Interacting with a computer-based management system

• US 7,669,138 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2006
• Issued: 02/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Think Software Pty Limited
• Original Assignee: Liaise Incorporated
• Inventors: Novy, Alon R. J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Cao (Kevin)
• Application Number:
  US11/553,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20070100861A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 715763-765, 715851-853, 715/840, 707/3, 707/5, 709/217, 709/219
• US Class Current: 715/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/06 Message adaptation to terminal or network requirements

Abstract

A method, and apparatus, and a software product for implementing a method for interacting with a computer-based management system including authoring and communicating composite data messages, each composite data message comprising both free-text and structured data, such that the structured data represents the intended meaning of the free-text in a form understandable by the computer-based management system. In one version, authoring includes converting free-text to structured data. One version includes communicating the composite message.

Claims

1. A method of operating a processing system that includes one or more processors, a storage subsystem including at least memory, and a display device, the method comprising:

(a) presenting a user interface to a human user on the display device, the user interface being for accepting a free text message;

(b) accepting free-text from the user via the user interface into the storage subsystem;

(c) converting the accepted free-text to form or to modify structured message components related to the accepted free-text, the structured message components stored in the storage subsystem;

(d) presenting to the user on a structured message user interface on the display device the structured data components related to the accepted free-text, such that the user can modify or accept the structured message components;

(e) accepting from the user the user'"'"'s modification into the storage subsystem and/or acceptance of the presented structured message components until structured message components related to the accepted free-text are accepted;

(f) repeating some or all of steps (b), (c), (d), and (e) until a composite message comprising both free-text and structured data is formed such that the structured data represents the intended meaning of the free-text in a form understandable by a computer-based management system;

(g) storing the structured data in a data structure in the storage subsystem, and

(h) electronically communicating the structured data of the composite message to at least one computer-based management system and, in the case that there is at least one human recipient, communicating at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the computer-based management systems is operating on a processing system remote to the processing system.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the computer-based management systems is local.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the communicating of at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient is as an electronic message containing the at least free-text, wherein the user interface includes an electronic message user interface, and wherein the structured message user interface and the electronic message user interface are presented to the user such that the user can view both the accepted free-text and the structured data related to the accepted free-text.

5. A method as recited in claim 1,

wherein the structured data components form one or more data objects having respective data object types and having one or more associated data structures, and

wherein the converting includes determining the type for each data object.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein determining the type for each data object includes analyzing the accepted free-text to ascertain whether one or more predefined text conditions are met.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the analyzing of the accepted free-text uses one or more keywords in the free-text.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the structured data components form one or more data objects each having one or more associated data structures, each data object having a data object type, the method further comprising:

assigning references between data objects.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the structured data components form one or more data objects having respective data object types and having one or more associated data structures, the method further comprising assigning one or more identifiers to at least one of the data objects, such that the computer-based management system can refer to a specific data object in the composite data message by its assigned identifier.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the structured data components form one or more data objects having respective data object types and having one or more associated data structures, the method further comprising, prior to the communicating the structured data containing a specific data object, determining the at least one computer-based management system to which the specific data object is to be communicated.

11. A method as recited in claim 1,

wherein the structured data components form one or more data objects having respective data object types and having one or more associated data structures, and

wherein at least one of the data objects is a possibly modified pre-existing data object stored in the storage system, wherein the processing system includes a computer-based management system.

12. A method as recited in claim 1,

wherein the structured data components form one or more data objects having respective data object types and having one or more associated data structures, and

wherein at least one of the data objects is a possibly modified pre-existing data object that corresponds to a previous composite data message.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the communicating of at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient is as an electronic message, wherein the free-text of the previous composite data message was received as an electronic message, wherein the method includes accepting a user input to respond to the received electronic message.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the free-text of the composite message includes the free-text of the at least one pre-existing data object in structured data of a previous composite data message.

15. A method of operating a processing system that includes one or more processors, a display device, and a storage subsystem, the method comprising:

(a) receiving from a sending user at least the free-text of a composite message that includes free-text and structured data corresponding to the free-text, wherein the structured data represents the intended meaning of the free-text in a form understandable by a computer-based management system;

(b) accepting from a human user an indication that the user desires to respond to the received composite message; and

(c) presenting to the human user one or both of the free-text of the received composite message on a free-text user interface on the display device and/or the structured data of the composite message on a structured message user interface on the display device,

such that the user can repeat the process of selectively modifying one or both of the presented free-text and/or structured data to form a new composite message to send to one or more recipients, the repeating causing modifying the text and/or structured data incrementally,

the method further comprising;

accepting from the user the user'"'"'s modifying of one or both of the presented free-text and/or structured data; and

storing the accepted free-text and/or structured data as modified by the user in the storage subsystem,

wherein the received composite message includes structured data corresponding to a plurality of data objects not necessarily having the same data object type.

16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein the receiving is of the free-text of the composite message and of information sufficient to retrieve the structured data of the composite message from an identified computer-based management system, the method further comprising retrieving the structured data from the identified computer-based management system.

17. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the identified computer-based management system is local in the processing system.

18. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the identified computer-based management system is on a second processing system that is coupled to the processing system via a network.

19. A method as recited in claim 15, further comprising:

forming a new composite message with new free-text and new structured data, including the user-modified free-text and/or structured data;

accepting from the user an indication of one or more human recipients;

sending at least the new free-text of the new composite message to the recipients; and

sending the new structured data to one or more computer-based management systems.

20. A method of operating a processing system that includes one or more processors, a storage subsystem including at least memory, and a display device, the method comprising:

(a) receiving from a sending user a free-text message;

(b) accepting from a user an indication that the user desires to respond to the received message;

(c) presenting to the user the free-text of the received message on a free-text user interface on the display device, the free-text user interface being for accepting a free text message;

(d) accepting at least some of the free-text from the user via the user interface into the storage subsystem, the accepting including accepting modification and/or addition to the free-text;

(e) converting the accepted free-text to form or modify structured message components related to the accepted free-text;

(f) presenting to the user on a structured message user interface on the display device the structured data components related to the accepted free-text, such that the user can modify or accept the structured message components;

(g) accepting from the user the user'"'"'s modification into the storage subsystem and/or acceptance of the presented structured message components until structured message components related to the accepted—

free-text are accepted;

(h) repeating some or all of steps (d), (e), (f), and (g) until a composite message comprising both free-text and structured data is formed such that the structured data represents the intended meaning of the free-text in a form understandable by a computer-based management system;

(i) storing the structured data in a data structure in the storage subsystem, and

(j) electronically communicating the structured data of the composite message to at least one computer-based management system and, in the case that there is at least one human recipient, communicating at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient.

21. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the communicating of at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient is as an electronic message containing the at least free-text, wherein the user interface includes an electronic message user interface, and wherein the structured message user interface and the electronic message user interface are presented to the user such that the user can view both the accepted free-text and the structured data related to the accepted free-text.

22. A method as recited in claim 20,

wherein the structured data components form one or more data objects having respective data object types and having one or more associated data structures, and

wherein the converting includes determining the type for each data object.

23. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein determining the type for each data object includes analyzing the accepted free-text to ascertain whether one or more predefined text conditions are met.

24. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein the analyzing of the accepted free-text uses one or more keywords in the free-text.

25. A method of operating a processing system comprising one or more processors, a storage subsystem, and a display device, the method comprising:

(a) selecting one or more data objects each having a respective data object type, each selected data object represented in structured data in a computer-based management system that is storing the structured data;

(b) displaying data of the selected data object or objects to a human user on a user interface that includes a text user interface on the display device;

(c) accepting free-text or a modification of free-text from the user;

(d) converting the accepted free-text to form or modify structured message components related to the accepted free-text;

(e) presenting to the user on a structured message user interface on the display device the structured data components related to the accepted free-text, such that the user can modify or accept the structured message components;

(f) accepting from the user the user'"'"'s modification and/or acceptance of the presented structured message components until structured message components related to the accepted—

free-text are accepted;

(g) repeating some or all of steps (a), (b) (c), (d), (e), and (f) until a composite message comprising both free-text and structured data is formed such that the structured data represents the intended meaning of the free-text in a form understandable by a computer-based management system;

(h) storing the structured data in a data structure in the storage subsystem, and

(i) electronically communicating the structured data of the composite message to at least one computer-based management system and, in the case that there is at least one human recipient, communicating at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient.

26. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the selecting includes searching.

27. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the displayed data of the selected data object includes free-text that corresponds to the structured data of the selected data object or objects.

28. A method as recited in claim 27, further comprising generating the free-text that corresponds to the structured data of the selected data object or objects from the structured data of the data object or objects.

29. A method as recited in claim 28, wherein the generating uses one or more pre-stored template each corresponding to the respective data object type, and further uses the structured data corresponding to the respective data object.

30. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein the structured data of the composite data message includes a possibly modified version of the structured data of at least one selected data object.

31. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the structured data of the composite data message includes a possibly modified part of the structured data of at least one selected data object.

32. A method as recited in claim 25, further comprising, in response to accepting from the user a change of the data object type of the selected data object, locating the structured data corresponding to the selected data object, and deleting those corresponding data structures.

33. A computer-readable and tangible carrier medium on which are encoded instructions that when executed by one or more processors of a processing system are operable to carry out a method comprising:

La) presenting a user interface to a user on a the display device;

(b) accepting free-text from the user;

(c) converting the accepted free-text to form or to modify structured message components related to the accepted free-text;

(d) presenting to the user on a structured message user interface on the display device the structured data components related to the accepted free-text, such that the user can modify or accept the structured message components;

(e) accepting from the user the user'"'"'s modification and/or acceptance of the presented structured message components until structured message components related to the accepted—

free-text are accepted;

(f) repeating some or all of steps (b), (c), (d), and (e) until a composite message comprising both free-text and structured data is formed such that the structured data represents the intended meaning of the free-text in a form understandable by a computer-based management system;

(g) storing the structured data in a data structure in the storage subsystem, and

(h) electronically communicating the structured data of the composite message to at least one computer-based management system and, in the case that there is at least one human recipient, communicating at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient.