Method and system to review the display of content

• US 20060170705A1
• Filed: 02/01/2005
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Lyris Technologies Incorporated (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Lyris Technologies Incorporated (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Inventors: Wilson, Robb
• Application Number:
  US11/048,956
• Publication Number:
  US 20060170705A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/628
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A system and method is provided to review the display of content by at least one client application. The method may include communicating content to client applications and automatically simulating user interaction with the client application in response to receiving the content. Thereafter, an image displayed by the client application may be captured in response to the simulated user interactions and stored. In an embodiment, the client application is email client and the content is communicated in an email. The invention extends to a system and method of reviewing content sent to a plurality of client applications. Accordingly, the method may include accessing a plurality of captured images displayed by the plurality of client applications and providing a graphical user interface. The graphical user interface may render client application and captured image display areas. Navigation buttons may be provided to allow a user to navigate through the captured images.

Claims

1. A method to review the display of content by at least one client application, the method comprising:

communicating content to the at least one client application;

automatically simulating at least one user interaction with the at least one client application in response to receiving the content;

capturing an image displayed by the client application in response to the at least one user interaction; and

storing the captured image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein client application includes at least one email client and the method includes communicating the content in an email.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the image is captured after each simulated user interaction, the captured image corresponding to a screen display viewable by a computer system running the at least one email client.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the email is a test email to review the display of content of the test email prior to bulk mailing the email to a plurality of users via the Internet.

5. The method of claim 2, which comprises communicating the email to a plurality of email clients to review how each email client would display the content of the email.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of email clients are selected from the group including Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Yahoo mail, MSN Hotmail, AOL mail, and Eudora.

7. The method of claim 5, which comprises running each email client on a different client machine.

8. The method of claim 1, which comprises automatically taking a screen shot to obtain the captured image.

9. The method of claim 2, which comprises:

automatically simulating a plurality of user interactions;

capturing an image displayed after each simulated user interaction to provide a plurality of captured images generated from the email;

communicating the plurality of captured images to a central server; and

providing access to the plurality of captured images to a sender of the email.

10. The method of claim 9, which includes using FTP to communicate the captured image to the central server.

11. The method of claim 9, which comprises grouping images captured from different email clients in response to the email to facilitate review thereof by a sender of the email.

12. The method of claim 1, which comprises running a script on a client machine running the client application to simulate the at least one user interaction.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is an advertisement for bulk communication via the Internet.

14. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

15. A method of reviewing content sent to a plurality of client applications, the method comprising:

accessing a plurality of captured images displayed by the plurality of client applications;

providing a graphical user interface that renders;

a client application display area to list the plurality of client applications from which the plurality of captured images were captured;

a captured image display area to display captured images sourced from each client application; and

navigation buttons to allow a user to navigate through the captured images;

monitoring activation of the navigation buttons;

selectively rendering a metadata entry area to allow a user to enter metadata associated with a captured image displayed in the captured image display area; and

storing the metadata entered by the user, the metadata being associated with the displayed captured image.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the client application is an email client and the content is communicated via an email.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the graphical user interface comprises an accept button to accept a captured image and tag the image as accepted, and a reject button to reject a captured image and tag the image as rejected.

18. The method of claim 15, which includes generating report based on the user interaction.

19. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the method of claim 15.

20. A system to review the display of content by at least one client application, the system comprising:

a communication module to communicate the content to the at least one client application;

a simulation module to automatically simulate at least one user interaction with the at least one client application in response to receiving the content;

an image capture module to capture an image displayed by the client application in response to the at least one user interaction; and

a storage module to store the captured image.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the image is captured after each simulated user interaction, the captured image corresponding to a screen display viewable by a computer system running the at least one client application.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the email is a test email to review the display of content of the test email prior to bulk mailing the email to a plurality of users via the Internet.

23. The system of claim 20, which comprises a plurality of email clients to which the email is communicated to review how each email client would display the content.

24. A system to review images captured from a plurality of client applications, the system comprising:

an access module to access a plurality of captured images displayed by the plurality of client applications;

a graphical user interface module to provide a graphical user interface that renders;

a client display area to list the plurality of client applications from which the plurality of captured images were captured;

a captured image display area to display captured images sourced from each client application; and

navigation buttons to allow a user to navigate through the captured images;

a monitoring module to monitor activation of the navigation buttons,

wherein the graphical user interface selectively renders a metadata entry area to allow a user to enter metadata associated with a captured image displayed in the captured image display area; and

a storage module to store the metadata entered by the user, the metadata being associated with the displayed captured image.

25. The system of claim 24, which wherein:

the simulation module automatically simulates a plurality of user interactions;

the capturing module captures an image displayed after each simulated user interaction to provide a plurality of captured images generated from the content;

the communication module communicates the plurality of captured images to a server; and

the access module provides access to the plurality of captured images to a sender of the content.

26. A system to review the display of content by at least one client application, the system comprising:

means for communicating content to the at least one client application;

means for automatically simulating at least one user interaction with the at least one client application in response to receiving the content;

means for capturing an image displayed by the client application in response to the at least one user interaction; and

means for storing the captured image.