Methods and apparatuses to assemble, extract and deploy content from electronic documents

• US 8,751,922 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2006
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lana Ivanovna Babayan
• Original Assignee: Zalag Corporation
• Inventors: Epstein, Samuel S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mills, Frank D
• Application Number:
  US11/501,970
• Publication Number:
  US 20070038643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,862 Days
• Field of Search: 715/277, 715/234
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention permit the specification and servicing of aggregations of content constituent parts that derive from electronic documents. An incorporated content constituent part may correspond to any constituent part of any accessible document. In various embodiments, information derived from the intended layouts of source documents is employed to construct specifications of the constituent parts. The specifications may include search conditions. Graphic methods may be employed to construct the specification. Embodiments of the present invention enable content aggregations to appear in display presentations whose layouts may be adaptive to varying degrees. In various embodiments, flexible content-shifting methods are employed for display presentations of content aggregations. Resultantly, the display of content aggregations on mobile and other devices may be effectuated without wasting download bandwidth and display screen real estate.

Claims

1. A computing device implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a request to generate and return a content aggregation, wherein the content aggregation to be generated is to include a plurality of content constituent parts to be selected from a plurality of electronic documents, wherein the request includes or references a content aggregation specification specifying the content aggregation to be generated, wherein the content aggregation specification includes a plurality of directives characterizing the content constituent parts to be selected for inclusion into the content aggregation to be generated, wherein the directives characterize the content constituent parts to be selected in terms of a plurality of layout-based descriptions, wherein each layout-based description incorporating a layout qualification to be analyzed against a layout of an electronic document to determine whether the electronic document includes qualifying content constituent parts to be selected for inclusion into the content aggregation to be generated and returned;

obtaining or causing to be obtained, by the computing device, the content constituent parts, from a plurality of electronic documents having content constituent parts meeting selective ones of the layout qualifications of the layout-based descriptions of the directives of the content aggregation specification of the request; and

responding or causing to be responded, by the computing device, to the request with the requested content aggregation having obtained layout qualification meeting content constituent parts selected from the electronic documents in accordance with the directives of the content aggregation specification of the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving comprises receiving the request from a client device coupled to the computing device, the client device being one of a server, a desktop computing device or a mobile computing device, and the responding or causing to be responded comprises providing the obtained layout qualification meeting content constituent parts to the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the obtained layout qualification meeting content constituent parts comprises text, graphics, an image, one or more video frames, or an audio clip.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the content aggregation specification comprises a distinguished category name specifying at least a subset of the directives.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the directives characterizes a content constituent part in terms of one or more layout qualifications expressing one or more layout attributes of the content constituent part.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the layout qualification is a presentation size, a presentation length, a presentation width, a presentation height, a number of presentation pixels or a number of presentation characters of the content constituent part when the content constituent part is rendered.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the computing device in facilitating a user in creating the content aggregation specification having the directives characterizing the content constituent parts in terms of layout-based descriptions with layout qualifications.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing or causing to be processed, by the computing device, the content aggregation specification including the layout qualifications of the layout-based descriptions of the directives, to identify the content constituent parts.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of the directives comprises a description modifier modifying a layout-based description, and the method further comprises the computing device processing or causing to be processed the description modifier, contextually interpreting the description modifier based at least in part on the layout-based description the description modifier modifies.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the processing by the computing device includes accessing by the computing device a layout-based description repository or a content category repository for information associated with one or more layout-based description terms or one or more layout-based description categories respectively, to assist the computing device in processing the received content aggregation specification.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving by the computing device, the plurality of content constituent parts; and

organizing or causing to be organized, by the computing device, the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts for presentation, using a plurality of display slots, including recursively organizing at least some of the layout qualification meeting content constituent parts, and associating the recursively organized layout qualification meeting content constituent parts with one of the display slots;

wherein response or causing to be responded comprises responding or causing to be responded, by the computing device, to the request with the display slots and their associated organized layout qualification meeting content constituent parts, including the display slot with recursively organized layout qualification meeting content constituent parts.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said associating includes shifting the content constituent parts within or across display slots.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said associating comprises associating a plurality of received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts with a display slot of the display slot arrangement, and providing or causing to be provided, by the computing device, one or more user interface elements for a user to cause selective sequential presentation of the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts via the display slot.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said providing or causing to be provided comprises providing or causing to be provided, by the computing device, an user interface element for the user to cause sequential presentation of a selected subset of the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts via the display slot, and at least one or more user interface elements for the user to select another subset of the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts for sequential presentation via the display slot.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said providing or causing to be provided comprises providing or causing to be provided, by the computing device, a user interface element for the user to cause a presentation of the organization of the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts.

16. An apparatus comprising

a processor;

a content retrieve engine configured to be operated by the processor to retrieve content constituent parts of electronic documents; and

a content request engine operatively coupled with the content retrieve engine and configured to be operated by the processor to

receive a request to generate and return a content aggregation, wherein the content aggregation to be generated is to comprise a plurality content constituent parts to be selected from a plurality of electronic documents, wherein the request includes or references a content aggregation specification specifying the content aggregation to be generated, wherein the content aggregation specification includes a plurality of directives characterizing the content constituent parts to be selected for inclusion into the content aggregation to be generated, wherein the directives characterize the content constituent parts to be selected in terms with a plurality of layout-based descriptions, wherein each layout-based description includes at least one layout qualification to be analyzed against a layout of an electronic document to determine whether the electronic document includes qualifying content constituent part to be selected for inclusion into the content aggregation to be generated and returned;

process the directives of the content aggregation specification;

cause the content retrieve engine to obtain the content constituent parts to be include included in the content aggregation from electronic documents with content constituent parts meeting the layout qualifications of the directives of the content aggregation specification of the request; and

respond to the request with the content aggregation having obtained layout qualification meeting content constituent parts selected from the electronic documents in accordance with the directives of the content aggregation specification of the request.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising a content search engine configured to be operated by the processor to search and locate electronic documents with content constituent parts meeting the layout qualifications;

and a content extraction engine operatively coupled to the content request engine to extract layout qualification meeting content constituent parts from retrieved electronic documents.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising a content presentation engine configured to be operated by the processor to associate obtained layout qualification meeting content constituent parts with display slots of a display slot arrangement, to present the obtained layout qualification meeting content constituent parts.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:

a content presentation engine configured to be operated by the processor to receive the plurality of content constituent parts, recursively organize at least some of the received content constituent parts; and

associate the recursively organized content constituent parts with one of a plurality of display slots of a display arrangement to present the received layout qualifications meeting content constituent parts.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the content presentation engine is adapted to associate a plurality of received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts with a display slot of the display slot arrangement, and to provide one or more user interface elements for a user to cause selective sequential presentation of the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts via the display slot.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the content presentation engine is further adapted to provide a user interface element for the user to cause sequential presentation of a selected subset of the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts via the display slot, and at least one or more user interface elements for the user to select another subset of the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts for sequential presentation via the display slot.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the content presentation engine is further adapted to provide a user interface element for the user to cause a presentation of the organization of the received layout qualification meeting content constituent parts.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the content presentation engine is further adapted to select the display slot arrangement.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the apparatus is a mobile device.