Dynamic selection of images for web pages

• US 8,335,983 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2009
• Issued: 12/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Pearson, Jennifer, Wang, Bill
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Maikhanh
• Application Number:
  US12/620,450
• Publication Number:
  US 20100070841A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,127 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/201, 715/205, 715/210, 715/226, 715/231, 715/234, 715/237, 715/246, 715/255, 715/273, 715/760, 715/762, 709/203, 709/218, 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

A gallery widget is invoked when a tag in a markup language document, such as a web page, is processed. The gallery widget selects a number of images specified in the tag and places the images in the markup language document as defined by the tag. The images are selected from a gallery containing all images available for display or from a pool of images chosen from the gallery using a gallery administration tool.

Claims

1. A method to select images for a markup language document, the method comprising:

encoding an instruction in the markup language document, the instruction to be executed by one or more processors to select an image for insertion into the markup language document;

generating a pre-determined number N of random numbers;

selecting a pre-determined umber of N images from a group of images using the N random numbers to select the N images from the group of images, the pre-determined number of N images being specified in the instruction;

placing the pre-determined number of images in the markup language document at one or more locations defined in the instruction, the pre-determined number of N images to be displayed on one or more web pages, and

selecting the group of images for a pool of images from a gallery containing images available for display, the selecting of the group of images being performed using an administration tool,

the selecting the group of images for the pool of images includes;

obtaining filtering criteria;

identifying an image from the gallery based on the filtering criteria; and

adding the identified image to the pool of images.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the group of images from a gallery containing images available for display.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

examining information associated with the identified image against a set of standards; and

based on a determination that the information does not meet at least a portion &

the set of standards, discarding the identified image.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising deleting a selected one of the identified images from the pool of images.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the markup language document is a web page and the instruction is a tag in a proprietary format.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a utility program is executed, using at least one of the one or more processors, when the tag in the proprietary format is processed during a compile of the web page.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the proprietary format comprises a widget identifier, the pre-determined number of N images, and one or more display parameters.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more display parameters comprise a size parameter and a location parameter.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the proprietary format comprises a widget identifier, a category identifier, the pre-determined number of N images, and one or more display parameters.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

validating the pre-determined number of N images against validation criteria; and

based on a determination that an image fails the validation criteria, substituting a different image for the failed image.

11. A system for selecting images for a markup language document, the system comprising:

means for encoding an instruction in the markup language document, the instruction to be executed by one or more processors to select an image for insertion into the markup language document;

means for generating a pre-determined number of N random numbers;

means for selecting a pre-determined number of N images from a group of images using the N random numbers to select the N images from the group of images, the pre-determined number being specified in the instruction;

means for placing the pre-determined number of N images in the markup language document at locations defined in the instruction the pre-determined number of N images to be displayed on one or more web pages, and

an administration tool to select the group of images for a pool of images from a gallery containing images available for display, the administration tool includes;

a means for obtaining filtering criteria;

a means for identifying an image from the gallery based on the filtering criteria; and

a means for adding the identified image to the pool of images.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising a means for examining information associated with the identified image against a set of standards, and based on a determination that the information does not meet at least a portion of the set of standards, discarding the identified image.

13. The system of claim 11 further comprising a means for validating the pre-determined number of N images against validation criteria, and based on a determination that an image fails the validation criteria, substituting a different image for the failed image.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a method to select images for a markup language document, the method comprising:

encoding an instruction in the markup language document, the instruction to be executed by one or more processors to select an image for insertion into the markup language document;

generating a pre-determined number N of random numbers;

selecting a pre-determined umber of N images from a group of images using the N random numbers to select the N images from the group of images, the pre-determined number of N images being specified in the instruction;

placing the pre-determined number of images in the markup language document at one or more locations defined in the instruction, the pre-determined number of N images to be displayed on one or more web pages, and

selecting the group of images for a pool of images from a gallery containing images available for display, the selecting of the group of images being performed using an administration tool,

the selecting the group of images for the pool of images includes;

obtaining filtering criteria;

identifying an image from the gallery based on the filtering criteria; and

adding the identified image to the pool of images.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

examining information associated with the identified N images against a set of standards; and

based on a determination that the information does not meet at least a portion of the set of standards, discarding at least one of the identified N images.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises deleting a selected one of the N identified images from the pool of images.