System and method for web-based personalization and ecommerce management

• US 7,499,948 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2002
• Issued: 03/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Smith, Greg, Olander, Daryl B., Stamm, Tom, Bergman, Robert, Cook, Thomas A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stevens; Robert
• Application Number:
  US10/122,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20030217332A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,514 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715/501.1, 715/205, 715/200, 707/100, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A personalization system that uses rules to adjudicate and characterize a customer, or a customer'"'"'s actions, and then to personalize a business function, such as a displayed page, based on the outcome of those rules. In one embodiment the invention provides a system for web-based personalization, that allows for personalizing the content or business functioning of a web-based application to reflect the characteristics of a particular user. The system comprises a user profiler, for determining a snapshot of a particular user of a web-based application, a rules editor for inputting a set of rules governing the business functioning of said web-based application, and a rules engine. The system then uses the set of rules to make decisions about the particular user and the business functioning of said web-based application, and to determine the content or business functioning of said web-based application as it applies to that user.

Claims

1. A method for customizing the functionality of a web application, comprising:

storing a plurality of rules that are independent of a particular user and wherein each rule defines a business functioning, and actions to be taken by a web application in response to a particular event;

allowing a user to log in and begin a current session at a web application;

receiving, via an event listener interface at an event service located at the server, notification, from the web application on the server, of events that occur during the current session or after the user has logged in, including events triggered by the user interacting with the web application during the current session, and then associating the events with the profile of a user, to create a snapshot of the user at a point in operation of the application for use with the current session;

determining a plurality of scenarios wherein each scenario describes a possible series of events that characterize a users'"'"' session interactions and can cause one or more of the rules to be triggered, and a plurality of campaigns each of which can be defined by an administrator to have a start and end period during which the campaign is active, and wherein each campaign describes a set of scenarios together with a goal so that they can be collectively activated or deactivated;

using the snapshot of the user and a set of rules, to make decisions about the user and to determine one of the plurality of scenarios for use with the current session, wherein the rules can be updated and applied to a rules engine without stopping the execution of the rules engine, to effect an immediate change to the business functioning of the web application during the user'"'"'s session;

selecting a campaign corresponding to the user, and one of activating or deactivating the campaign once a predefined set of events has been met; and

using the rules engine with the updated rules to determine, at runtime, the business functioning of the web application, including the actions to be taken by the web application, for the current session and current user only.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

inputting, via a rules editor, a set of rules governing the business functioning of said web-based application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the rules are stored, and can be updated, as XML documents within a rules repository.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the rules determine actions to be undertaken by the web-based application, and wherein the web-based application is hosted at a personalization server.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein a set of said rules can be grouped together and used to determine a scenario of events to be understood by the web-based application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the rules are stored in a rules repository that may be updated, and subsequently parsed by the rules engine, during-runtime, without stopping the execution of the rules engine.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the rules repository, as updated, is parsed by the rules engine in response to each new event.

8. A method for providing web-based personalization, that allows for personalization of the functioning of a web-based application, comprising the steps of:

configuring a server to allow a user to access a web application running on the server, and to log in and initiate a session within the web application;

accessing a plurality of stored rules that are independent of a particular user and that define business functioning of the web application, wherein each rule defines actions to be taken by the web application in response to a particular event;

listening at an event service located at the server, for notification of events from the web application during a current session or after the user has logged in, including events performed interactively by the user, and associating those events with a user profile, to create a snapshot of the user;

accessing a plurality of stored scenarios, each of which describe a possible series of events that characterize a users'"'"' session interactions and can cause one or more of the rules to be triggered;

matching the snapshot of the user and the events to determine a particular scenario from the plurality of scenarios for use with the current session, and

changing, for the current session and current user only, the business functioning of the web-based application, including the actions to be taken by the web application, according to the particular scenario.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

storing the rules as XML documents within a rules repository.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the rules determine actions to be undertaken by the web-based application, and wherein the web-based application is hosted at a personalization server.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

grouping a set of said rules together and using the set to determine a scenario of events to be understood by the web-based application.