System and method for managing content on a network interface

• US 9,514,239 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2014
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bruce Zak
• Inventors: Zak, Bruce, Zak, Regina
• Primary Examiner(s): STORK, KYLE R
• Application Number:
  US14/263,383
• Publication Number:
  US 20140237336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 953 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

The disclosed invention is a system and method (collectively the “system”) for the automated management of content on a network interface. The network interface can be a web site on the World Wide Web, an Internet location, an intranet location, an extranet location, or some other form of network interface (collectively “web site”). The system can automatically create applications and links to those applications without human intervention. Examples of automated applications include newsroom applications, calendar of events, employment opportunities, project portfolio, biographies, frequently asked questions, document library, category management, product catalogs, e-mail broadcasts, surveys, and newsletters. Fully normalized hierarchies of business rules and user profiles can be supported by the system to facilitate automation and configurability. Multiple content providers can manage a single web site in a simultaneous or substantially simultaneous manner. In ASP embodiments, multiple organizations can use the system to manage multiple web sites in a substantially simultaneous manner.

Claims

1. A system, including a computing device, for managing content displayable on a website to users who have profiles stored on the system, comprising:

an interface subsystem administered by the computing device, including a content interface configured to capture and store in memory associated with the computing device a plurality of input characteristics comprising a start date;

a content subsystem administered by the computing device, including a configurable application, a configurable link and at least one business rule stored in the memory;

wherein the computing device generates at least some content of the configurable application from the plurality of input characteristics;

wherein the computing device executes the at least one business rule to determine what content can be viewed by one or more users of the website based at least in part on the profiles stored on the system and generates the configurable link in response;

wherein the computing device automatically embeds the configurable link on the website in accordance with the start date; and

wherein the configurable link points to the configurable application.

2. A system, including a computing device, for managing content displayable on a website, comprising:

a plurality of configurable web pages that are generated by the computing device and that display a plurality of units of content to the users of the website, wherein at least some of the units of content are received by the computing device from the users of the website;

wherein at least one of the units of content is associated with a start date that relates to a date upon which the unit of content will become viewable to other users of the system, the start date being configurable by a particular user of the system who provided the unit of content; and

a configurable link associated with the unit of content that is generated by the computing device in accordance with the start date and that is embedded on the website.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the configurable link is embedded on the website beginning on the start date such that users of the website can activate the unit of content by selecting the configurable link.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein information concerning the start date is incorporated into the configurable link.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the units of content is associated with an end date that relates to a date upon which the unit of content will cease to be viewable to other users of the system, the end date being configurable by a particular user of the system who provided the unit of content.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the configurable link is removed from the website on the end date such that the configurable link and the associated unit of content are no longer viewable to users of the website as of the end date.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein information concerning the end date is incorporated into the configurable link.

8. A system, including a computing device, for managing content displayable on a website to multiple users of the website who have profiles stored on the system, the multiple users of the website including a user acting as an administrator for a particular subset of the web pages of the website, comprising:

a plurality of configurable applications that are managed by the computing device, including at least a first configurable application and a second configurable application, wherein the first and second configurable applications each includes content displayable on one or more web pages of the subset of web pages, wherein the content includes at least one of text, graphics, sounds, documents, and multi-media content;

wherein the first configurable application is a biography application that displays biographical information about the user acting as an administrator for the subset of web pages;

wherein the second configurable application is generated by the computing device and includes content received from the user acting as an administrator and content received from at least one other user of the website;

at least one configurable link on at least one of the web pages that points to at least one of the plurality of configurable applications;

a first business rule that is configurable by the user acting as an administrator, wherein the system uses the first business rule and information in user profiles to determine which content of the second configurable application is viewable by which of the other users of the system; and

a second business rule that is configurable by the user acting as an administrator, wherein the system uses the second business rule and information in user profiles to determine which of the other users of the system are permitted to provide content to the second configurable application;

