A diagnostic tool suite is made available to technicians servicing
equipment at residential and business locations using a portable device
such as a PDA. The PDA runs a main engine that can execute diagnostic
modules, with each diagnostic module corresponding to a particular
appliance or device that requires troubleshooting, repair, diagnosis,
maintenance or installation. The diagnostic modules use a limited number
of templates to define possible screen layouts for each screen displayed
to the technician. Additionally, the diagnostic module includes a
diagnostic flow definition file wherein each record corresponds to a
screen displayed to a technician. The main engine uses the template
information and the diagnostic flow definition records to fully define a
screen to display to a technician. In this way, an extensible, modular,
non-specific diagnostic tool suite is available to a technician. To
simplify creation of the diagnostic definition files, a graphical user
development tool 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.
