmost three-digit number indicates the first screen after the transition. The number in the middle is “001” for the screen that appears during the first series of operations, and is set to increase by one when the operation level is lowered once the operation level is lowered.

  When the “OK” button is pressed sequentially from the “A-002-002-001” screen, the screen transitions to the “A-003-002-001” and “A-004-002-001” screens. . When the operation is completed on the screen “A-004-002” and the “cancel” button or the “close” button is pressed, the screen returns to the initial screen, so the screen number is “B-001-001”. “001” is set, and work B is started. Since work A and work B are each a set of operations for a completed application, there is no relationship between these operations. However, work A and work B are related as the order of work in the operation procedure.

2 and 3 are diagrams showing tables used in the embodiment of the present invention.
Table A in FIG. 2A is an operation / screen mapping table. Corresponding to the operation number automatically assigned, the event contents are indicated by the event definition number, the name of the pressed button or keyboard input value, the file name of the screen image, the automatically calculated work / transition level number, Tips (Explanation of screen) The input parameters are similarly recorded corresponding to the operation numbers. The name of the pressed button is acquired by the Operation System (hereinafter referred to as OS), the part / part on the screen that generated the event, and the displayed character string of the part / part is acquired as the attribute of the part / part. be able to. Also, the keys operated by the keyboard can be acquired by the OS. The acquired character string is registered in the “button name or keyboard input value” column of table A by the registration application.

Table B in FIG. 2B is an event definition table that stores the definition number added to each event together with the event name. This event definition number is used for recording the event contents of Table A.
A table C in FIG. 2C is a hierarchy determination event definition table, and stores an event definition and a unit of work or a definition of movement at a hierarchy level corresponding to the definition number. For example, the definition number “F001” defines that when the user clicks “OK” with a left click, the hierarchy level increases. The same applies to the following.
A table D in FIG. 2D is a parameter definition table, and holds the input parameter value and records a parameter number, a parameter name, and a description of the parameter in order to manage it.

A table E in FIG. 3 is an event-text conversion table. An event definition number and a display document are stored together with each document conversion registration number. When an event indicated by the event definition number occurs, a document to be displayed in the procedure manual is registered.
The parameters input by the event are determined by the “parameter” column and the “parameter definition table” of the table A on the parameter input screens of FIGS. The type of event can be acquired by the OS, and the event definition number is registered in “event contents” of table A by comparison with table B.

  The table E is referred to when the procedure manual is created by the “procedure manual generation tool” when a series of operations is completed. At the time of generating the procedure manual, the information of the “event name”, “button name or keyboard input value” and “parameter” column of the operation reflected from the table A to the procedure manual, the parameters by the “parameter definition table”, and the “operation / screen mapping” Refer to the display format to be reflected in the procedure manual by “Table”.

  The actual display text is applied to the format defined in the “Display text” column based on the event that occurred and the character string described in the procedure manual. For example, in the case of an operation in which the button is pressed, the display text is determined according to the format defined in the event definition number E001. At this time, click the “(Pressed button name)” button in Table E. ”Stores the value (eg,“ OK ”) stored in the“ button name or keyboard input value ”column of the table A for the pressed button name. As a result, the“ OK ”button is displayed. Please click. "Is determined and reflected in the procedure manual by the" procedure manual generation tool ". The “procedure document generation tool” generates a description of the determined operation as a procedure document in an electronic data format.

  Note that the above-described work unit means a set of events that start from the initial screen and are completed until a series of operations are completed. The hierarchy level is a numerical value indicating the number of times the operation has progressed in an operation on a series of applications. Therefore, if an operation is mistaken, the hierarchy level is not increased but decreased. In the embodiment of the present invention, screen data is acquired every time an event occurs, and the hierarchical level of the event is used as a part of the work / transition level number.

  Each time a keyboard or mouse event is generated by the recording application, an image is automatically acquired, and the information is registered in the table A with reference to the event definition of the table B and the hierarchy determination by the table C.

  When in the parameter input mode, it is recognized as a parameter input operation, a parameter setting dialog is displayed, and a parameter name and an actual parameter are input. Simultaneously with the confirmation of the parameter, the parameter value input at that time is automatically registered in the “parameter value” of table A and table D. Thus, the parameters are dynamically defined while constructing the system. The parameter input mode is determined by the following events.

・ When the cursor is placed on the text box.
・ When the cursor is placed on a radio button.
・ When the cursor is placed on the check box.

