JP2016224624A - State transition model preparation device, state transition model preparation method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prepare, without using manpower, a state transition model for a screen UI having information corresponding to a screen state table and a state transition table by inputting design information described in a natural form as design for the screen UI.SOLUTION: A state transition model preparation device which prepares a state transition model for a screen UI comprises: storage means of storing design information including event design information on a widget constituting the screen UI and predetermined conditions associated with occurrence conditions of an event; generation means of preparing a finite state transition system having the state be a property value per property of each widget in the screen UI by using the design information, evaluating executable conditions of transition of each finite state transition system, and preparing the finite state transition system consisting of a transition relation whose evaluation result is true as a state transition model for the screen UI; and output means of outputting the state transition model prepared by the generation means.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present invention is a consistent model for managing design information, comprising a plurality of finite state transition systems operating in parallel from design information when designing and implementing a screen UI in the field of GUI application design / development techniques. It is related to the technology to generate.

  Hereinafter, the design of the screen UI using the state transition table and the prior art will be described.

(Screen UI design using state transition table)
The screen UI refers to an interface displayed on the screen in order for the user to input information and select a process to be executed by the application. In the screen UI, a limited number of widgets such as text fields and buttons, which are defined in advance by a library used for development, are used in combination for inputting information and selecting processing. An example of widget arrangement on the screen is shown in FIG. FIG. 1 shows check boxes and buttons as examples of widgets.

  Widgets have properties that represent their properties, and the state changes by changing the property value. For example, a checkbox has a property called checked, and changes between two property values with and without a check. In addition, a state such as whether or not to display on the screen and whether or not the operation is possible is also handled as a property.

  In many cases, the property value changes in response to an event that occurs when the user operates the widget. Regarding the change of the property value of the widget itself, a default process at the time of event occurrence is defined in advance. For example, in the case of a check box, a process of inverting the check state when clicked is performed.

  The screen UI designer allows only necessary widgets to be displayed and operated according to the processing contents and allows other widgets to be hidden so that the user can intuitively input information and select processing. Design to make the display and operation impossible.

  In the design of the screen UI, in order to confirm the entire screen display on the application at a certain point in time, the entire display of the application is defined as the state of the screen UI, and the property value of the widget and the display state / operable state in each state Create a screen status table describing the above. Further, in order to confirm the transition relation between the states of the screen UI, in addition to the screen state table, a state transition table in which a transition destination state after event processing execution in each state is described is often created.

  Examples of the screen state table and the state transition table of the screen UI on which check boxes and buttons are arranged are shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively. FIG. 2 shows that in the state 1, the property of the check state of the check box takes the property value of unchecked. FIG. 3 shows that transition to state 2 is made when a check box is clicked in state 1.

  In the screen status table, when the number of widgets on the screen increases, the number of items increases explosively due to the combination of property values and the like. At that time, the number of items in the state transition table increases according to the number of states and the number of events. In addition, since events that may occur in each state are finely changed depending on the widget display state and operable state, when creating a state transition table, two conditions, the event occurrence condition and the transition destination state, are simultaneously A complex design must be described that must be considered. Therefore, the design of the screen UI based on the screen state table and the state transition table has a problem that it takes a lot of time to create the table, and inconsistencies and inconsistencies occur due to state omissions or incorrect entries.

(Prior art)
A device that generates an executable program by describing a set of rules for display / non-display, operable / inoperable, and input validity for each widget, focusing on the property value of the widget when designing the screen UI Has been proposed (for example, Non-Patent Document 1). According to such a technique, it is possible to mechanically calculate the state of the screen UI by combining the design of rules for individual widgets.

  In addition, as a technology not limited to the design of the screen UI, in creating a state transition table that covers reachable states in a system composed of a combination of a plurality of elements, it follows the rules of state transition of individual elements in order from the initial state. There has been proposed a verification support apparatus that calculates a transition destination state (for example, Patent Document 1). According to such an apparatus, it is possible to create a state transition table free from state leakage or inconsistency by designing state transition rules for individual elements.

Matthias Book, Tobias Bruckmann, Volker Gruhn, and Malte Hulder.Specification and control of interface responses to user input in rich internet applications.In Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE / ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE '09, pp. 321- 331, Washington, DC, USA, 2009. IEEE Computer Society.

