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System for creating structured fields on electronic forms

  • US 6,137,488 A
  • Filed: 07/29/1998
  • Issued: 10/24/2000
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/05/1997
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A computer-driven method of providing a user interface to gather data, the method comprising:

  • transmitting a program of machine-readable instructions from a host computer to a local computer;

    the local computer receiving and executing the instructions, the executing of the instructions directing the local computer to perform operations comprising;

    displaying on a video display a field template including at least one data field;

    displaying on the video display an expand field and a submit field;

    receiving user entry to one or more of the data fields;

    determining whether the user has selected the expand field, and for each user selection of the expand field,displaying on the video display an additional field template and a connective field, each connective field displaying a list of predefined user-selectable Boolean terms defining relationships between the additional field template and a previous field template;

    displaying a nesting field in association with each additional field template;

    receiving user entry to each connective field, each entry comprisingselection of one of the predefined connective terms;

    determining whether user entry to the nesting fields has occurred, each entry comprising selection of a nesting level, and responsive to user entry to a particular nesting field, changing the display of the associated field template to include indentation according to the selected nesting level;

    receiving user entry to one or more of the data fields of each additional field template; and

    determining whether user selection of the submit field has been received, and if so, transmitting a machine-readable representation of the user entries and their relationship to the host computer; and

    the host computer receiving the representation from the local computer.

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