Systems and methods for managing identity information

• US 7,146,560 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2001
• Issued: 12/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Achanta, Rambabu, Hatton, Robert J., Potnuru, Kiranmayec, Agbulos, Patricia, Dang, Chi-Thanh
• Primary Examiner(s): BASHORE, WILLIAM L
• Application Number:
  US09/859,426
• Publication Number:
  US 20020174146A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,027 Days
• Field of Search: 715/515, 715/501.1, 715/513, 715530-540, 709/219
• US Class Current: 715/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

Consistent identity information is provided for content information through the use of an identity manager. The identity manager stores styles and style elements and presentation information associated with a specific client identity. The styles and presentation information for each identity are stored based on client information. When a request for content is received, the information is retrieved. The styles and presentation information associated with the specific client identity are retrieved and merged with the content. The content and the client or user identity or look and feel information are integrated without expensive custom programming.

Claims

1. A system for managing identity information in a merged content portion, comprising:

an identity storage that stores identity information including content elements and style sheet information, associated with a plurality of referring clients and a user;

a client and user determining circuit that determines a first object representing a particular one of the plurality of referring clients and a user of a received request for information from an information provider;

a skeleton/virtual content determining circuit that determines which of the stored identity information and the style sheet information correspond to the particular referring client and the user to automatically create a skeleton/virtual content record based on the determined stored identity information and style sheet information;

an input/output circuit that requests and receives the information from the information provider; and

a merging circuit that automatically determines the merged content portion based on the information received from the information provider and the created skeleton/virtual content record and merges the merged content portion into the created skeleton/virtual content record to create a second object different from the first object, the created second object is outputted to the particular referring client and the user to maintain a look and feel of a particular referring client website.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the identity storage comprises identity content element storage and identity presentation information storage.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the client and user determining circuit determines at least one of a referring client identification and a user identification based on at least one of internet protocol address information, session identifier information, name pairs and value pairs and the identity storage indexes the stored identity information by at least one of the client identification and the user identification.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the merged content portion is stored using at least one of an electronic medium, a printed medium and a paper medium.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the merged content portion is at least one of an interactive electronic text, a printed text, an audio book and a video book.

6. A method for managing identity information, comprising:

storing identity information including content elements and style sheet information associated with a plurality of referring clients and a user in a repository;

receiving an information request from at least one of a referring client and a user;

determining an object representing at least one of the referring client and the user associated with the information request;

receiving requested information from an information provider;

determining identity information from the information stored in the repository based on the at least one of the referring client and user;

automatically creating a skeleton/virtual content record based on the determined identity information and style sheet information of the at least one of the referring client and user;

automatically determining a merged content portion based on the received information and the skeleton/virtual content record;

merging the merged content portion into the skeleton/virtual content record to create a second object different from the first object; and

outputting the second object to the referring client and the user to maintain a look and feel of a referring client website.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the stored identity information comprises at least one of identity content element information and identity presentation information.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising storing the merged content portions on at least one of electronic media, printed media and a paper media.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the client and user identity information is based on at least one of internet protocol address information, session identifier information, name pairs and value pairs and the stored information is indexed by the identity information.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the merged content portions produces at least one of an interactive text, a printed text, an audio book and a video book.

11. A system for managing identity information in a merged content portion, comprising:

an identity storage for storing identity information, including content elements and style sheet information, associated with a plurality of referring clients and a user, the identity information including a referring client identifier portion and an associated content element portion;

a client and user determining circuit for determining a first object representing the referring client and the user of a received request signal for information from an information provider;

a skeleton/virtual content for determining circuit that determines which of the stored identity information and the style sheet information correspond to the referring client and user based on the referring client identifier portion to automatically create a skeleton/virtual content record based on the determined stored identity information and the style sheet information;

an input/output circuit for requesting and receiving an information signal from the information provider;

a merging circuit for automatically determining the merged content portion based on a received information signal and the skeleton/virtual content record that includes an identity associated with the determined client and user to merge the merged content portion into the skeleton/virtual content record to create a second object different from the first object, and the second object is outputted to the referring client and the user to maintain a look and feel of a referring client website.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the identity storage comprises identity content element storage and identity presentation information storage.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the client and user determining circuit determines the referring client and user identifier based on at least one of internet protocol address information, session identifier information and name and value pairs.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the merged content portion is stored on at least one of an electronic media, a printed media and a paper media.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the merged content portion is at least one of an interactive electronic text, a printed text, an audio book and a video book.

16. A method for managing the look and feel of a web site, comprising:

providing an identity storage repository for storing identity information, including content elements and style sheet information, associated with a plurality of referring clients and a user, the identity information including a referring client identifier portion and an associated content element portion;

receiving a first object representing an information request from the user;

determining an identity of a particular referring client associated with the information request;

determining content elements and presentation elements associated with the referring client from the identity storage repository;

retrieving the requested information from an information provider;

automatically creating a skeleton/virtual content record based on the content elements and the presentation elements of the particular referring client;

merging the retrieved requested information and the skeleton/virtual content record to create a second object representing a document consistent with the content elements and presentation elements associated with the particular referring client; and

outputting the document to the user.