Catalog building method and system

• US 7,698,167 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2002
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Computer Pundits, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Computer Pundits, Inc.
• Inventors: Rief, Stephanie, Batham, Prashubh
• Primary Examiner(s): ZUrita; James
• Application Number:
  US10/062,614
• Publication Number:
  US 20020082953A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,994 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/26.62
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Systems and methods are described which produce a catalog from a previously existing database. The method defines catalog data fields and links same to the data fields of the database. In one embodiment, the method scans the database for its dat fields and automatically uses same as the catalog data fields. This improves the efficiency of catalog production because a publisher need not be trained as to what data is in the database. The method further automatically formats the data from the data base into a catalog. In another embodiment, the method automatically produces a table of contents and an index. The present method can produce the catalog in multiple formats, including electronic, portable document format, rich text format, and printed.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically generating a prescribed catalog, using a computer system which summarizes selected offerings of a user, the method comprising:

obtaining general information via the computer system related to the user generating a prescribed catalog and storing such information in a catalog database;

establishing information fields for inclusion into the catalog database, wherein the company database includes a plurality of data fields which are made available through the computer system for inclusion as information fields within the catalog database and which correspond to the company'"'"'s offerings, and wherein establishment of the information fields is achieved by selecting at least one of these company database data fields via a user input device, and wherein additional information fields can also be manually established by the user via the user input device;

selecting via the user input device information fields within the catalog database to be included in the prescribed catalog and selecting via the user input device catalog design attributes for the prescribed catalog, wherein the selected information fields include product attributes for inclusion in the prescribed catalog;

the computer system creating the catalog database using information in the company database correlated to established information fields and information generated manually by the user, wherein any information in the company database correlated to established information fields is entered into the catalog database by downloading information from those selected information fields that are also found in the company database, and wherein any information fields manually generated is created by manually entering data via the user input device into those data fields;

identifying a plurality of catalog templates via the user input device for use in the prescribed catalog, wherein each catalog template outlines the presentation format for the identified information fields within the catalog database; and

the computer system producing the prescribed catalog in a selected format based upon the identified catalog templates and the catalog database, wherein the prescribed catalog includes the selected offerings and producing the prescribed catalog further comprises assembling at least one catalog page by dynamically fitting the selected information fields and product attributes into the identified catalog templates for the at least one catalog page thus producing an output format that follows the catalog template and which lists the selected information fields.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the catalog database further includes product information and catalog category information, wherein the product information also exists in the company database and the catalog category information provides information necessary for producing the catalog.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the produced catalog is a paper catalog comprising the assembled catalog pages which are then printed.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the catalog comprises the assembled catalog pages electronically stored in an electronic page format.

5. The method of claim 4 where the electronic page format is stored in a file format readable by a third party software package.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the electronic page format is selected from the group comprising PDF format, indd format, qxd format, qxp format, rtf format, tiff format, jpeg format, doc format, xls format and txt format.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the design attributes include the designation of product pictures and their related storage location.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the design attributes further include picture size and orientation.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the created catalog database will include product information and catalog designation information.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of producing the prescribed catalog comprises arranging information in the prescribed template so that only data having non-null values is listed.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the identified template is selected from the group of:

single-column with no figure;

dual column with no figure;

three column with no figure;

four column with no figure;

single column with figure right, single column with figure left;

single column with figure above;

single column with figure below;

dual column with figure right, dual column with figure left;

dual column with figure above;

dual column with figure below;

three column with figure right, three column with figure left;

three column with figure above;

three column with figure below;

four column with figure right, four column with figure left;

four column with figure above; and

four column with figure below.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the catalog database is arranged in a user selectable hierarchy, thus allowing the catalog to be created based upon a plurality of categories that exist within the hierarchy and to be ordered based upon the user selected hierarchy.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the template sets forth a header for each page, a footer for each page and a tab for each page, wherein the header, footer and tab comprise information contained in the catalog database.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein producing the catalog further comprises reading the product attributes and the catalog design attributes from the catalog database, and building an attribute table on the page by dynamically calculating the space available for the attributes after the header, footer and tab for each page, and dynamically calculating the necessary spacing for the designated attributes.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the product attributes include alphanumeric data and image data, and wherein the calculation of spacing maintains the alphanumeric data and image data so they are displayed together.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer system comprises a network server and at least one client device, and wherein the user input device is coupled to the client device.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer system is a stand alone computer.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer system comprises a client device and a web accessible server.

