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EP1730630A1 - Context sensitive information management system and method - Google Patents

Context sensitive information management system and method

Info

Publication number
EP1730630A1
EP1730630A1 EP05729729A EP05729729A EP1730630A1 EP 1730630 A1 EP1730630 A1 EP 1730630A1 EP 05729729 A EP05729729 A EP 05729729A EP 05729729 A EP05729729 A EP 05729729A EP 1730630 A1 EP1730630 A1 EP 1730630A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
information
user
application
applications
contextual
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP05729729A
Other languages
German (de)
French (fr)
Inventor
Peter Lusty
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
TIS Software Ltd
Original Assignee
TIS Software Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by TIS Software Ltd filed Critical TIS Software Ltd
Publication of EP1730630A1 publication Critical patent/EP1730630A1/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F9/00—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units
    • G06F9/06—Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units using stored programs, i.e. using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
    • G06F9/44—Arrangements for executing specific programs
    • G06F9/451—Execution arrangements for user interfaces
    • G06F9/453—Help systems

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a context sensitive information management system and hi particular to a context sensitive information management system able to display mformation relating to a plurality of separate applications, and a corresponding method-
  • Business information management systems operating on computer networks are commonly used to allow business decisions and negotiations to be quickly and efficiently carried out.
  • Such business information management systems generally comprise a number of separate applications each having a main database accessible to and updatable by software running on a number of different computers limited by the network.
  • the different business information management applications making up the overall system allow access to different databases and allow their respective databases to be updated to take into account business decisions or actions made by the users.
  • a product application can allow access to a database of currently available products together with product specifications and product related information such as the number of articles of each product available in stock, delivery times for new product orders and current product prices.
  • an accounting application allows access to an accounts database of accounting information such as customer credit limits, current balances and past payment histories.
  • a product management application can be accessed by a user receiving an enquiry from a potential customer and the product cost, inventory and delivery time information accessed by the application can be used to quote a price and delivery time without any risk of customer dissatisfaction due to the quotation of an unrealistically high price or an unattainable delivery date, or the inadvertent agreement of price which is too low to be economically viable.
  • an account information application the user can confirm that the order can be taken from a customer without exceeding a customer credit limit or extending further credit to a customer aheady in arears.
  • Another advantage of such business information management systems is that they allow decision making by different users to be directly based on the information held in the various databases rather then relying on the judgement and memory of the individual user, so that greater consistency in business decision making can be achieved.
  • business management applications are arranged to respond to a user request to display particular information by also automatically displaying related items of information. These related items of information are selected when the application software is installed and are items of information which are expected to be likely to be required or significant together with the user requested information.
  • a product application may respond to a request for price information about a specific product by displaying the requested price information and simultaneously displaying inventory and delivery time information for that product even though this has not been specifically requested by the user.
  • the present invention is intended to overcome these problems, at least in part.
  • this invention provides a context sensitive information management system comprising a number of apphcations each able to display information in response to a user input to said application, and a contextual coprocessor, the contextual coprocessor being arranged to display further information different from said information in response to said user input, the further information being obtained from outside the contextual coprocessor and being selected by the contextual coprocessor based upon the application to which said user input was made and a current context definition.
  • this invention provides a context sensitive information management method for use in a system comprising a number of applications each able to display information in response to a user input and a contextual coprocessor and comprising the steps of; the contextual coprocessor storing a plurality of context definitions each defining further information located outside the contextual coprocessor to be displayed; the user making an input to an application; said application displaying information in response to the user input; the contextual coprocessor identifying a stored context definition corresponding to a current context definition; and the contextual processor obtaining and displaying the further information defined by said identified stored context definition.
  • Figure 1 shows an example of a display provided by a system according to the invention.
  • the present invention provides a context sensitive information management system comprising a number of information management apphcations together with a contextual coprocessor.
  • the contextual coprocessor is separate from the applications themselves.
  • the contextual coprocessor is an information management program arranged to operate in parallel with the information management applications accessible through the user terminal.
  • the contextual coprocessor program may operate on the user terminal itself or may operate remotely, for example on a server connected to the user terminal. If the contextual coprocessor operates on a server, it may conveniently be accessed by the user through a web browser.
  • the context is in general what the user is currently doing and the context definition is a definition of what is currently being done by the user which allows items of information relevant to the user to be identified.
  • the context definition is based upon user actions such as the applications currently open, any menus, tabs or other controls selected by the user and any other relevant parameters such as customer or product identities.
  • a context is defined for each application which can be accessed by the user terminal.
  • the contextual coprocessor monitors the information management applications opened and used by the user and maintains a record of the current context in which the user is employing the application currently in use.
  • the contextual coprocessor uses the current context of the application in use to select and display to the user items of information obtained from outside the contextual coprocessor which are expected to be relevant or useful to or potentially relevant or useful to the user when operating the current application in the current context.
  • the context sensitive information management system will be a system having multiple users each accessing the system through a separate terminal, hi this case each user will have a separate contextual coprocessor arranged to display information on their terminal based on the current context for the user.
  • FIG. 1 a typical display as provided to a user by the context sensitive information management system according to the invention is shown in figure 1.
  • the display includes a first region or window 1 controlled by the application currently being accessed by the user and a second region or window 2 controlled by the contextual coprocessor.
  • Region 1 generally contains a graphical interface useable by the user to request information from the application currently in use and one or more display regions where the information provided by the application in response to the request can be displayed.
  • the region 2 is used by the contextual coprocessor to display items of information which are expected to be potentially of relevance of interest to the user using the application currently in use in the context in which the application is being used as currently defined by the contextual coprocessor.
  • the region 2 may be used directly for the display of actual items of information which may be of interest or may identify types of information which may be of interest together with a graphical interface allowing the user to select items of information from those identified to be displayed or a combination of the two.
  • a graphical user interface is displayed in the form of a menu or button bar identifying a selection of types of information for display and arranged to display the information in response to the user selecting the relevant menu items or buttons.
  • the context is defined for each application seperately. Accordingly, the context may be defined using a definition including the identity of the application to which it is relevant. However, even if the context definition does not include the application identity the context definition must be associated in some way with the application to which it is relevant.
  • the definition of the current context in which the user is currently accessing the application will generally include the information request currently being made to the application by the user.
  • the contextual coprocessor is separate from the information management application the current context can also be defined by parameters which are not known to or accessible to the application itself.
  • the current context definition defined by the contextual coprocessor could include the parameter that the application currently being accessed was the product information application and that the information currently being requested was the price of a specific product.
  • the contextual coprocessor is not limited to defining the current context in terms of the user interaction with the product information application.
  • the contextual coprocessor context definition can include further parameters defining the current context which are not available from or known to the product information appHcation. For example, where a user has first opened a customer information application and accessed information regarding a particular customer and subsequently opened the product information application and requested the price of a specific product, the context defined by the contextual coprocessor can include the particular customer identity previously accessed.
  • the contextual coprocessor can then respond to the user request to the product information application for price information about a particular product in this context where there has been a preceding request for information about a particular customer by displaying as related information which may be of interest, not only related product information such as price, inventory and expected delivery times but also information related to the particular customer and product combination such as when an order for that product was last placed by that customer, the amount ordered, the price charged and any problems or queries resulting. Further, the contextual coprocessor may also display information relating to the particular customer but not related to the product, such as credit limits or past payment history.
  • This information is not available from or through the product information apphcation itself. However, this is not a problem because the contextual coprocessor is separate from the applications and so can access any desired information from any of the information apphcations such as a customer information application or an account information application without requiring these application to be linked directly to the product information application or opened or investigated by the user.
  • the current context for an information application currently in use can be as detailed as desired and can include as a parameter any information available to the user terminal and is not limited to information which is available through the information application in use, even though the current context is defined for the information application in use.
  • the parameters used by the contextual coprocessor to define the current context for an application in use can include the application currently in use, the information currently being requested and the history of applications accessed by the user in the past, the information requested from those applications and the information received in reply to these requests. Further, in most cases it will be possible for a user to have multiple different information apphcations open simultaneously with one application being the foreground application currently being used and the other applications running as background applications.
  • the context defined by the contextual coprocessor for the foreground application currently being used can include as parameters the identities of any previously opened applications open in the background and the previous or most recent operations carried out on or information received from any or of each of these background application when they were last used or previously used.
  • the contextual coprocessor can respond to the request for information about that product in this context where the product information application is open and in use in the foreground and the customer information application is open and displaying information about a particular customer in the background by displaying information relating to the product, the customer and to the customer in combination with the product as discussed above.
  • the contextual coprocessor could respond to a request for information about a particular customer from the customer information application in this context that the product information apphcation was opened as a background application displaying information relating to a particular product by displaying information relating to the customer and the product and to the customer in combination with the product.
  • the contextual coprocessor can be considered as defining a number of templates each corresponding to a particular context for a particular application and specifying items of information to be displayed in response to each possible information request for each defined context.
  • the contextual coprocessor identifies the current context for the application in use, identifies the information specified by the current context to be provided by the contextual coprocessor in response to the request and obtains and displays the specified information to the user in the region 2.
  • This information to be provided by the contextual coprocessor is independent from and different to the information provided by the information processing apphcation itself.
