Methods and apparatuses to assemble, extract and deploy content from electronic documents

• US 20070038643A1
• Filed: 08/09/2006
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lana Ivanovna Babayan
• Original Assignee: Zalag Corporation
• Inventors: Epstein, Samuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,751,922 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention permit the specification and servicing of aggregations of content constituent parts that derive from electronic documents. An incorporated content constituent part may correspond to any constituent part of any accessible document. In various embodiments, information derived from the intended layouts of source documents is employed to construct specifications of the constituent parts. The specifications may include search conditions. Graphic methods may be employed to construct the specification. Embodiments of the present invention enable content aggregations to appear in display presentations whose layouts may be adaptive to varying degrees. In various embodiments, flexible content-shifting methods are employed for display presentations of content aggregations. Resultantly, the display of content aggregations on mobile and other devices may be effectuated without wasting download bandwidth and display screen real estate.

Claims

1. A computing device implemented method comprising:

soliciting from a user, with a computing device, a plurality of characterization related inputs for a plurality of content constituent parts;

generating or causing to be generated, by the computing device, in response to the received inputs, a candidate content aggregation specification, the candidate content aggregation specification comprising, directly or indirectly, a plurality of candidate directives characterizing the constituent parts in terms of a plurality of qualified descriptions correspondingly incorporating a plurality of qualifications;

soliciting by computing device feedback from the user with respect to the generated candidate aggregate specification; and

modifying the candidate aggregation specification or repeating the soliciting and generating, by the computing device, one or more times, if necessary, to arrive at a content aggregation specification for use to request content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said soliciting comprises soliciting the plurality of constituent part characterization related inputs from the user, by the computing device, through a rendered document, induction or learning.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said soliciting comprises soliciting characterization of a requested constituent part, by the computing device, by having the user identifies a constituent part of a rendered electronic document;

and said generating comprises generating one or more qualifications for a qualified description to describe the identified constituent part.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said deriving comprises measuring or causing to be measured, by the computing device, one or more layout qualifications of the identified constituent part.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said soliciting comprises soliciting characterization of a requested constituent part, by the computing device, by having the user graphically define a constituent part of an electronic document;

and said generating comprises generating one or more qualifications for a qualified description to describe the graphically defmed constituent part.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating comprises retrieving a prior content aggregation specification from a content aggregation specification repository, and generating the candidate aggregate specification based at least in part on the retrieved prior content aggregation specification.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the computing device facilitating a user in creating a presentation specification for the requested content, including a plurality of display slots, and one or more selectable arrangements of all or a subset of the display slots.

8. A computing device implemented method comprising:

receiving a content aggregation specification comprising, directly or indirectly, a plurality of directives characterizing a plurality of constituent parts in terms of a plurality of qualified descriptions correspondingly incorporating a plurality of qualifications; and

processing at least one of the directives to simply the directive to more directly identify a constituent part.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising pre-processing or causing to be pre-processed, by the computing device, the content aggregation specification, prior to request time, to pre-identify the qualifications, to reduce request time processing.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the pre-processing or causing to be pre-processed comprises accessing or causing to be accessed, by the computing device, one or more electronic document sources, to determine whether the one or more electronic document sources have electronic documents with constituent parts meeting the pre-identified qualifications.

11. A computing device implemented method comprising:

receiving by a computing device, a request for content comprising a plurality constituent parts, the request being in a form of a content aggregation specification, directly or indirectly, comprising a plurality of directives characterizing the requested constituent parts in terms of a plurality of derived descriptions, each derived description incorporating a derived qualification;

obtaining or causing to be obtained, by the computing device, the requested constituent parts, effectively from a plurality of electronic documents having constituent parts meeting selective ones of the derived qualifications of the derived descriptions; and