19. A method for creating a printed page based product catalog using a computer system, wherein the product catalog is created utilizing product information contained within a company database, comprising:

through the computer system, identifying the product catalog to be generated and storing a catalog name;

through the computer system, scanning the company database to identify existing company database field names corresponding to existing data within the company database which is thus available for inclusion in the product catalog;

selecting from the existing data within the company database via a user input device, the product data desired to be included in the product catalog and through the computer system storing the corresponding database field names in a catalog database;

creating a plurality of data presentation formats desired to be utilized within the desired product catalog via the computer system, wherein the data presentation format includes a listing of the catalog data that will be presented in the product catalog and at least one information presentation template selected via the user input device, the template setting forth the general page layout of information in the product catalog;

through the computer system, building the catalog database using the stored catalog information fields names, wherein data in the catalog database is generated by first generating a link between the catalog database and the company database, and wherein the catalog database is then populated based upon the generated link between the catalog database and the company database,

through the computer system assembling the product catalog using the catalog database and the created data presentation formats, wherein the catalog data is collected from the catalog database and appropriately arranged to fit the presentation formats depending upon the catalog data itself; and

the computer system outputting the product catalog in printed page format.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein generating the product catalog involves the use of less than all of the data fields existing in the catalog database.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the links between the company database and the catalog database causes any updates to information contained in the company database to be similarly updated in the catalog database.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein outputting in a printed page format includes an output selected from the group of paper printing, faxing, and electronically storing page images.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein the template is selected from the group of:

single-column with no figure;

dual column with no figure;

three column with no figure;

four column with no figure;

single column with figure right, single column with figure left;

single column with figure above;

single column with figure below;

dual column with figure right, dual column with figure left;

dual column with figure above;

dual column with figure below;

three column with figure right, three column with figure left;

three column with figure above; and

three column with figure below;

four column with figure right, four column with figure left;

four column with figure above; and

four column with figure below.

24. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of generating the product catalog comprises arranging information in the prescribed template so that only data having non-null values is listed.

25. The method of claim 19 wherein the template sets forth a header for each page, a footer for each page and a tab for each page, wherein the header, footer and tab comprise information contained in the catalog database.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the arrangement of data to fit a designated presentation format comprises dynamically calculating the space available for the designated data after the identification of the header, footer and tab, and dynamically calculating the appropriate spacing for the designated data to be included in the product catalog.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the data identified to be included within the product catalog includes alphanumeric data and image data, and wherein the calculation of spacing maintains the alphanumeric data and image data so they are displayed together.

28. The method of claim 19 wherein the computer system comprises a network server and at least one client device, and wherein the user input device is coupled to the client device.

29. The method of claim 19 wherein the computer system is a stand alone computer.

30. The method of claim 19 wherein the computer system comprises a client device and a web accessible server.

31. A method for dynamically generating a prescribed catalog using a computer system which utilizes information contained within a company database while also being able to dynamically generate subsequent catalogs based upon the generated catalog, comprising:

through the computer system creating a catalog database by storing general information related to a user generating the prescribed catalog and by establishing information fields for inclusion into the catalog database, wherein the company database includes a plurality of data fields which are made available for inclusion as information fields within the catalog database and establishment is achieved by selecting at least one of the company database data fields via a user input device, and wherein additional information fields can also be manually established by the user via the user input device;

selecting information fields within the catalog database via the user input device which are to be included in the prescribed catalog and identifying selected catalog design attributes for the prescribed catalog, wherein the identified information fields include product attributes for inclusion in the prescribed catalog;

through the computer system, creating the catalog database using information in the company database correlated to selected information fields and information generated manually by the user via the user input device, wherein any information in the company database correlated to selected information fields is entered into the catalog database by downloading information from those selected information fields that are also found in the company database, and wherein any information fields manually generated are created via the user input device by manually entering data into those data fields;

through the computer system, identifying a plurality of catalog templates for use in the prescribed catalog, wherein each catalog template outlines the presentation format for the selected information fields and catalog design attributes within the catalog database, with the template further setting forth a header for each page, a footer for each page and a tab for each page, wherein the header, footer and tab comprise information contained in the catalog database; and

the computer system assembling the prescribed catalog in a selected format based upon the identified catalog template and the created catalog database, wherein assembling the prescribed catalog comprises reading the product attributes and the catalog design attributes from the catalog database, dynamically fitting the selected data and product attributes into the identified catalog template by first building an attribute table on each page being assembled by dynamically calculating the space available for the product attributes after the header, footer and tab for each page, dynamically calculating the necessary spacing for the designated product attributes, and thereafter fitting the selected data and product attributes in the calculated spacing thus producing an output format that follows the template and which lists the selected information, wherein the product attributes include alphanumeric data and image data, and wherein the calculation of spacing maintains the alphanumeric data and image data so they are displayed together, and wherein only alphanumeric data having non-null values is listed.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the identified template is selected from the group of:

single-column with no figure;

dual column with no figure;

three column with no figure;

four column with no figure;

single column with figure right, single column with figure left;

single column with figure above;

single column with figure below;

dual column with figure right, dual column with figure left;

dual column with figure above;

dual column with figure below;

three column with figure right, three column with figure left;

three column with figure above;

three column with figure below;

four column with figure right, four column with figure left;

four column with figure above; and

four column with figure below.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the catalog design attributes include the designation of product pictures and their related storage location, size and orientation.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein the computer system comprises a network server and at least one client device, and wherein the user input device is coupled to the client device.

35. The method of claim 31 wherein the computer system is a stand alone computer.

36. The method of claim 31 wherein the computer system comprises a client device and a web accessible server.