  • the user input is an information request and this is the main example of a user input discussed herein. However, other user inputs may be responded to. Examples of other user inputs include opening a new apphcation or changing a tab setting.
  • the contextual coprocessor may be arranged to compare the items of information which it should display in response to the most recent information request of user with the information which it displayed in response to the last information request of the user. If the information to be displayed is the same the contextual coprocessor may not again obtain the information but may simply maintain the display of the same information.
  • the advantage of this procedure is that this will reduce the number of information accessing operations carried out by the contextual coprocessor.
  • this has the disadvantage that the information displayed to the user by the contextual coprocessor may not be entirely up to date.
  • the contextual coprocessor may be arranged to compare the items of information to be displayed in response to the most recent user information request to the items of information which were displayed in response to the previous user information request and where the items of information are * the same the time which has elapsed since the items ' of information were last accessed can be compared to a threshold and the information re-accessed only if the length of time since the information was accessed exceeds the threshold.
  • the context may also be based upon the user identity or function. This may be done by storing defined contexts for each user or class of user and retrieving and using only the appropriate set of stored context definitions for each user.
  • the user identity may either be defined explicitly by using a user identifier such as log on ID for each user of the system, or implicitly by having a stored set of context definitions for each terminal able to access the system and assuming that the user for each terminal is always the same user or class of user.
  • the context definitions and the information to be displayed by the contextual coprocessor in each defined context may be centrally defined for all contextual coprocessors in the context sensitive information management system.
  • individual users should be able to define and save their individual user specific context definitions and specifications of the information to be displayed in response to each defined context for their respective contextual coprocessors so that each user can be presented with the information which is most useful and relevant to them when accessing the information management system.
  • the user inputs are referred to as user information requests.
  • the user inputs are not necessarily direct requests for specific items of information.
  • a user accessing an application could change a tab setting of the application or a user could open a new application.
  • These user actions do not directly request the display of specific items of information. However, they will generally result in different information being displayed to the user on the user terminal or are intermediate steps required to allow the user to access particular items of information. Accordingly, such user actions should be regarded as acting as user information requests as discussed herein.
  • the contextual coprocessor could be instructed to respond to the opening of the accounts information application in the context of the customer information apphcation being open in the background or having previously been opened to access a particular customer by displaying information relating to the account held by that customer, even though no specific information has been requested from the accounts information application.
  • the current context for each of the apphcations is different so that if a user moves between different applications, as each application becomes the foreground apphcation currently being accessed by the user the information displayed by the contextual coprocessor will change to be the information specified for display for the foreground apphcation in the current context for that application.
  • the current context and the information to be displayed by the contextual coprocessor in the current context is independently defined for each application. It is of course possible that so e of the information specified to be displayed by the contextual coprocessor will be the same.
  • the advantages of the present invention of having a contextual coprocessor separate from the apphcations themselves and defining contexts for different states of the applications and information to be displayed by the contextual coprocessor in response to user actions in these defined contexts for the different applications are that the context definitions and displayed information are not limited to parameters and information which can be accessed or handled by the applications themselves.
  • the contextual coprocessor can define the context in terms of any desired parameter regardless of whether or not the parameter is supported by the application and can display information derived from any source accessible to the contextual coprocessor through the information processing system as a whole and not just information accessible through the currently accessed application. For example, information may be obtained by the contextual coprocessor opening other applications and the relevant information being obtained from the opened applications by the contextual coprocessor.
  • a contextual coprocessor separate from the applications according to the present invention allows flexible user definition of what parameters are to be responded to by displaying that information without any changes to the applications themselves being necessary even when the definitions require the parameters responded to or the information displayed to include parameters or information not accessible by or supported by the apphcation in use at that time. Further, where alerts regarding significant events notified to the system are to be distributed to users through the system, the contextual coprocessor can be used to control which alerts are reported to each user.
  • events or changes in information are distributed to users by updating the relevant entries in the system database or databases so that the updated information will be retrieved by users in future.
  • some events may be significant enough that it is desirable that they should be immediately brought to the attention of users in the form of alerts or warnings. It is known to send such alerts to users of a business information system by sending the alert information to all users system or to a defined class or classes of users on the system.
  • alerts it would be possible for alerts to be forwarded to a user based only on the currently open foreground application and its current context.
  • the contextual coprocessor should use the current contexts of all open applications for the user including both foreground and background applications and forward the alert to the user if any of the application contexts specify that the alert should be reported. This will ensure that alerts are properly forwarded even when users are moving between multiple open applications of interest.
  • alerts are treated by the contextual coprocessor like any other item of information and are selected to be reported to a user based upon the current application context, with the exception that it is preferred that alerts relating to application contexts for applications currently open in the background are also reported.
