JPH08190476A - Development assisting device for interactive program - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To reduce the labor and time of human-intervened input operation and reduce errors by reflecting screen definition information on a state transition table and generating the interactive program from the screen definition information and state transition table every time the screen definition information is defined for a new display screen on the basis of screen definition information on each display screen and the state transition table of screen transition. CONSTITUTION: A screen defining means 102 stores definition information on a screen which is interactively inputted as the screen definition information 106. A screen transition defining means 104 displays the state transition table showing transition between screens and stores an inputted screen transition process as screen transition definition information 107. A screen transition extracting means 103 extracts a state and an event from the screen information defined by the screen defining means 102 and updates the screen transition information 107. A screen data process generating means 109 generates a data generating process for screen display and a data releasing process. A call-back process generating means 110 generates a call-back routine and its registering process. A program generating means 108 generates a source program 111.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interactive program development support device, and more particularly to an interactive program development support device for developing a program based on a state transition table for a display screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional interactive program development method, a system for interactively developing a user interface has been proposed. In such a system, the display screen format is interactively defined by input from the mouse or keyboard through the display screen, and processing is performed when the user operates the buttons or input fields on the defined screen. In the form of a source program. Such an interactive program usually has an event-driven control method. Therefore, operations such as button presses performed through the screen become events for the program, and the processing for the event is defined as a callback routine that is called from the event loop, and the specific processing for a specific screen is distributed as each callback routine. Is set.

Further, as an example of a method for supporting the design and programming of screen transitions, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-221728 is known.
There is a gazette. In this method, the definition of screen information and the state of screen transition can be confirmed at an early stage by simulating the screen transition, but the definition of the screen transition process is distributed to each screen and The state cannot be grasped in the form of a state transition table.

An example of an automatic program generation method based on state transition is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-352029. In this method, the program specifications are organized and described in the form of a state transition table composed of a matrix of events and states, and a program is automatically generated from the state transition table. In this method, the entire state transition can be grasped in the form of a state transition table, but it is not associated with the screen definition information. Further, since the program generated from the state transition table does not take an interactive program into consideration, it is not applicable to the program of the above event driven type control system.

[0005]

According to the prior art, even if the user thinks that the states of screen transitions are not organized in the form of a state transition table and that a state transition table of screen transitions is created, a dialog is created. Since it is necessary to organize the display screen states and events based on the screen information that was developed specifically, and manually reflect them in the state transition table of screen transitions, there is a problem that it takes time and effort.

Further, in the development of an interactive program based on the screen definition information defined for each screen, it is difficult to consider the screen transition state of the entire program, and there is a large room for error. Even if there is a state transition table, it is only referred to by the designer and cannot be used as it is for program generation, so there is a problem in that it takes time for the designer and there is room for error.

The present invention provides a development support device for an interactive program in which the screen definition information of a new display screen is reflected every time the screen definition information is defined in the state transition table of the screen transition. To aim.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a development support device for generating an interactive program by using screen definition information and a screen transition state transition table.

[0009]

According to the present invention, a screen component such as a button and an input / output field, its type, and a display position on the screen are defined for each display screen as screen definition information. A screen transition process is defined in each box of this state transition table as a state transition table having rows and columns of display screens and events of operations performed on screen components, and screen definition information is created for new display screens. A feature is an interactive program development support device configured to add a new display screen and an event box determined from the screen components to the state transition table for each.

Furthermore, the present invention generates a processing program for creating display data of each display screen from such screen definition information, and executes a callback routine from the screen transition processing defined in each box of the screen transition state transition table. It is characterized by an interactive program development support device for generating.

[0011]

When the screen definition information is defined for a new display screen, the development support device of the present invention adds this new display screen as a new state to the state transition table. Further, the development supporting apparatus of the present invention determines an event name from the screen component and its type, and when this event name is not registered in the state transition table, adds it as a new event to the state transition table.

