JPH06259296A - Human-machine interface constructing tool - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need of any additional routine for data correction by executing an AP by moving data backward while observing the present picture to a user to a picture for which the data item is inputted when the data correction is inputted. CONSTITUTION:When the user performs the data correction, the effect is informed to an inter-picture transition executing means 13 by a picture display means 14. The inter-picture transition executing means 13 investigates the picture for which the corrected data item is first inputted and when it is the data item inputted by the picture in the past, processing is started from that picture again. However, the picture display by the picture display means 14 is kept as it is, and the AP is processed without sending any picture display instruction to the picture display means 14. When the user reaches the picture for which the data correction is performed, processing is ended. Thus, the need of the additional routine for data correction is eliminated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a human-machine interface (H) for facilitating the construction of an application system such as an office system (hereinafter sometimes abbreviated as AP).
MI) Construction tool.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a practical application system such as OA, a user-friendly human-machine interface (HMI) is constructed, and a modification routine is created which allows a user to modify an input or displayed data value. A large number of man-hours are required for AP construction. As a method that has been conventionally used to solve this problem, there is an HMI construction tool based on the “table driven format”. Fig. 2 shows a configuration example of a conventional table-driven HMI construction tool.
Shown in.

In this conventional table driven HMI construction tool, the dialog with the user is displayed on the screen display means 114.
Is performed by the "screen" displayed on the CRT. In FIG. 2, the acquisition of the item I11 is completed, and the user is inquired about the value of the item I12. Generally, multiple data items can be displayed on one "screen". However, when data input is required, a previously created menu or dialog box is overlaid on the screen to request the user for data.

In order to create a "screen", it is necessary to give some kind of screen definition information to the screen display means 114.
Generally, there are a plurality of "screens", and the defining description 121 is also composed of a plurality of screen definitions. This screen definition 121
Is held in the screen definition holding means 111. In Figure 2,
It is indicated that the item I11 and the item I12 are present on the screen named "screen 1". Although not shown in FIG. 2, display contents of items I11, I12, etc., and means for inputting data (menu, dialog box) are usually defined separately.

In the conventional HMI construction tool, transition control between screens is based on a transition condition description between screens called "table". The inter-screen transition table 122 describing the inter-screen transition conditions is the inter-screen transition table holding unit 112.
Held by. For example, in FIG. 2, if the value of “item I11” is “α”, the screen that appears next to screen 1 is
If it is the screen 2 and is “β”, the screen 3 is the next screen. It is the inter-screen transition execution means 113 that actually determines the next screen according to the data value input on the screen displayed by the screen display means 114.

FIG. 3 shows a more specific example of the table driven type state transition. On screen 1, the employee's name and age are inquired. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the name “Suzuki Hanako” and the age “23” are input. Next, when the age is less than 23, the screen 2 is activated. And
Occupations are inquired. Here, the result in which the user answered "housewife" is shown. On the other hand, when the age on the screen 1 is 23 years or older, the screen 3 is activated and the income is displayed while displaying the age. In Figure 3, the income is 11
An example is shown in which the input is 0,000. Further, FIG. 4 is an example of the inter-screen transition table 122 for this state transition, and the item name and the transition destination screen name are associated with each other according to the screen before the transition.

[0007]

The conventional table driven control system as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is embodied as it is as an HMI construction tool and is commercially available. Of course, actual commercial tools have various fine functions. However, the basic principles are all the same. This conventional H
MI construction tools can be used by even inexperienced programmers
It has been widely used because it can be programmed by describing the processing flow as it is. However, upon careful consideration, it has a big problem as an HMI construction tool. It is a weak function for data correction and screen reference. The details will be described below.

Problems When Correcting Display Data In FIG. 3, assume that the user notices that the age should be corrected on the screen 3. In this case, the age is entered on the screen 1. Therefore, when the age is arbitrarily corrected on the screen 3 to, for example, 20 years, a trouble occurs. That is,
This is because if the age is 20, the screen that should originally be displayed should be "screen 2", and the income inquired on screen 3 is not necessary for processing. As described above, it is not allowed to modify the data, in particular, the value of the data item which is once input and is displayed for confirmation, on the screen. Therefore, in the conventional HMI construction tool, in such a case, the programmer defines the key operation to return to the screen in which the data item is first input, and describes the transition flow in the table in advance in each case. Need to be kept. The transition table T3 in FIG. 4C shows such an example. Such an additional flow causes an increase in production man-hours.

The problem data correction of processing cancellation involves an even more troublesome problem. That is, it is assumed that the age input on the screen 1 is used in the process on the screen 1 and another data is generated. In this case, it is not enough to simply return from screen 3 to screen 1 according to the state transition table. Cancel this process,
It is necessary to execute the process of screen 1 again from the beginning. For each transition back to the previous screen for data correction, the programmer needs to think about what process should be canceled and re-executed to create a program. this is,
It is a heavy burden.

Problem of Flow of Referencing Other Screens Users often refer to past screens. Therefore, in addition to the transitions shown in FIG. 3, it is usual to add a transition flow for simply returning to the previous screen.