Then, create and prepare a table E that maps the operation and the description contents of the procedure manual. Select the screen image automatically or manually to be used in the procedure manual with the procedure manual generation tool described later. Is output. By using the table A and the table E, the operation method can be automatically described in the procedure manual.
When creating a procedure manual, in addition to normal screens, time series and abnormal screen transitions can also be created as procedure manuals.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for schematically explaining the flow from the acquisition of screen data to the creation of a procedure manual.
The screen recording application is simultaneously operated on the computer on which the target application is operating, GUI operation for the target application and acquisition of the screen are performed, and Tips corresponding to the screen are registered in the table A. At this time, reference is made to Table C and Table D. When creating a procedure, it may be created automatically or manually. When creating manually, the procedure manual generation tool refers to the tables A, C, and D and presents screen data to the operator (1). In the case of automatic creation, a procedure manual is created by adding the information in table E to the information in tables A, C, and D (2).

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating a state of automatic creation of a normal procedure manual.
When a normal procedure manual is automatically created from the image data shown in FIG. 1, “A-001-001-001” and “A-002-002” in one work unit (work A). -001 "," A-003-002-001 ", and" A-004-002-001 "screens are acquired and used for the normal procedure manual. In this case, the screen having the largest three-digit number among the work / transition level numbers is used for each level in one work unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating the state of automatically creating an abnormal procedure manual.
When an abnormal procedure manual is automatically created from the image data shown in Fig. 1, the screen with a jump in the work / transition level number is selected as the first and last screen of the abnormal system. The screen in between is adopted as an abnormal screen, and an abnormal procedure manual is created.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a generated procedure manual image and a recording application screen image.
FIG. 7A is an image of a procedure manual, showing each screen and its description. The first screen is an initial screen, and the initial screen is described on the screen. The second screen describes that it is the second screen and indicates that the procedure is to press “OK”. The third screen is shown to be a screen for inputting an employee number, and is described as a screen for inputting parameters.

  FIG. 7B shows a screen image of the recording application. In the normal input screen, the display screen of the target application is shown on the left side, and the screen for writing Tips is displayed on the right side.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a parameter input screen (when a text box is input).
Continue to monitor application activity events through the recording application. As shown in (1), when the cursor is placed on the text box on the screen of the target application, the OS generates an event “focused on the text box”. When the recording application acquires the event, the recording application parameter input screen is automatically displayed as shown in (2). When the user inputs parameter information in (3) and presses the “confirm” button, the input parameters are copied to a temporary area simultaneously with registration in the DB (parameter definition table). When the parameter input screen disappears, the original screen becomes active, but the cursor remains in the parameter input part, so all the values entered in the form are selected and deleted, and the parameter values are removed from the temporary area. It is acquired and reflected in the text box on the screen of the target application (4).

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a parameter input screen (when a radio button is input).
As shown in (1), when a radio button is selected on the target application screen, a recording application parameter input screen is displayed as shown in (2). Then, when the parameter information corresponding to the selected radio button is input to the parameter input screen and the “OK” button is pressed, the parameter information is reflected in the parameter definition table, which is Table D. Then, the screen display returns to the radio button selection screen of the target application.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a parameter input screen (when a check box is input).
As shown in (1), when a check box is selected on the screen of the target application, the parameter input screen of the recording application is automatically displayed as shown in (2). Then, as shown in (3), when the parameter information corresponding to the selected check box is input and the “OK” button is pressed, the parameter information is reflected in the parameter definition table, which is Table D. Then, as shown in (4), the parameter input screen disappears and the screen returns to (1).

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a screen display example for screen selection when manually creating a procedure manual.
Each screen is arranged and displayed according to the work / transition level number. The user checks the check box for screen selection and determines the screen to be used for the procedure manual. When all the screens used for the procedure manual have been checked, the procedure manual is generated by pressing the “OK” button.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an automatic numbering process of work / transition level numbers.
As shown in FIG. 1, the work / transition level number in the embodiment of the present invention is represented by a set of a work number, a hierarchy level, an index number, and a serial number from the left. “A-001-001-001” is the work / transition level number of the initial screen, but the work number is “A”, the hierarchy level is “001”, the index number is “001”, and the serial number is Indicates “001”.

  First, in step S10, the work / transition level number of the latest event is read. In step S11, the event definition table is read. In step S12, it is determined whether or not the read event is an event registered in the “event definition table”. If the determination in step S12 is No, in step S13, the serial number is incremented by 1 without changing the work number, the hierarchical level number, and the index number.