responding or causing to be responded, by the computing device, to the request with the obtained derived qualification meeting constituent parts.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said receiving comprises receiving the request from a client device coupled to the computing device, the client device being one of a server, a desktop computing device or a mobile computing device, and the responding or causing to be responded comprises providing the obtained derived qualification meeting constituent parts to the client device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the obtained derived qualification meeting constituent parts comprises text, graphics, an image, one or more video frames, or an audio clip.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the content aggregation specification comprises a distinguished category name indirectly specifying at least a subset of the directives.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the directives characterizes a requested constituent part in terms of one or more derived layout qualifications.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein at least one of the derived layout qualification is a presentation position, a presentation size, a presentation length, a presentation width, a presentation height, a number of presentation pixels or a number of presentation characters of a constituent part of an electronic document when the electronic document is rendered.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising the computing device in facilitating a user in creating the content aggregation specification directly or indirectly having the directives characterizing the constituent parts in terms of derived descriptions with derived qualifications.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising processing or causing to be processed, by the computing device, the content aggregation specification including the derived qualifications of the derived descriptions of the directives, to identify the requested constituent parts.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of directives comprises a description modifier modifying a qualified description, and the method further comprises the computing device processing or causing to be processed the description modifier, contextually interpreting the description modifier based at least in part on the qualified description the description modifier modifies.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the processing by the computing device includes accessing by the computing device a derived description repository or a content category repository for information associated with one or more derived description terms or one or more derived description categories respectively, to assist the computing device in processing the received content aggregation specification.

21. A computing device implemented method comprising:

receiving by a computing device, a plurality of constituent parts for responding to a request for content, the request for content having been requested in a form of a content aggregation specification, directly or indirectly, comprising a plurality of directives characterizing the constituent parts in terms of a plurality of qualified descriptions incorporated with qualifications, and the received constituent parts are constituent parts of electronic documents meeting the qualifications;

organizing or causing to be organized, by the computing device, the received qualification meeting constituent parts for presentation, including generating a plurality of aggregation calls to present the plurality of received qualification meeting constituent parts; and

responding or causing to be responded, by the computing device, to the request with the organized qualification meeting constituent parts, including the generated aggregation calls.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of the aggregation calls comprises a triple of CS, TP and PR, where CS identifies a source of a qualification meeting constituent part, TP identifies a complex tree pattern associated with the constituent part, and PR identifies a procedure for rendering the constituent part using the complex tree pattern, the complex tree pattern including a plurality of nodes and at least one branch coupling the nodes, with at least a terminal one of the nodes comprising a wild card corresponding to a plurality of sibling subtrees.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of the aggregation calls comprises a triple of CS, PE and PR, where CS identifies a source of a qualification meeting constituent part, PE identifies a path expression associated with the constituent part, and PR identifies a procedure for rendering the constituent part using the complex tree pattern, the path expression corresponding to one or more subtrees of the constituent part.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein said responding or causing to be responded comprises responding or causing to be responded, by the computing device, with the organized qualification meeting constituent parts only when the organized qualification meeting constituent parts are actually needed for presentation.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprises transmitting the request by the computing device to a content request engine located on another computing device.

26. A computing device implemented method comprising:

receiving by a computing device, a plurality of constituent parts for responding to a request for content, the request for content having been requested in a form of a content aggregation specification, directly or indirectly, comprising a plurality of directives characterizing the constituent parts in terms of a plurality of qualified descriptions incorporated with qualifications, and the received constituent parts are constituent parts of electronic documents meeting the qualifications;

organizing or causing to be organized, by the computing device, the received qualification meeting constituent parts for presentation, including selecting one of a plurality of arrangements of a collection of display slots, and associating the received qualification meeting constituent parts with the display slots of the selected display slot arrangement; and

responding or causing to be responded, by the computing device, to the request with the display slot associated organized qualification meeting constituent parts.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein said associating includes shifting the constituent parts within or across display slots.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said associating comprises associating a plurality of received qualification meeting constituent parts with a display slot of the display slot arrangement, and providing or causing to be provided, by the computing device, one or more user interface elements for a user to cause selective sequential presentation of the received qualification meeting constituent parts via the display slot.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein said providing or causing to be provided comprises providing or causing to be provided, by the computing device, an user interface element for the user to cause sequential presentation of a selected subset of the received qualification meeting constituent parts via the display slot, and at least one or more user interface elements for the user to select another subset of the received qualification meeting constituent parts for sequential presentation via the display slot.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein said providing or causing to be provided comprises providing or causing to be provided, by the computing device, a user interface element for the user to cause a presentation of the organization of the received qualification meeting constituent parts.