As described above, the conventional table-driven HMI construction tool looks like an architecture that is easy to use for beginners. However, in reality, it is necessary to describe the data correction flow, the cancellation of the processing in the previous screen at the time of data correction, the backtracking flow for screen reference, and the description is complicated. To reduce this complexity,
It is only necessary to suppress the data correction and the transition to the previous screen, but then an AP that is extremely unfriendly to the user is constructed. For the moment, if the user can freely modify and refer to the screen, the extra transition flow will increase and not only the creation man-hours will increase, but also the man-hours when the AP specifications are changed. Become.

An object of the present invention is to select an application program from
It is to provide an HMI construction tool that eliminates an additional routine for data correction and enables application system creation by coding only the main path.

[0013]

The HMI construction tool of the present invention is a screen definition holding means for holding a screen definition defining a human-machine interface provided to obtain a data item value from a user, and the screen. Screen display means for displaying a screen based on the definition, and an inter-screen transition table holding an inter-screen transition table for deciding a screen to be started next depending on a data value input by the user by the screen display means Means, an inter-screen transition execution means for deciding a screen to be displayed next, depending on the inter-screen transition table held in the inter-screen transition table holding means, and a data value input by the user; Save the transition history and the data value entered by the user on each screen, and when the user modifies the data items on the screen, the data For the same data item as the previous one that is required after the internal processing is restarted and restarted until the portion of the screen where the user first puts the eyes, the data value previously input by the user is set to the data item. It has a screen transition / input value holding means for substituting.

[0014]

According to the present invention, when the data correction by the user is detected, the user can go back to the screen where the data item is input and go back while showing the current screen, and re-execute the AP. It is characterized by eliminating any additional routine for data correction.

[0015]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an HMI construction tool according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The HMI construction tool of this embodiment has a screen definition holding means 11 for holding a screen definition 21 for a human-machine interface, which is provided to acquire a data item value from a user, and a screen definition 21. Screen display means 14 for displaying the original screen and screen display means 1
4, the inter-screen transition table holding means 12 holds the inter-screen transition table 22 for determining the next screen to be activated depending on the data value input by the user, and the inter-screen transition table holding means 12 holds the inter-screen transition table holding means 12. The inter-screen transition table 22 and the inter-screen transition execution means 13 that determines the screen to be displayed next, depending on the data value input by the user, the transition history of the screen, and the data input by the user on each screen. When the value and the value are saved and the data item on the screen is modified by the user, the data item is returned to the screen where the user first inputs the data item based on the transition history, the process is restarted, and it is necessary after the process is restarted. For the same data item as the previous one, the screen transition / input value holding means 15 for substituting the data value previously input by the user into the data item.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below.

The screen display means 14 has a function of displaying an HMI screen for user interaction on a CRT, a liquid crystal display or the like according to the screen definition 21. The example of FIG. 1 is a situation in which the screen 1 is displayed. That is, since it is understood from the screen definition 21 that the screen 1 has the item I11 and the item I12, the item I11 is first displayed, the data value “α” is acquired from the user, and the user is inquired of the value of the item I12. It shows the situation. Required for user input,
Although menus, dialog boxes, etc. are not described in FIG. 1, they are usually defined separately. The screen display means 14 is widely used in the conventional HMI item tool and can be constructed by the conventional technique. Further, the screen definition I21 and the screen definition holding means 11 can also be constructed by conventional techniques.

Transition control between screens is performed by transition execution means 1 between screens.
3 runs. The inter-screen transition executing means 13 determines the next screen according to the inter-screen transition table 22 and the data value input by the user. In the example of FIG. 1, the next screen of screen 1 is
"Screen 2" and "Screen 3" indicate that the screen should go to Screen 2 when the value of the item I11 is "α", and to Screen 3 when the value is "β". Therefore, in the example of FIG.
Since the value of 11 is “α”, the inter-screen transition executing means 13
Selects "Screen 2" as the next screen. The inter-screen transition table 22, the inter-screen transition table holding means 12, and the inter-screen transition execution means 13 are all included in the conventional HMI construction tool and can be configured by the conventional technology.

The greatest feature of this embodiment is the screen transition / input value holding means 15. The screen transition / input value holding unit 15 roughly has three functions of "hold screen transition history", "reference other screen", and "correct data". Hereinafter, these functions will be specifically described.

Screen Transition History Holding Function The screen transition / input value holding means 15 holds the name of the screen and the data value input by the user, which has appeared in the processing up to the present since the AP started. In particular,
For example, these pieces of information are held as the following list information.

((Screen name A (data item name A1 input data value A1) (data item name A2 input data value A2) (data item name A3 input data value A3) .....) ((screen name B (Data item name B1 Input data value B1) (Data item name B2 Input data value B2) (Data item name B3 Input data value B3)・) ・ ・ ・ ・) Here, the screen name A contains the screen names such as “Screen 3”, “Screen 7”, etc. In the actual application, “User basic information acquisition screen” or “Dependent judgment basic data input” It is considered that a name representing the processing content of the screen, such as “screen”, is given at the AP design stage. Further, the data item name A1
Data item names such as "item I11" and "item I23" are entered. In actual application, a concrete name such as “the actual date of life” or “current address” will be given at the AP design stage. The above screen transition history may be considered as a kind of log.

