| 摘要 |
A diagnostic tool suite is made available to technicians (104) servicing equipment (102) at residential and business locations using a portable device (106) such as a PDA. The PDA runs a main engine (1200) that can execute diagnostic modules (112), with each diagnostic module corresponding to a particular appliance (102) or device that requires troubleshooting, repair, diagnosis, maintenance or installation. The diagnostic modules use a limited number of templates (1113) to define possible screen layouts for each screen displayed to the technician. Additionally, the diagnostic module includes a diagnostic flow definition file (1111) wherein each record corresponds to a screen displayed to a technician. The main engine (1200) uses the template information (1113) and the diagnostic flow definition records (1111) to fully define a screen (106) to display to a technician (104). In this way, an extensible, modular, non-specific diagnostic tool suite is available to a technician (104). To simplify creation of the diagnostic definition files (1111), a graphical user development tool (400) is provided that allows a non-skilled user to select a template definition, to be prompted for definitions of the fields in that template and to create the diagnostic definition file incorporating the user's input. |
