Universal forms engine
First Claim
1. A method of creating and processing over a computer network forms representing applications for admission to different institutions, comprising creating in response to a request from an applicant for an application to a first institution a first application form customized in accordance with the preferences of the first institution, the first application form including data fields for entering applicant information;
- providing to the applicant over a computer network the first application form;
entering the applicant information in the data fields;
posting the first application form to a server;
storing the applicant information in a data storage;
creating in response to a request from the applicant for an application to a second institution a second application form customized in accordance with the preferences of the second institution, the second application form including data fields for entering applicant information;
inserting into some of the data fields of the second application applicant information from the data storage;
providing to the applicant over a computer network the second application form;
entering applicant information into the data fields for entering applicant data into which information was not inserted from the data storage or into which the data inserted from the data storage is to be changed;
posting the second application form to the server, whereby customized applications to different institutions share data through common data storage.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A forms engine allows data sharing between customizable on-line forms, such as college admissions applications. Before applying, an applicant opens an account with a third party application servicer. After the applicant completes an application for one institution, the data is saved in a data base and automatically populates fields in subsequent application forms. The form for each institution is created from a form description file. Each form is branded for its institution and forms for different institutions differ in appearance and content so that the presence of the third party servicer is transparent to the applicant.
The system is extensible without programming, allowing new applicant attributes to be readily incorporated into the system and allowing the content and appearance of the application to be readily changed by changing the description file. The use of aliases for applicant attributes permits data to be readily shared between forms even though labeled and arranged differently on different forms. Information stored about each attribute allows the specification of data validation rules and data sharing and grouping rules, as well as dependency rules that permit application, page content to depend on applicant'"'"'s responses on a previous page.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of creating and processing over a computer network forms representing applications for admission to different institutions, comprising
creating in response to a request from an applicant for an application to a first institution a first application form customized in accordance with the preferences of the first institution, the first application form including data fields for entering applicant information; -
providing to the applicant over a computer network the first application form;
entering the applicant information in the data fields;
posting the first application form to a server;
storing the applicant information in a data storage;
creating in response to a request from the applicant for an application to a second institution a second application form customized in accordance with the preferences of the second institution, the second application form including data fields for entering applicant information;
inserting into some of the data fields of the second application applicant information from the data storage;
providing to the applicant over a computer network the second application form;
entering applicant information into the data fields for entering applicant data into which information was not inserted from the data storage or into which the data inserted from the data storage is to be changed;
posting the second application form to the server, whereby customized applications to different institutions share data through common data storage. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21-55. -55. (canceled)
Specification