Data processing: software development – installation – and managem – Software program development tool – Managing software components
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-24
2002-10-15
Khatri, Anil (Department: 2122)
Data processing: software development, installation, and managem
Software program development tool
Managing software components
C707S793000, C717S162000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06467080
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for providing informational assistance relating to software applications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a computer-implemented system for generating, maintaining, and providing user-generated software application documentation and making the documentation selectively sharable among various users.
2. The Relevant Technology
The computer and computer software fields are experiencing a great explosion in the growth of technology. The rapid generation of increasingly complex computer technology can be seen as both a boon and a bane. Increasingly powerful computers and the highly complex computer programs that operate thereon provide benefits on a scale previously unseen. Computer operators are now provided with tools that achieve tasks in a fraction of the time previously required, if indeed those tasks could previously have been performed at all.
Nevertheless, this increasing sophistication comes at a price. For instance, the increasingly sophisticated computer programs now available require large amounts of specialized user training and accustomization in order to provide productivity gains. Additionally, installing, maintaining, and using such programs is effectively becoming an increasingly daunting task.
Consider the situation where a computer administrator is faced with the task of installing a complex computer program to operate on a large scale such as, for instance, within a government entity, university, or large business organization. The computer program often comes packaged with a myriad of installation configurations and options. Additionally, the computer program may need to be installed differently or configured differently for different departments within a given organization. Likewise, where the program is being administered over a widely dispersed computer system and across different platforms, it may require a high degree of customization. Such customization may be customer-specific.
Many program installations are actually just updates of existing versions of the program. In such cases, many transitional considerations must be properly understood in the “migration” between the earlier version and the later version that is to be installed. For example, complex operations may be necessary for the installation of the later program. These operations may require that operators be aware of company, department, or site specific policies, procedures, and/or guidance to successfully conduct such operations.
A disadvantage of current program installation systems is the generally limited amount of information available to operators and administrators during installation. Furthermore, current program installation systems provide no mechanism for providing installation and configuration information, policies, procedures, and guidelines specific to the company, department, or site during and prior to the installation. This lack of information availability to system operators and administrators often results in wasted resources due to incorrect installations of complex computer programs caused by the operators' or administrators' ignorance of the company, department, or site specific policies, procedures, or guidelines regarding correct configuration for installation.
One manner in which the field of computer technology has dealt with the increased complexity of computer programs is through interactive help programs provided within graphical user interfaces (GUI). Within modern interactive computer programs, a user is often presented with intricate help features through the GUI. Within the GUI, functions of the program may be represented as objects through graphical representations. In these interfaces, many previously coded programming commands are replaced with selectable two-dimensional or three-dimensional graphic images on a computer display device. Icons may symbolically indicate the type of operation the computer system will execute if the icon function is selected.
In addition, many such interfaces utilize multiple “windows” displayed on the display device, each with combinations of text and graphics to convey information to a user. Each window may take the form of any of a variety of objects such as a file folder, loose-leaf binder, or simple rectangle. The windows may overlap one another with the “top” window fully visible and representing a current work file. Windows not currently in use can be minimized for quick access at a later point. Users are permitted to operate on and manipulate the window contents and the window itself, as if the image constituted an actual object.
Nevertheless, such powerful and intuitive help systems have not yet been adequately designed to provide for integration of user-generated information, policies, procedures, and guidelines within a program. Likewise, these help systems have generally not been configured to modify help files or otherwise provide information from the manufacturer that becomes available after the installation program and software application have been distributed from the manufacturer to the customer. In particular, administrators, operators, and users are currently unable to employ such help systems to share information, policies, procedures, and guidelines related to the installation, configuration, and use of a software application with other users who need or could benefit from access to such information.
In view of the foregoing discussion, it is clearly desirable to provide methods and apparatus for the integration of user-generated, sharable documentation into complex software applications and programs. Such user-generated software documentation would be highly advantageous if it were made seamlessly available to users, operators, and administrators who use, install, configure, maintain, migrate, or otherwise interact with an installation program or other software application.
Such documentation would also be highly advantageous if collected into a central repository or group of repositories where the documentation would be readily accessible to users, even from remote locations. Implementation of methods and/or apparatus for selectively controlling the availability of such documentation to certain users and groups of users would also be advantageous.
OBJECTS AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The apparatus of the present invention has been developed in response to the needs remaining in the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs not yet addressed by currently available help systems. Thus, it is an overall objective of the present invention to provide a user-generated documentation integration system with accompanying methods for use, generation, and training for overcoming some or all of the problems discussed above as existing in the art.
In embodiments disclosed herein, the user-generated documentation integration system is used for providing shared, dynamically customizable documentation for use in connection with a software application. The user-generated documentation integration system preferably comprises a processor for executing instructions and a memory device having thereon modules of operational data and executable code for execution by the processor.
In one embodiment, the modules of operational data (data) and executable code (executables) comprise a software application, created by a manufacturer and executable on a computer processor for the benefit of a user. A documentation repository or group of documentation repositories may be provided for storing user-generated documentation relating to the software application. The software application may also include a linker module that maintains a link to a documentation repository so a user may seamlessly access user-generated documentation from within the software application as if the documentation were integral to the software application.
In one embodiment, the documentation repository comprises a directory that is generated by an operating system and that is l
Devine Kathryn Willbrandt
Hughes, Jr. Virginia W.
Kilburn Barbara Jean
Shough David Edward
Khatri Anil
Kunzler Brian C.
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