JP-A-6-161759

  In order to avoid troubles and inconsistencies when directly creating large screen state tables and state transition tables manually, it is required to create these tables mechanically from as few inputs as possible. Also, when verifying / correcting the operation by paying attention to a specific part of the widget, the large screen state table and state transition table have poor visibility and work efficiency decreases. In order to change the output format according to the application based on the same design information, it is desirable that the design information is expressed as a model that has the same information as the screen state table and the state transition table and can be subdivided.

  In the conventional technique such as Non-Patent Document 1, the relationship between the widget and the event and the relationship between the event and the property value change are not associated with each other. Therefore, it is possible to generate a program that behaves according to the designed display conditions and operable conditions, but it has not been possible to create a state transition table.

  In the prior art such as Patent Document 1, the state transition rule is described in the form of a state transition table for each element or if-then. In the screen UI, a widget that is an event generation source often changes its display state / operable state in accordance with changes in properties of other widgets.

  When the prior art is applied to the screen UI design, the method using the state transition table for each element as in Non-Patent Document 1 cannot describe conditions depending on the properties of other widgets. In the method using the if-then format as in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to describe the display condition / operable condition of the widget that is the source of the event and the branch of the change in the property value due to the event. There is a problem that unnatural description must be made as UI design information. In addition, since it is necessary to input all property values and event processing for each widget, it still requires a lot of work.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and receives the design information described in a natural format as the design of the screen UI, and the state of the screen UI having information corresponding to the screen state table and the state transition table An object of the present invention is to provide a technology that makes it possible to create a transition model without human intervention.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a state transition model creation device for creating a state transition model of a screen UI,
Storage means for storing design information including event design information of a widget constituting the screen UI and a predetermined condition relating to an event generation condition;
Using the design information, for each property of the widget in the screen UI, create a finite state transition system having a property value as a state, evaluate a feasible condition for transition in each finite state transition system, and evaluate the result Creating means for creating a finite state transition system consisting of a transition relation in which as is true as a state transition model of the screen UI;
An output means for outputting the state transition model created by the creating means is provided. A state transition model creating apparatus is provided.

In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, a state transition model creation method executed by a state transition model creation device that creates a state transition model of a screen UI,
The state transition model creation device includes storage means for storing design information including event design information of widgets constituting the screen UI and predetermined conditions related to event occurrence conditions,
Using the design information, for each property of the widget in the screen UI, create a finite state transition system having a property value as a state, evaluate a feasible condition for transition in each finite state transition system, and evaluate the result A creation step for creating a finite state transition system having a transition relationship in which the state is true as a state transition model of the screen UI;
An output step for outputting the state transition model created by the creation step is provided. A state transition model creation method is provided.

  According to the embodiment of the present invention, the design information described in a natural format as the design of the screen UI is input, and the state transition model of the screen UI having information corresponding to the screen state table and the state transition table is manually input. A technique that enables creation without intervention is provided.

It is a figure which shows the example of widget arrangement | positioning. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen status table. It is a figure which shows the example of a state transition table. It is a figure for demonstrating the difference of the technique which concerns on this Embodiment, and a prior art. It is a block diagram of the state transition model creation apparatus 100 in this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structural example of design information. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the state transition model production apparatus 100 in this Embodiment. It is a flowchart (state transition model creation / display flow) for demonstrating operation | movement of the state transition model creation apparatus 100 in this Embodiment. It is a flowchart (state transition model creation detail flow) for demonstrating operation | movement of the state transition model creation apparatus 100 in this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows widget arrangement | positioning setting information. It is a figure which shows an initial value table. It is a figure which shows a definition value table. It is a figure which shows a display condition / operation possible condition table. It is a figure which shows an event table. It is a figure which shows the finite state transition system corresponding to a property. It is the figure which showed the screen UI finite state transition system with the directed graph. It is a figure which shows a screen status table. It is a figure which shows a state transition table.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described below is only an example, and the embodiment to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the following embodiment.

(Explanation of terms in the embodiment)
Before describing the contents of the embodiment of the present invention, definitions of main terms will be described first.

  Widget: A component used for a screen UI for inputting information and executing processing by a user. Multiple types of widgets are prepared in advance depending on the library used for development.

