Creating and using documents with machine-readable codes

• US 20050224571A1
• Filed: 06/15/2004
• Published: 10/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Feuerman, Kenneth E., Kelley, Yohko A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,299,972 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• 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

Methods and apparatus, including computer systems and program products, for creating and using documents with machine-readable codes. A computer program receives user data provided for one or more fields in an electronic document, generates input data containing the user data and metadata that provides a self-contained description of the user data, encodes the input data into a machine-readable code, and generates a final representation of the electronic document with a display of the machine-readable code. Upon reading the machine-readable code, the metadata can be used to identify a set of fields in a target system to which to assign the user data. In some embodiments, the metadata and the user data can be transformed and sent to a target system. The use of metadata in this manner enables machine-readable codes to maintain a physical representation of data that facilitates transfer of the data back into an electronic environment.

Claims

1. A computer program product, stored on a machine-readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

receive an electronic document, the electronic document comprising one or more fields;

receive user input, the user input comprising field data provided for one or more of the fields;

generate input data, the input data comprising the field data and metadata that provides a self-contained description of the field data;

encode the input data into a machine-readable code; and

generate a final representation of the electronic document, the final representation of the electronic document including a display of the machine-readable code.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the input data is represented in a markup language.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the markup language is Extensible Markup Language (XML).

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the input data is represented in a key-value format.

5. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving an electronic document, the electronic document comprising one or more fields;

receiving user input, the user input comprising field data provided for one or more of the fields;

generating input data, the input data comprising the field data and metadata that provides a self-contained description of the field data;

encoding the input data into a machine-readable code; and

generating a final representation of the electronic document, the final representation of the electronic document including a display of the machine-readable code.

6. A system comprising:

means for receiving an electronic document, the electronic document comprising one or more fields;

means for receiving user input, the user input comprising field data provided for one or more of the fields;

means for generating input data, the input data comprising the field data and metadata that provides a self-contained description of the field data;

means for encoding the input data into a machine-readable code; and

means for generating a final representation of the electronic document, the final representation of the electronic document including a display of the machine-readable code.

7. A computer program product, stored on a machine-readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

receive machine-readable code data generated by reading a machine-readable code displayed in a first document, the machine-readable code data comprising one or more data entries corresponding to fields in the first document and metadata that provides a self-contained description of the data entries; and

for each data entry in the one or more data entries;

use the metadata to identify a field in a target system to which to assign the data entry; and

assign the data entry to the field in the target system.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the machine-readable code data is represented in a markup language.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the markup language is Extensible Markup Language (XML).

10. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the machine-readable code data is represented in a key-value format.

11. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the target system comprises an electronic document, a database, or an enterprise system.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

generating field data and metadata by reading a machine-readable code displayed in a document, the document comprising a first set of fields, the machine-readable code encoding the field data and the metadata, the field data corresponding to the first set of fields, the metadata providing a self-contained description of the field data;

using the metadata to identify a second set of fields in a target system; and

assigning the field data to the second set of fields.

13. A system comprising:

means for generating field data and metadata by reading a machine-readable code displayed in a document, the document comprising a first set of fields, the machine-readable code encoding the field data and the metadata, the field data corresponding to the first set of fields, the metadata providing a self-contained description of the field data;

means for using the metadata to identify a second set of fields in a target system; and

means for assigning the field data to the second set of fields.

14. A computer program product, stored on a machine-readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

receive machine-readable code data generated by reading a machine-readable code displayed in a document, the machine-readable code data comprising one or more data entries corresponding to fields in the document and first metadata that provides a first self-contained description of the data entries; and

transform the machine-readable code data into transformed data, the transformed data comprising the data entries and second, distinct metadata that provides a second self-contained description of the data entries.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the machine-readable code data and the transformed data are represented in XML.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the instructions to transform the machine-readable code data comprise instructions to execute an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) processor.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause the data processing apparatus to:

send the transformed data to a target system.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the target system is an enterprise system.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving machine-readable code data generated by reading a machine-readable code displayed in a document, the machine-readable code data comprising one or more data entries corresponding to fields in the document and first metadata that provides a first self-contained description of the data entries; and

transforming the machine-readable code data into transformed data, the transformed data comprising the data entries and second, distinct metadata that provides a second self-contained description of the data entries.

20. A system comprising:

means for receiving machine-readable code data generated by reading a machine-readable code displayed in a document, the machine-readable code data comprising one or more data entries corresponding to fields in the document and first metadata that provides a first self-contained description of the data entries; and

means for transforming the machine-readable code data into transformed data, the transformed data comprising the data entries and second, distinct metadata that provides a second self-contained description of the data entries.