System and method for contextual workflow automation

• US 9,471,650 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2014
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PeopleNet Communications Corporation (Trimble Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fyre LLC (PeopleNet Corp.)
• Inventors: Arnold, Timothy Kyle
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Hung
• Application Number:
  US14/292,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20150347529A1
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A program product, system and method, the program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising computer program code comprising instructions to perform the method: receiving active content, where the active content comprises computer code for configuring a display in a first display interface; automatically matching without user intervention selected data from the active content to target category data; when there is a match, extracting data from the active content that matches object selector data, including a unique key; searching a customer database of database records using the unique key; when no records found, automatically creating new record; when one record is found, automatically updating without user intervention, items within the database record; when multiple records found, automatically determining a primary database record and automatically updating the primary database record; creating and displaying data in a second display interface from the records.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising computer program code for execution by one or more computers, where a user computer comprises one of the one or more computers, comprising instructions to perform the method:

receiving active content, where the active content comprises computer code for configuring a display with user-requested content in a first display interface on a display screen of the user computer;

automatically matching or having matched without user intervention, selected data from the active content to target category data, wherein the target category data comprises predefined categories of information of interest to a user;

when there is a match for items of the selected data, then extracting or having extracted, data from the active content that matches object selector data, including a unique key;

searching or sending a request to search a customer database of database records using at least the unique key to obtain database records;

when there are no database records found or returned from the search operation, then automatically creating or having created without user intervention a new record comprising a first plurality of fields based at least in part on the selected data extracted from the active content for provision to the customer database;

when there is one database record found or returned from the search operation, then automatically updating or having updated without user intervention when one or more conditions is met, one or more items within the one database record based at least in part on the selected data extracted from the active content, and selecting a second plurality of fields from the one database record;

when there are two or more database records found or returned from the search operation, then automatically determining or having determined a primary database record, based on one or more criteria, and automatically updating or having updated without user intervention when one or more conditions is met, one or more items within the primary database record based at least in part on the selected data extracted from the active content, and selecting a third plurality of fields from the primary database record;

creating or requesting creation, of display data based at least in part on the first plurality of fields of the new record, or the second plurality of fields for the one record, or the third plurality of field for the primary record; and

displaying, by the user computer, in a second display interface on the display screen the display data created.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the computer-readable code for the record updating steps implement one of the conditions with the steps:

obtaining update date for the one record or the primary record returned; and

comparing or requesting comparison of the update date for the respective record to a date associated with the active data, and only triggering the updating or having updated operation when date associated with the active data is after the update date for the respective record.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the display data is created each time active content for user-requested content is received.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the display data is stored in persistent storage.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the computer-readable code for creating display data comprises computer code for including data for one or more other of the database records from the search that are not the primary database record in the display data, when there are two or more database records.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the computer-readable code for automatically updating or having updated one or more items in the primary database record is configured to update selected data in one or more of the other database records from the search.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 6, wherein the data for one or more other of the database records comprises log data.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the object selector data comprises one or more selected from the group of contact methods, location data, and metadata for the active content, and metadata for a document.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the computer-readable code for creating display data is configured to add an ID for the record or a respective link to one or more of the database records.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the second display interface is adjacent to the first display interface.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

computer-readable code for automatically matching or requesting a matching of source data from the active content to predetermined source data,

wherein the step of performing or having performed target category matching is only performed when there is a match of the source data to an item in the predetermined source data.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1,

wherein the active content is computer readable code received from a communications module, and further comprising computer-readable code for performing the steps:

determining or having determined if there is object selector data for a downloadable target document in the active content;

when there is a downloadable document, then downloading the target document and parsing or having parsed selected data in the target document;

wherein the extracting step comprises

extracting or having extracted a first potential key from the active content;

extracting or having extracted a second potential key from parsed content in the target document; and

comparing or requesting comparison the first potential key to the second potential key and when they match, then designating one of the first and second potential keys as the unique key, and when they do not match, then performing the search of the customer database using both of the potential keys as the unique key.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, further comprising computer-readable code for performing the steps:

comparing or requesting comparison of text in the active content to a set of predetermined text formats;

when there is a match to one of the text formats, then creating or having created a document;

parsing or having parsed selected data in the document created using the object selector data;

wherein the extracting step comprises

extracting or having extracted a first potential key from the active content; and

extracting or having extracted a second potential key from parsed content in the target document; and

comparing or having compared the first potential key to the second potential key and if they match, then designating one of the first and second potential keys as the unique key, and if they do not match, then performing the search of the customer database using both of the potential keys as the unique key.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the computer-readable code for the searching step is configured to search or have searched the customer database using the unique key and one or more selected from the group of active content metadata and location data.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, wherein the new record for the customer database comprises the selected data obtained from the extracting step;

and further comprising computer-readable code to send the new document to the customer database.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as defined in claim 1, further comprising computer-readable code for receiving from the customer the object selector data.

17. A computer system, comprising:

one or more computers, where a user computer comprises one of the one or more computers, configured with;

a receiving component configured in the one or more computers to receive active content, where the active content comprises computer code for configuring a display with user-requested content in a first display interface on a display screen of the user computer;

a matching engine configured in the one or more computers, to automatically match or have matched without user intervention selected data from the active content to target category data, wherein the target category data comprises predefined categories of information of interest to a user;

an extraction engine configured in the one or more computers to operate, when there is a match for items of the selected data, to extract data from the active content that matches object selector data, including a unique key;

a search request component configured in the one or more computers to search or send a request to search a customer database of database records using at least the unique key to obtain database records;

a creation and update component configured in the one or more computers to operate;

when there are no database records found or returned from the search operation, then automatically creating or having created without user intervention, a new record comprising a first plurality of fields based at least in part on the selected data extracted from the active content for provision to the customer database;

when there is one database record found or returned from the search operation, then automatically updating or having updated without user intervention when one or more conditions is met, one or more items within the one database record based at least in part on the selected data extracted from the active content, and selecting a second plurality of fields from the one database record;

when there are two or more database records found or returned from the search operation, then automatically determining a primary database record, based on one or more criteria, and automatically updating or having updated without user intervention when one or more conditions is met, one or more items within the primary database record based at least in part on the selected data extracted from the active content, and selecting a third plurality of fields from the primary database record;

a display data generator configured in the one or more computers to create display data based at least in part on the first plurality of fields of the new record, or the second plurality of fields for the one record, or the third plurality of field for the primary record; and

wherein the display displays the display data created in a second display interface on the display screen.

18. The system as defined in claim 17, wherein the creation and update component is configured to create display data comprises computer code for including data for one or more other of the database records from the search that are not the primary database record in the display data, when there are two or more database records.

19. The system as defined in claim 17, wherein the matching engine is further configured to automatically match or have matched source data from the active content to predetermined source data, and only performing the matching operation of the active content to the target category data when there is a match of the source data to an item in the predetermined source data.

20. The system as defined in claim 17,

wherein the active content is computer readable code received from a communications module, and

wherein the extraction engine further comprises:

a document detector configured in the one or more computers to determine if there is object selector data for a downloadable target document in the active content;

a download engine configured in the one or more computers to download the downloadable target document;

a parsing engine configured in the one or more computers to parse or request parsing of selected data in the target document, and

wherein the extraction engine is configured;

to extract a first potential key from the active content;

to extract a second potential key from parsed content of the target document; and

to compare the first potential key to the second potential key and when they match, then sending one of the potential keys as the unique key to the search request component to perform the search of the customer database, and when they do not match, then sending both of the potential keys as the unique key to the search request component to perform the search of the customer database.

21. The system as defined in claim 17, wherein the extraction engine further comprises:

a comparator configured in the one or more computers to compare data in the active content to a set of predetermined text formats;

a document creator engine configured to create a document when there is a match to one of the text formats;

a parsing engine configured in the one or more computers to parse or request parsing of selected data in the document created using the object selector data, and

wherein the extraction engine is configured in the one or more computers;

to extract a first potential key from the active content;

to extract a second potential key from parsed content of the document created; and

to compare the first potential key to the second potential key and when they match, then sending one of the potential keys as the unique key to the search request component to perform the search of the customer database, and when they do not match, then sending both of the potential keys as the unique key to the search request component to perform the search of the customer database.

22. The system as defined in claim 17, wherein the creation and update component is further configured:

to obtain update date for the one record or the primary record returned; and

to compare or have compared the update date for the respective record to a date associated with the active data, and only triggering the updating or having updated operation when date associated with the active data is after the update date for the respective record.