  Properties: Attributes that represent the state of the widget, defined for each widget.

  User-defined value: A property value defined by the user, such as a selection value in a select box.

  Display state: Whether the widget is displayed on the screen or not. One of two display status values, display and non-display.

  Operable state: Whether the widget is operable or inoperable. It refers to one of the two operational status values: operational and inoperable.

  Event: An event that triggers processing that occurs when a widget is operated.

  Screen UI state: A set of property values, display state values, and operable state values at a certain point in time for widgets arranged on the screen.

  Screen state table: A table that covers the states of the screen UI that can be reached in the application to be designed. The column title has a state name, and the row title has a widget property type or display state, and an operable state. Widget property values, display state values, and operable state values in the state of the screen UI are described.

  State transition table: A table that covers the transition relationships between the states of the screen UI. The column title has a state name and the row title has an event name. The transition destination state at the time of event occurrence in the state of the screen UI is described.

  State leakage: In the screen state table and state transition table, description of the screen state that can be reached from the initial state is omitted.

  Incorrect state entry: In the screen state table and state transition table, make a description that is not appropriate for the property value, display state value, operable state value, and transition destination state of the widget in a certain state.

  First-order predicate formula: composed of a proposition such as “X is Y”, a logical sum, logical product, logical negation of propositions, and quantifiers such as “all about” and “about”. A true / false formula. A predicate that takes a predicate as an argument is not included in the first-order predicate logical expression.

  Logical expression evaluation: Applying the current state to a variable in a logical expression to determine whether the whole expression is true or false.

  Scan: A process consisting of a plurality of elements such as a set and a column, and each element is taken out and processed in order.

  Finite state transition system: A system composed of a finite set of states, an initial state, and a set of transition relations. Starting from the initial state, the current state changes according to the transition relationship.

  State in a finite state transition system: A unit for distinguishing the properties of a system at one point in time from those at other points in time.

  Transition relationship: A triple of transition source state, transition label, and transition destination state.

  Execution of transition: To change the current state of the finite state transition system to the transition destination state when the current state matches the transition source state of the transition relation in the finite state transition system. When a transition label is attached to the transition to be executed, it is called execution of transition by label.

  Transition label: A label attached to a transition of a finite state transition system. In a plurality of finite state transition systems, when transition relations having the same transition label with the current state as a transition source state are defined, the transitions by the transition label are executed simultaneously.

(Outline of the embodiment)
In the present embodiment, in designing a GUI application, attention is paid to widgets arranged on the screen, and a state transition model is created by using display conditions / operable conditions of each widget and event design information as inputs. The created state transition model is composed of a plurality of finite state transition systems, and these can be combined and used for output of a state transition table and a screen state table, and automatic verification by a machine. By separating the event design information indicating changes in widget properties and the display / operation conditions of the widget indicating whether an event can occur, the default event design information can be omitted and the display conditions / operations can be specified. The design description amount is reduced by preventing redundant description of possible conditions, and the system UI is organized in a form that is easy to describe as a screen UI design. The contents of this embodiment will be described below.

  First, an outline will be described. In the present embodiment, a state transition model creation device 100 is provided. The state transition model creation device 100 includes widget arrangement design information used in designing a screen UI, display condition / operable condition design information describing rules for display conditions and operable conditions for widgets arranged on the screen, and events. A mechanism for storing event design information that describes changes in the state of widgets at the time of occurrence, a mechanism for storing design information that is implicitly set for each widget, and multiple transitions that use the design information in synchronization And a mechanism for storing and displaying the finite state transition system.

  In this embodiment, as already described, the finite state transition system is defined as a triplet of a set of states, an initial state, and a set of transition relationships. A transition relationship is defined as a triple of a transition source state, a transition label, and a transition destination state. The current state of the finite state transition system starts from the initial state and transitions according to the transition relation. When there are multiple finite state transition systems, when one finite state transition system transitions by a transition relationship with a certain transition label, another finite state transition system has a transition relationship with the same transition label, and from the current state When transitions based on the transition relation are possible, the finite state transition systems are assumed to cause simultaneous transitions by transition relations having the same transition label.