  If the determination in step S12 is Yes, it is determined in step S14 whether or not the event is “end of work unit”. If the determination in step S14 is Yes, in step S15, the work number is incremented (for example, changed from A to B), the hierarchy level is initialized, the index number is initialized, and the serial number is initialized.

  If the determination in step S14 is No, it is determined in step S16 whether the event is a “hierarchy level rise” event. If the determination in step S16 is Yes, in step S17, the hierarchy number is incremented by 1 while keeping the work number as it is.

  If the determination in step S16 is No, the read event is a “decrease in hierarchy level” event. Therefore, in step S18, the work number is left as it is, the hierarchy level is decreased by 1, and the same in step S19. The hierarchy level index is incremented by 1, and the serial number is initialized.

FIG. 13 is a processing flow of the recording application.
In step S25, the recording application is activated. In step S26, execution of the screen acquisition function is started. In step S27, an initial screen image is acquired, and in step S28, the initial screen is stored in a table. In step S29, the process waits until an event occurs. When the event occurs, it is determined in step S30 whether or not it is a process end event. If it is determined in step S30 that the event that has occurred is an end event, the recording application is terminated. If it is determined in step S30 that the event that has occurred is not an end event, the event is registered in step S31. In step S32, the type of event (input to a text box, selection of a radio button, input to a check box) is determined.

  If the determination in step S32 is Yes, the parameter input mode is started in step S33, the parameter number is assigned in step S34, and the parameter window is displayed in step S35. In step S36, the parameter name and parameter description are input to the parameter window, the parameter is reflected on the screen in step S37, and the parameter table and the screen mapping table are written in step S38.

  After step S38 is completed or if the determination in step S32 is No, a Tips input screen is displayed as a subwindow in step S39. An “operation number” is assigned each time the actual recording source screen changes. This “operation number” is stored in the temporary area, “Tips” is input, and in step S40, the “OK” button on the Tips input screen is pressed to obtain the contents of “Tips” together with the “operation number”. Registered in the “Operation / Screen Mapping Table”. Tips are stored, and in step S41, work / transition level numbers are assigned by event analysis. In step S42, the screen is acquired. In step S43, the screen hierarchy or the unit of work and the screen image are registered, and the process returns to step S32.

FIG. 14 is a processing flow of the procedure manual generation application.
In step S45, the procedure manual generation application is activated. In step S46, the selection method of the adoption screen is selected. There are manual and automatic selection methods. If manual is selected, the screen transitions to the image selection screen in step S47, the screen to be reflected in the procedure manual is selected, and the process proceeds to step S52. If automatic is selected in step S46, a selection method for the adoption screen is selected in step S48. As a selection method of the adopted screen, there is a method of adopting a time-series, normal system, or abnormal system screen. If the time series is selected in step S48, the procedure manual is created in the order in which the screens are acquired based on the table A in step S49.

  If the normal system is selected in step S48, the screen is adopted in the logic described later in step S50, and the process proceeds to step S52. If an abnormal system is selected in step S48, the table A is referred to in step S51, and if a screen is registered between the normal system screen transitions for each work unit, the normal system screen transition is performed. A method of adopting the screen is performed, the screen is selected, and the process proceeds to step S52. In step S52, the screen attributes reflected in the procedure manual, such as Tips, events, and parameters, are reflected together with the screen image as the procedure manual.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart for explaining processing when a normal screen is automatically selected.
In step S55, the operation / screen mapping table as table A is read. In step S56, it is determined whether there are two or more screens having the same work number and the same hierarchical level. If the determination in step S56 is No, the currently read screen is adopted as the normal screen. If the determination in step S56 is yes, in step S57, a series of screens starting from the one with the larger index number is adopted. The “work / transition level number” given by automatic numbering is given as “A-002-001-001”. At this time, (work number) (hierarchy level) (index number) (serial number) is arranged. The index number here is a number that is incremented when a transition is made again from a screen of a different level in the same hierarchy in the process of screen transition. A series of screen transitions having the largest number (001 <002) among those having consecutive operation numbers as one group, and then a process of newly transitioning to the same screen It is determined that there is no normal screen transition.
Therefore, in the “work / transition level number”, a series of transitions having the highest index number among the screens having the same level number is adopted as the normal system transition.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart for explaining processing when an abnormal screen is automatically selected.
In step S58, the operation / screen mapping table as table A is read. In step S59, it is assumed that "abnormal system is not normal", and the normal system transition screen according to the logic of FIG. Record "Transition level number". In step S60, a screen that is not detected as a normal system is selected. Further, since there is no connection between the previous and next screens only by the abnormal system screen transition, the normal system screen before and after the screen that is not detected as a normal system transition is selected. The screen of abnormal system transition.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of a computer used when the processing of the embodiment of the present invention is executed as a program.
The computer 1 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, a communication interface 14, a recording device 17, a recording medium reading device 18, and an input / output device 20 connected to a bus 10. The CPU 11 reads a program from the recording device 17 such as a hard disk or a portable recording medium 19 such as a CD-ROM and copies the program to the RAM 13 for execution. In order to read the program from the portable recording medium 19, the recording medium reading device 18 is used. The ROM 12 stores the BIOS of the computer. The input / output device 20 includes a keyboard, a mouse, a keypad, a monitor, and the like, and is a device that presents a processing result to the user and inputs information from the user. The communication interface 14 is connected to the network 15 and communicates with the information provider 16. The program may be downloaded from the information provider 16 via the network 15 or may be executed in a network environment.

