Configuration of displays for targeted user communities

• US 7,134,084 B1
• Filed: 06/18/2001
• Issued: 11/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Mukundan, Anil, Ambrose, Jesse, Mihovilovic, Domingo, Rashid, Fuad, Thorson, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Sy D.
• Application Number:
  US09/884,739
• Time in Patent Office: 1,968 Days
• Field of Search: 345/760, 345762-763, 345/700, 715505-508, 715/513, 715/501.1, 715517-524, 715/760, 715762-763, 715/908, 715/700
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided to generate a plural number of differing data displays, each based upon a multi-information display template that has the information to drive each separate data display. Each data display may be different as regards selected information to appear on each data display, selected placement of the information on each data display depending upon a selected and defined style, an at least one selected and defined mode of information to appear on any one data display, and the utilization of specific display program capabilities (such as a browser). Additionally, a method and apparatus is provided for a user to enter the information into a computing system, and for the computing system to generate the multi-display template.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of building a plurality of data displays comprises:

defining, through an interactive process, for each of the plurality of data displays at least one of

an information presence on the display, the information presence comprising a plurality of information sets, each information set corresponding to one or more of the plurality of data displays, each information set having a corresponding placement, and

an information placement on each of the plurality of data displays, the information placement specifying one or more new positions for at least a portion of one or more of the information sets;

defining a data-base entity having each of the defined information placement, and information presence; and

in response to a user request, dynamically generating a multi-informational display template for the plurality of data displays based upon the data-base entity.

2. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining of an information presence is conditional based upon at least one of a display identification and a display mode.

3. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining of an information placement is conditional based upon a style.

4. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the data-base entity includes at least one of a conditional display appearance and a conditional placement data.

5. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the data-base entity further includes at least one display tag to be conditionally executed if a display terminal browser requesting a data display has a capability to support the display tag;

and the generating further includes generating only each display that is supported by the display terminal browser.

6. The method defined in claim 1 further including displaying a data display from the display template.

7. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining for each of the plurality of data displays is based on user input via a computer interface.

8. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining for each of the plurality of data displays is based on user input via a display interface.

9. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining for each of the plurality of data displays is based on user input via an interactive display layout.

10. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining an information presence includes at least one of defining a presence for all data displays, and a logical combination of at least one of a specific data display and not a specific data display.

11. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining an information placement includes at least one of defining a placement for all data displays, and a logical combination of at least one of a specific data display and not a specific data display.

12. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining an information placement includes modifying the placement of an information on an at least one specified data display.

13. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the information display placement includes defining a placement for at least one placement style.

14. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the defining an information appearance includes selecting an information to appear and not appear according to at least one mode.

15. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the data-base entity includes a record for each of at least one markup/display languages.

16. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the data-base entity includes a record that has data that indicates the data displays that the information appears on.

17. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the data-base entity includes a pointer to a record that has data that indicates the modes for which each of the data will appear on a data display.

18. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the data-base entity includes a record that indicates a position of each data for each data display.

19. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the data-base entity includes one of markup/display language statements and position tags.

20. The method defined in claim 19 wherein the data-base entity includes tags that have a position indicator, and a record that indicates the information displayed in each position.

21. The method defined in claim 20 wherein the data-base entity further includes at least one of

at least one mode for which each of the data will appear on the data display,

a set of data displays that each information appears on, and

a position that an information appears in a specific style.

22. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor to store instructions, which, when executed, cause the processor

to input into a multi-display database an identification information, the identification information comprising a plurality of information sets-appearing on a plurality of distinct data displays, each information set having a corresponding placement;

to input into the multi-display database a placement data, the placement data specifying one or more new positions for at least a portion of one or more information sets information;

to implement and maintain the database depending upon the identification information and the placement data; and

to dynamically generate a multi-informational display template for the plurality of distinct data displays in response to a user request, based upon the identification information and the placement data.

23. The computer system defined in claim 22, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor

to generate an input interactive display for inputting by a user of an identification of information to appear on the plurality of distinct data displays and a placement of the information to appear on the data displays;

wherein the processor inputs the information to appear on the plurality of data displays, and the placement of the information to the database.

