Computer system

• US 6,411,960 B1
• Filed: 04/27/1999
• Issued: 06/25/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Knapp Investment Company Limited
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Fisher, Patrick W. E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tam V
• Application Number:
  US09/299,588
• Time in Patent Office: 1,155 Days
• Field of Search: 707/9, 707/104, 707/104.1, 707/513, 707/514, 707/523, 707/102, 705/26, 345/760, 345/781, 345/764
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

An electronic catalogue is implemented on a server computer by a software component which functions as a catalogue system and an associated database. The catalogue contains details on a set of individual products. The database contains a set of tables, which contain data items relating to the products. A set of first, second and third order templates are also stored in the database. Each second order template is subordinate to an associated first order template and each third order template is subordinate to an associated second order template.

The electronic catalogue can be accessed via the public Internet from a client computer. When the user of the client computer wishes to retrieve information on a particular product, the client computer transmits a request to the server computer. The server computer uses the request to retrieve a first order template 150. The catalogue system then uses control information contained in the first order template 150 together with a request received from the client computer to search the tables in its database for data items relating to the selected product. Control information in the tables searched also specify a set of second order templates 152, 154, 156, 158 and 160, and a set of third order template 162, 164, 166, 168 and 170. These templates are retrieved by the catalogue system from the database. It then uses the retrieved data items together with the retrieved templates to create an information page containing data on the selected product. In this information page, the first order template 150 defines the overall format of the page, the second order template defines the format of respective parts of the page and each of the third order template defines the format of a portion of a part of the page covered by an associated second order template 160.

Claims

1. A method of generating an information page in a computer system, said computer system including a database stored therein, said database having a set of templates and a set of data tables, each table containing a set of data items, the set of templates including a set of first order templates each for defining an overall format of an information page, and a set of second order templates each for defining a format of a part of an information page, wherein the overall format of an information page includes at least one specified area whose format is to be defined by a second order template, and wherein the database has control information associating each table or each data item with at least one second order template, said method including the steps of:

selecting a first order template;

performing a search on said database using at least one input parameter to retrieve a set of data items;

using the control information in the database to select at least one second order template associated with the retrieved set of data items;

retrieving the selected second order template(s);

using the first order template and the second order template(s) to create an information page containing a representation of the data items retrieved in the search;

selecting at least one third order template, the or each third order template being subordinate to an associated second order template; and

the or each third order template defining the format of a portion of a part of the information page defined by its associated second order template.

2. A method of generating an information page as claimed in claim 1, in which the parameters used to retrieve said set of data items are obtained from an input command entered by a user and control information contained in said first order template.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, in which said data tables include a first table containing data items belonging to a first class of information, a second table containing data items belonging to a second class of information, and a table linking the data items in the first table with the data items in the second.

4. A method of generating an information page as claimed in claim 1, in which said database contains data on a set of related products or services, and the information page contains a set of data items relating to one of said categories.

5. A method of generating an information page as claimed in claim 1, in which said database contains data on a set of related products or services, and the information page contains a set of data items relating to one of said products or services.

6. A computer system for generating an information page, said computer system including:

a database stored in said computer system, said database having a set of templates and a set of data tables, each table containing a set of data items, the set of templates including a set of first order templates each for defining an overall format of an information page and a set of second order templates for defining a format of part of an information page, wherein the overall format of an information page includes at least one specified area whose format is to be defined by a second order template, and wherein the database has control information associating each table or each data item with at least one second order template, said computer system being operable to;

select a first order template;

perform a search on said database using at least one input parameter to retrieve a set of data items;

use the control information in the database to automatically retrieve at least one second order template associated with the retrieved set of data items;

use the first order template and the second order template(s) to create an information page containing a representation of the data items retrieved in the search;

selecting at least one third order template, the or each third order template being subordinate to an associated second order template; and

the or each third order template defining the format of a portion of a part of the information page defined by its associated second order template.