  As a method for inputting the widget arrangement design information and the display condition / operable condition design information to the state transition model creation apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, a method similar to that of the conventional technique such as Non-Patent Document 1 may be used. it can. In addition, since the finite state transition system has information corresponding to the input of Patent Literature 1, the model transition processing in creating the state transition model can use the state transition generation processing in the prior art as in Patent Literature 1. .

  In the state transition model creation device 100 according to the present embodiment, when widget arrangement design information is input from a user, widget property and event design information are stored using the default design information of the widget. By using the property value defined in advance for each widget and the property value change due to the event, design information input by the user can be reduced. The user inputs user-defined values and initial values for the widget properties as differential design information.

  When the widget that is the source of the event is hidden or cannot be operated, the event does not occur. For this reason, in this embodiment, the state of whether or not the widget is displayed or whether or not the widget is operable is treated as a display state and an operable state, separately from other properties.

  In state transition model creating apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, a finite state transition system having a property value as a state is created for each property of each widget. At this time, the transition relation of the finite state transition system is created by combining the event design information and the display condition / operable condition. As a result, event occurrence conditions and property value changes that are designed separately at the time of input are reflected in one model.

  In order to create a finite state transition system equivalent to the screen state table and state transition table of the screen UI by combining the state transitions of each widget, each transition from the initial state of each finite state transition system using each current state The execution condition of the relation is evaluated, and the transition relation in which the evaluation result is true is recursively traced. The finite state transition system of the screen UI is created by following the transition relation until no new combination appears for the current state of each finite state transition system.

  One of the important points in this embodiment is that after designing the event design information of widgets and display / operation conditions using property values, each property is modeled as a finite state transition system that operates in parallel. It is to be. The transition conditions and transition relationships that were expressed in a composite form such as a screen transition table in the conventional technology, and in this embodiment, the event value is designed by designing the change in property values due to the event and designing the display condition / operable condition The screen UI design is systematized by separately describing the availability design, and the design efficiency is improved. The created finite state transition system can be displayed not only as a state transition table but also by other expressions such as a directed graph.

  FIG. 4 shows the difference between the technique according to the present embodiment and the conventional technique such as Patent Document 1. The left side of FIG. 4 is an example of the arrangement of widgets, where 1 is a radio button group, 2 is a select box, and 3 is a check box. The check box is displayed when the selection value of the radio button group is “a” and can be operated when the selection value of the selection box is “1”.

  The upper right of FIG. 4 shows design information when a check box is clicked according to the prior art. Similarly, the lower right of FIG. 4 is design information that describes a check box click event based on the technique in this embodiment. In the prior art shown in the upper right of FIG. 4, a condition for generating an event, a branch condition for processing, and a change in property value are described in a composite manner. On the other hand, in the method according to the present embodiment shown in the lower right of FIG. 4, the widget display conditions and the operable conditions are individually determined. In addition, changes in property values are omitted by using default design information.

  In the screen UI, the display state and the operable state of the widget are determined according to the property value of each widget, and an event is generated by operating the displayed and operable widget. When an event occurs, the process is executed and the property value changes. For this reason, it is appropriate to consider display conditions / operable conditions and event processing separately. The method according to this embodiment is a more natural form of screen UI design than the prior art, and the display conditions and operable conditions are collectively described in one place, so that redundant descriptions are reduced and the same information is more It can be seen that it can be obtained from a few design descriptions.

  In this embodiment, the display condition and the operable condition are used as the state related to the event generation condition, but the present invention is not limited to these two types of states, and there are other states related to the event generation condition. Cases are treated in the same way as these two states.

  The state transition model creation apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment uses, for example, design information described in a natural format as a screen UI design to input a consistent screen that covers the state of the screen UI that can be reached from the initial state. It becomes possible to create a state transition model of a screen UI having information corresponding to the state table and the state transition table without human intervention.

  Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the state transition model creation device 100 according to the present embodiment will be described in more detail.

(Device configuration)
FIG. 5 shows a configuration of state transition model creation apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, the state transition model creation device 100 according to the present embodiment includes a widget arrangement design unit 101, a display condition / operable condition design unit 102, an event design unit 103, a default design storage unit 104, and a design information storage. Unit 105, state transition model creation unit 106, state transition model storage unit 107, and state transition model display unit 108.

