Procedure for automatically customizing the user interface of application programs

Claim 1

A data processing system which customizes a user interface of an application program to present a limited set of operations based on relevant characteristics of a user comprising: means for accepting input data relating to identifiers of actual or potential users of the application program, relevant characteristics of classes of users, and sets of operations of the application program which are appropriate for each class of users; means for creating a user profile table which stores said relevant characteristics of individual user in a format which is searchable using an identifier of a user as a key value; means coupled to said user profile table creating means, for storing the user profile table for later access; means for creating a customization table which stores said sets of operations for each class of users in a format which is searchable using said relevant characteristics of classes of users as key values; means coupled to said customization table creating means, for storing the customization table for later access; means coupled to said user profile table storing means, for determining relevant characteristics of an individual user when a user invokes the application program; means coupled to said customization table storing means and in response to said determining means, for searching the customization table for the appropriate set of operations for a user in his class of users based on relevant characteristics of the user; and means coupled to said searching means, for automatically generating user interface components during the running of the application program which present only the operations specified for the user.