Automatic validation method for multimedia product manuals
AssigneeSiemens Corporate Research, Inc.
InventorsLiang H. Hsu, Peiya Liu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A Product Document Constraint Specification Language (PDCSL) is provided for a document author to represent various types of documentation guidelines that must be enforced within documents or across different documents. A Document Constraint Analyzer (DCA) takes as input a set of document files together with a document constraint specification file, extracts and examines the contents, attributes, and relationships associated with the document objects, and evaluates the logical expressions specified in the document constraints. If a document constraint is not satisfied, an action can be taken to correct the documents or provide an explanation to the document author.
Claims20
A method for automatic validation of multimedia product manuals, comprising the steps of:
- inputting a set of multimedia product manual documents and a document constraint specification that includes a target object declaration with ranges section and an if-otherwise document logical expression section, said document constraint specification specifying each of one or more documentation guidelines as one or more logical expressions specifying requirements that are satisfied by a document objects associated with said set of documents, wherein said logical expressions include quantifiers that define variables and their domain;
- extracting information from document objects associated with the set of documents;
- and
- evaluating logical expressions contained in the document constraint specification to determine whether the extracted information follows documentation guidelines.
A system for automatic validation of multimedia product manuals, comprising:
- an input device for inputting a set of multimedia product manual documents and a document constraint specification that includes an intermediate object declaration with ranges section and an if-otherwise document logical expression section, said document constraint specification specifying each of one or more documentation guidelines as one or more logical expressions specifying requirements that are satisfied by document objects associated with said set of documents, wherein said logical include quantifiers that define variables and their domain;
- an extractor for extracting information from the set of documents;
- and
- an evaluator for evaluating one or more logical expression contained in the document constraint specification to determine whether the extracted information follows documentation guidelines.
A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable on the machine to perform method steps for automatic validation of multimedia product manuals, comprising the method steps of:
- inputting a set of multimedia product manual documents and a document constraint specification that includes a counting object declaration with ranges section and an if-otherwise document logical expression section, said document constraint specification specifying each of one or more documentation guidelines as one or more logical expressions specifying requirements that are satisfied by document objects associated with said set of documents, wherein said logical expressions include quantifiers that define variables and their domain;
- extracting information from document objects associated with the set of documents;
- and
- evaluating logical expressions contained in the document constraint specification to determine whether the extracted information follows documentation guidelines.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.