Method and system for cross-platform form creation and deployment

• US 7,313,757 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2002
• Issued: 12/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Bradley, George Wesley, Brousseau, Jean Louis, Matassa, Kevin, Foster, Ernest Herscheal James, Neilson, Andrew John, Leyden, Mark Christopher, McLellan, Keith Rolland, Brooks, Mark Andrew, Rachniowski, Zbigniew, Rumsey, Anthony Robert, Dawd, Nasif Hussain
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton, Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): HILLERY, NATHAN
• Application Number:
  US10/121,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20020194219A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,080 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715/505, 715/506
• US Class Current: 715/222
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• 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 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The present invention is directed to systems and methods of creating and deploying electronic forms for collecting information from a user using a browser, where the browser may be one of a plurality of browser platforms. Characteristics of forms are entered by a human designer using a form designer by using drag-and-drop operations, and stored in XML template files. The form may be previewed by the designer. When a user on the Internet (or an intranet) requests a form by a browser, the characteristics of the browser are sensed and a form appropriate for the browser is deployed to the browser by a form server. Information is then captured from the user. The form may also be saved or printed.

Claims

1. A method for collecting information from a plurality of users each using a respective one of a plurality of browser platforms, each of the plurality of browser platforms having different respective browser platform characteristics, the method comprising:

obtaining the respective browser platform characteristics, the plurality of browser platforms including a first platform supporting a first browser language and a second platform supporting a different second browser language;

retrieving a form definition template comprising an electronic document in Extensible Markup Language (XML), which form definition template defines a form that includes electronic form data to be displayed to a user and contains all information necessary to display and manipulate the electronic form data displayed to a user, the template being deployable on each of the plurality of browser platforms;

generating from the form definition template an electronic form in a different respective format for each different respective browser platform using the respective browser platform characteristics, each of the different respective formats being suitable for presentation on a corresponding one of the different respective browser platforms; and

capturing information input from each of the plurality of users on the respective browser platforms.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing information input from each of the users comprises:

rendering each respective electronic form on each respective browser platform; and

accepting input from the respective user using the respective electronic form.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

obtaining the respective characteristics of the respective browser platforms is performed by either a web server or a form server; and

retrieving the form definition template and generating the respective electronic forms are performed by the form server in electronic communication with the web server, wherein the web server acts as an electronic intermediary between the plurality of browser platforms and the form server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing information input from each of the plurality of users further comprises storing information input from each of the plurality of users to a database.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein storing information input further comprises forwarding information input to a processing engine.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each respective electronic form comprises a script executable upon the occurrence of an event.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the script is executed by a scripting engine residing on the form server.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from each respective user an indication to print or electronically save the respective form; and

printing or electronically saving the respective form in accordance with the respective user'"'"'s indication.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein printing or saving electronically the respective form comprises first generating an electronic representation of the electronic form that conforms to Portable Document Format (“

PDF”

).

10. A system for collecting information, comprising:

a plurality of different browser platforms, each operable to capture information from a respective user, the browser platforms each having different respective browser platform characteristics, the plurality of browser platforms including a first platform supporting a first browser language and a second platform supporting a different second browser language;

a web server in communication with the plurality of browser platforms;

a computer storage storing a form definition template, the form definition template comprising an electronic document in Extensible Markup Language (XML); and

a form server in communication with the web server, the form server operable to retrieve the form definition template front the computer storage, which form definition template defines a form that includes electronic form data to be displayed to a user and contains all information necessary to display and manipulate the electronic form data displayed to a user, the template being deployable on each of the plurality of browser platforms, and to generate for each different browser platform an electronic form in a different respective format from the form definition template using the browser platform characteristics of the respective browser platform, each of the different respective formats being suitable for presentation on a corresponding one of the different respective browser platforms.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of browser platforms is operable to:

render the respective electronic form; and

accept input from the user using the respective electronic form.

12. The system of any of claims 10 to 11, wherein the browser platform characteristics of the respective browser platforms are obtained by either the web sewer or the form sewer.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the web sewer and the form sewer comprise software programs executing in a same computer.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the web sewer and the form sewer comprise software programs executing in distinct and separate computers in a network of computers.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein

each respective browser platform is further operable to receive from the respective user an indication to print or electronically save the respective electronic form;

and

the form server is further operable to generate an electronic representation of the respective electronic form that conforms to Portable Document Format (“

PDF”

) in order to print or electronically save the respective form in accordance with the user'"'"'s indication.

16. A method for remotely collecting information, comprising:

obtaining respective browser platform characteristics of a plurality of different respective browser platforms, each of the browser platforms operating on a respective one of a plurality of remote systems, the plurality of browser platforms including a first platform supporting a first browser language and a second platform supporting a different second browser language;

retrieving a form definition template comprising an electronic document in Extensible Markup Language (XML) from a computer storage, which form definition template defines a form that includes electronic form data to be displayed to a user and contains all information necessary to display and manipulate the electronic fonn data displayed to a user, the template being deployable on each of the plurality of browser platforms;

delivering a different respective form package from a form server communicatively coupled to the computer storage to each of the plurality of remote systems, each respective form package including a respective electronic form, each different respective form package being in a format suitable for presentation on a different respective browser platform, each different respective form package being generated using the respective browser platform characteristics of the respective browser platform;

generating browser code at each of the remote systems from the respective form package;

saving the respective browser code at each of the respective remote systems; and

capturing information from a respective user on the respective browser platform using the respective electronic form.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein delivering a respective form package comprises:

producing the respective form package at the form server including any data;

transmitting the respective form package to the respective remote system; and

receiving the respective form package at the respective remote system.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein:

transmitting the respective form package comprises compressing the respective form package; and

receiving the respective form package comprises decompressing the respective form package.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the respective electronic form is a multi-page form.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein capturing information from the respective user comprises saving information entered at the respective remote system while the respective remote system is offline.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the information is saved in XML datasets at the respective remote system.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein capturing the information from the respective user further comprises displaying an electronic form with information already captured from the respective user.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein delivering a respective form package comprises storing any data in a hidden frame of at least one page of the respective electronic form.

