Methods and systems for providing a document with interactive elements to retrieve information for processing by business applications

• US 7,234,105 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2002
• Issued: 06/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Goring, Thomas, Hoch, Rainer, Bezrukov, Vladislav
• Primary Examiner(s): HUTTON JR, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US10/237,073
• Publication Number:
  US 20030055748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,744 Days
• Field of Search: 715/506
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for processing data used by a business application consistent with the present invention may include receiving electronic form data comprising layout data and representations of interactive elements, combining the electronic form data with customer specific data from a database to generate an intermediate form document in a data format capable of being output to a printer as a blank form without further modification, and converting the intermediate form document into a third document in a data format for display to a customer by a browser. The third document displayed to the customer looks the same as the blank form, receiving customer input data received from a customer via the third document, and associating the customer input data with the customer specific data in the business application.

Claims

1. A method for prompting a customer to input customer input data, the method comprising:

by a form builder module at a design computer, providing electronic form data comprising layout data and representations of interactive elements;

by a pre-processing module at an application computer;

combining the electronic form data with customer specific data from a database to generate a first intermediate form document;

generating a second intermediate form document based on the first intermediate form document, the second intermediate form document in a data format capable of being output to a printer as a blank form without further modification, and the second intermediate form document ignoring intermediate elements; and

generating a third document, the third document in a data format for display to a customer by a browser;

by a customer computer, interpreting the third document to display the third document to the customer in a visual format that looks the same as the blank form; and

by the customer computer, receiving customer input data from the customer via the third document; and

transmitting the customer input data to the application computer for association with the customer specific data.

2. An interactive computer system that provides customer input data to a business application, the system comprising:

a first computer configured to provide electronic form data comprising layout data and representations of interactive elements;

a second computer configured to;

combine the electronic form data with customer-specific data from a database to generate a first intermediate form document;

generate a second intermediate form document based on the first intermediate form document, the second intermediate form document in a data format capable of being output to a printer as a blank form without further modification, and the second intermediate form document ignoring interactive elements; and

generating a third document based on the first intermediate form document, the third document in a data format for display to a customer by a browser, wherein the third document displayed to the customer looks the same as the blank form; and

a third computer configured to display the third document to a customer in a visual format that looks the same as the blank form, receive customer input data from the customer via the third document; and

transmit the customer input data to the second computer for association with the customer specific data in the business application.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first computer has a graphical interface capable of simultaneously displaying both a tree view and a property view of the layout data.

4. A computer-implemented method for processing data used by a business application, the method comprising:

receiving electronic form data comprising layout data and representations of interactive elements;

combining the electronic form data with customer-specific data from a database to generate a first intermediate form document;

generating a second intermediate form document based on the first intermediate form document the second intermediate form document in a data format capable of being output to a printer as a blank form without further modification, and the second intermediate form document ignoring interactive elements;

generating a third document based on the first intermediate form document, the third document in a data format for display to a customer by a browser, and wherein the third document displayed to the customer looks the same as the blank form;

receiving customer input data received from a customer via the third document; and

associating the customer input data with the customer specific data in the business application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating the third document comprises generating markup code for the representations of interactive elements.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the electronic form data comprising layout data and representations of interactive elements is generated on a first computer;

combining the electronic form data with customer specific data from a database to generate a first intermediate form document is performed on a second computer;

customer input data is received on a third computer that communicates with the second computer via the Internet; and

associating the customer input data with the customer specific data in the business application is performed on the second computer.