Method and system for automatically providing information to an electronic form

• US 9,292,484 B1
• Filed: 03/29/2000
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Plow, Gregory Maurice, Pourmirzaie, Farrokh E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ludwig, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US09/538,032
• Time in Patent Office: 5,837 Days
• Field of Search: 715/507, 715/224, 715/225, 715/226, 715/508, 717/115, 717/507, 717/508
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

A method and system for automatically providing information to an electronic form is disclosed. The method comprises accessing an electronic form wherein the electronic form utilizes at least one designated programming language tag and automatically providing information from a profile to the electronic form. Through the use of a method and system in accordance with the present invention, a user will have the ability to automatically fill in electronic forms based on information in an autofill profile. The autofill profile information is utilized potentially thousands of times. This reuse of information, in place of manual typing, will save hours of time and users will be greatly appreciative of all systems offering this advanced facility.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

in response to a determination that an input field within an electronic form is autofill-enabled, automatically filling in the input field based on information in an autofill profile, wherein the input field is associated with an input tag having an autofill attribute and a name attribute,

wherein the input field is determined to be autofill-enabled if the autofill attribute having an autofill attribute value indicating an enablement,

wherein the name attribute having a standardized name attribute value utilized by a plurality of electronic forms,

wherein the information in the autofill profile is organized as a set of input field variable name-value pair entries, and

wherein the standardized name attribute value is used as an input field variable name to retrieve the information from the autofill profile.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the electronic form utilizes HyperText Markup Language (HTML).

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the electronic form utilizes Extended Markup Language (XML).

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the electronic form comprises a plurality of fields.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the autofill profile resides in memory local to a user'"'"'s computer.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the autofill profile is retrieved by a web browser.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the autofill profile is retrieved by an operating system.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the autofill profile is encrypted.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising:

decrypting the autofill profile using an encryption key.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the field is determined to be autofill-enabled if it is associated with an AUTOFILL=“

Yes”

attribute.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the field is determined to be autofill-enabled if a form tag is embraced by an autofill tag.

12. A computing system comprising:

a computer processor coupled to a computer-readable memory unit, the memory unit including instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, implement a method comprising;

in response to a determination that an input field within an electronic form is autofill-enabled, automatically filling in the input field based on information in an autofill profile, wherein the input field is associated with an input tag having an autofill attribute and a name attribute,

wherein the input field is determined to be autofill-enabled if the autofill attribute having an autofill attribute value indicating an enablement,

wherein the name attribute having a standardized name attribute value utilized by a plurality of electronic forms,

wherein the information in the autofill profile is organized as a set of input field variable name-value pair entries, and wherein the standardized name attribute value is used as an input field variable name to retrieve the information from the autofill profile.

13. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the electronic form utilizes HyperText Markup Language (HTML).

14. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the electronic form utilizes Extended Markup Language (XML).

15. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the electronic form comprises a plurality of fields.

16. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the autofill profile resides in said computer-readable memory unit.

17. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the autofill profile is retrieved by a web browser.

18. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the autofill profile is retrieved by an operating system.

19. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the autofill profile is encrypted.

20. The computing system of claim 19 wherein said method implemented by said instructions included in said memory unit further comprises:

decrypting the autofill profile using an encryption key.

21. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the field is determined to be autofill-enabled if it is associated with an AUTOFILL=“

Yes”

attribute.

22. The computing system of claim 12 wherein the field is determined to be autofill-enabled if a form tag is embraced by an autofill tag.

23. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing program instructions for automatically providing information to a field within an electronic form, the program instructions which when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to execute a method comprising:

in response to a determination that an input field within an electronic form is autofill-enabled, automatically filling in the input field based on information in an autofill profile, wherein the input field is associated with an input tag having an autofill attribute and a name attribute,

wherein the input field is determined to be autofill-enabled if the autofill attribute having an autofill attribute value indicating an enablement,

wherein the name attribute having a standardized name attribute value utilized by a plurality of electronic forms,

wherein the information in the autofill profile is organized as a set of input field variable name-value pair entries, and

wherein the standardized name attribute value is used as an input field variable name to retrieve the information from the autofill profile.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the electronic form utilizes HyperText Markup Language (HTML).

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the electronic form utilizes Extended Markup Language (XML).

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the electronic form comprises a plurality of fields.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the autofill profile resides in memory local to a user'"'"'s computer.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the autofill profile is retrieved by a web browser.

29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the autofill profile is retrieved by an operating system.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the autofill profile is encrypted.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 30 further comprising:

decrypting the autofill profile using an encryption key.

32. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the field is determined to be autofill-enabled if it is associated with an AUTOFILL=“

Yes”

attribute.

33. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the field is determined to be autofill-enabled if a form tag is embraced by an autofill tag.