Also, a program for performing an initial process of creating display data of each display screen from the screen definition information is generated, and an event of an operation to be performed on a screen component from the screen transition process defined in each box of the state transition table is generated. Since a callback routine for event processing is generated each time it occurs, an interactive program that handles screen operations is created by synthesizing these programs.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an interactive program development support apparatus of this embodiment. Reference numeral 101 denotes a terminal device for a designer, who is a user, to interactively operate, and includes a display device, a keyboard, an input / output device such as a mouse.
Reference numeral 102 denotes a screen defining means for defining the screen of the program to be developed. The screen defining means 102 displays screen constituent parts for defining a display screen, and assists a designer to interactively define a display screen by operating a mouse or a keyboard. 103 is screen definition means 102
Is a screen transition extraction unit that extracts a state and an event from the screen definition information defined by the above and updates the screen transition definition information 107. Reference numeral 104 denotes a screen transition definition means for defining a process of transiting from a display screen to another display screen for a program to be developed. Screen transition definition means 104
Displays a state transition table showing state transitions between display screens on the screen, and assists the designer in interactively editing states, events, transition processing, and the like. 105 is a screen transition definition means 104
Is a transition destination screen extracting means for extracting the transition destination screen name from the edited screen transition process and determining the transition destination state. 10
6 is screen definition information defined by the screen definition means 102. Reference numeral 107 is screen transition definition information defined by the screen transition definition means 104. Reference numeral 108 denotes a program generation unit that inputs the screen definition information 106 and the screen transition definition information 107 and generates the source program 111. 109 is a part of the program generation means 108,
It is a screen data processing generation means for inputting the screen definition information 106 and generating a data generation process for screen display and a data release process. Reference numeral 110 denotes a part of the program generation means 108, which is a callback process generation means for inputting the screen transition definition information 107 and generating a callback process and a registration process of the callback process. Reference numeral 111 is a finally generated source program.

The interactive program development support apparatus of this embodiment is realized by an information processing apparatus such as an electronic computer, workstation, personal computer and the like. The screen definition information 106, the screen transition definition information 107, and the source program 111 are information stored in the internal storage device or external storage device of this information processing apparatus. Further, screen definition means 102, screen transition extraction means 103, screen transition definition means 1
04, the transition destination screen extraction means 105 and the program generation means 108 are realized by executing the program stored in the storage device of this information processing apparatus. Terminal device 1
Reference numeral 01 is an input / output device connected to this information processing device or a remote terminal device connected via a communication path.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on the display device of the terminal device 101 for interactively defining the screen. In the screen component menu 201, components for configuring the screen such as input / output fields, buttons, and text for display are displayed, and the designer can select the required components by designating the mouse or keyboard. it can.
The screen layout 202 is the screen component menu 201.
This is an area for arranging the screen components selected from, and defining the screen layout. FIG. 2 shows a file name 2 which is a text for display in the screen layout 202 area.
03, I / O field 204 below it, OK for response
An example in which a button 205 and an NG button 206 for response are arranged is shown. Note that the designer inputs the screen name of each screen when defining one screen.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the screen definition information 106 created by the screen definition means 102. 301 is the screen name of the defined screen. 302 to 305 are screen names 30
This is a part for storing information of each screen component for 1 in a tabular format. A field 302 stores a screen component name, and stores a screen component name such as an OK button or an NG button. Reference numeral 303 denotes a field for storing the type of screen constituent parts, which stores types such as buttons and input / output fields. Reference numeral 304 denotes a display position of the screen component, and the display position is stored as (X coordinate, Y coordinate) on the screen. Reference numeral 305 is information additionally possessed according to the type of screen constituent parts. For example, in the case of a button, text such as a button name displayed on the button is the additional information.

FIG. 4 is an example of a state transition table showing screen transitions. The state transition table 401 is displayed on the screen by the screen transition definition means 104, and the designer can interactively refer to or edit the screen transition information. Further, the information input by the screen transition definition means 104 is held in the storage device as the screen transition definition information 107 in a tabular format as shown in FIG. A state name 402 is a state transition table showing screen transitions in this case, so the screen name (screen identifier) is the state name. A state ID 403 is an identification symbol given to the state name. The state ID 403 is used as a transition destination state name described later. Reference numeral 404 is an event name (event identifier), and the events of the operations performed on the screen components on each screen are arranged by the event name. Reference numeral 405 denotes a screen transition process that describes a process at the time of screen transition, and describes a process when a corresponding event occurs on the screen represented by the state name. Screen transition process 405
Is described at the source code or pseudo code level so that the final source code can be generated. 406 is a transition destination screen name (state name) when a screen transition occurs. In the event-driven interactive program, the displayed screen may be terminated depending on the contents of the screen transition process 405.
Display a new screen. Therefore, screen transition process 4
The screen transition destination is determined by the processing content of 05. Therefore, the transition destination screen name 406 is not input by the designer, but is extracted by analyzing the screen transition process 405.

FIG. 5 shows the generated source program 11
It is a figure which shows the outline of the structure of 1. The generated source program 111 includes a main processing unit 502 and an initial processing unit 50.
6, a termination processing unit 510 and a callback processing unit 512. Of these, the main processing unit 502 is a fixed procedure, and includes an initial processing call 503 and an event processing loop 50.
4 and termination processing call 505. The initial process call 503 is a procedure to which control is passed at the start of program execution and to call the initial process unit 506. The event processing loop 504 is a procedure that holds the state of an infinite loop and is activated when an event occurs and calls a callback routine corresponding to this event. The event processing loop 504 ends when the end event is received,
Control is passed to the end process call 505. The end event is an event generated by an operation for ending the execution of the program, for example, when the end button on the screen is pressed. The termination processing call 505 is a procedure for calling the termination processing unit 510. The initial processing unit 506 displays each screen 1 to
It consists of an initial process 507 for n. The initial processing 507 for each screen is a generation processing 508 that secures a storage area for storing the display data of the screen and generates the display data.
And a registration process 509 for associating each event generated on each screen with a callback routine. Figure 5
In the example, the callback routine k is associated with the event m of each screen display data ID. Here, the display data ID is an internal display data identifier provided corresponding to the screen. The termination processing unit 510 performs a release process 511 that releases the display data of each of the screens 1 to n generated in the initial process together with its storage area. The callback processing unit 512 is a portion defined in the form of a function capable of calling each callback routine.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the screen transition extraction means 103 and the screen transition definition means 104. The operation of extracting the state and event from the screen definition information 106 and updating the screen transition definition information 107 will be described below with reference to FIG. The screen transition extraction means 103 is called every time the screen definition means 102 inputs screen definition information for one screen. Screen transition extraction means 103
Is the screen name 30 from the input screen definition information 106.
1 is taken out, and the state transition table 4 of the screen transition definition information 107
A new state name 402 is added to 01 (step 60)
1). Screen component name 30 that constitutes the screen defined next
2 and the type 303 are taken out (step 602), and the event name is determined from the screen component name 302 and the type 303 (step 603). For example, if the type of the screen component is a button, the event is specified according to the type, such as pressing the button. Then, by adding the screen component name 302 to the event type, the event name can be specified so that the event of which component is identified. Next, the screen transition extraction means 103 checks whether or not the event name determined through the screen transition definition means 104 is an event name already in the state transition table 401 (step 604). For example, if there are buttons having the same name on a plurality of screens, they will generate the same event, so it is necessary to register them as the same event on the state transition table 401 rather than as separate events. Therefore, if the same event name already exists in the state transition table 401, no new event name is added. The screen transition extraction means 103 adds a new event name via the screen transition definition means 104 when there is no event name in the state transition table (step 605). When the above event name addition processing ends, the screen transition extraction means 1
03 checks whether or not there is the next screen component in the screen definition information 106 (step 606). If there is, the processing steps from step 602 are repeated, and if not, the processing ends.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the transition destination screen extraction means 105 and the screen transition definition means 104. The operation of extracting the transition destination screen from the screen transition processing 405 input by the screen transition defining unit 104 and determining the transition destination state will be described below with reference to FIG. 7. The transition destination screen extraction unit 105 extracts the screen transition process 405 via the screen transition definition unit 104 for each event of each display screen, analyzes the described process line by line, and displays another new screen. Check if there is any processing (step 70)
1). Normally, the process for displaying a new screen is in the form of calling a screen display function, so here it is checked whether there is a screen display function call. When the screen display process is found, the transition destination screen extraction unit 105 sets the screen name of the screen to be newly displayed as the transition destination state name through the screen transition definition unit 104, and the screen transition process 405 of the state transition table 401. The transition destination screen name 406 corresponding to is set (step 702). If there is no process for displaying another screen, it is checked whether there is a process for ending the display of the currently displayed screen (step 70).
3). This also checks whether there is a function call for ending the screen display. If found, it means exiting the currently displayed screen and returning to the screen that was originally displayed. Therefore, in order to check the transition source screen, the transition destination screen extraction unit 105 searches the state transition table 401 via the screen transition definition unit 104, and finds the state having the state name of the screen currently displayed as the transition destination state name ( Step 7
04). The transition destination screen extraction unit 105 sets the transition destination screen name 406 corresponding to the screen transition process 405 of the state transition table 401 via the screen transition definition unit 104 using the state found here as the transition destination state name (step 70).
5). If neither is found in the search in steps 701 and 703, the screen transition does not occur, so the transition destination screen extraction unit 105 uses the transition destination state name as the current screen name and the state transition via the screen transition definition unit 104. The transition destination screen name 406 is set in the table 401 (step 706).