  The widget arrangement design unit 101 is an interface for designing the arrangement of widgets on the screen by a user operation. The display condition / operable condition design unit 102 is an interface for designing the display condition / operable condition of the widget by a user operation. The event design unit 103 is an interface for designing a process when an event occurs by a user operation.

  The default design storage unit 104 stores default design information of the widget. The design information storage unit 105 stores design information designed by the widget arrangement design unit 101, the display condition / operable condition design unit 102, and the event design unit 103.

  The state transition model creation unit 106 creates a state transition model from the design information, and the state transition model storage unit 107 stores the created state transition model. The state transition model display unit 108 shapes and displays the state transition model as a state transition table.

Note that the functional classification shown in FIG. 5 is merely an example. As long as the processing described in the present embodiment can be executed, the state transition model creating apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment is not limited to the functional division shown in FIG. 5 and may be any functional division. This can be realized by executing a program describing the processing contents described in the present embodiment. That is, the function of the state transition model creation device 100 is realized by executing a program corresponding to processing executed by the device using hardware resources such as a CPU, a memory, and a hard disk built in the computer. Is possible. The above-mentioned program can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium (portable memory or the like), stored, or distributed. It is also possible to provide the program through a network such as the Internet or electronic mail.

(Design information)
FIG. 6 shows the configuration of design information used in state transition model creation apparatus 100 in the present embodiment. In FIG. 6, Set [T] represents a finite set of T, Tuple [T ₁ ,..., T _n ] represents n sets of T ₁ ,..., T _n , and Seq [T] Represents a column of T length 0 or more. T is a variable. For example, Set [widget design information] means a finite set of widget design information. The design information is a set of widget design information. The widget design information includes a set of a widget ID, a widget type, a set of event design information, a set of property design information, a display condition, and an operable condition. The widget ID is an identifier for uniquely identifying the widget. As the widget type, a type that can be used as a screen UI, such as a text field, a check box, and a select box, is defined in advance.

  Event design information is composed of two sets of event types and processing instruction strings. As the event type, a valid type is defined in advance for each widget such as onClick and onChange. The processing instruction is represented by a set of a widget ID, a property type, and a property value. This represents that the property value specified by the widget ID and the property type is changed. Property design information is expressed as a set of property type, property value, and property value set. The second of the triples represents the property initial value. As the property type, a valid type is defined in advance for each widget, such as a check state of a check box and a selection value of a select box. Property values include pre-defined values such as checked / unchecked in the check state, and user-defined values defined by the user such as character strings that are input values in the text field. The display condition / operable condition is expressed as a logical expression. The logical expression here is a predicate described using the widget ID, property type, and property value.

(Outline of operation of state transition model creation apparatus 100)
Next, an outline of the operation of the state transition model creation device 100 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The state transition model creation device 100 waits for a user operation (step S101 in FIG. 7), and the user updates input information to the widget layout design unit 101, the display condition / operation condition design unit 102, and the event design unit 103. Each time, the design information in the design information storage unit 105 is updated (steps S102, S103, S104, S105).

  The state transition model creation device 100 creates a finite state transition system that represents the properties of each widget from the design information stored in the design information storage unit 105 (steps S201 and S202 in FIG. 8). After that, using the display conditions / operable conditions of each widget included in the design information, the state of the screen UI that can be transitioned from the initial state of the finite state transition system corresponding to each widget is comprehensively traced, and one finite state A transition system is created (steps S203 and S204). Further, the created finite state transition system is mapped to the state transition table and output (step S205).

(Details of operation)
Hereinafter, the operation of the state transition model creation device 100 according to the present embodiment will be described in detail.

<Widget arrangement: S101, S102, S103>
When the state transition model creation device 100 according to the present embodiment is in a state of waiting for a user operation in step S101, the user uses the function of the widget layout design unit 101 in step S102, for example, as shown in FIG. In addition, widget layout design information on the screen can be input.

  10, 1 is a radio button group, 1 'and 1 "are radio buttons, 2 and 4 are check boxes, 3 is a select box, and 5 and 6 are buttons. Uniquely identifiable widget IDs are defined: 1 widget ID is radio button group 1, 1 'and 1 "widget IDs are radio button 1' and radio button 1" respectively, and 2 and 4 widget IDs are Check box 2 and check box 4, respectively, widget ID 3 is select box 3, widget IDs 5 and 6 are button 5 and button 6, respectively.

