Dynamic input field protection

• US 7,716,596 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2006
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cao, Andrew H., Walker, Keith Raymond, Chen, Yen-Fu, Morgan, Fabian F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo; Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAM, KIM LYNN
• Application Number:
  US11/557,567
• Publication Number:
  US 20080109747A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,280 Days
• Field of Search: 715/221, 715/780, 715/700
• US Class Current: 715/780
• 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 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects

Abstract

A computer implemented method and computer program product for protecting a pre-filled user input field on a returned webpage from an accidental overwrite. The method identifies the pre-filled input field by detecting a mouseover. In response to a user command to change the state of the pre-filled input field, the method changes an initially unlocked pre-filled input field to a locked state or changes an initially locked pre-filled input field to an unlocked state.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for protecting data in a pre-filled input field from an accidental overwrite by a user, the computer implemented method comprising:

identifying the pre-filled input field by detecting a mouseover of the pre-filled input field by the user;

responsive to an identification of the pre-filled input field, detecting a user command of the user to change a state of the pre-filled input field;

responsive to detecting the user command, changing an initially locked pre-filled input field to an unlocked state;

responsive to detecting the user command, changing an initially unlocked pre-filled input field to a locked state that prevents the user from modifying the initially unlocked pre-filled input field; and

gathering statistics on a frequency of lock state changes per pre-filled input field; and

configuring an initial lock state of the field based on the statistics;

wherein the initial lock state of the field is the default state of the field when the field is initially presented to the user when the user newly accesses a previously accessed website by the user.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user command is a first user command and further comprising:

implementing the first user command using a set of lock function keys.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2 further comprising:

allowing a user to define the set of lock function keys.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

locking the pre-filled input field upon display of a webpage.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein an administrator controls an initial lock state of a field based on an elapsed time of the field, wherein the initial lock state of the field is the default state of the field when the field is initially presented to the user when the user newly accesses a previously accessed website by the user.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein an administrator controls an initial lock state of a field based on an event trigger, wherein the initial lock state of the field is the default state of the field when the field is initially presented to the user when the user newly accesses a previously accessed website by the user.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to a second user command, recalling an initial data for the pre-filled input field.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

indicating the lock state of the pre-filled input field using information contained in a pop-up display.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user is a returning user to a website, and the pre-filling input field contains default information previously entered by the returning user during a previous access to the website by the returning user.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the pre-filled input field contains a credit card number that the user is using to make a purchase at an online store'"'"'s website.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising a list of input fields, wherein the list of input fields is configurable by the user to specify that a given input field in the list of input fields has a default state of locked if the given input field is a pre-filled input field.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13, wherein the list of input fields is maintained in a data storage device that also maintains values for the pre-filled input fields and an initial lock state for the pre-filled input fields.

9. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium including computer usable program code stored thereon for protecting a pre-filled input field from an accidental overwrite by a user, the computer program product comprising;

computer usable program code for identifying the pre-filled input field by detecting a mouseover of the pre-filled input field by the user;

computer usable program code for detecting a user command of the user to change a state of the pre-filled input field, responsive to an identification of the pre-filled input field;

computer usable program code for changing an initially unlocked pre-filled input field to a locked state that prevents the user from modifying the initially unlocked pre-filled input field, responsive to detecting the user command;

computer usable program code for changing an initially locked pre-filled input field to an unlocked state, responsive to detecting the user command; and

computer usable program code for gathering statistics on a frequency of lock state changes per pre-filled input field; and

configuring an initial lock state of the field based on the statistics;

wherein the initial lock state of the field is the default state of the field when the field is initially presented to the user when the user newly accesses a previously accessed website by the user.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the user is a returning user to a website, and the pre-filling input field contains default information previously entered by the returning user during a previous access to the website by the returning user.