31. An apparatus comprising:

a content request engine to facilitate a user in creating a content aggregate specification characterizing a plurality of content constituent parts, the content aggregation specification comprising, directly or indirectly, a plurality of directives having qualified descriptions incorporated with qualifications; and

a content aggregate specification repository operatively coupled to the content request engine to store the created content aggregation specification.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the content request engine is further adapted to facilitate a user in creating the content aggregate specification using a previously created content aggregate specification.

33. The apparatus of claim 31 further comprising a measurement engine coupled to the content request engine to measure a user identified constituent part of a rendered document or a graphically defined constituent part to assist the content request engine in facilitating a user in creating a derived description incorporated with a derived qualification.

34. The apparatus of claim 33 further comprising a content description repository or a content category repository operatively coupled to the content request engine to store content descriptions or content categories, the content request engine being further adapted to access the stored content descriptions or the content categories to assist the content request engine to process the content aggregate description at request time.

35. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein the content request engine is further adapted to facilitate a user in creating one or more selectable arrangements of display slots for presenting obtained qualification meeting constituent parts.

36. An apparatus comprising

a content retrieve engine to retrieve constituent parts of electronic documents;

and

a content request engine operatively coupled to the content retrieve engine

to receive a request for content comprising a plurality constituent parts, the request being in a form of a content aggregation specification, directly or indirectly, comprising a plurality of directives characterizing the requested constituent parts in terms of a plurality of derived descriptions, each derived description having a derived qualification;

to process the content aggregation specification;

to cause the content retrieve engine to obtain constituent parts of electronic documents meeting the derived qualifications; and

to respond to the request with the obtained derived qualification meeting constituent parts.

37. The apparatus of claim 36 further comprising a content search engine operatively coupled to the content request engine to search and locate electronic documents with constituent parts meeting the derived qualifications;

and a content extraction engine operatively coupled to the content request engine to extract derived qualification meeting constituent parts from retrieved electronic documents.

38. The apparatus of claim 36 further comprising a content presentation engine operatively coupled to the content request engine to associate obtained derived qualification meeting constituent parts with display slots of a display slot arrangement, to present the obtained derived qualification meeting constituent parts.

39. An apparatus comprising:

a content presentation engine to receive a plurality of obtained constituent parts, the obtained constituent parts being constituent parts of electronic documents meeting qualifications of qualified descriptions of directives of a content aggregation specification specifying requested content of a request, to organize the received constituent parts; and

to associate the organized constituent parts with display slots of a display slot arrangement to present the received qualifications meeting constituent parts.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the content presentation engine is adapted to associate a plurality of received qualification meeting constituent parts with a display slot of the display slot arrangement, and to provide one or more user interface elements for a user to cause selective sequential presentation of the received qualification meeting constituent parts via the display slot.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the content presentation engine is further adapted to provide a user interface element for the user to cause sequential presentation of a selected subset of the received qualification meeting constituent parts via the display slot, and at least one or more user interface elements for the user to select another subset of the received qualification meeting constituent parts for sequential presentation via the display slot.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the content presentation engine is further adapted to provide a user interface element for the user to cause a presentation of the organization of the received qualification meeting constituent parts.

43. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the content presentation engine is further adapted to select the display slot arrangement.

44. The apparatus of claim 39, further comprising a content request engine operatively coupled to the content presentation engine to receive the content request;

to obtain the qualification meeting constituent parts; and

to provide the content presentation engine with the qualification meeting constituent parts.

45. The apparatus of claim 39, further comprises a request engine to transmit the request to a content request engine located on another computing device.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the apparatus is a computing device with a display having relatively limited display real estate.