Treatment controller

• US 10,417,318 B2
• Filed: 11/22/2016
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Kirkby, Stephen Denis, Natoli, Claudio, Kellett, Peter, Van Ryswyk, Ronald, Van Schalkwyk, Stephanus Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nazar, Ahamed I
• Application Number:
  US15/359,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20170075871A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 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 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

A content modification system includes a treatment controller which may be hosted at a web server. The treatment controller receives a request for content from a user. One example of a request is an HTTP request for a web page. The treatment controller determines a representation of the requested content and receives a modification instruction for modifying the requested content. The treatment controller is operable to modify the representation according to the instructions and render the representation to a predetermined format for delivery to the user.

Claims

1. A content modification system comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device, the storage device including machine-readable instructions imbedded therein to cause the processor to;

receive, from a web server, an HTTP request from a user for content;

request data capture instructions identifying data to capture based upon the HTTP request, wherein the data to capture includes on-line user behavior including data related to online purchases associated with the user;

receive the data capture instructions;

capture the data in accordance with the received data capture instructions;

transmit a content modification request message to an optimization service, the content modification request message including the HTTP request for content from the user and the captured on-line user behavior;

in response to the transmitted content modification request message, receive from the optimization service;

a control tree representation of the requested content, wherein the control tree representation includes a plurality of controls representing elements of the requested content; and

a modification instruction comprising an indication to modify an attribute of a control of the plurality of controls in the control tree representation, wherein the optimization service determines the attribute of the control to modify based on the captured on-line user behavior;

identify, within the control tree representation, the control to be modified;

modify the attribute of the identified control in the control tree representation to generate a modified control tree representation of the requested content based upon the modification instruction;

convert the modified control tree representation to modified content in a user viewable format;

send the modified content to the user via the web server;

determine whether the data capture instructions include instructions to capture subsequent online user behavior after the modified content is delivered to the user; and

in response to a determination that the data capture instructions include instructions to capture subsequent online user behavior after the modified content is delivered to the user, continue to capture and store the on-line user behavior, and evaluate whether the modified content was effective in influencing the on-line user behavior of the user by storing actions including at least one of whether an online purchase was made and an indication of web pages, other than a web page of the modified content, visited by the user.

2. The content modification system of claim 1, wherein the processor is to convert the modified content to HTML, and the web server is to send the HTML to the user.

3. The content modification system of claim 1, wherein the modification instruction is to cause the processor to determine a location of a new control and attributes for the new control from the modification instruction, and insert the new control and the attributes in the modified content at the determined location.

4. The content modification system of claim 1, wherein the modification instruction is an instruction to cause the processor to remove a selected control, and the processor is to remove the selected control from the modified content.

5. The content modification system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further to:

determine attributes for the control in the modified content;

generate an XML file from the modified control tree representation specifying a mapping of the modified content to HTML;

send the XML file and the modified content to the optimization service, the optimization service to display the modified content and modifiable attributes of controls in the modified content according to the XML file;

receive an indication of a modification to an attribute of one of the attributes from the optimizer;

further modify the modified content to include the modification of the attribute; and

convert the further modified content to HTML.

6. The content modification system of claim 1, wherein the data to capture includes a visitor ID, a query string in the HTTP request, and user profile data.

7. The content modification system of claim 1, wherein the modification instruction received from the optimization service is received from a digital platform manager, the digital platform manager to determine the content to modify based on user profiles.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, from a web server, an HTTP request from a user for content;

requesting data capture instructions identifying data to capture based upon the HTTP request and the user;

receiving the data capture instructions, wherein the data to capture includes on-line user behavior including data related to online purchases associated with the user;

capturing the data in accordance with the received data capture instructions;

transmitting a content modification request message to an optimization service, the content modification request message including the request for content from the user and the captured data;

receiving, in response to the transmitted content modification request message;

a control tree representation of the requested content, wherein the control tree representation includes a plurality of controls representing elements of the requested content; and

