Providing event information to third party event applications

• US 7,668,838 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2006
• Issued: 02/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baio, Andrew, Lin, Leonard H., Luk, Gordon
• Primary Examiner(s): Vital; Pierre M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nofal; Christopher P
• Application Number:
  US11/392,092
• Publication Number:
  US 20070233708A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/100
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/919 Geographic

Abstract

Techniques for accessing an events repository are provided. An event information repository contains event records defining real world events. A programmatic interface is exposed to third-party applications for accessing the event records within the repository. Specifically, the programmatic interface provides a set of routines that perform operations on the repository. Using the programmatic interface, third-party applications may call the set of routines to cause operations to be executed on the repository. Further, techniques are provided for controlling the display of private events within a first-party event application and also for associating user-defined tags with events using the events repository.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing an event repository that maintains event information for members of an online community, wherein the event information includes one or more event records that correspond to real world events, wherein each event record comprises an event id, wherein at least one of the one or more event records has an event id that is associated with a tag id, and wherein each tag id is associated with a tag;

providing access to the event repository via a user interface, wherein the user interface is generated by a first party event application, wherein access to the user interface includes sharing and collaborating event information;

exposing, to one or more third party event applications, a programmatic interface that provides access to a set of routines that perform operations on the event records in the event repository, wherein the set of routines comprises a first routine and a second routine;

receiving through the programmatic interface, from a third-party event application, at least two calls;

(1) receiving a first call that includes a user-designated tag and invokes the first routine of the set of routines;

as a result of the first call, executing the first routine to perform the steps of;

affirmatively determining that at least one event record corresponds to the first call;

without modifying the at least one event record, storing in the event repository, separate from the at least one event record;

(i) the user-designated tag;

(ii) an association between the user-designated tag and a tag id; and

(iii) an association between the tag id and an event id;

(2) after receiving the first call, receiving a second call to the second routine of the set of routines, wherein the second call includes a term that matches the user-designated tag;

as a result of the second call, executing the second routine to perform the steps of;

searching the event repository for a plurality of event records that are associated with any user-designed tags that match the term; and

returning event information extracted from the plurality of event records to the third party event application;

wherein the computer-implemented method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first-party event application interacts with the event repository by making calls to said particular set of routines.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:

the user interface generated by the first-party event application is web pages, generated by the first-party event application, based on information obtained from the event repository; and

the computer-implemented method further comprises

the first-party event application generating said web pages in response to user requests; and

sending the web pages to users over a network.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each of the event records corresponds to an event and specifies:

when the event will occur,

an author of the event, and

a geographic location of the event.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the first call to said first routine includes an authentication key; and

the computer-implemented method further comprises examining the authentication key and authenticating the call.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second call to said second routine includes parameters that specify one or more event conditions and wherein each record in the plurality of event records satisfies the one or more event conditions.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of:

a lime range;

an event author; and

a geographic location.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein providing information from the plurality of event records to the third-party application includes providing the information as Extensible Markup Language (XML) data.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, through the programmatic interface, a third call from the third-party application to insert event data into the event repository; and

in response to the third call, inserting one or more sets of data identifying an event into the event repository.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first call to said first routine is a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request submitted in the form of a Uniform Resource Locator (URE).

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the first call includes input parameters, and wherein the input parameters are submitted as elements of the URL.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein:

the input parameters include user-authentication information; and

further comprises;

determining a second plurality of event records within the event information, based on the user-authentication information, for which a user identified by the user-authentication information is authorized to view; and

providing information from the second plurality of event records to the third-party application.

13. A volatile or non-volatile computer readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

providing an event repository that maintains event information for members of an online community, wherein the event information includes one or more event records that correspond to real world events, wherein each event record comprises an event id, wherein at least one of the one or more event records has an event id that is associated with a tag id, and wherein each tag id is associated with a tag;

providing access to the event repository via a user interface, wherein the user interface is generated by a first party event application, wherein access to the user interface includes sharing and collaborating event information;

exposing, to one or more third party event applications, a programmatic interface that provides access to a set of routines that perform operations on the event records in the event repository, wherein the set of routines comprises a first routine and a second routine;

receiving through the programmatic interface, from a third-party event application, at least two calls;

(1) receiving a first call that includes a user-designated tag and invokes the first routine of the set of routines;

as a result of the first call, executing the first routine to perform the steps of;

affirmatively determining that at least one event record corresponds to the first call;

without modifying the at least one event record, storing in the event repository, separate from the at least one event record;

(i) the user-designated tag;

(ii) an association between the user-designated tag and a tag id; and

(iii) an association between the tag id and an event id;

(2) after receiving the first call, receiving a second call to the second routine of the set of routines, wherein the second call includes a term that matches the user-designated tag;

as a result of the second call, executing the second routine to perform the steps of;

searching the event repository for a plurality of event records that are associated with any user-designed tags that match the term; and

returning event information extracted from the plurality of event records to the third party event application;

wherein the computer-implemented method is performed by one or more computing devices.

14. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the first-party event application interacts with the event repository by making calls to said particular set of routines.

15. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein:

the user interface generated by the first-party event application is web pages, generated by the first-party event application, based on information obtained from the event repository; and

the one or more sequences of instructions further comprise instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform;

the first-party event application generating said web pages in response to user requests; and

sending the web pages to users over a network.

16. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein each of the event records corresponds to an event and specifies:

when the event will occur,

an author of the event, and

a geographic location of the event.

17. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein:

the first call to said first routine includes an authentication key; and

the one or more sequences of instructions further comprise instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform examining the authentication key and authenticating the call.

18. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the second call to said second routine includes parameters that specify one or more event conditions and wherein each record in the plurality of event records satisfies the one or more event conditions.

19. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of:

a time range;

an event author; and

a geographic location.

20. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein providing information from the plurality of event records to the third-party application includes providing the information as Extensible Markup Language (XML) data.

21. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more sequences of instructions further comprise instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform:

receiving, through the programmatic interface, a third call from the third-party application to insert event data into the event repository; and

in response to the third call, inserting one or more sets of data identifying an event into the event repository.

22. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first call to said first routine is a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request submitted in the form of a Uniform Resource Locator (URE).

23. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the first call includes input parameters, and wherein the input parameters are submitted as elements of the URL.

24. The volatile or non-volatile computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein:

the input parameters include user-authentication information; and

the one or more sequences of instructions further comprise instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform;

determining a second plurality of event records within the event information, based on the user-authentication information, for which a user identified by the user-authentication information is authorized to view; and

providing information from the second plurality of event records to the third-party application.