24. The computer system defined in claim 23 wherein the interactive display is sent to a network-coupled computer system.

25. The computer system defined in claim 22, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor

to receive from a user into the memory the identification of information that is each to appear on the plurality of data displays, and

to receive the identification of information from the memory.

26. The computer system defined in claim 22, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to receive from a user into the memory the placement of each of the information of the information that is to appear on the data displays, and

to receive the placement data from the memory.

27. The computer system defined in claim 22 wherein the placement data is contingent upon a style that is user input.

28. The computer system defined in claim 22 wherein the identification of information is contingent upon each data display that is user input.

29. The computer system defined in claim 22 wherein the identification of information is contingent upon a display mode of each information that is user input.

30. The computer system defined in claim 22 wherein the multi-display database includes a common template for each data display that has a contingent display capability for at least one of the information, and a contingent placement capability for at least one of the information.

31. The computer system defined in claim 22, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to implement and maintain the database to have contingent appearance information and to have contingent placement information.

32. The computer system defined in claim 31 wherein the contingent appearance data depends upon a display mode and a display identification.

33. The computer system defined in claim 31 wherein the contingent placement data depends upon a style identification.

34. The computer system defined in claim 22 wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to implement and maintain more than one record, each record having markup/display instructions in a separate language, and to generate a display template having one of the markup/display languages according to a user generated selection.

35. The computer system defined in claim 22, wherein the database includes at least one display tag to be conditionally executed if a display terminal browser requesting a data display has a capability to support the display tag;

and the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to generate each data display from the database based upon the capability of a user selected browser by conditionally executing the display tag based upon the user selected browser.

36. The computer system defined in claim 22, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to send the display template to a network.

37. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

inputting into a multi-display database an identification information, the identification information comprising a plurality of information sets appearing on a plurality of distinct data displays, each information set having a corresponding placement through an interactive process;

inputting into the multi-display database a placement data, the placement data specifying one or more new positions for at least a portion of one or more of the information sets information through an interactive process;

implementing and maintaining the information in the database depending upon the inputs from the display appearance input instructions and the display placement input instructions; and

in response to a user request, dynamically generating a multi-informational display template for the plurality of distinct data displays based upon the identification information and the placement data.

38. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the operations include:

generating an input interactive display for inputting by a user of an identification of information to appear on the plurality of distinct data displays and a placement of the information to appear on the data displays;

wherein the display appearance input instructions input the information to appear on the plurality of data displays to the database, and the display placement instructions input the placement of the information to the database.

39. The medium defined in claim 38 wherein the operations include sending the interactive display to a network-coupled computer system.

40. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the operations include receiving from an interface the identification of information that is each to appear on the at least one data displays.

41. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the operations include receiving from an interface the placement of each of the information of the information that is to appear on the data displays.

42. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the inputting a placement of data is based upon a style that is user input.

43. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the inputting an identification of information that is each to appear is based upon each data display that is user input.

44. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the inputting an identification of information to appear is based upon a display mode of each information that is user input.

45. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the operations include generating a common template for each data display that has a contingent display capability for at least one of the information, and a contingent placement capability for at least one of the information.

46. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the instructions for implementing and maintaining the database generate contingent appearance information and contingent placement information in the database.

47. The medium defined in claim 46 wherein the contingent appearance data is based upon a display mode and a display identification.

48. The medium defined in claim 46 wherein the contingent placement data is based upon a style identification.

49. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the operation of implementing and maintaining the database include implementing and maintaining more than one record, each record having markup/display instructions in a separate language and wherein the display template generation instructions are to generate a display template having one of the markup/display languages according to a user generated selection.

50. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the database includes at least one display tag to be conditionally executed if a display terminal browser requesting a data display has a capability to support the display tag;

and the generating a display template operations further include operations generating each data display from the database based upon the capability of a user selected browser by conditionally executing the display tag based upon the user selected browser.

51. The medium defined in claim 37 wherein the operations further include sending the display template to a network-coupled computer.