GB2574797A

GB2574797A - A method of operating a computer device

Info

Publication number: GB2574797A
Application number: GB201808842A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Doody Ashley; Strudwick Simon
Original assignee: Personal Group Holdings PLC
Current assignee: Personal Group Holdings PLC
Priority date: 2018-05-30
Filing date: 2018-05-30
Publication date: 2019-12-25
Also published as: EP3803582A1; WO2019229408A1; GB201808842D0

Abstract

A method and program for a computer wherein executable code is downloaded and comprises two portions. Running the first portion allows a user to enter login data 14, wherein the user is linked to a user group. Data is downloaded which is dependent on the user group and includes variables relating to the characteristics of sectors of a display screen, including display characteristics and actions resulting from selection by the user of said display sectors. Running the second portion includes using the display characteristics to display the display sectors and executing the actions in response to selection of the sectors by a user. The data may be compiled from interrogation of a database dependent on the user group of the user. The data may comprise a database stored on the computer. An icon associated with the executable code and selectable by the user to activate the executable code may be changed as part of executing the code.

Description

A Method of Operating a Computer Device

The present invention relates a method of operating a computer device and relates particularly, but not exclusively, to a method of running an application on a handheld computer device .

The use of computer programs or applications on computer devices, especially handheld computer devices, is well-known. The operation of the application is controlled by an operating system and this in turn is controlled by, that is rules are set by, the owners of the operating system.

It is desirable to create bespoke applications for customers but it can often be the case that where different customers require applications providing similar functions the majority of the code in different bespoke applications is the same in the way that it works. However, creating bespoke applications for multiple customers requires significant resources both in the creation and the updating of the applications. Although the duplication of the code across the different applications saves time each one must be adapted to meet the requirements of the different customers and if a small change or bug fix is required in some part of the code which is common to all of the applications, each application must be changed and updated. Furthermore, if the operating system is changed (which is outside of the control of the writer of the applications) it may cause the applications to stop working and whatever fix resolves this problem must be applied to all of the applications in that group.

For some operating systems, which rely on downloading applications from a centralised and controlled download location and commonly referred to as a store, rules are applied which, for example, prevent multiple applications with substantially the same code being listed together. This makes it impossible to use the same base application and changing it to be bespoke for different customers.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention seek to overcome or alleviate the above described disadvantages of the prior art.

According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating a computer device running an operating system and having a display screen associated with said computer device, comprising the steps :

downloading executable code comprising a first executable code portion and a second executable code portion;

running said first executable code portion including code to allow a user to enter login data, said data linking said user to a group of users;

downloading data associated with said executable code, said data dependent on said user group and including variables relating to the characteristics of sectors of a display screen associated with said computer device including display characteristics and actions resulting from selection by the user of said display sectors; and running said second executable code portion including code to use said display characteristics to display said display sectors on said display screen and executing said actions in response to selection of said display sectors by said user.

By creating an application which utilises the method set out above, the advantage is provided that a single application can be automatically made bespoke for a user dependent on the user group they are part of. As a result, what appears to the user to be different applications which are bespoke to their user group (for example to their employer) is a single application. Therefore, it is only necessary to update one application, instead of all of the applications in a group of bespoke applications. Also, where a restriction is put on the number of similar applications that can be offered for a particular operating system, this problem is removed. For example, if an online store limits the number of application with substantially the same code that can be offered for download from its central location, this single application can be downloaded and as soon as a login event has taken place the application is transformed into a bespoke application specific to that user group. Furthermore, because the application is made bespoke by downloading additional data, rather than simply switching functions on and off, additional security is provided since it is not possible to hack into the application and switch variables on and off giving a user access to areas they are not intended to access. The determination of whether a variable is available to a user is stored and held separately on a server remote from direct user access.

In a preferred embodiment the data comprises a file compiled from interrogation of a database dependent upon said group of users said user is linked to.

In another preferred embodiment the data comprises at least one database stored on said computer device.

The method may further comprise changing an icon displayed on said display device, associated with said executable code said icon used by a user to select activation of said executable code .

By changing the icon, the application appears to have been transformed into a new application thereby creating an application which is bespoke to the user group.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program for operating a computer device running an operating system and having a display screen associated with said computer device, the computer program comprising: a first executable code portion including code to allow a user to enter login data, said data linking said user to a group of users and for downloading data associated with said executable code, said data dependent on said user group and including variables relating to the characteristics of sectors of a display screen associated with said computer device including display characteristics and actions resulting from selection by the user of said display sectors; and a second executable code portion including code to use said display characteristics to display said display sectors on said display screen and executing said actions in response to selection of said display sectors by said user.

The data may comprise a file compiled from interrogation of a database dependent upon said group of users said user is linked to.

The computer program may further comprise further comprising a third executable code portion for changing an icon displayed on said display device, associated with said executable code said icon used by a user to select activation of said executable code.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, and not in any limitative sense with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the steps undertaken in an initial login to an application utilising the method of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of the steps undertaken in subsequent login operations to the application utilising the method of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a schematic representation of the steps undertaken in gathering data which will configure the display device using the application utilising the method of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a schematic representation of the steps undertaken to display information on the screen using the data gathered in the steps of figure 3;

Figures 5 to 9 are schematic representations of the steps undertaken in the application utilising the method of the present invention upon selection of an item displayed on the display device; and

Figures 10 to 12 are examples of screen displays taken from a display device utilising the method of the present invention.

Referring initially to figure 1, the present invention is a method of operating a computer device by running an application, most typically, on a handheld computer device such as a smartphone or tablet type device. Such devices are wellknown to the skilled person and typically include a power supply, data processors, locally housed data storage, data transfer devices for communicating with other remotely located computer devices (servers), a display screen and a user input device. Most commonly in handheld computer devices the display screen and user input device are combined by utilising a touchscreen. The computer device runs an operating system and in smart phone and tablet devices this is most typically one of Android®, iOS® or Windows® provided by Google®, Apple® and Microsoft® respectively.

The first stage in the method of the present invention is to download the application from the application store that is applicable to the operating system being run on the computer device in guestion. This application comprises executable code which can be thought of as being divided into two portions. The first portion of the executable code is used during an initial login phase. Once the application has been downloaded and icon is displayed on the screen 12 of the computer device, an example of this is shown in figure 10a. Selection of this icon by touching the screen where the icon is displayed begins running the executable code. If it is the first time the application has been run (or if the user has been logged out after a previous running of the application) then an initial login screen is displayed (see figure 10b) and a user can enter their login details, this step is indicated at 14 on figure 1 and is typical of login sequences where a username (typically a previously registered email address) is entered along with a password. This data is communicated from the computer device to a server which validates the login (step 16) and identifies the user as being a member of a group of users. As an example, the user can be an employee and the group can be some or all of the employees of a particular employer. In this instance, the client referred to in step 16 on figure 1 is the employer who is providing the application for the benefit of their employees.

At step 18 the username information is stored locally on the computer device along with other associated information including the group of users that the user belongs to. Once the user group has been identified the icon 10 can be changed to represent the group of users. For example, where the group of users are employees the icon can be changed to the logo of the company that is the employer. In iOS the icons relating to all of the user groups are stored within the application and the new icon is selected once the group to which the user is allocated has been identified. However, this is not possible for all operating systems.

Before the application is able to run the next stage undertaken is for data associated with the executable code of the application to be downloaded. This data is dependent upon the user group which the user is a member of and includes variables relating to the characteristics of how the application will appear on screen to the user. The purpose of this data is to allow the application to be made to be bespoke to the user group. That is, for example, the user is an employee and the group is an employer, to bring the application in line with the employer company's branding and also to vary the content of the application displayed on screen to specific to the employer. This is, for example, access to benefits and information offered by the employer to their employees and providing an application to run on a handheld device is a convenient and controlled way to provide that access. It is also the case that each employer may have multiple groups which have access to different information within the application. For example, senior managers may be provided with access to a different selection of options to other employees or the arrangement and order in which options are displayed on the screen may vary for different groups of users within the same organisation. This data retrieval step is illustrated at 22 in figure 1 and is explained in further detail below with additional reference to figure 3.

Once the data associated with the executable code and associated with the user group has been downloaded the second portion of the executable code can be run and a so-called home screen can be displayed on the display device. This step is illustrated in figure 1 at 24 and will be explained in further detail below with reference to figure 4. Examples of the home screens are shown in figures lOd, lOe and lOf.

The above description relating to figure 1 is the example of a user's first login. Subseguent logins are illustrated in figure 2. The user selects the icon (now changed to the logo of their employer or some other identify different from that illustrated at 10 on figure 10a) on the screen of their device and this opens the application at step 26. The next step is for the application to determine the last time that the data associated with the user group has been synchronised at step 28.

By comparing this date and time to the current date and time it can be determined how long the period since the last synchronisation took place and if this is more than a predetermined time (indicated as X in step 30) and if the computer device has a data connection to the server then the data synchronisation step 22 (common with that in figure 1) takes place. If the computer device does not have a data connection to the server then the application runs using the existing data and the synchronisation will take place when a data connection is restored. However, if the time since the last synchronisation is less than the time period X then no synchronisation need take place and the second portion of the executable code can run to display the home screen (this also being common with this step, 24, in figure 1).

With reference to figure 3, the steps laid out therein are an expansion are the step 22 seen in both figures 1 and 2. These steps can be summarised as the gathering of the data associated with the group of users and compiling it ready for download to the computer device. This gathering of data can take place between two servers or two portions of a server where a first server communicates with the user's computer device and also communicates with the second server on which the data which is to be communicated is being stored. Initially, at step 32 the user's information, that is the group to which the user has been signed, is used by the first server. At step 34 the process of configuring the data begins.

The data, once transferred to the computer device, is stored as a series of related databases containing the data associated with that user group and that user. The database includes in a pair of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) file which are referred to as the Global CSS file and the Client CSS file. The Global CSS file contains the basic structure for the styling of the application irrespective of the client (user group/employer) that the user belongs to. The client CSS file contains data which is bespoke to that client (user group/employer) and this data in the Client CSS file overrides any variables stored in the Global CSS file when the application runs. The CSS files contain the data required to style the onscreen elements. The data, the application logic, the user interface HTML and the CSS files are put together at runtime to create the user interface and create the actions associated with those interface elements. The CSS is the visual style applied to the user interface, which could be something as small as changing an element colour to larger things such as repositioning and creating animations.

The database is populated in a series of steps listed as steps 36 to 48. The other data which is retrieved in the steps includes getting Benefit Zones, Benefit Products, Retailers, Retail Products, Retail Categories, eVouchers and Reloadable Cards. Once all the data has been gathered and created into the database it is downloaded (at step 50) to the computer device. At step 52 the version of the database is checked and if the version has changed (step 54) then the client colours are applied to the Client CSS file in the database at step 56. If the version has not changed, as checked at step 54, a further check to determine if colours have changed (at step 58) even though the database file as not changed the updated colours are applied to the Client CSS file. After the colour change at step 56 the old Client CSS file is removed from display (step 60) and the new client CSS file is displayed at step 62. Then at step 64 the current time and date is stored as the last synchronisation time and date. This completes step 22 and the application is now ready to display the home screen.