  For widgets arranged on the screen, user-defined values are input as shown in FIG. 12 according to the widget type and property type, if necessary. A special value indicating an arbitrary character string is set as a user-defined value for an input character string property of a widget such as a text area where an arbitrary character string can be input. Further, according to the widget type and property type, if necessary, property initial values are input as shown in FIG.

  The state transition model creation device 100 updates the design information stored in the design information storage unit 105 in step S103 using the input widget arrangement design information, user-defined values, and property initial values. The design information storage unit 105 sets a widget identifier for a widget arranged on the screen, and sets a set of valid event types, property types, and valid property values in the widget design information according to the widget type. To do. In this setting, default design information stored in the default design storage unit 104 is used.

  Thereafter, a state transition model is created in accordance with the state transition model creation / display flow in steps S201 to S205. Details of steps S201 to S205 will be described later.

<Display condition / operable condition design: S101, S102, S104>
When the state transition model creation device 100 is in a state of waiting for a user operation in step S101, the display condition / operable condition design unit 102 can display the display condition / operation from the design information to the user in step S102. Widgets, property types, and property values that can be used for describing the conditions are presented, and the user inputs the display conditions and operable conditions for the widgets as shown in FIG. The display condition / operable condition is described in a format associated with a first-order predicate logical expression whose meaning is uniquely determined.

  The state transition model creation device 100 updates the design information stored in the design information storage unit 105 in step S104 using the input display condition / operable condition. Specifically, the input display condition / operable condition is converted into a logical expression and set to the display condition / operable condition of the widget design information in the design information.

  If an arbitrary character string is allowed as a user-defined value for the widget type and property type of the widget that appears in the display condition / operation possible condition, the arbitrary character string can be used as the property value. In that case, the character string used as the property value is added to the user-defined value of the widget design information.

<Event design: S101, S102, S105>
In event design, the user designs the change in the property value of the widget when the event occurs. Since the default behavior of the widget is implicitly defined for each widget type, the user inputs only the property value change that deviates from the general behavior of the widget. The design information related to the default operation is stored in the default design storage unit 104, and the default design information related to the target screen UI design is stored in the design information storage unit 105 from the default design storage unit 104.

  When the state transition model creation device 100 is in a state of waiting for a user operation in step S101, in step S102, the event design unit 103 allows the user to use a widget that can be used to describe event design information from the design information, The property type and property value are presented, and the user inputs event design information using them, for example, as shown in FIG. FIG. 14 shows that when the radio button 2 is clicked, the check box 4 is not checked, and when the radio button 4 is clicked, the check box 4 is checked.

  The state transition model creation device 100 uses the input event design information, and updates the design information stored in the design information storage unit 105 in step S105. Specifically, the input event design information is set as event design information of widget design information in the internal model.

  If an arbitrary character string is allowed as a user-defined value for the widget type and property type of the widget that appears in the event design information, the arbitrary character string can be used as the property value. In that case, the character string used as the property value is added to the user-defined value of the widget design information.

  In the prior art, the description of the design of the condition corresponding to FIG. 13, the description of the property value change corresponding to FIG. 14, and the description of the default behavior of the widget that can be omitted in the technology according to the present embodiment are mixed. The design was described in the format. In contrast, in the technology according to the present embodiment, the description of the display condition / operable condition design and the event design are separated, and the description of the default operation is omitted, and the input is minimized, and the screen UI is designed. The design description is in a natural format.

<Creation of a set of states corresponding to widget properties: S201>
In step S201, the state transition model creation unit 106 scans each widget included in the design information stored in the design information storage unit 105, and creates a set of states corresponding to each property design of the widget.

  In other words, a state corresponding to each property value included in the set of property values set in the widget property design is created, and the created state set is a finite state transition state corresponding to the property design of the widget. Used to set as a set of.

<Creation of transition relation corresponding to event design information: S202>
In step S202, the state transition model creation unit 106 scans each widget included in the widget layout design information of the internal model, and uses the event design information included in the widget design information to create a set of states created in step S201. Create transition relationships between contained states.