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing of the screen data processing generation means 109 for generating the initial processing and the end processing relating to the screen display data from the screen definition information 106. First, screen information for one screen is acquired from the screen definition information 106 (step 801). Next, a generation process 508 for converting the extracted screen information and generating screen display data in a format that can be easily referred to by the program is created as an initial process (step 802). When a screen is displayed during program execution, the screen display data created in this initial processing is used. Next, the screen display data release process 511 to be executed at the end of the program is generated as the end process (step 803). The above processing is repeated until there is no screen definition information (step 804).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing of the callback process generating means 110 for generating the callback routine and the registration process of the callback routine from the screen transition definition information 107 created in the state transition table format. First, the screen names 402 registered as states are taken out one by one from the state transition table 401 (step 90).
1). Next, the ID of the screen display data is acquired from the screen display data generation processing 508 created in step 802 for this screen (step 902). Next, the events 404 are taken out one by one from the state transition table 401 (step 903), and it is checked whether or not the screen transition processing 405 is defined in combination with the screen name 402 acquired in step 901 (step 904). Screen transition process 40
If 5 is blank and the process is not defined, no callback routine is generated. When the process is defined, a process 509 for registering the screen transition process 405 as a callback routine is generated for the combination of the screen display data ID acquired in step 902 and the event acquired in step 903. (Step 905). In this registration processing, since the normal callback routine is registered with the function name, the screen transition processing 40
The function name is determined for 5 and registered. Further, the callback routine 513 is generated by converting the screen transition processing 405 into a function having the determined function name (step 906). The above steps 903 to 906 are repeated until there are no events in the state transition table 401 (step 907). Further, the processing of steps 901 to 907 is repeated until there is no screen name (state name) in the state transition table 401 (step 908), and the processing ends.

The program generation means 108 generates a source program by synthesizing the constituent elements of the source program generated by the operations described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9 and the fixed main processing unit 502.

[0025]

According to the present invention, since information such as states and events in the state transition table can be automatically generated from information defining a screen, it is possible to reduce the trouble of inputting work into the state transition table. Further, it is possible to generate a source program with few errors from the screen definition information and the state transition table and reduce the time and effort required for program creation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an interactive program development support device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a screen defining means for interactively defining a screen.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of screen definition information created by a screen definition means.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a state transition table showing screen transitions.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an outline of a structure of a finally generated source program.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for extracting a state and an event from the screen definition information and updating the screen transition definition information.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for extracting a transition destination screen from the input screen transition processing and determining a transition destination state.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing of a screen data processing generation means for generating initial processing and end processing relating to screen display data from screen definition information.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of a callback process generation means for generating a callback routine and a registration process of the callback routine from the screen transition definition information created in the state transition table format.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Terminal device, 102 ... Screen definition means, 1
03 ... Screen transition extraction means, 104 ... Screen transition definition means, 105 ... Transition destination screen extraction means, 106 ...
Screen definition information, 107 ... screen transition definition information, 10
8 ... Program generating means, 109 ... Screen data processing generating means, 110 ... Callback processing generating means, 111 ... Source program

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Corresponding to a combination of screen definition information in which a type and a display position of parts constituting the display screen are defined for each display screen, and an event generated by an operation performed on each display screen and the part. A storage unit that stores screen transition definition information that defines a process to be performed, and a screen definition unit that performs a process of creating the screen definition information for each display screen,
The screen definition means is activated each time screen definition information is created for a new display screen, and has a processing means for adding information about a combination of the new display screen and an event determined by the component to the screen transition definition information. A development support device for interactive programs. 2. The development supporting apparatus further comprises means for determining a transition destination of a screen by analyzing a process performed corresponding to the combination of the screen transition definition information. Development support device for interactive programs. 3. Corresponding to a combination of screen definition information in which the type and display position of a component forming the display screen is defined for each display screen and an event caused by an operation performed on the display screen and the component. Storage means for storing the screen transition definition information for defining the process to be performed, and a processing program for creating display data of each display screen based on the screen definition information, and generating a combination of the screen transition definition information. An interactive program development support device comprising: a program generation unit that generates a corresponding process as a callback routine.