Screen identification system
AssigneeNetManage, Inc.
InventorHanna Hsia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of identifying computer screens is disclosed. The method is particularly useful in identifying IBM host screens in script creation and playback. According to the method, a signature is composed for a given screen. The signature comprises characteristics of a given screen which differentiate that screen from substantially different screen displays. For an IBM host screen, signature composition is based upon the screens protected fields. The protected fields are further processed by removing transient information such as the date and time.
Claims24
A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for identifying screens, the computer program product for use by a guest computer comprising a memory, a first display, a first user input device and a first terminal emulation program, the first terminal emulation program receiving screen displays generated by a host computer and transmitted to the guest computer as logical representations in the guest computer's memory, the computer readable program code in the computer program product comprising computer readable program code for causing the guest computer to:
- (a) in a training phase:
- (i) select a screen as a reference screen,
- (ii) store the contents of the reference screen in a first buffer, and
- (iii) compose and store a signature of the reference screen from the buffer, wherein:
- if the screen is blank, the signature is a predetermined value, else
- if the screen is unformatted or has no protected fields, then the signature is composed of a number of the first characters of the screen, else
- a signature element of the first protected field is composed and placed into a signature list, the signature being comprise of the signature list,
- if a second protected field is present, then a signature element of the second protected field is composed and placed into the signature list,
- where decisions as to which elements to use for creating a signature and the steps of composing a signature of the reference screen from the buffer are performed automatically by the computer program;
- (b) in a recognition phase:
- (i) select a current screen,
- (ii) store the contents of the current screen in a second buffer,
- (iii) compose a signature of the current screen from the buffer, and
- (iv) compare the signature of the current screen with the signature of the reference screen.
A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for recognizing an IBM host screen from a guest computer, the computer readable program code in the computer program product comprising computer readable program code for causing the guest computer to:
- receive a signature of a reference screen;
- compare a current screen to the signature of the reference screen;
- wherein the signature comprises:
- if the reference screen is blank, then the signature is set to a predetermined value, else
- if the reference screen is unformatted or has no protected fields, then the signature is composed of a number of the first characters of the screen, else
- a signature element of the first protected field is composed and placed into a signature list,
- if a second protected field is present, then a signature element of the second protected field is composed and placed into the signature list,
- if more than three signature protected fields are present, then a signature element of the second to last protected field is composed and placed into the signature list.
A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for composing a signature of a screen, the computer readable program code in the computer program product comprising computer readable program code for causing a computer to:
- store the screen in a buffer,
- if the screen is blank, then set the signature to a predetermined value, else
- if the screen is unformatted or has no protected fields, then compose the signature of a number of the first characters of the screen, else
- compose a signature element of the first protected field and place the signature element into a signature list,
- if a second protected field is present, then compose a signature element of the second protected field and place the signature element into the signature list,
- if more than three signature protected fields are present, then compose a signature clement of the second to last protected field and place the signature element into the signature list.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.