wherein the configurable link is generated by the computing device based upon at least one of the first business rule and the second business rule.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the configurable link incorporates information concerning at least one of the first business rule and the second business rule.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the configurable link incorporates a URL.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device, in response to the addition of new content to one of the configurable applications by one of the users of the system, generates a second configurable link that is associated with the new content.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the new content is associated with a start date upon which the new content will be viewable on the website by other users of the system, wherein the start date is configurable by the user adding the new content.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein information concerning the start date is incorporated into the second configurable link.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the new content is associated with an end date upon which the new content will be no longer viewable on the website by other users of the system, wherein the end date is configurable by the user adding the new content.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein information concerning the end date is incorporated into the second configurable link.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the second configurable application is a communications application that displays communications provided by the user acting in the role of administrator and communications provided by one or more other users of the system.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computing device causes a communication provided by the user acting in the role of administrator to the communications application to be automatically sent to a plurality of other users of the system.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein a communication provided by the user acting in the role of administrator is associated with a start date upon which the computing device causes the communication to be sent to the other users of the system, the start date being configurable by the user acting in the role of administrator.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computing device generates a second configurable link, which is associated with the communication provided by the user acting in the role of administrator, and the second configurable link includes information related to the start date.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the computing device causes a communication provided by the user acting in the role of administrator to the communications application is automatically and selectively sent to other users of the system based at least in part on a business rule that is configurable by the user acting in the role of administrator and based on at least one user characteristic that is automatically tracked by the system and that includes information concerning the nature of past use of the system by the other users.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the computing device causes a communication provided by the user acting in the role of administrator to the communications application is automatically and selectively sent to other users of the system based at least in part on a business rule that is configurable by the administrator and based on at least one user characteristic that is automatically tracked by the system and that includes information concerning an affiliation of a user with certain groups of users on the system.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the computing device causes communications provided by users of the system other than the user acting in the role of administrator are selectively displayed in the communications application based at least in part on a characteristic of the user acting in the role of administrator that is automatically tracked by the system.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the characteristic of the user acting in the role of administrator is an affiliation of the user acting in the role of administrator with certain groups of other users on the system.

24. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the communications provided by a user of the system other than the user acting in the role of administrator is a product promotion communication.

25. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the communications is associated with a configurable start date upon which the communication will become visible in the communications application, the start date being configurable by the user acting in the role of administrator.

26. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the communications is associated with a configurable end date upon which the communication is no longer visible in the communications application, the end date being configurable by the user acting in the role of administrator.

27. The system of claim 16, further comprising an events application that schedules and displays events based at least in part on inputs received from the user acting in the role of administrator, and wherein the computing device causes communications related to events scheduled in the events application to be automatically displayed in the communications application.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the computing device further causes communications related to events scheduled in the events application to be automatically transmitted to a group of other users of the system whose members are selected by the user acting in the role of administrator.

29. The system of claim 16, wherein the user profiles include information associating a user with a group of users that is less than all users of the system, and wherein the computing device determines content can be seen by which users based at least in part on the first business rule and whether users are associated with a particular group.

30. The system of claim 16, further comprising an administrator portal generated by the computing device and which is configured to enable the user acting in the role of administrator to configure at least one of the first business rule and the second business rule.

31. A system, including a computing device, for managing content displayable on a website, comprising:

a plurality of configurable web pages that are generated by the computing device and that display a plurality of units of content to users of the website, wherein at least some of the units of content are received by the computing device from one or more of the users of the website;

wherein the plurality of configurable web pages includes a first configurable web page that is generated by the computing device and includes at least one unit of content received from one of the users acting as an administrator for the first configurable web page and at least one unit of content received from a different user of the website;

a first business rule that is configurable by the user acting as an administrator, wherein the computer uses the first business rule and information in the profiles of the users to determine which units of content of the first configurable web page are viewable by which of the other users of the website;

wherein at least one of the units of content is assigned a start date by the user acting as an administrator, wherein the start date relates to a date upon which the unit of content will become viewable to other users of the system; and

a configurable link associated with the unit of content that is generated by the computing device in accordance with the start date and that is embedded on the website.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the computing device causes the configurable link to be embedded on the website beginning on the start date such that users of the website can activate the unit of content by selecting the configurable link.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the computing device incorporates information concerning the start date into the configurable link.

