Intelligent form creation

• US 10,599,760 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2017
• Issued: 03/24/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Inventors: Dua, Varun, Chaturvedi, Suvrat, Kumar, Deepak, Jain, Ankur
• Primary Examiner(s): Mills, Frank D
• Application Number:
  US15/692,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20190065455A1
• Time in Patent Office: 936 Days
• Field of Search: 715222
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Electronic form creation techniques are disclosed which automatically recommend candidate form objects to include in an electronic form being created. In some examples, a method may include receiving a request to create an electronic form, identifying a preceding N form objects created in the electronic form, identifying a candidate form object based on the identified preceding N form objects and one or more relationships between pre-existing form objects, and recommending the candidate form object for creation in the electronic form. The pre-existing form objects are included in multiple pre-existing forms. The method may further include identifying the one or more relationships between pre-existing form objects. The pre-existing forms may be selected, for example, based on information associated with the request (e.g., form type, an ID indicating identity of author creating the form, and/or ID indicating identity of a group to which the form author belongs).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to automatically recommend a candidate form object to include in an electronic form, the method comprising:

receiving a request to create an electronic form;

identifying a preceding N form objects created in the electronic form;

identifying a plurality of pre-existing form objects included in a plurality of pre-existing forms, wherein a particular form object is included in both the preceding N form objects and the plurality of pre-existing form objects;

identifying a candidate form object from amongst the plurality of pre-existing form objects, wherein a relationship exists between the candidate form object and the particular form object in one of the pre-existing forms, wherein the relationship defines a sequence such that the particular form object appears before the candidate form object in at least one of the pre-existing forms, and wherein inserting the candidate form object into the electronic form would cause the relationship to exist in the electronic form as well; and

recommending the candidate form object for creation in the electronic form.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating an index of the pre-existing form objects.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the index of the pre-existing form objects comprises:

extracting one or more keywords for each pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects; and

maintaining a mapping between the one or more keywords and the pre-existing form objects.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one keyword of the one or more keywords is based on a description or a label of one pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one keyword of the one or more keywords is based on a meaning of one pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one keyword of the one or more keywords is based on one or more of a help content, an error message, and a tooltip associated with one pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the candidate form object comprises:

identifying a subset of the pre-existing form objects, wherein the relationship exists between the particular form object and each of the pre-existing form objects in the subset; and

ranking each of the pre-existing form objects in the subset;

wherein the candidate form object is a highest ranked pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects in the subset.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the pre-existing form objects in the subset are ranked based on one or more of an error rate, an average fill time, an abandonment rate, and a fill frequency measure.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the candidate form object comprises searching the index of pre-existing form objects for pre-existing form objects that match a schema element type.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the relationship between the candidate form object and the particular form object.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the pre-existing forms based on information associated with the request, the information including one or more of a type of the electronic form, an ID indicating an identity of an author creating the electronic form, and/or an ID indicating a group to which the author belongs.

12. A computer program product including one or more non-transitory machine readable mediums encoded with instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a process to be carried out to automatically recommend a candidate form object to include in an electronic form, the process comprising:

receiving a request to create an electronic form;

identifying a preceding N form objects created in the electronic form;

identifying a plurality of pre-existing form objects included in a plurality of pre-existing forms, wherein a particular form object is included in both the preceding N form objects and the plurality of pre-existing form objects;

identifying a candidate form object from amongst the plurality of pre-existing form objects, wherein a relationship exists between the candidate form object and the particular form object in one of the pre-existing forms, wherein the relationship defines a sequence such that the particular form object appears before the candidate form object in at least one of the pre-existing forms, and wherein inserting the candidate form object into the electronic form would cause the relationship to exist in the electronic form as well; and

recommending the candidate form object for creation in the electronic form.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the process further comprises generating an index of the plurality of pre-existing form objects by:

extracting one or more keywords for each pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects; and

maintaining a mapping between the one or more keywords and the pre-existing form objects.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein at least one keyword of the one or more keywords is based on a description or a label of one pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein at least one keyword of the one or more keywords is based on a meaning of one pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein at least one keyword of the one or more keywords is based on one or more of a help content, an error message, and a tooltip associated with one pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects.

17. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the process further comprises:

identifying an alternate form object from amongst the plurality of pre-existing form objects, wherein the relationship also exists between the alternate form object and the particular form object in one of the pre-existing forms, and wherein inserting the alternate form object into the electronic form would cause the relationship to exist in the electronic form as well; and

recommending the alternate form object for creation in the electronic form.

18. A system to provide automatic recommendation of a candidate form object to include in an electronic form, the system comprising:

one or more non-transitory machine readable mediums configured to store instructions; and

one or more processors configured to execute the instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory machine readable mediums, wherein execution of the instructions causes the one or more processors to;

receive a request to create an electronic form;

identify a preceding N form objects created in the electronic form;

identify a plurality of pre-existing form objects included in a plurality of pre-exiting forms, wherein a particular form object is included in both the preceding N form objects and the plurality of pre-existing form objects;

identifying a candidate form object from amongst the plurality of pre-existing form objects, wherein a relationship exists between the candidate form object and the particular form object in one of the pre-existing forms, wherein the relationship defines a sequence such that the particular form object appears before the candidate form object in at least one of the pre-existing forms, and wherein inserting the candidate form object into the electronic form would cause the relationship to exist in the electronic form as well; and

recommend the candidate form object for creation in the electronic form.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more non-transitory machine readable mediums further stores instructions that, in response to execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

identify a subset of the pre-existing form objects, wherein the relationship exists between the particular form object and each of the pre-existing form objects in the subset; and

rank each of the pre-existing form objects in the subset;

wherein the candidate form object is a highest ranked pre-existing form object of the pre-existing form objects in the subset.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the pre-existing form objects in the subset are ranked based on one of an error rate, an average fill time, or a fill frequency measure.