Method and computer for responding to a query

• US 20070244853A1
• Filed: 06/14/2002
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Shringi, Kanchan, Tchankotadze, David, Salzer, Daniel, Schneider, Stacey
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3337 Translation of the query language, e.g. Chinese to English
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

Abstract

A method of, and a computer for, processing a query. The method includes receiving the query in a first language at a computerized messaging device, the first language being one of different languages. A template in the first language is then selected from one of the different languages and query data corresponding to the first language is retrieved from a database of query data. The method includes populating the template with template data corresponding to the first language to define a query response in the query language, and communicating the query response from the device to a recipient.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a customer query in a first language;

selecting, in response to the query, a template from a plurality of templates in different languages, wherein;

the selected template is of a type that answers the query, and

the selected template corresponds to the first language; and

populating the selected template with template data based on a set of locale rules associated with the first language, the set of locale rules defining how data is to be formatted in the selected template.

2. The method of claim 1, which further comprises:

retrieving the template data corresponding to the first language;

populating the template with the template data corresponding to the first language to define a query response in the first language; and

communicating the query response to a recipient.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein when a plurality of different template types are provided for different types of queries, the method further comprises:

identifying a template type from the plurality of template types for the query; and

retrieving the template in the first language.

4. The method of claim 2, which comprises populating a plurality of different templates each relating to a separate query in a multi-threaded process running on the computer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein at least two threads of the multi-threaded process populate their associated templates concurrently in different languages.

6. The method of claim 2, which comprises retrieving salutation data and product data in the first language.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of locale rules are selected from a plurality of sets of locale rules wherein each set of locale rules is associated with at least one language from the plurality of languages.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein each set of locale rules defines at least one of a date separator, an international dialing code, a list separator, a locale code, a locale name, a long date format, a negative currency format, a number decimal format, a number of fractional digits, a number grouping separator, a number of leading zeros, a positive currency format, a short date format, a time format designator, and a time separator.

10. The method of claim 2, which comprises monitoring selection of a particular language by an agent, and switching dynamically to the selected particular language from one of the plurality of languages.

11. The method of claim 2, which comprises displaying a first template corresponding to the selected template to an agent in a selected agent language, and populating the first template in the first language, the selected agent language and the first language being different languages.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the query is received in the computer in the form of an e-mail message;

and the query response is communicated to the recipient as an e-mail message.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein when the query is a structured query, the method comprises:

automatically identifying the first language; and

automatically identifying an appropriate template from the structured query.

14. The method of claim 13, which the query is received via the Internet using a structured web form.

51. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the template data.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the presenting comprises storing the template data in a memory.

8. (canceled)

15. A machine-readable storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to:

receive a customer query in a first language;

select, in response to the query, a template from a plurality of templates in different languages, wherein;

the selected template is of a type that answers the query, and

the selected template corresponds to the first language; and

populate the selected template with template data based on a set of locale rules associated with the first language, the set of locale rules defining how data is to be formatted in the selected template.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein when executed the instructions further cause the machine to:

retrieve template data corresponding to the first language;

populate the template with the template data corresponding to the first language to define a query response in the first language; and

communicate the query response to a recipient.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein when executed the instructions further cause the machine to populate a plurality of different templates each relating to a different query in a multi-threaded process running on the machine.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein when a plurality of different template types are provided for different types of queries, a template type from the plurality of template types is identified and the template is retrieved in the first language.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein at least two threads of the multi-threaded process populate their associated templates concurrently in different languages.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein salutation data and product data is retrieved in the first language.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the set of locale rules are selected from a plurality of sets of locale rules wherein each set of locale rules is associated with at least one language from the plurality of languages.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein each set of locale rules defines at least one of a date separator, an international dialing code, a list separator, a locale code, a locale name, a long date format, a negative currency format, a number decimal format, a number of fractional digits, a number grouping separator, a number of leading zeros, a positive currency format, a short date format, a time format designator, and a time separator.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein selection of a particular language by an agent is monitored, and the instructions cause the machine to switch dynamically to the selected particular language from one of the plurality of languages.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein a first template corresponding to the selected template is displayed to an agent in a selected agent language, and the first template for responding to the query is populated in the first language, the selected agent language and first language being different languages.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 25, wherein the query is received in the machine in the form of an e-mail message;

and the query response is communicated to the recipient as an e-mail message.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein when the query is a structured query, the instructions cause the machine to:

automatically identify the first language; and

automatically identify an appropriate template from the structured query.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 27, wherein the query is received via the Internet using a structured web form.

