System and method for interface display screen manipulation

A computer-implemented simulation generation method, comprising:

• during execution of a target application, capturing, by a computer processor, data corresponding to a displayed display screen of the target application;
• determining, by the processor, whether a portion of the displayed display screen to which a portion of the captured data corresponds satisfies at least one criterion by which the display screen is considered to match to any of a plurality of previously stored screen templates;
• and
• for the portion of the captured data, generating and storing, by the processor, a respective instantiation data structure referencing a screen template, the instantiation data structure being subsequently processable by the processor for instantiating the referenced screen template during playing of a simulation of the target application, wherein (a) the referenced screen template is one of the plurality of previously stored screen templates conditional upon that the determination is that the at least one criterion is satisfied and (b) the referenced screen template is not one of the plurality of previously stored screen templates and is generated based on the portion of the captured data if the determination is that the at least one criterion is not satisfied.

A computer-implemented display screen modification method, comprising:

• obtaining, by a computer processor, user-input of an instruction to modify a characteristic of a portion of a display screen;
• and
• responsive to the instruction, modifying, by the processor, a stored first screen template, wherein the first screen template is referenced by a plurality of stored instantiation data structures according to which the first screen template is instantiable for creation of a respective plurality of different user interface display screens in which the modification is reflected;
• wherein:
• the plurality of stored instantiation data structures includes a first instantiation data structure and a second instantiation data structure;
• and
• the processor is configured to:
• in response to a first application triggering event during execution of a computer program, the first application triggering event triggering a display of a first one of the user interface display screens:
• obtain the first instantiation data structure, which includes a pointer to the first screen template that identifies a first plurality of user interface graphical objects;
• process the first instantiation data structure, the processing of the first instantiation data structure including obtaining and instantiating the first screen template pointed to by the first instantiation data structure;
• and
• output in a display device the instantiated first screen template for the creation of one of the plurality of different user interface display screens;
• and
• in response to a second application triggering event during execution of the computer program, the second application triggering event triggering a display of a second one of the user interface display screens:
• obtain the second instantiation data structure, which includes a pointer to a second screen template that points to the first screen template and that identifies or references a second plurality of user interface graphical objects;
• process the second instantiation data structure, the processing of the second instantiation data structure including obtaining and instantiating the second screen template pointed to by the second instantiation data structure, the instantiation of the second screen template including instantiating the first screen template;
• and
• output in the display device the instantiated second screen template for the creation of another one of the plurality of different user interface display screens.