With further reference to figure 4, the database can be divided into data which relates to Zones and the data which relates to Products. Both the Zones and Products are displayed on the screen of the computer device and these can be selected by touching the appropriate portion of the screen. In other words, the Zones and Products can be regarded as tiles or buttons displayed on the screen which user can select by touching the screen and from that selection an action will result. The action from the selection of a Zone is to display a screen which contains further selectable Products, whereas, selection of a Product produces any of several further actions. The tiles are sectors of the display screen and the characteristics of these sectors are stored in, and as a result controlled by, the data in the CSS files.

The first stage of generating the home screen is to query the local database (step 66) to determine which Zones are visible. Similarly, the database is queried to determine which Products are visible on the home screen. At step 70 these results are combined to form a single list of tiles which are to be displayed on the home screen and the order by which the tiles will be displayed is sorted at step 72. As part of the data stored in the databases for the Zones and Products various data are included such as associated icons, text and actions which result from the selection of that tile. This data is combined with the display data from the CSS files (at step 74) to create a tile which is combined with other tiles for each of the Zones and Products to be displayed and this is then rendered and displayed on the screen of the computer device as the home screen. Figures lOd, lOe and lOf are three examples of home screens each having six tiles. The number and size of the tiles can be varied but six is a convenient number for the screen on a handheld device.

Now with reference to figure 5, a user selects a tile, most typically by touching the portion of the screen on which the tile is displayed. At step 76 it is first determined whether the tile that has been selected is a Zone tile. If the tile is a Zone tile then the application navigates to a zone screen at step 78 and this process is explained in more detail below with further reference to figure 6. If the selected tile is not a Zone tile then a further test at step 80 is undertaken to determine whether the tile is a Retail (or Cinema) tile. If a Retail tile has been selected then the application navigates to a retail screen at step 82. The action resulting from the selection of a Retail tile is to cause the application to link to an external server to display retailer content allowing the user to make purchases. Typically, this is in the form of a website and therefore what the application is displaying based on HTML data. This may be a fully external website, as run by the retailer, or may be a partially external website that is run by the organisation providing the application thereby providing and controlling discounts to the user. However, either way the information displayed on the screen is downloaded from an server external to the computer device.

If the tile selected is not for Retail or Cinema the next test, at step 84, is to determine whether the tile has a product destination which is an action run at step 86 which is a link to an external website with Single Sign-on (SSO) providing immediate access for the user to that website. If the selected tile is not a zone (as tested at step 76) and is not for Retail (as tested at step 80) and is not a product destination (as tested at step 84) then the tile must represent a product detail screen and the application navigates accordingly at step 88 which is shown in further detail in figures 8 and 9.

The actions 78, 82, 86 and 88 are the actions which have been executed in response to the selection of the tile (display sector) by the user.

At steps 76 and 78, where a user has selected a zone tile, the application navigates to a zone screen. Examples of the zone screens are shown in figures lOg and lOh and these appear to be very similar to the home screens shown in figures lOd, lOe and lOf. In the example shown in figure lOg the heading at the top of the screen is Health & Financial Well-being and this is the same text seen in one of the tiles in the home screen shown in figure lOd (the right-hand icon in the middle row) . The process of configuring the benefit zone is as follows and the similarity to the configuring of the home screen, as set out in figure 4, will be immediately apparent and as a result, the same reference numerals have been used. Firstly, the local database on the computer device is queried to determine which Products are featured and visible in this Zone, step 66. The order in which the Product should be displayed is sorted at step 72 and the data is combined with the display data from the CSS files to create a tile which can be combined with other tiles for other products (step 74). These tiles are then rendered and displayed on the screen of the display device at step 76.

From within the displayed Zone screen a user will then select a tile and the process of determining actions from this is illustrated in figure 7. The process set out therein for the selection of a product is very similar to that set out in figure 5 for the selection of a zone or product except that steps 76 and 78 relating to the selection of a zone are not included. As a result, the same reference numerals have been used in figure 7 as in figure 5. It is determined at step 80 whether the tile selected relates to Retail or Cinema and if it is the application navigates to the retail screen at step 82 (examples of these screens are shown in Figure 12) if the selected tile is not Retail or Cinema then it is determined at step 84 whether it is a product destination and if so the process of step 86 as described above. If the selected tile is neither of these options then the application navigates to the product details screen at step 88.

Figures 8 and 9 explain in further detail the steps involved in the process of navigating to the product details screen at step 88 and this is further illustrated with reference to example screenshots in figure 11. Firstly, at step 90 the locally stored database is queried, at step 90, and data relating to what is to be displayed is obtained. At step 92 the HTML for that product is obtained and at steps 94 and 96 selectable buttons with resultant actions are obtained from the database. The selection of these buttons results in actions which are set out in the steps shown in figure 9. If at step 98 the selected button is determined to be an email button then at step 100 the relevant email address is past to the native email client placing the address in the to field. If it is not an email button, it is determined at step 102 whether the button selected is for a telephone number and if so the telephone application on the computer device is opened at step 104 passing the number to be dialled. At step 106 it is determined whether the button relates to an internal application link internal to, that is a link internal to that computer device. Such a link can either be a link within the present application or a link to another application and this is determined at step 108. If it is a link to another application then that application is run, with appropriate data being passed to the application, at step 110. Otherwise the link is to another part of the present application. The final alternative is that the link is an external link and this can either be an SSO link or not as determined at step 114. If it is an SSO link then the relevant website is opened and the single sign-on data is passed to that website fire a browser built into the present application (step 116). Finally, if it is not an SSO link then it is a simple link to an external website which is opened in the built-in web browser (step 118).

Other selectable tiles include e-Vouchers and Reloadable Cards, as referred to in connection with figure 3, and these relate to the user's options to buy, typically at a discounted rate, electronic gift vouchers which can be redeemed through the application or in retail stores. It is worth noting that the data which is selected and downloaded in these categories is therefore unique to the user and therefore is not common across all members of a user group.

As can be seen in figures 10 and 11, at the bottom of the screen a line of five quick access buttons are provided which provide the following shortcuts.

• Home — the home screen as set out above is displayed;

• Shop — a retail zone is displayed with retail product tiles displayed;

• Favourites — creates a zone including the favourite

Products the user has selected to be their favourites;

• Search — searches all aspects of the application (that is, all products, zones, retailers); and • My Account — displays options for the user to view and update their account information and view their purchases.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above embodiments have been described by way of example only and not in any limitative sense, and that various alterations and modifications are possible without departure from the scope of the protection which is defined by the appended claims. For example, the step of interrogating a server held database to compile the data for transfer to the computer device could be eliminated and a single file held on the server which is then downloaded to the computer device.

Claims

1. A method of operating a computer device running an operating system and having a display screen associated with said computer device, comprising the steps :- downloading executable code comprising a first executable code portion and a second executable code portion;

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said data is compiled from interrogation of a database dependent upon said group of users said user is linked to.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2 wherein said data comprises at least one database stored on said computer device.

4. A method according to any preceding claim, further comprising changing an icon displayed on said display device, associated with said executable code said icon used by a user to select activation of said executable code.

5. A computer program for operating a computer device running an operating system and having a display screen associated with said computer device, the computer program comprising:

a first executable code portion including code to allow a user to enter login data, said data linking said user to a group of users and for downloading data associated with said executable code, said data dependent on said user group and including variables relating to the characteristics of sectors of a display screen associated with said computer device including display characteristics and actions resulting from selection by the user of said display sectors; and a second executable code portion including code to use said display characteristics to display said display sectors on said display screen and executing said actions in response to selection of said display sectors by said user.

6. A computer program according to claim 5 wherein said data comprises a file compiled from interrogation of a database dependent upon said group of users said user is linked to.

7. A computer program according to claim 5 or 6 further comprising a third executable code portion for changing an icon displayed on said display device, associated with said executable code said icon used by a user to select activation of said executable code.