22. (canceled)

29. A computer comprising:

a database to store a plurality of templates in a plurality of different languages; and

a processor coupled to the database, the processor configured to;

receive a customer query in a first language;

select, in response to the query, a template from the plurality of templates, wherein;

the selected template is of a type that answers the query, and

the selected template corresponds to the first language; and

populate the selected template with template data based on a set of locale rules associated with the first language, the set of locale rules defining how data is to be formatted in the selected template.

30. The computer of claim 29, wherein the processor is to:

retrieve template data corresponding to the first language from the database;

populate the template with the template data corresponding to the first language to define a query response in the first language; and

communicate the query response to a recipient.

31. The computer of claim 30, wherein a plurality of different templates each relating to a separate query are populated in a multi-threaded process on the computer.

32. The computer of claim 31, wherein at least two threads of the multi-threaded process concurrently populate their associated templates in different languages.

33. The computer of claim 30, wherein when a plurality of different template types are provided for different types of queries, the processor identifies a template type for the query from the plurality of template types, and retrieves the template in the first language.

34. The computer of claim 33, wherein salutation data and product data are retrieved from the database in the first language.

35. The computer of claim 29, wherein the set of locale rules are selected from a plurality of sets of locale rules wherein each set of locale rules is associated with at least one language from the plurality of languages.

37. The computer of claim 35, wherein each set of locale rules defines at least one of a date separator, an international dialing code, a list separator, a locale code, a locale name, a long date format, a negative currency format, a number decimal format, a number of fractional digits, a number grouping separator, a number of leading zeros, a positive currency format, a short date format, a time format designator, and a time separator.

38. The computer of claim 30, wherein selection of a particular language by an agent is monitored, and the processor switches dynamically to the particular language from any one of the plurality of languages.

39. The computer of claim 30, wherein a first template corresponding to the selected template is displayed to an agent in a selected agent language, and the first template is populated in the first language, the selected agent language and first language being different languages.

40. The computer of claim 39, wherein the query is in the form of an e-mail message;

and the query response is communicated to the recipient as an e-mail message.

41. The computer of claim 30, wherein when the query is a structured query, the processor:

automatically identifies the first language; and

automatically identifies an appropriate template from the structured query.

42. The computer of claim 41, wherein the query is received via the Internet using a structured web form.

36. (canceled)

43. A system comprising:

means for storing a plurality of templates in a plurality of different languages; and

means for receiving a customer query in a first language; and

means for selecting, in response to the query, a template from the plurality of templates, wherein;

the selected template is of a type that answers the query, and

the selected template corresponds to the first language; and

means for populating the selected template with template data based on a set of locale rules associated with the first language, the set of locale rules defining how data is to be formatted in the selected template.

44. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a query in a first language;

selecting a template from a plurality of templates in different languages, the template comprising;

information responsive to the query, wherein the information is in the first language,

a first field for language-independent and locale-dependent data, and

a second field for language-dependent data; and

populating the first and second fields with data responsive to the query in a format corresponding to the first language.

45. The computer-implemented method of claim 44, wherein the first field is a date field.

46. The computer-implemented method of claim 44, wherein the second field is a product description field.

47. The computer-implemented method of claim 44, wherein the second field is a service status field.

48. The computer-implemented method of claim 44, wherein the first field is a date field and the second field is a product description field.

49. The computer-implemented method of claim 44, wherein the query is received from a first computer system, the method further comprising:

generating a response to the query, wherein the generating the response comprises the populating the first and second fields; and

transmitting the response to the first computer system.

50. The computer-implemented method of claim 49, wherein the generating the response comprises generating a response that answers the query.