It is a figure explaining the management method of the screen which changes with operation, and its transition level. It is FIG. (1) which shows the table used in embodiment of this invention. It is FIG. (2) which shows the table used in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining roughly the flow of preparation of a procedure manual from acquisition of screen data. It is a figure which illustrates roughly the mode of the automatic preparation of the normal procedure manual. It is a figure which illustrates roughly the mode of the automatic preparation of the abnormal procedure manual. It is a figure which shows the image of the procedure manual produced | generated, and the screen image of a recording application. It is a figure explaining a parameter input screen (at the time of text box input). It is a figure explaining a parameter input screen (at the time of radio button input). It is a figure explaining a parameter input screen (at the time of check box input). It is a figure which shows the example of a screen display for the screen selection in the case of producing a manual manually. It is a flowchart which shows the automatic numbering process of a work / transition level number. It is a processing flow of a recording application. It is a processing flow of a procedure manual generation application. It is a flow explaining the process at the time of selecting a normal screen automatically. It is a flow explaining the process at the time of selecting an abnormal screen automatically. It is a figure which shows the hardware structural example of the computer used when performing the process of embodiment of this invention as a program.

Explanation of symbols

10 bus 11 CPU
12 ROM
13 RAM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 14 Communication interface 15 Network 16 Information provider 17 Recording device 18 Recording medium reader 19 Portable recording medium 20 Input / output device

Claims (4)

An operation procedure manual automatic generation program for causing a computer to realize an automatic generation method for creating a procedure manual for explaining an operation procedure of an application,
The computer
An acquisition means for acquiring display screen data of the application when the event occurs, triggered by an event generated in accordance with the operation of the application;
Recording means for recording the display screen data acquired by the acquisition means together with a transition level of the display screen data in a table;
A means for extracting display screen data corresponding to each transition level with reference to the table, and when there are a plurality of display screen data having the same transition level, any one of the display screen data An operation means characterized in that one is used as display screen data corresponding to the transition level, and the display screen data extracted by the extraction means is used as a creation means for creating an operation procedure manual. Automatic generation program of procedure manual. The acquisition means acquires a user operation together with the display screen data,
The recording means records the user operation acquired by the acquiring means in the table in association with the display screen data,
2. The automatic operation procedure manual generation program according to claim 1, wherein the creation means creates an operation procedure manual using the display screen data and the user's operation. An operation procedure manual automatic generation device for creating a procedure manual that explains an operation procedure of an application,
An acquisition means for acquiring display screen data of the application when the event occurs, triggered by an event generated in accordance with the operation of the application;
Recording means for recording the display screen data acquired by the acquisition means together with a transition level of the display screen data in a table;
A means for extracting display screen data corresponding to each transition level with reference to the table, and when there are a plurality of display screen data having the same transition level, any one of the display screen data Extraction means adopting one as display screen data corresponding to the transition level; creation means for creating an operation procedure using the display screen data extracted by the extraction means;
An apparatus for automatically generating an operation procedure manual. A method for automatically generating an operation procedure manual by a computer that creates a procedure manual for explaining an operation procedure of an application,
An acquisition step of acquiring display screen data of the application when the event has occurred, triggered by an event generated in accordance with the operation of the application;
A recording step of recording the display screen data acquired in the acquisition step together with a transition level of the display screen data in a table;
A means for extracting display screen data corresponding to each transition level with reference to the table, and when there are a plurality of display screen data having the same transition level, any one of the display screen data An extraction means that employs one as display screen data corresponding to the transition level; a creation step for creating an operation procedure using the display screen data extracted by the extraction means;
An operation procedure manual generation method characterized by including: