Universal forms engine
DCFirst Claim
1. A method of processing over a computer network forms directed by multiple public forms users to multiple institutions of higher education, the forms being processed by a third party forms servicer that is neither one of the institutions of higher education nor one of the public forms users, the method comprising:
- presenting to a form user over a computer network by a third party forms servicer in response to a request from the form user, a form directed to one of the multiple institutions of higher education, the form being generated by a forms generator that generates multiple forms corresponding to multiple institutions of higher education, the forms generator generating forms that are customized in appearance and content in accordance with the preference of the institution to which each of the forms is directed and that include an indication of source corresponding to the institution to which each of the forms is directed so as to provide to the users of the forms the appearance that the forms are associated with the specific institutions to which they are directed, the forms including fields for the forms users to enter user information;
entering user information onto the form;
entering payment information;
receiving by the third party forms servicer over the computer network user information and electronic payment information entered by the user;
processing by the third party forms servicer an electronic payment associated with the form, the processed payment being from the user to the one of the multiple institutions to which the form is directed;
processing by the third party forms servicer the user information in accordance with the preferences of the institution of higher education to which the form is directed to make the user information available to the institution in a format specified by the institution, the third party forms servicer thereby providing to public users customized forms identified with institution of higher education and providing to the institutions custom-formatted data, while relieving the institution of the administrative burden of processing forms and payments.
1 Assignment
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0 Petitions
Reexaminations
Accused Products
Abstract
A forms engine allows data sharing between customizable on-line forms, such as college admissions applications. Before applying, an applicant opens an account with a third party application servicer. After the applicant completes an application for one institution, the data is saved in a data base and automatically populates fields in subsequent application forms. The form for each institution is created from a form description file. Each form is branded for its institution and forms for different institutions differ in appearance and content so that the presence of the third party servicer is transparent to the applicant.
The system is extensible without programming, allowing new applicant attributes to be readily incorporated into the system and allowing the content and appearance of the application to be readily changed by changing the description file. The use of aliases for applicant attributes permits data to be readily shared between forms even though labeled and arranged differently on different forms. Information stored about each attribute allows the specification of data validation rules and data sharing and grouping rules, as well as dependency rules that permit application page content to depend on applicant'"'"'s responses on a previous page.
158 Citations
44 Claims
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1. A method of processing over a computer network forms directed by multiple public forms users to multiple institutions of higher education, the forms being processed by a third party forms servicer that is neither one of the institutions of higher education nor one of the public forms users, the method comprising:
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presenting to a form user over a computer network by a third party forms servicer in response to a request from the form user, a form directed to one of the multiple institutions of higher education, the form being generated by a forms generator that generates multiple forms corresponding to multiple institutions of higher education, the forms generator generating forms that are customized in appearance and content in accordance with the preference of the institution to which each of the forms is directed and that include an indication of source corresponding to the institution to which each of the forms is directed so as to provide to the users of the forms the appearance that the forms are associated with the specific institutions to which they are directed, the forms including fields for the forms users to enter user information;
entering user information onto the form;
entering payment information;
receiving by the third party forms servicer over the computer network user information and electronic payment information entered by the user;
processing by the third party forms servicer an electronic payment associated with the form, the processed payment being from the user to the one of the multiple institutions to which the form is directed;
processing by the third party forms servicer the user information in accordance with the preferences of the institution of higher education to which the form is directed to make the user information available to the institution in a format specified by the institution, the third party forms servicer thereby providing to public users customized forms identified with institution of higher education and providing to the institutions custom-formatted data, while relieving the institution of the administrative burden of processing forms and payments. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
presenting over a computer network by a third party forms servicer in response to a request from the form user, a second form directed to one of the multiple institutions of higher education; and
automatically inserting into the second form user information previously entered onto a form by the form user.
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5. The method of claim 1 in which receiving by the third party forms servicer over the computer network user information and electronic payment information entered by the user includes verifying that the user information satisfies criteria specified by the one of the multiple institutions of higher education to which the form is directed.
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6. The method of claim 1 in which presenting to a form user over a computer network by a third party forms servicer in response to a request from the form user, a form directed to one of the multiple institutions of higher education, includes presenting a form including multiple pages.
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7. The method of claim 6 further comprising verifying in accordance with validation criteria user information on each of the multiple pages as they are posted.
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8. The method of claim 7 in which verifying in accordance with validation criteria user information on each of the multiple pages as they are posted includes verifying the user information at a client computer or at a server computer.
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9. The method of claim 7 in which the validation criteria is specified by the institution to which the form is directed.
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10. The method of claim 6 further comprising verifying in accordance with first validation criteria user information on each of the multiple pages as they are posted and verifying in accordance with second validation criteria user information when a completed form is submitted.
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11. The method of claim 10 in which verifying user information in accordance with first validation criteria includes verifying user information at a client computer and in which verifying user information in accordance with second validation criteria includes verifying user information at a server computer.
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12. The method of claim 1 further comprising verifying in accordance with validation criteria the user information on a completed form when the completed form is submitted.
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13. The method of claim 12 in which the validation criteria is specified by the institution to which the form is directed.
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14. The method of claim 12 in which verifying in accordance with validation criteria the user information on the completed form includes verifying the user information at a client computer or at a server computer.
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15. A computer readable media comprising computer instructions for performing the steps of claim 1.
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16. A method of processing over a computer network forms directed by multiple public forms users to multiple institutions, the forms being processed by a third party forms servicer that is neither one of the multiple institutions nor one of the public forms users, the method comprising:
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presenting to a form user over a computer network by a third party forms servicer a form directed to one of the multiple institutions, the forms including fields for the forms user to enter user information;
receiving by the third party forms servicer over the computer network user information and electronic payment information entered by the user;
processing by the third party forms servicer an electronic payment associated with the form, the processed payment being from the user to the one of the multiple institutions to which the form is directed;
providing by the third party forms servicer the user information to the institution to which the form is directed in a format specified by the institution, the third party forms servicer thereby providing to public form user customized forms identified with institution of higher education and providing to the institutions custom-formatted data, while relieving the institution of the administrative burden of processing forms and payments. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
presenting over a computer network by a third party forms servicer in response to a request from the form user, a second form directed to one of the multiple institutions; and
automatically inserting into the second form user information previously entered onto a form by the form user.
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20. The method of claim 16 in which receiving by the third party forms servicer over the computer network user information and electronic payment information entered by the user includes verifying that the user information satisfies criteria specified by the one of the multiple institutions to which the form is directed.
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21. The method of claim 16 in which presenting a form to a form user over a computer network includes presenting a form including multiple pages.
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22. The method of claim 21 further comprising verifying in accordance with validation criteria user information on each of the multiple pages after each page is completed.
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23. The method of claim 22 in which verifying in accordance with validation criteria includes verifying the user information at a client computer or at a server computer.
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24. The method of claim 22 in which the validation criteria is specified by the institution to which the form is directed.
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25. The method of claim 21 further comprising verifying in accordance with first validation criteria user information on each of the multiple pages as they are completed and verifying in accordance with second validation criteria user information when the completed form is submitted.
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26. The method of claim 25 in which the first criteria, the second criteria, or both criteria are specified by the institution to which the application is directed.
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27. The method of claim 25 in which verifying user information in accordance with first validation criteria includes verifying user information at a client computer and in which verifying user information in accordance with second validation criteria includes verifying user information at a server computer.
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28. The method of claim 16 further comprising verifying in accordance with validation criteria the user information on a completed form when the completed form is submitted.
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29. The method of claim 28 in which the validation criteria is specified by the institution to which the form is directed.
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30. The method of claim 28 in which verifying in accordance with validation criteria the user information on a completed form includes verifying the user information at a client computer or at a server computer.
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31. A computer readable media including computer instructions for performing the steps of claim 16.
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32. An apparatus for processing over a computer network forms directed by multiple public forms users to multiple institutions, the forms being processed by a third party forms servicer that is neither one of the multiple institutions nor one of the public forms users, the system comprising:
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a processor for executing computer instructions, the processor associated with the third party forms servicer; and
computer accessible memory in data communication with the processor and storing computer instructions for;
presenting over a computer network to a form user by the third party forms servicer a form directed to one of the multiple institutions, the form including fields for the form user to enter user information;
receiving by the third party forms servicer over the computer network user information and electronic payment information entered by the user;
processing by the third party forms servicer an electronic payment associated with the form, the processed payment being from the form user to the one of the multiple institutions to which the form is directed; and
providing by the third party forms servicer the user information to the institution to which the form is directed in a format specified by the institution, the third party forms servicer thereby providing to public forms users customized forms identified with multiple institutions and providing to the multiple institutions custom-formatted data, while relieving the institution of the administrative burden of processing forms and payments. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method of processing over a computer network forms directed by multiple public forms users to institutions, the forms process being administered by a third party forms servicer that is neither one of the institutions nor one of the public forms users, the method comprising:
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receiving by an institution from a third party forms servicer user information in a format specified by the institution, the user information being derived from a form customized for the institution and identified primarily with the institution rather than with the third part forms servicer, the customized form being presented to a form user over a computer network by the third party forms servicer, the customized form including fields for data to be inserted manually by the forms user or automatically, he information in the completed form being posted to the third party forms servicer; and
receiving from the form user via the third party form servicer an electronic payment associated with the customized form;
thereby providing to the form user a customized form identified with the institution and providing the institution with custom-formatted data and an electronic payment, while relieving the institution of the administrative burden of processing forms and payments. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
posted by the form user on a piously completed form customized for and identified primarily with a second institution, stored by the third party forms servicer, and automatically inserted into the form customized for and identified with the first institution, thereby allowing the form user to enter information on a form associated with one institution, the information being saved and automatically inserted into a subsequent form associated with a different institution.
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42. The method of claim 38 in which receiving by an institution from a third party forms servicer user information in a format specified by the institution includes receiving information that was verified by the third party forms servicer as satisfying criteria specified by the institution.
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43. The method of claim 38 in which receiving by an institution from a third party forms servicer user information in a format specified by the institution includes receiving by an institution from a third party forms servicer user information in a format specified by the institution, the information being derived from a multiple page form directed to the institution by a form user.
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44. A computer readable media including computer inductions for performing the steps of claim 38.
Specification