Patent ID: 6502234
Filing Date: 2002-12-31
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
An apparatus comprising:at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; and a computer program residing in the memory and being executed by the at least one processor, the computer program including a wizard mechanism for guiding a developer through a target wizard creation process, the wizard mechanism comprising a wizard creator mechanism, the wizard creator mechanism responsive to the developer to build a target wizard by instantiating a new overall target wizard skeleton and adding one or more subwizards to the new overall target wizard, the new overall target wizard skeleton and the subwizards instantiated from a wizard framework, the wizard framework defining a plurality of classes used to create target wizards, wherein the created target wizard skeleton includes: i) a plurality of panel objects for guiding a user of the target wizard, the plurality of panel objects including at least one panel attribute; ii) at least one wizard object for each subwizard in the target wizard skeleton, the at least one wizard object for referencing other objects in the subwizard; iii) a wizard state object for referencing at least one wizard state attribute; iv) a wizard default object for referencing at least one wizard default attribute; and v) a wizard state controller object for defining and storing relationships between the at least one wizard state attribute; the at least one wizard default attribute, and the at least one wizard panel attribute.