Method and apparatus for validating data entered by a user

A data processing system having the capability of validating data entered into the system, comprising:

• display means, comprising
• at least one window displaying a plurality of requests for information, and
• at least one widget within each window associated with at least one of said displayed requests for information;
• means for entering data into the system such that the entered data is associated with at least one of said widgets;
• a doda object associated with each of said widgets, the doda object including member functions adapted to ascertain whether data entered in association with the widget is correctly formatted;
• means for detecting an error condition in the data objects associated with each of said widgets, based upon the doda object associated with that widget;
• means responsive to the detection of an error condition for displaying an error message on a portion of said display means and for pointing to the location of the error condition.

A method of validating information entered into a data processing system having visual display means, comprising the steps of:

• creating at least one window area on said visual display means;
• displaying a plurality of requests for information in said window area;
• displaying a plurality of widgets in said window area, each widget associated with at least one of said requests for information;
• associating data entered in response to said requests for information with at least one of said widgets;
• creating at least one doda object associated with each of said widgets, said doda object including member functions adapted to ascertain whether data associated with the widget is properly formatted;
• for each widget, detecting, with the assistance of the doda object for that widget, the presence or absence of an error condition in the data associated with that widget, and in response to the detection of an error condition, creating an error message string and a pointer identifying the widget associated with the data object in which the error condition was detected;
• displaying for selection by a system operator, all error message strings on a portion of said window area;
• in response to the selection by a system operator of one of the displayed error message strings, re-displaying the widget identified by the pointer associated with the selected error message string so as to enable re-entry of the data associated with that widget.

A method of validating information entered into a data processing system having visual display means, comprising the steps of:

• creating at least one window area on said visual display means;
• displaying a plurality of requests for information in said window area;
• displaying a plurality of widgets in said window area, each widget associated with at least one of said requests for information;
• as data is entered into the system, associating the entered data with at least one of the widgets;
• creating at least one doda object associated with each of said widgets, said doda object including member functions adapted to ascertain whether entered data associated with the widget is properly formatted;
• for each widget, detecting, with the assistance of the doda object for that widget, the presence or absence of an error condition within the data associated with that widget by comparing said data with a stored database of available valid data, and in response to the detection of an error condition, creating an error message string and a pointer identifying the widget associated with the data in which the error condition was detected;
• for each widget, detecting, with the assistance of the doda object for that widget, the presence or absence of an error condition within the data associated with that widget by comparing said data with the data associated with other widgets in said window area, and in response to the detection of an error condition, creating an error message string and a pointer identifying the widget associated with the data in which the error condition was detected;
• displaying for selection by a system operator, all error message strings on a portion of said window area;
• in response to the selection by a system operator of one of the displayed error message strings, re-displaying the widget identified by the pointer associated with the selected error message string so as to enable re-entry of the data associated with that widget.