  • An example of an alert would be a particular customer breaching their account credit limit. In general, this information would be entered into the relevant customer and or accounts databases and would then be accessible to users through the relevant information processing applications and will also automatically be reported to a user accessing information on that customer or orders by that customer in future by the users contextual coprocessor, when relevant. However, in order to ensure that further orders from the customer are not processed after they have reached their credit limit an alert identifying the customer and specifying that they have reached their credit limit can be sent out. This alert will then be forwarded by the contextual coprocessors only to users who currently have an information application open identifying that customer. For example users currently having an account information application or customer information application open identifying that customer or warehouse personnel with an order shipping application open identifying an order for that customer. Thus ensuring that these users are aware that the customer has reached their credit limit before accepting further orders or shipping goods, even if the processing of such orders or shipping preparation is aheady in progress.
  • contextual coprocessor In the present application the term contextual coprocessor is used. It is envisaged that in most applications this will be a functional application provided on a computer by suitable software.
  • contextual processor is not intended to require the use of a dedicated processor device.
  • the user terminal can conveniently be a computer such as a PC connected to a network. However this is not essential.
  • a computer such as a PC connected to a network.
  • this is not essential.
  • the examples above are not intended to be exhaustive and the scope of the present invention is as defined in the attached claims.

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  • Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
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  • Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
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Abstract

A context sensitive information management system and method for use in a system comprising a number of applications each able to display information in response to a user input and a contextual coprocessor. The method comprising the steps of; the contextual coprocessor storing a plurality of context definitions each defining information to be displayed; the user making an input to an application; said application displaying information in response to the user input; the contextual coprocessor identifying a stored context definition corresponding to a current context definition; and the contextual processor displaying the information defined by said identified stored context definition.

Description

Context Sensitive Information Management System and Method
This invention relates to a context sensitive information management system and hi particular to a context sensitive information management system able to display mformation relating to a plurality of separate applications, and a corresponding method-
Business information management systems operating on computer networks are commonly used to allow business decisions and negotiations to be quickly and efficiently carried out. Such business information management systems generally comprise a number of separate applications each having a main database accessible to and updatable by software running on a number of different computers limited by the network. The different business information management applications making up the overall system allow access to different databases and allow their respective databases to be updated to take into account business decisions or actions made by the users.
For example, a product application can allow access to a database of currently available products together with product specifications and product related information such as the number of articles of each product available in stock, delivery times for new product orders and current product prices. Similarly, an accounting application allows access to an accounts database of accounting information such as customer credit limits, current balances and past payment histories.
Thus the specific management functions of the system are carried out by separate software applications which are opened and used as required by users.
The use of such business information management system allows users to carry out real time negotiation on business issues. For example, a product management application can be accessed by a user receiving an enquiry from a potential customer and the product cost, inventory and delivery time information accessed by the application can be used to quote a price and delivery time without any risk of customer dissatisfaction due to the quotation of an unrealistically high price or an unattainable delivery date, or the inadvertent agreement of price which is too low to be economically viable. Similarly, by accessing an account information application the user can confirm that the order can be taken from a customer without exceeding a customer credit limit or extending further credit to a customer aheady in arears.
Another advantage of such business information management systems is that they allow decision making by different users to be directly based on the information held in the various databases rather then relying on the judgement and memory of the individual user, so that greater consistency in business decision making can be achieved.
In practice a problem which is encountered in using business information management systems is that when a user is using one application it may be necessary to obtain information which is accessed through another application.
Of course, it is always possible for a user using one application and requiring information accessed through a another application to open the necessary other application and find the necessary information using the other application. However, the time taken to do this may well be too long to be acceptable, in particularly while a potential customer is on the telephone waiting for an answer. Further, a procedure requiring a user to recognise that further information is required and available through another application, to identify the other application and then open and use the other application to find the information requires a high level of user understanding and knowledge of the business information management system and requires the user to have a high level of initiative in seeking the desired information.
in order to allow users to quickly find required information many business management applications are arranged to respond to a user request to display particular information by also automatically displaying related items of information. These related items of information are selected when the application software is installed and are items of information which are expected to be likely to be required or significant together with the user requested information. For example a product application may respond to a request for price information about a specific product by displaying the requested price information and simultaneously displaying inventory and delivery time information for that product even though this has not been specifically requested by the user.
In theory it would be possible to link two separate applications so that one application can obtain information from the other application and display this information to the user. However, such linking together of separate software applications is difficult and expensive to achieve, because in practise there may be fundamental differences in the way in which separate applications operate. Further, in practice such an approach of interlinking separate apphcations can only be carried out for a small number of functions in a small number of applications, because the interconnections of the different applications greatly increases the complexity of the business information management system as a whole and reduces the stability of the system. If it is attempted to provide such links for a large number of functions in numerous applications the complexity of the business information management system quickly become so great that reliable operation of the system can no longer be guaranteed and the system stability is compromised.
Further, if it is desired to increase the range of information which can be accessed and displayed by an application to include new types of information it is necessary to rewrite the application so that the application is able to directly access and display the required mformation. However, such rewriting of an application to extend it to include new types of information is time consuming and expensive.
The present invention is intended to overcome these problems, at least in part.
In a first aspect, this invention provides a context sensitive information management system comprising a number of apphcations each able to display information in response to a user input to said application, and a contextual coprocessor, the contextual coprocessor being arranged to display further information different from said information in response to said user input, the further information being obtained from outside the contextual coprocessor and being selected by the contextual coprocessor based upon the application to which said user input was made and a current context definition. _h a second aspect, this invention provides a context sensitive information management method for use in a system comprising a number of applications each able to display information in response to a user input and a contextual coprocessor and comprising the steps of; the contextual coprocessor storing a plurality of context definitions each defining further information located outside the contextual coprocessor to be displayed; the user making an input to an application; said application displaying information in response to the user input; the contextual coprocessor identifying a stored context definition corresponding to a current context definition; and the contextual processor obtaining and displaying the further information defined by said identified stored context definition.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying diagramatic figure, in which:
Figure 1 shows an example of a display provided by a system according to the invention.
The present invention provides a context sensitive information management system comprising a number of information management apphcations together with a contextual coprocessor. The contextual coprocessor is separate from the applications themselves.
The contextual coprocessor is an information management program arranged to operate in parallel with the information management applications accessible through the user terminal.
The contextual coprocessor program may operate on the user terminal itself or may operate remotely, for example on a server connected to the user terminal. If the contextual coprocessor operates on a server, it may conveniently be accessed by the user through a web browser. The context is in general what the user is currently doing and the context definition is a definition of what is currently being done by the user which allows items of information relevant to the user to be identified. The context definition is based upon user actions such as the applications currently open, any menus, tabs or other controls selected by the user and any other relevant parameters such as customer or product identities. A context is defined for each application which can be accessed by the user terminal.
The contextual coprocessor monitors the information management applications opened and used by the user and maintains a record of the current context in which the user is employing the application currently in use.
The contextual coprocessor then uses the current context of the application in use to select and display to the user items of information obtained from outside the contextual coprocessor which are expected to be relevant or useful to or potentially relevant or useful to the user when operating the current application in the current context.
In general the context sensitive information management system according to the invention will be a system having multiple users each accessing the system through a separate terminal, hi this case each user will have a separate contextual coprocessor arranged to display information on their terminal based on the current context for the user.
In order allow the invention to be better understood a typical display as provided to a user by the context sensitive information management system according to the invention is shown in figure 1. The display includes a first region or window 1 controlled by the application currently being accessed by the user and a second region or window 2 controlled by the contextual coprocessor. Region 1 generally contains a graphical interface useable by the user to request information from the application currently in use and one or more display regions where the information provided by the application in response to the request can be displayed. The region 2 is used by the contextual coprocessor to display items of information which are expected to be potentially of relevance of interest to the user using the application currently in use in the context in which the application is being used as currently defined by the contextual coprocessor. The region 2 may be used directly for the display of actual items of information which may be of interest or may identify types of information which may be of interest together with a graphical interface allowing the user to select items of information from those identified to be displayed or a combination of the two. Typically such a graphical user interface is displayed in the form of a menu or button bar identifying a selection of types of information for display and arranged to display the information in response to the user selecting the relevant menu items or buttons.
The context is defined for each application seperately. Accordingly, the context may be defined using a definition including the identity of the application to which it is relevant. However, even if the context definition does not include the application identity the context definition must be associated in some way with the application to which it is relevant.
The definition of the current context in which the user is currently accessing the application will generally include the information request currently being made to the application by the user. However, because the contextual coprocessor is separate from the information management application the current context can also be defined by parameters which are not known to or accessible to the application itself.
For example, where a user is accessing a product information application and the user requests cost information for a specific product the current context definition defined by the contextual coprocessor could include the parameter that the application currently being accessed was the product information application and that the information currently being requested was the price of a specific product. However, since the contextual coprocessor is separate from the product information application currently being accessed, the contextual coprocessor is not limited to defining the current context in terms of the user interaction with the product information application. The contextual coprocessor context definition can include further parameters defining the current context which are not available from or known to the product information appHcation. For example, where a user has first opened a customer information application and accessed information regarding a particular customer and subsequently opened the product information application and requested the price of a specific product, the context defined by the contextual coprocessor can include the particular customer identity previously accessed.