  First, a corresponding label is created for each event design information. Next, a sequence of processing instructions for each event design information is scanned to create a transition relationship. The transition destination state of the transition relationship is the state corresponding to the property value included in the processing instruction as the transition destination state, the label is the label corresponding to the event design information, and the transition destination state is the widget design information and property type included in the processing instruction The states included in the set of states of the finite state transition system corresponding to.

  Using the state set created in step S201 and the transition relation created in step S202, a finite state transition system corresponding to each property of the widget is created. The initial state of the finite state transition system is a state corresponding to the property initial value set in the property design.

<Creation of transition corresponding to default event design: S203>
In step S203, the state transition model creation unit 106 scans the widgets included in the widget arrangement design information of the internal model, and uses events defined implicitly (default) for the widget type and event type of each widget. To create a transition relation of a finite state transition system. The transition source state and transition destination state of the transition relation to be created are appropriately set according to the event type.

  For example, when the widget type is a check box and the event type is OnChange, a transition in which a state corresponding to the property value “checked” is set as the transition source state, and a state corresponding to the property value “not checked” is set as the transition destination state Two transition relationships are created: a relationship and a transition relationship in which the transition source state and the transition destination state are interchanged.

  An example in which the finite state transition system created in steps S201 to S203 is expressed by a directed graph with a label is shown in FIG. (A), (b), (c), and (d) correspond to the selection value of the radio button group 1, the check state of the check box 2, the selection value of the select box 3, and the selection value of the check box 4, respectively. Note that the double line represents the initial state.

<Creation of Screen UI Finite State Transition System: S204>
The transition relationship of the finite state transition system created in steps S201 to S203 is labeled according to the event design information in the design information, and the transition source state and the transition destination state correspond to property values, respectively. ing. That is, the change in the property value of the widget when the event occurs is modeled as a finite state transition system. The current state set of all these finite state transition systems corresponds to the state of the screen UI.

  In an actual application, not all events can always be executed, and events caused by widgets that are not displayed or cannot be operated do not occur according to the display conditions / operable conditions of the widget design information. In step S204, the state transition model creation unit 106 simulates this, and creates a finite state transition system in which a transition is performed by selecting one of the transitions that can be executed from the state of a certain screen UI. This finite state transition system has only the state of the screen UI that can be reached from the initial state.

  First, the set of finite state transition systems created in steps S201 to S203 is scanned to create a set of all transition relationships. The logical product of the display condition of the widget having the event design information corresponding to each transition relation and the operable condition is taken as an executable condition for the transition. For example, assume that the widget having the event design information corresponding to the transition relation A is the radio button B, the display condition of the radio button B is “when (X)”, and the operable condition is “when (Y)”. In this case, the executable condition for the transition of the transition relation A is “when (X and Y)”.

  The subsequent processing procedure will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 9A, a set of states (hereinafter referred to as S) and a set of transition relationships (hereinafter referred to as R) are set as empty sets, and a finite state transition system in which an initial state is not set is created (step S20401).

The set of initial states of the finite state transition system created in Step S201~ step S203 as one of the state _{s 0,} sets an initial state of the finite state transition system is added to S (step S20402, S20403, S20404). At this time, to include a display state and the operation state at the time of outputting a screen state table, include the evaluation results of display conditions, operational conditions of each widget s _0.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 9B, the following procedure from step S301 to step S307 is executed with the initial state as an input.

  In step S301, the feasibility conditions for all transitions in the given state p are evaluated, and a transition-related label set (hereinafter referred to as L) that produces a true result is created. Steps S302 to S307 are repeated for each label included in L.

  In step S302, one label is extracted from L (hereinafter referred to as l). In step S303, a set of states after the transition by l of the finite state transition system created in steps S201 to S203 is calculated, and this is set as a state q. In step S304, a transition relation in which the transition source state is p, the label is l, and the transition destination state is q is created and added to R.

  In step S305, the process branches depending on whether q is included in S. If it is included, the process jumps to step S307. If not included, step S301 to step S307 are recursively executed for the state q in step S306. Since the state that may be added to S is finite because it is a combination of the states of the finite state transition system created in steps S201 to S203, this procedure will surely stop.

  The screen UI finite state transition system in the present embodiment is represented by a directed graph as shown in FIG. For simplicity, the transition label description is omitted. Each state represents a set of current states of each finite state transition system in FIG. 15 and has information equivalent to the screen state table and the state transition table.