Other screen reference function In the conventional HMI construction tool, it is necessary to describe a flow for referring to another screen in case the user wants to refer to a past data input screen. However, the HMI construction tool of this embodiment does not place this on the programmer. As described above, since all past user operations are recorded as logs, they are not displayed in FIG. 1, but the "previous screen" and "next screen" keys are displayed in advance on all screens. , When the user presses this key, the previous screens are displayed one after another according to the screen transition history. At this time, since the screen name and the data item value input on the screen are held in the screen transition history, the screen display means 14 easily displays the user screen on the CRT using the screen definition 21. it can.

Here, it should be noted that the screen reference function is not an AP process, but is executed as an isolated function of the inter-screen transition executing means 13. That is, the processing inside the AP remains stopped and no changes are made to the variables inside the program. AP remains stationary. Therefore, when the user returns to the original dialogue screen again, the processing of the AP is continued.

Data Modifying Function The greatest feature of this embodiment occurs when the user modifies the display data on the screen. When the user corrects the data, the screen display means 14 reports the occurrence of the correction and which data item has been corrected to the inter-screen transition execution means 13. The inter-screen transition executing means 13 performs the following processing. Step 1: Examine the screen in which the correction data item is first input according to the screen transition history described above. If it is the first data item input on the current screen, the process ends. If it is a data item input on the past screen, the screen name is set to θ and the process jumps to step 2. Step 2: Cancel the assignment to all variables inside the AP performed after the screen θ. This cancellation can be easily realized by those skilled in the art, and many expert system construction support systems have a function of canceling the change of the internal variable (frame in this case). , Easy to implement. Step 3: The process is restarted from the screen θ. However, the screen displayed by the screen display means 14 is left as it is when the user corrects the data. Then, the AP is processed without sending a screen display command to the screen display means 14. All data requests generated by the AP are handled by the screen transition / input value holding means 15. As described above, since the screen transition history holds the user input value for each data item, this proxy response can be easily realized. When the user arrives at the screen where the data has been corrected, the process ends. In step 3 above, the screen transition requested by the AP must always be compared to the sequence held in the screen transition history. There is no particular problem as long as it is the same sequence as the previous processing. However, when the sequence changes midway to a sequence different from the previous one, it is necessary to stop the above-described inter-screen transition execution. This is because the processing content itself of the AP has changed due to the data modified by the user.

According to the configuration of the present embodiment as described above, the following advantages are obviously brought about.

(1) The programmer need not consider the data modification by the user at all. Therefore, the program flow is simplified and maintenance is facilitated.

(2) It is not necessary to consider the return of the internal processing due to the data correction by the user.

(3) The reference of the past screen by the user is
Since the HMI construction tool does this, the programmer does not have to think at all. Therefore, the AP creation is extremely simple.
Although not visible to the user, the AP is internally re-executed when the data is modified. This is clearly disadvantageous in terms of AP response time. But LS
With the progress of I technology, the current workstation / PC has the processing capacity comparable to the super-large-scale computer of the past, and considering the future CRT processing capacity, it seems that there is no problem of this response time. . Further, in an application in which the AP rewrites the database, it becomes difficult to cancel the internal data. However, since the database system itself has a casses function for moving data upside down, it is possible to use this function.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, the transition history of the screen and the data value input by the user on each screen are stored, and when the user corrects the data item on the screen, the user is notified of it. While showing the screens up to the above, inside the AP, by returning to the screen where the data item is input and re-executing the AP, the correction routine for the case where the user corrects the data is completely applied. Since there is no need to describe it in the program and the screen reference by the user can be freely made without describing it in the application program, there is an effect that the burden on the user is reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an HMI construction tool according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a conventional example of an HMI construction tool.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transition example by table driving.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an inter-screen transition table 22.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a screen definition 21.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 screen definition holding means 12 inter-screen transition table holding means 13 inter-screen transition executing means 14 screen display means 15 screen transition / input value holding means 21 screen definition 22 inter-screen transition table

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Katsuyuki Nakano 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A screen definition holding unit that holds a screen definition that defines a human-machine interface provided to obtain a data item value from a user, and a screen display unit that displays a screen based on the screen definition. An inter-screen transition table holding means for holding an inter-screen transition table for determining the next screen to be activated depending on the data value input by the user by the screen display means, and held in the inter-screen transition table holding means Inter-screen transition execution means for determining the next screen to be displayed depending on the inter-screen transition table and the data value input by the user, transition history of the screen, and data input by the user on each screen When you save a value and a data item on the screen is modified by the user, that data item is displayed at the point on the screen where the user first submitted it. It has a screen transition / input value holding means for substituting the data value previously input by the user for the same data item as the previous time, which is necessary after the internal process is returned and restarted and the process is restarted. Human-machine interface construction tool.