The contextual coprocessor can then respond to the user request to the product information application for price information about a particular product in this context where there has been a preceding request for information about a particular customer by displaying as related information which may be of interest, not only related product information such as price, inventory and expected delivery times but also information related to the particular customer and product combination such as when an order for that product was last placed by that customer, the amount ordered, the price charged and any problems or queries resulting. Further, the contextual coprocessor may also display information relating to the particular customer but not related to the product, such as credit limits or past payment history.
This information is not available from or through the product information apphcation itself. However, this is not a problem because the contextual coprocessor is separate from the applications and so can access any desired information from any of the information apphcations such as a customer information application or an account information application without requiring these application to be linked directly to the product information application or opened or investigated by the user.
The current context for an information application currently in use can be as detailed as desired and can include as a parameter any information available to the user terminal and is not limited to information which is available through the information application in use, even though the current context is defined for the information application in use.
The parameters used by the contextual coprocessor to define the current context for an application in use can include the application currently in use, the information currently being requested and the history of applications accessed by the user in the past, the information requested from those applications and the information received in reply to these requests. Further, in most cases it will be possible for a user to have multiple different information apphcations open simultaneously with one application being the foreground application currently being used and the other applications running as background applications. When this is the case the context defined by the contextual coprocessor for the foreground application currently being used and can include as parameters the identities of any previously opened applications open in the background and the previous or most recent operations carried out on or information received from any or of each of these background application when they were last used or previously used.
For example, where a user first opens and uses a customer information application to request information about a particular customer and subsequently opens a product information application and requests information about a particular product, leaving the customer information application running in the background, the contextual coprocessor can respond to the request for information about that product in this context where the product information application is open and in use in the foreground and the customer information application is open and displaying information about a particular customer in the background by displaying information relating to the product, the customer and to the customer in combination with the product as discussed above.
Further, the reverse may also apply. Where the product information application was used and then left open in the background while the customer information application was used, the contextual coprocessor could respond to a request for information about a particular customer from the customer information application in this context that the product information apphcation was opened as a background application displaying information relating to a particular product by displaying information relating to the customer and the product and to the customer in combination with the product.
It should be understood that the information displayed in these two cases is not necessarily the same.
The contextual coprocessor can be considered as defining a number of templates each corresponding to a particular context for a particular application and specifying items of information to be displayed in response to each possible information request for each defined context.
Each time the user makes an input to an information processing application the contextual coprocessor identifies the current context for the application in use, identifies the information specified by the current context to be provided by the contextual coprocessor in response to the request and obtains and displays the specified information to the user in the region 2. This information to be provided by the contextual coprocessor is independent from and different to the information provided by the information processing apphcation itself. Most commonly the user input is an information request and this is the main example of a user input discussed herein. However, other user inputs may be responded to. Examples of other user inputs include opening a new apphcation or changing a tab setting.
Optionally the contextual coprocessor may be arranged to compare the items of information which it should display in response to the most recent information request of user with the information which it displayed in response to the last information request of the user. If the information to be displayed is the same the contextual coprocessor may not again obtain the information but may simply maintain the display of the same information. The advantage of this procedure is that this will reduce the number of information accessing operations carried out by the contextual coprocessor. However, this has the disadvantage that the information displayed to the user by the contextual coprocessor may not be entirely up to date. Accordingly, to avoid this difficulty, the contextual coprocessor may be arranged to compare the items of information to be displayed in response to the most recent user information request to the items of information which were displayed in response to the previous user information request and where the items of information are * the same the time which has elapsed since the items' of information were last accessed can be compared to a threshold and the information re-accessed only if the length of time since the information was accessed exceeds the threshold.
In addition to current and past user information requests and the foreground and background information management applications accessed by the user there are other parameters which can also be used to define the context. For example, in addition to actual information requests, user defined settings and parameters for the business information applications can also be used to define the context. For example, the tabs currently open or menu items selected in an open application to control the operation of that apphcation can be taken into account by the contextual coprocessor in defining the context.
The context may also be based upon the user identity or function. This may be done by storing defined contexts for each user or class of user and retrieving and using only the appropriate set of stored context definitions for each user. The user identity may either be defined explicitly by using a user identifier such as log on ID for each user of the system, or implicitly by having a stored set of context definitions for each terminal able to access the system and assuming that the user for each terminal is always the same user or class of user.
It will be understood that different users or classes of user in an organisation may be interested in different aspects of information held on the system regarding the activities of the business, such as its customers and products or services. For example, personnel responding to customer telephone orders may have different priorities and interests to accounts staff investigating late paying customers.