<Output of state transition table: S205>
In step S205, the state transition model display unit 108 outputs the finite state transition system created in step S204 (which may be referred to as a state transition model) as a screen state table and a state transition table. An identification name is set for each state of the finite state transition system, and the column name of the screen state table is set. An identification name is set for each widget property, and the row name of the screen state table is set.

  Since the state of the finite state transition system created in step S204 is a set of states of the finite state transition system corresponding to the widget properties, all blanks in the screen state table are filled in using that information. FIG. 17 shows a screen state table with a part omitted.

  Next, a state transition table having the same column as the screen state table is created, and the label of each transition relation of the finite state transition system created in step S204 is used as the row name of the state transition table. For each transition relationship, enter the column name of the transition destination state in the column corresponding to the label row in the column of the transition source state. After the description in the state transition table is completed for all transition relationships, if there is a blank in the state transition table, enter "/" in all blanks. FIG. 18 shows a state transition table with a part omitted. In FIG. 18, for example, the transition source state is state 1, and it is indicated that the state transitions to state 3 by the event (label) of the radio button 1′OnClick.

<Input / output format>
In the state transition model creation device 100 according to the present embodiment, property initial values, user-defined values, display conditions / operable conditions, and event design information are input in a table format, but the input format is not limited to a table. Alternatively, a unique input interface may be used. Further, the output format is not limited to the screen state table and the state transition table, but may be output in other formats such as graphical display as a directed graph.

(Effect of embodiment)
According to the present embodiment, a state transition model corresponding to a screen state table and a state transition table that do not include contradictions from the description of the transition of the property value of the widget and the description of the event occurrence condition, which are natural forms as design information of the screen UI. Can be generated and the model can be processed to output a screen state table and a state transition table.

  Further, since the design information to be input is minimized by using the default design information of the widget, it contributes to a significant reduction in labor required for the screen UI design. Since it is modeled as a set of small finite state transition systems for each property, it is easy to check and correct the partial behavior of the screen UI.

  The created finite state transition system can be used for automatic verification of design information by a machine in addition to outputting in a table format.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and applications are possible within the scope of the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 State transition model creation apparatus 101 Widget arrangement design part 102 Display condition / operation condition design part 103 Event design part 104 Default design storage part 105 Design information storage part 106 State transition model creation part 107 State transition model storage part 108 State transition model Display section

Claims (7)

A state transition model creation device for creating a state transition model of a screen UI,
Storage means for storing design information including event design information of a widget constituting the screen UI and a predetermined condition relating to an event generation condition;
Using the design information, for each property of the widget in the screen UI, create a finite state transition system having a property value as a state, evaluate a feasible condition for transition in each finite state transition system, and evaluate the result Creating means for creating a finite state transition system consisting of a transition relation in which as is true as a state transition model of the screen UI;
An output means for outputting the state transition model created by the creating means. 2. The state transition model according to claim 1, wherein the creation unit creates a transition relation related to a default operation of the widget by using default event design information held by the state transition model creation device. Creation device. The output means creates a screen state table and a state transition table of the screen UI using the state transition model, and outputs the screen state table and the state transition table. State transition model creation device. A state transition model creation method executed by a state transition model creation device that creates a state transition model of a screen UI,
The state transition model creation device includes storage means for storing design information including event design information of widgets constituting the screen UI and predetermined conditions related to event occurrence conditions,
Using the design information, for each property of the widget in the screen UI, create a finite state transition system having a property value as a state, evaluate a feasible condition for transition in each finite state transition system, and evaluate the result A creation step for creating a finite state transition system having a transition relationship in which the state is true as a state transition model of the screen UI;
An output step of outputting the state transition model created by the creating step. A state transition model creating method comprising: In the creation step, the state transition model creation device creates a transition relation related to a default operation of the widget using default event design information held by the state transition model creation device. Item 5. The state transition model creation method according to Item 4. In the output step, the state transition model creation device creates a screen state table and a state transition table of the screen UI using the state transition model, and outputs the screen state table and the state transition table. The state transition model creation method according to claim 4 or 5.   The program for functioning a computer as each means of the state transition model production apparatus of any one of Claims 1 thru | or 3.

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