Responsive self-service website template

• US 9,244,660 B2
• Filed: 08/13/2014
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Chauhan, Chetanya, Chou, Michael, Hubick, Joseph Shelby
• Primary Examiner(s): Das, Chameli
• Application Number:
  US14/459,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20150052498A1
• Time in Patent Office: 531 Days
• Field of Search: 717/109
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• 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 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

The technology disclosed relates to a self-service customization protocol for a single page website that implements a support component add-in to the CRM website. The self-service customization protocol includes a plurality of page elements that can be easily edited by the customers without any coding.

Claims

1. A method of development of a customer relationship management (CRM)-integrated website visitor facing component, the method including:

exposing a customization protocol to a website developer that implements a visitor facing component add-in to a customer relationship management (CRM) website, the visitor facing component add-in including at least one page element preprogrammed to;

search support articles that are added to the CRM website;

display visual representations of featured categories of the support articles; and

contact support for the CRM website;

receiving customization instructions from the website developer applicable to the page element of the visitor facing component add-in;

responsive to receiving the customization instructions, generating data for display of a live preview of a customized visitor facing component add-in to the CRM website; and

generating a customized visitor facing component add-in code base that is suitable to be embedded on or linked to the CRM website, whereby a website visitor can interact with the visitor facing component add-in.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the page element is a branding editor and the customization instructions applicable to the branding editor specify branding properties of the CRM website.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the branding properties of the CRM website include at least one of:

font color of links within the CRM website;

background and font color of buttons within the CRM website;

font family, font size, and font color of text within the CRM website;

background, font family, font size, and font color of headers within the CRM website;

background, font family, font size, and font color of footers within the CRM website; and

background color of the page elements.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the page element is a search box and the customization instructions applicable to the search box specify at least one of:

a number of support articles within in the CRM website;

placeholder text for the search box; and

auto-query suggestions to return.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the page element is a featured category and the customization instructions applicable to the featured category specify at least one of:

one or more data categories for grouping the support articles within the CRM website;

a library of images and linking of the images to the data categories; and

titles for the data categories.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the page element is a case submitter and the customization instructions applicable to the case submitter specify fields for generating a support request.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the fields of the case submitter include at least one of:

highlights of the support request;

status of the support request;

details of the support request;

attachments related to the support request;

owner of the support request;

contact for the support request;

comments on the support request; and

title of the support request.

8. The method of claim 1, further including adding the page element to the customized visitor facing component add-in by a drag and drop action.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the page element automatically calibrates to different screen sizes by selecting between a visually-rich representation and a text-based representation responsive to a screen size of a current device used to access the CRM website.

10. A system of development of a customer relationship management (CRM)-integrated website visitor facing component, the system including:

a processor and a computer readable storage medium storing computer instructions configured to cause the processor to;

expose a customization protocol to a website developer that implements a visitor facing component add-in to a customer relationship management (CRM) website, the visitor facing component add-in including at least one page element preprogrammed to;

search support articles that are added to the CRM website;

display visual representations of featured categories of the support articles; and

contact support for the CRM website;

receive customization instructions from the website developer applicable to the page element of the visitor facing component add-in;

responsive to receiving the customization instructions, generating data for display of a live preview of a customized visitor facing component add-in to the CRM website; and

generate a customized visitor facing component add-in code base that is suitable to be embedded on or linked to the CRM website, whereby a website visitor can interact with the visitor facing component add-in.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the page element is a branding editor and the customization instructions applicable to the branding editor specify branding properties of the CRM website.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the branding properties of the CRM website include at least one of:

font color of links within the CRM website;

background and font color of buttons within the CRM website;

font family, font size, and font color of text within the CRM website;

background, font family, font size, and font color of headers within the CRM website;

background, font family, font size, and font color of footers within the CRM website; and

background color of the page elements.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the page element is a search box and the customization instructions applicable to the search box specify at least one of:

a number of support articles within in the CRM website;

placeholder text for the search box; and

auto-query suggestions to return.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the page element is a featured category and the customization instructions applicable to the featured category specify at least one of:

one or more data categories for grouping the support articles within the CRM website;

a library of images and linking of the images to the data categories; and

titles for the data categories.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the page element is a case submitter and the customization instructions applicable to the case submitter specify fields to generate a support request.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the fields of the case submitter include at least one of:

highlights of the support request;

status of the support request;

details of the support request;

attachments related to the support request;

owner of the support request;

contact for the support request;

comments on the support request; and

title of the support request.

17. The system of claim 10, further configured to add the page element to the customized visitor facing component by a drag and drop action.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the page element automatically calibrates to different screen sizes by selecting between a visually-rich representation and a text-based representation responsive to a screen size of a current device used to access the CRM website.