The potential number of contexts which can be defined for any particular user information enquiry are very large. Potentially, for each application accessible by the system every possible value of every parameter which can be accessed by the contextual coprocessor could define a different context. However, in order to define a context only those parameters which are of interest need to be specified, the contextual coprocessor can ignore any undefined parameters which are not regarded as being significant in denning the contexts for a particular apphcation or user information request within that apphcation.
It is possible for the context definitions and the information to be displayed by the contextual coprocessor in each defined context to be centrally defined for all contextual coprocessors in the context sensitive information management system. However, it is preferred that individual users should be able to define and save their individual user specific context definitions and specifications of the information to be displayed in response to each defined context for their respective contextual coprocessors so that each user can be presented with the information which is most useful and relevant to them when accessing the information management system.
In this description the user inputs are referred to as user information requests. However, the user inputs are not necessarily direct requests for specific items of information. For example, a user accessing an application could change a tab setting of the application or a user could open a new application. These user actions do not directly request the display of specific items of information. However, they will generally result in different information being displayed to the user on the user terminal or are intermediate steps required to allow the user to access particular items of information. Accordingly, such user actions should be regarded as acting as user information requests as discussed herein.
For example, in the examples discussed above where the user has opened a customer information application and requested information on a particular customer and then opened a product information application to access information on a particular product, if the user then opens an accounts information application the contextual coprocessor could be instructed to respond to the opening of the accounts information application in the context of the customer information apphcation being open in the background or having previously been opened to access a particular customer by displaying information relating to the account held by that customer, even though no specific information has been requested from the accounts information application.
It should be understood from the above that where multiple applications are open on a terminal the current context for each of the apphcations is different so that if a user moves between different applications, as each application becomes the foreground apphcation currently being accessed by the user the information displayed by the contextual coprocessor will change to be the information specified for display for the foreground apphcation in the current context for that application. By different it is meant that the current context and the information to be displayed by the contextual coprocessor in the current context is independently defined for each application. It is of course possible that so e of the information specified to be displayed by the contextual coprocessor will be the same.
The advantages of the present invention of having a contextual coprocessor separate from the apphcations themselves and defining contexts for different states of the applications and information to be displayed by the contextual coprocessor in response to user actions in these defined contexts for the different applications are that the context definitions and displayed information are not limited to parameters and information which can be accessed or handled by the applications themselves. The contextual coprocessor can define the context in terms of any desired parameter regardless of whether or not the parameter is supported by the application and can display information derived from any source accessible to the contextual coprocessor through the information processing system as a whole and not just information accessible through the currently accessed application. For example, information may be obtained by the contextual coprocessor opening other applications and the relevant information being obtained from the opened applications by the contextual coprocessor.
This allows a user information request in a currently accessed information processing application to be responded to by displaying information potentially of interest from another application with the selection process being based upon current and past user actions in relation to any of the current application, the other application acting as the information source or further applications without the enormous and generally prohibitive complexity penalties of directly interconnecting all of the applications themselves.
Further, the use of a contextual coprocessor separate from the applications according to the present invention allows flexible user definition of what parameters are to be responded to by displaying that information without any changes to the applications themselves being necessary even when the definitions require the parameters responded to or the information displayed to include parameters or information not accessible by or supported by the apphcation in use at that time. Further, where alerts regarding significant events notified to the system are to be distributed to users through the system, the contextual coprocessor can be used to control which alerts are reported to each user.
In general, in information management systems, events or changes in information, such as product inventory, client addresses, product prices etc., are distributed to users by updating the relevant entries in the system database or databases so that the updated information will be retrieved by users in future. However, some events may be significant enough that it is desirable that they should be immediately brought to the attention of users in the form of alerts or warnings. It is known to send such alerts to users of a business information system by sending the alert information to all users system or to a defined class or classes of users on the system.
This often results in the problem that users are presented with large numbers of alerts and that most of the alerts received by any user are not relevant to that user. This not only results in reduced efficiency as users continually have to review and delete or cancel irrelevant alerts but also tends to cause the problem that users assume that alerts will probably be irrelevant and delete or cancel them without properly considering their significance.
These problems can be overcome by using the contexts of the applications currently open on a user terminal to determine whether alerts should be forwarded to a user or not. In order to do this, in addition to defining information to be displayed automatically to a user the context definitions will also define what alerts should be forwarded to the user.
It would be possible for alerts to be forwarded to a user based only on the currently open foreground application and its current context. However, in order to ensure that all relevant alerts are forwarded to each user it is preferred that the contextual coprocessor should use the current contexts of all open applications for the user including both foreground and background applications and forward the alert to the user if any of the application contexts specify that the alert should be reported. This will ensure that alerts are properly forwarded even when users are moving between multiple open applications of interest. Thus, alerts are treated by the contextual coprocessor like any other item of information and are selected to be reported to a user based upon the current application context, with the exception that it is preferred that alerts relating to application contexts for applications currently open in the background are also reported.
