Automatic Insertion of Data from Web Forms into Documents
First Claim
1. A method for automatically updating documents based on data from web forms, the method comprising:
- storing, at a data storage system accessible to a computing system, a document file comprising data that represents a document, the document being a discrete set of human-readable content, the document comprising a document element, the document element being a logical sub-part of the document;
receiving, at the computing system, a block of web form data, the block of web form data comprising a value submitted to a server computing system via a web form, the web form comprising a web form element, the value assigned to the web form element; and
in response to receiving the block of web form data, automatically insert, by the computing system, data based on the value into the document element of the document file when the document file comprises element mapping metadata that maps the document element to the web form element.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A host computing system automatically inserts data submitted from web forms into documents. The host computing system stores a document file comprising data that represents a document. The document comprises at least one document element. The host computing system receives a block of web form data. The block of web form data comprises a value assigned to a web form element in a web form. In response to receiving the block of web form data, the host computing system automatically updates the document element to specify the value when the document file comprises element mapping metadata that maps the document element to the web form element.
27 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for automatically updating documents based on data from web forms, the method comprising:
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storing, at a data storage system accessible to a computing system, a document file comprising data that represents a document, the document being a discrete set of human-readable content, the document comprising a document element, the document element being a logical sub-part of the document; receiving, at the computing system, a block of web form data, the block of web form data comprising a value submitted to a server computing system via a web form, the web form comprising a web form element, the value assigned to the web form element; and in response to receiving the block of web form data, automatically insert, by the computing system, data based on the value into the document element of the document file when the document file comprises element mapping metadata that maps the document element to the web form element. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A server computing system comprising:
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a processing unit; and a data storage system storing software instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the server computing system to; receive a block of web form data from a client computing system, the block of web form data comprising a value submitted to the server computing system via a web form, the web form comprising a web form element, the value assigned to the web form element; and automatically send the block of web form data to a host computing system, the host computing system hosting a document file, the document file comprising data that represents a document, the document being a discrete set of human-readable content, the document comprising a document element, the document element being a logical sub-part of the document, the document file comprising element mapping metadata that maps the document element to the web form element, the host computing system configured to respond to receiving the block of web form data by automatically inserting the value into the document element of the document file. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer-readable data storage medium storing software instructions that, when executed by a processing unit of a computing system, cause the computing system to:
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receive, at the computing system, document creation input from a user, the document creation input indicating that the user wants to create a word processor document; in response to receiving the document creation input, generate, at the computing system, a document file comprising data that represents the word processor document, the word processor document being a document comprising human-readable content having a specific format that defines how the human-readable content is laid out when the word processor document is physically printed; after generating the document file, receive, at the computing system, element creation input from the user, the element creation input indicating that the user wants to add a document element to the word processor document, the document element being a text box within the word processor document, the document element being visibly differentiated from other parts of the word processor document; in response to receiving the element creation input, update, by the computing system, the document file such that the word processor document includes the document element; after updating the document file to include the document element, receive, at the computing system, a mapping tool open input, the mapping tool open input indicating that the user wants the computing system to display a mapping tool, the mapping tool being a user interface that enables the user to map web form elements to document elements in the word processor document; in response to receiving the mapping tool open input, automatically cause, by the computing system, a display device to display the mapping tool; receive, at the computing system, web form selection input via the mapping tool, the web form selection input specifying a web form; in response to receiving the web form selection input, automatically update, at the computing system, the document file to contain form mapping metadata, the form mapping metadata specifying the web form; in response to receiving the web form selection input, automatically identify, by the computing system, web form elements in the web form; in response to receiving the web form selection input, automatically cause, by the computing system, the display device to display a list of the web form elements in the web form and a list of document elements in the word processor document; after causing the display device to display the list of web form elements in the web form and the list of document elements in the word processor document, receive, at the computing system, web form element selection input via the mapping tool, the element selection input indicating that the user has selected a web form element from the list of web form elements; after causing the display device to display the list of web form elements in the web form and the list of document elements in the word processor document, receive, at the computing system, document element selection input via the mapping tool, the document element selection input indicating that the user has selected the document element from the list of document elements in the word processor document; in response to receiving the element selection input, update, at the computing system, the document file to contain element mapping metadata, the element mapping metadata mapping the document element to the web form element; save, by the computing system, the document file at a data storage system accessible to the computing system; receive, at the computing system, a document open request from the user, the document open request indicating that the user wants to open the word processor document; in response to receiving the document open request, automatically determine, at the computing system, whether the document file comprises the element mapping metadata; in response to determining that the document file comprises the element mapping metadata, automatically send, by the computing system, a web form data request to a server computing system via an electronic communications network; receive, at the computing system, a block of web form data from the server computing system, the computing system receiving the block of web form data in response to the web form data request, the block of web form data comprising a value submitted to the server computing system via the web form, the value assigned to the web form element; determine, at the computing system, whether the element mapping metadata indicates that the value is to be appended to data specified by the document element, whether the value is to replace the data specified by the document element, or whether the computing system is to create a new copy of the document file in which the value replaces the data specified by the document element; in response to receiving the block of web form data, automatically replace, by the computing system, the data specified by the document element with the value when the element mapping metadata indicates that the value is to replace the data specified by the document element; automatically append, by the computing system, the value to the data specified by the document element when the element mapping metadata indicates that the value is to be appended to the data specified by the document element; automatically create, by the computing system, the new copy of the document file when the element mapping metadata indicates that the computing system is to create the new copy of the document file in which the value replaces the data specified by the document element.
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Specification