24. A system for remotely collecting information, comprising:

a web server in communication with a plurality of different browser platforms, the browser platforms having different respective browser platform characteristics, the plurality of browser platforms including a first platform supporting a first browser language and a second platform supporting a different second browser language, and in communication with a plurality of remote systems, each remote system having a corresponding one of the plurality of browser platforms;

a computer storage storing a form definition template, the form definition template comprising an electronic document in Extensible Markup Language (XML); and

a form server in communication with the web server and the computer storage, the form server being operable to;

retrieve the form definition template from the computer storage, which form definition template defines a form that includes electronic form data to be displayed to a user and contains all information necessary to display and manipulate the electronic form data displayed to a user, the template being deployable on each of the plurality of browser platforms,

produce a respective form package using the respective different browser platform characteristics of each of the respective different browser platforms, each respective form package being operable to capture information at a remote system using a respective electronic form in a respective format suitable for presentation on the respective browser platform of a corresponding one of the respective remote systems; and

transmit the respective form package to the respective remote system;

wherein the respective remote system performs the functions of;

receiving the respective form package from the form server;

generating browser code from the respective form package;

saving the browser code at the respective remote system; and

capturing information from a user on the respective browser platform using the electronic form of the respective form package.

25. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, the product comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to perform operations for collecting information from a plurality of users each using a respective one of a plurality of browser platforms, each of the plurality of browser platforms having different respective browser platform characteristics, the operations comprising:

obtaining the respective browser platform characteristics, the plurality of browser platforms including a first platform supporting a first browser language and a second platform supporting a different second browser language;

retrieving a form definition template, comprising an electronic document in Extensible Markup Language (XML), which form definition template defines a form that includes electronic form data to be displayed to a user and contains all information necessary to display and manipulate the electronic form data displayed to a user, the template being deployable on each of the plurality of browser platforms;

generating from the form definition template an electronic form in a different respective format for each different respective browser platform using the respective browser platform characteristics, each of the different respective formats being suitable for presentation on a corresponding one of the different respective browser platforms; and

capturing information input from each of the plurality of users on the respective browser platforms.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein capturing information input from each of the users comprises:

rendering each respective electronic form on each respective browser platform; and

accepting input from the respective user using the respective electronic form.

27. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein capturing information input from each of the plurality of users further comprises storing information input from each of the plurality of users to a database.

28. The computer program product of claim 27, wherein storing information input further comprises forwarding information input to a processing engine.

29. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein each respective electronic form comprises a script executable upon the occurrence of an event.

30. The computer program product of claim 29, wherein the script is executed by a scripting engine residing on the form server.

31. The computer program product of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving from each respective user an indication to print or electronically save the respective form; and

printing or electronically saving the respective form in accordance with the respective user'"'"'s indication.

32. The computer program product of claim 31, wherein printing or saving electronically the respective form comprises first generating an electronic representation of the electronic form that conforms to Portable Document Format (“

PDF”

).

33. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, the product comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to perform operations for remotely collecting information, the operations comprising:

obtaining respective browser platform characteristics of a plurality of different respective browser platforms, each of the browser platforms operating on a respective one of a plurality of remote systems, the plurality of browser platforms including a first platform supporting a first browser language and a second platform supporting a different second browser language;

retrieving a form definition template comprising an electronic document in Extensible Markup Language (XML) from a computer storage, which form definition template defines a form that includes electronic form data to be displayed to a user and contains all information necessary to display and manipulate the electronic form data displayed to a user, the template being deployable on each of the plurality of browser platforms;

delivering a different respective form package from a form server communicatively coupled to the computer storage to each of the plurality of remote systems, each respective form package including a respective electronic form, each different respective form package being in a format suitable for presentation on a different respective browser platform, each different respective form package being generated using the respective browser platform characteristics of the respective browser platform;

generating browser code at each of the remote systems from the respective form package;

saving the respective browser code at each of the respective remote systems; and

capturing information from a respective user on the respective browser platform using the respective electronic form.

34. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein delivering a respective form package comprises:

producing the respective form package at the form server including any data;

transmitting the respective form package to the respective remote system; and

receiving the respective form package at the respective remote system.

35. The computer program product of claim 34, wherein:

transmitting the respective form package comprises compressing the respective form package; and

receiving the respective form package comprises decompressing the respective form package.

36. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the respective electronic form is a multi-page form.

37. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein capturing information from the respective user comprises saving information entered at the respective remote system while the respective remote system is offline.

38. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein the information is saved in XML datasets at the respective remote system.

39. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein capturing the information from the respective user further comprises displaying an electronic form with information already captured from the respective user.

40. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein delivering a respective form package comprises storing any data in a hidden frame of at least one page of the respective electronic form.