This ensures that all relevant alerts are forwarded to each user without large numbers of irrelevant alerts being reported to each user.
An example of an alert would be a particular customer breaching their account credit limit. In general, this information would be entered into the relevant customer and or accounts databases and would then be accessible to users through the relevant information processing applications and will also automatically be reported to a user accessing information on that customer or orders by that customer in future by the users contextual coprocessor, when relevant. However, in order to ensure that further orders from the customer are not processed after they have reached their credit limit an alert identifying the customer and specifying that they have reached their credit limit can be sent out. This alert will then be forwarded by the contextual coprocessors only to users who currently have an information application open identifying that customer. For example users currently having an account information application or customer information application open identifying that customer or warehouse personnel with an order shipping application open identifying an order for that customer. Thus ensuring that these users are aware that the customer has reached their credit limit before accepting further orders or shipping goods, even if the processing of such orders or shipping preparation is aheady in progress.
In the present application the term contextual coprocessor is used. It is envisaged that in most applications this will be a functional application provided on a computer by suitable software. The term contextual processor is not intended to require the use of a dedicated processor device.
The user terminal can conveniently be a computer such as a PC connected to a network. However this is not essential. The examples above are not intended to be exhaustive and the scope of the present invention is as defined in the attached claims.

Claims

Claims
1. A context sensitive information management system comprising a number of apphcations each able to display mformation in response to a user input to said application, and a contextual coprocessor, the contextual coprocessor being arranged to display further information different from said information in response to said user input, the further information being obtained from outside the contextual coprocessor and being selected by the contextual coprocessor based upon the apphcation to which said user input was made and a current context definition.
2. A system according to claim 1, in which the further information is obtained from one of said number of applications.
3. A system according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the further information is not obtained from said application.
4. A system accordingly to any one of claims 1 to 3, and comprising a plurality of applications each able to display information.
5. A system according to claim 4, in which the current context definition is specific to said application.
6. A system according to any preceding claim, in which the system has a plurality of users and the current context definition is specific to a user.
7. A system according to claim 4, or either of claims 5 or 6 when dependent on claim 4, in which the current context definition includes the identity of other apphcations which are currently open.
8. A system according to claim 7, in which the current context definition includes the current status of the other open applications.
9. A system according to any preceding claim, in which the current context definition includes previous user actions.
10. A system according to claim 9 when dependent on claim 4, in which the previous user actions include information requested by the user from other applications.
11. A context sensitive information management method for use in a system comprising a number of applications each able to display information in response to a user input and a contextual coprocessor and comprising the steps of; the contextual coprocessor storing a plurality of context definitions each defining further information located outside the contextual coprocessor to be displayed; the user making an input to an application; said application displaying information in response to the user input; the contextual coprocessor identifying a stored context definition corresponding to a current context definition; and the contextual processor displaying the information defined by said identified stored context definition.
12. A method according to claim 11, in which the further information is obtained from one of said number of applications.
13. A method according to claim 11 , in which the further information is not obtained from said application.
14. A method accordingly to any one of claims 11 to 13, in which the system comprises a plurality of applications each able to display information.
15. A method according to claim 14, in which the current context definition is specific to said apphcation.
16. A method according to any one of claims 11 to 15, in which the system has a plurality of users and the current context definition is specific to a user.
17. A method according to claim 14, or either of claims 15 or 16 when dependent on claim 14, in which the current context definition includes the identify of other applications which are currently open.
18. A method according to claim 17, in which the current context definition includes the current status of the other open applications.
19. A method according to any one of claims 11 to 18, in which the current context definition includes previous user actions.
20. A method according to claim 19 when dependent on claim 14, in which the previous user actions include information requested by the user from other applications.
21. A computer program arranged to cause a computer to carry out a method according to any one of claims 11 to 20.
1/1
EP05729729A 2004-03-31 2005-03-30 Context sensitive information management system and method Withdrawn EP1730630A1 (en)

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US8042151B2 (en) 2005-12-20 2011-10-18 Microsoft Corporation Application context based access control
US7996338B2 (en) 2008-06-27 2011-08-09 Mircrosoft Corporation Combining predictive models of forgetting, relevance, and cost of interruption to guide automated reminding

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US5179654C1 (en) * 1988-07-20 2001-05-08 Ibm Help provision in a data processing system
US5933140A (en) * 1997-06-30 1999-08-03 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Child window containing context-based help and a miniaturized web page
US7886227B2 (en) * 2002-01-03 2011-02-08 International Business Machines Corporation Cross-environment context-sensitive help files
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