a modification instruction comprising an indication to modify an attribute of an existing control of the plurality of controls in the control tree representation, wherein the optimization service determines the attribute of the existing control to modify according to the captured on-line user behavior;

identifying, within the control tree representation, the existing control to be modified;

modifying the attribute of the identified existing control in the control tree representation to generate a modified control tree representation of the requested content based upon the modification instruction;

converting the modified control tree representation of the requested content to modified content in a user viewable format sending the modified content in the user viewable format to the web server; and

in response to a determination that the data capture instructions include instructions to capture subsequent online user behavior after the modified content is delivered to the user, capturing and storing the on-line user behavior, and evaluating whether the modified content was effective in influencing the on-line user behavior of the user by storing actions including at least one of whether an online purchase was made and an indication of web pages, other than a web page of the modified content, visited by the user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the data to capture includes a visitor ID, a query string in the HTTP request, and user profile data.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the modification instruction comprises a modification instruction to insert a new control by:

determining a location of the new control and attributes for the new control from the modification instruction; and

inserting the new control and the attributes in the modified content at the location indicated by the modification instruction.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the modification instruction comprises a modification instruction to remove a selected control by:

removing the selected control from the modified content.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining attributes for controls in the modified content;

generating an XML file from the modified control tree representation specifying a mapping of the modified content to HTML;

sending the XML file and the modified content to an optimizer, the optimizer displaying the modified content and modifiable attributes of controls in the modified content based on the XML file;

receiving an indication of a modification to an attribute of one of the attributes from the optimizer;

further modifying the modified content to include the indication of the modification; and

converting the further modified content to HTML.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon machine readable code, the machine readable code when executed by a computer system causes the computer system to:

receive, from a web server, an HTTP request from a user for content;

request data capture instructions identifying data to capture based upon the HTTP request;

receive the data capture instructions in response to the request for the data capture instructions, wherein the data to capture includes on-line user behavior related to on-line purchases associated with the user;

capture the on-line user behavior in accordance with the received data capture instructions;

transmit a content modification request message to an optimization service, the content modification request message including the request for content from the user and the captured on-line user behavior;

in response to the transmitted content modification request message, receive from the optimization service;

a control tree representation of the requested content, wherein the control tree representation includes a plurality of controls representing elements of the requested content; and

a modification instruction comprising an indication to modify an attribute of an existing control of the plurality of controls in the control tree representation, wherein the optimization service determines the attribute of the existing control to modify based on the captured on-line user behavior;

identify, within the control tree representation, the existing control to be modified;

modify the attribute of the existing control in the control tree representation to generate a modified control tree representation in accordance with the modification instruction;

convert the modified control tree representation to modified content in a user viewable format;

send the modified content to the user via the web server;

determine whether the data capture instructions include instructions to capture subsequent online user behavior after the modified content is delivered to the user; and

in response to a determination that the data capture instructions include instructions to capture subsequent online user behavior after the modified content is delivered to the user, continue to capture and store the on-line user behavior and evaluate whether the modified content was effective in influencing the on-line user behavior of the user by storing actions including at least one of whether an online purchase was made and an indication of web pages, other than a web page of the modified content, visited by the user.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the modification instruction is to insert a new control in the modified content and the machine readable code is to cause the computer system to:

determine a location of the new control and attributes for the new control from the modification instruction; and

insert the new control and the attributes in the modified content at the location indicated by the modification instruction.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the modification instruction is to remove a control from the modified content, and the machine readable code to cause the computer system to modify the control is to cause the computer system to:

remove the control from the modified content.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the machine readable code is to further cause the computer system to:

determine attributes for control in the modified content;

generate an XML file from the modified control tree representation specifying a mapping of the modified content to HTML;

send the XML file and the modified content to an optimizer, the optimizer to display the modified content and indicate modifiable attributes of controls in the modified content based on according to the XML file;

receive an indication of a modification to an attribute of one of the attributes from the optimizer;

further modify the modified content to include the indicated modification; and

convert the further modified content to HTML.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the data to capture includes a visitor ID, a query string in the HTTP request, and user profile data.