User interface for a relational database using a task object for defining ...

[54] USER INTERFACE FOR A RELATIONAL DATABASE USING A TASK OBJECT FOR DEFINING SEARCH QUERIES IN RESPONSE TO A PROFILE OBJECT WHICH DESCRIBES USER PROFICIENCY

[75] Inventors: Hampton K. Conner, Jr.,

Georgetown; Donald G. Petersen,
Austin; John S. Wang, Austin;
Richard B. Wood, Austin, all of Tex.

[73] Assignee: International Business Machines
Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.

Appl. No.: 796,144

Filed: Not. 22,1991

Human-Computer Interaction, Donald A. Norman, Stephen W. Draper, 1986.

Rooms: The Use of Multiple Virtual Workspaces to
Reduce Space Contention in a Window-Based Graphi-
cal User Interface, D. Austin Henderson, Jr., and Stuart
K. Card, vol. 5, No. 3, Jul. 1986, pp. 211-243.
IBM Operating System/2 Extended Edition Version
1.3, Getting Started, Dec. 1990.

Primary Examiner—Thomas C. Lee
Assistant Examiner—Burch Harper
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Casimer K. Salys

[21]

[22]

[51] [52]

[58] [56]

Int. CI.' G06F 9/00

U.S. CI 395/700; 395/600;

395/155; 395/161; 364/DIG. 1; 364/282.1;

364/283.3

Field of Search 395/155, 161, 600, 158,

395/157, 700

References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,739,477 4/1988 Barker et al 364/300

4,815,030 3/1989 Cross et al 395/600

4,930,071 5/1990 Tou et al 364/300

4,964,077 10/1990 Elsen et al 395/275

5,119,475 6/1992 Smith et al 395/156

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

A Relational Objecty Architecture (ROBA) for Managing User Interface Objects Rumi Hiraga, Yeong-Chang Lien, Apr. 1, 1990.

Systems Application Architecture, Common User Access: Advanced Interface Design, Guide, Internationa] Business Machines Corp., First Edition (Jun., 1989). User Centered System Design, New Perspectives on

UKR KUCTXMS (D6MXTSI

A method and object-oriented architecture for interfacing a user to a relational database system The contour of the interface is defined by a profile object and a task object. The profile object, in response to user selection, defines one of multiple role objects with associated user proficiency and system behavioral characteristics. The task object responds to parameters derived from the profile object to generating a query for the relational database system. In one form, the task object includes one or more functional objects suitable to query the database. Representative functional objects are the domain object (used to formulate problem oriented queries), the analysis object (used to analyze the data extracted from the database), the report object (used to generate a user response format), and the link object (used to relate the components within the task object). The interface according to the invention matches the abilities of the user to the resources of the database system, manipulates problem oriented high-level queries, and provides an object oriented architecture readily amenable to object refinement.

5 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets