Multi-source electronic forms with concealed fields

• US 10,242,118 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2010
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Burckart, Erik John, Howard, Curtiss James, Ivory, Andrew, Shook, Aaron Kyle
• Primary Examiner(s): Rostami, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US12/820,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20110314046A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,200 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Electronic multi-user forms are provided. The use of these forms may include displaying the forms to more than one user, receiving population data from one or more user, and selectively displaying the population data to each user. The population data may be displayed to the various users based on the security authorization of the user seeing the form. Upon completion of the form by the users, the form may be further completed and submitted for processing or approval.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer readable medium storing instructions thereon for managing the completion of an electronic form by more than one user, the instructions, which when executed by a processor, comprise;

displaying a multi-user electronic form to a first user, the multi-user electronic form having a plurality of fields, some of the fields having a first confidentiality designation and some of the fields having a second confidentiality designation;

receiving population data for one or more fields from a first user;

populating one or more fields using the received first user population data;

determining if a populated field has the first confidentiality designation or a different confidentiality designation;

based on the determination, displaying fields, with population data from the first user, to a second user after determining, if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation; and

using session information from both the session of the first user and session information from the session of the second user to identify one or more other peers in a group, the one or more other peers in a group necessary to complete the form; and

submitting the multi-user form after populating fields with population data received at different times from the first user and from the second user,

wherein the submission of field data and the population of fields occurs in real-time, with the first user and the second user populating fields during a joint session.

2. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

identifying the authority to access confidential designations of a first user; and

identifying the authority to access confidential designation of a second user.

3. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

receiving population data for one or more fields from the second user; and

populating one or more fields using the received second user population data.

4. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

querying session data to determine if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation.

5. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

querying a network resource for data associated with the first user; and

populating one or more fields of the fields of the form with data received from the network resource in response to the query.

6. The article of claim 1, wherein, the first user is a customer providing populated data using a client application and the second user is a customer service representative.

7. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

using a catalog servlet to track session information and to provide an error warning that a user is seeking to improperly populate a field.

8. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

evaluating past sessions and updating form fields of past sessions with new form information.

9. The article of claim 1 wherein the authority of the second user to access confidential designations during a session changes based on the amount of time since the second user has logged on.

10. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

receiving population data for one or more fields form the second user, discarding the received population data from the second user or returning an error message to the second user asking the second user to re-submit form field data.

11. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

validating one or more security features of the form prior to submission of the form; and

providing a real-time alert flag on the form that a user is seeking to improperly populate a field of the multi-user form.

12. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

indicating with a flag that one or more form fields has been concealed and whether or not the concealed field remains to be populated.

13. The article of claim 1 wherein the authority of the second user during a first session expires in a certain amount of time after the first session began.

14. The article of claim 1 wherein the authority of the second user during a first session expires in a certain amount of time after the first session began.

15. A computer comprising:

non-volatile computer readable medium, the medium storing processor instructions thereon for managing the completion of an electronic form by more than one user, the instructions comprising;

displaying a multi-user form to a first user, the multi-user form having a plurality of fields, some of the fields having a first confidentiality designation and some of the fields having a second confidentiality designation;

receiving population data for one or more fields from a first user;

populating one or more fields using the received first user population data;

determining if a populated field has the first confidentiality designation or a different confidentiality designation;

based on the determination, displaying fields, with population data from the first user, to a second user after determining, if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation; and

sharing user input session data from a web-client of the first user to a web-client of the second user for use by the second user to complete the form; and

submitting the multi-user form after populating fields with population data received at different times from the first user and from the second user,

wherein the submission of field data and the population of fields occurs in real-time, with the first user and the second user populating fields during a joint session.

16. The computer of claim 15, where the stored instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

identifying the authority to access confidential designations of a first user; and

identifying the authority to access confidential designation of a second user.

17. The computer of claim 15, where the stored instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

receiving population data for one or more fields from the second user; and

populating one or more fields using the received second user population data.

18. The computer of claim 15, where the stored instruction, which when executed, further comprise:

querying session data to determine if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation.

19. The computer of claim 15 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

using a catalog servlet to track session information and to provide an error warning that a user is seeking to improperly populate a field.

20. The computer of claim 15, which when executed, further comprises:

evaluating past sessions and updating form fields of past sessions with new form information.

21. The computer of claim 15 wherein the authority of the second user to access confidential designations during a session changes based on the amount of time since the second user has logged on.

22. The computer of claim 15 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprises:

receiving population data for one or more fields form the second user, discarding the received population data from the second user or returning an error message to the second user asking the second user to re-submit form field data.

23. The computer of claim 15 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprises:

validating one or more security features of the form prior to submission of the form; and

providing a real-time alert flag on the form that a user is seeking to improperly populate a field of the multi-user form.

24. The computer of claim 15 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprises:

indicating with a flag that one or more form fields has been concealed and whether or not the concealed field remains to be populated.