MULTI-SOURCE ELECTRONIC FORMS WITH CONCEALED FIELDS

• US 20110314046A1
• Filed: 06/21/2010
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, International Business Machines SA (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Burckart, Erik John, Ivory, Andrew, Shook, Aaron Kyle, Howard, Curtiss James
• Granted Patent: US 10,242,118 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Electronic multi-user forms are provided. The use of these forms may include displaying the forms to more than one user, receiving population data from one or more user, and selectively displaying the population data to each user. The population data may be displayed to the various users based on the security authorization of the user seeing the form. Upon completion of the form by the users, the form may be further completed and submitted for processing or approval.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture comprising:

a non-volatile computer readable medium, the computer readable medium storing instructions thereon for managing the completion of an electronic form by more than one user, the instructions, which when executed, comprise;

displaying a multi-user electronic form to a first user, the multi-user electronic form having a plurality of fields, some of the fields having a first confidentiality designation and some of the fields having a second confidentiality designation;

receiving population data for one or fields from a first user;

populating one or more fields using the received first user population data;

determining if a populated field has the first confidentiality designation or a different confidentiality designation;

based on the determination, displaying fields, with population data from the first user, to a second user after determining, if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation.

2. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

identifying the authority to access confidential designations of a first user; and

identifying the authority to access confidential designation of a second user.

3. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

receiving population for one or more fields from the second user; and

populating one or more fields using the received second user population data.

4. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

querying session data to determine if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation.

5. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

querying a network resource for data associated with the first user; and

populating one or more fields of the fields of the form with data received from the network resource in response to the query.

6. The article of claim 1, wherein, the first user is a customer providing populated data using a client application and the second user is a customer service representative.

7. The article of claim 1 storing instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

submitting a multi-user form after populating fields with population data received at different times from the first user and from the second user.

8. The article of claim 7, wherein the submission of field data and the population of fields occurs in real-time, with the first user and the second user populating fields during a session.

9. A method comprising:

displaying a multi-user form to a first user, the multi-user form having a plurality of fields, some of the fields having a first confidentiality designation and some of the fields having a second confidentiality designation;

receiving population data for one or fields from a first user;

populating one or more fields using the received first user population data;

determining if a populated field has the first confidentiality designation or a different confidentiality designation;

based on the determination, displaying fields, with population data from the first user, to a second user after determining, if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

identifying the authority to access confidential designations of a first user; and

identifying the authority to access confidential designation of a second user.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving population for one or more fields from the second user; and

populating one or more fields using the received second user population data.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

querying session data to determine if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

querying a network resource for data associated with the first user; and

populating one or more fields of the fields of the form with data received from the network resource in response to the query.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein, the first user is a customer providing populated data using a client application and the second user is a customer service representative.

15. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

submitting a multi-user form after populating fields with population data from the first user and from the second user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the submission and the population of fields occurs in real-time, with the first user and the second user populating fields during a session.

17. A computer comprising:

non-volatile computer readable medium, the medium storing instructions thereon for managing the completion of an electronic form by more than one user, the instructions, which when executed, comprise;

displaying a multi-user form to a first user, the multi-user form having a plurality of fields, some of the fields having a first confidentiality designation and some of the fields having a second confidentiality designation;

receiving population data for one or fields from a first user;

populating one or more fields using the received first user population data;

determining if a populated field has the first confidentiality designation or a different confidentiality designation;

based on the determination, displaying fields, with population data from the first user, to a second user after determining, if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation.

18. The computer of claim 17, where the stored instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

identifying the authority to access confidential designations of a first user; and

identifying the authority to access confidential designation of a second user.

19. The computer of claim 17, where the stored instructions, which when executed, further comprise:

receiving population data for one or more fields from the second user; and

populating one or more fields using the received second user population data.

20. The computer of claim 17, where the stored instruction, which when executed, further comprise:

querying session data to determine if the second user has authority to access populated fields having the determined confidentiality designation.