34. A system, including a computing device, for managing content displayable on a website to users who have profiles stored on the system, comprising:

an interface subsystem administered by the computing device, including a content interface configured to capture content and a start date associated with the content from one or more of the users of the website and store the content and the start date in memory associated with the computing device;

a content subsystem administered by the computing device, including a configurable application, a configurable link and at least one business rule stored in the memory;

wherein the computing device displays at least some of the content in the configurable application beginning on the start date;

wherein the computing device executes the at least one business rule to determine what content can be viewed by one or more users of the website and generates the configurable link;

wherein the computing device automatically provides the configurable link to the website on the start date in accordance with the at least one business rule.

35. A system, including a computing device, for managing content displayable on a website, comprising:

a plurality of configurable web pages that are generated by the computing device and that display a plurality of units of content to human users of the website, wherein at least some of the units of content are received by the computing device from one or more of the human users of the website;

wherein at least one of the units of content is associated with a start date that relates to a date upon which the unit of content will become viewable to other human users of the system, the start date being configurable by a particular human user of the system who provided the unit of content; and

a configurable link associated with the unit of content that is generated by the computing device in accordance with the start date and at least one business rule that is configurable by the particular human user of the system who provided the unit of content to control which other human users of the website have permission to view the unit of content on and after the start date.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the unit of content is displayed on the website beginning on the start date in response to user selection of the configurable link.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the computing device incorporates information concerning the start date and the at least one business rule into the configurable link.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein at least one of the units of content is associated with an end date that relates to a date upon which the unit of content will cease to be viewable to human users of the website, the end date being configurable by a particular human user of the website who provided the unit of content.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the unit of content associated with the end date is removed from the website on the end date such that the unit of content associated with the end date is no longer viewable to human users of the website after the end date.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the computing device incorporates information concerning the end date into the configurable link.

41. A system, including a computing device, for managing content displayable on a website to multiple human users of the website who have profiles stored on the system, wherein each of the multiple human users of the website acts as an administrator for a particular subset of the web pages of the website, comprising:

a plurality of configurable applications that are managed by the computing device, including at least a first configurable application and a second configurable application, wherein the first and second configurable applications are different application types and each includes content displayable on one or more web pages of the subset of web pages, wherein the content includes at least one of text, graphics, sounds, documents, and multi-media content;

wherein the application type of the first configurable application is a biography application that displays biographical information about a human user acting as an administrator for the subset of web pages;

wherein the second configurable application is generated by the computing device and includes content received directly from the user acting as an administrator and content directly or indirectly received from at least one other human user of the website;

at least one configurable link that points to at least one of the plurality of configurable applications;

a first business rule that is configurable by the human user acting as an administrator, wherein the system uses the first business rule and information in human user profiles to determine which content of the second configurable application is viewable by which of the other human users of the website; and

a second business rule that is configurable by the human user acting as an administrator, wherein the system uses the second business rule and information in human user profiles to determine which of the other human users of the system are permitted to provide content to the second configurable application;

wherein the configurable link is generated by the computing device based upon at least one of the first business rule and the second business rule.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the configurable link incorporates information concerning at least one of the first business rule and the second business rule.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein the configurable link incorporates a URL.

44. The system of claim 41, further comprising a second configurable link that is associated with a new unit of content and that is generated in response to the addition of the new unit of content by a human user of the website.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the new content is associated with a start date upon which the new content will be viewable on the website by other users of the system, wherein the start date is configurable by the user adding the new content.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein information concerning the start date is incorporated into the second configurable link.

47. The system of claim 44, wherein the new content is associated with an end date upon which the new content will be no longer viewable on the website by other users of the system, wherein the end date is configurable by the user adding the new content.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein information concerning the end date is incorporated into the second configurable link.

49. The system of claim 41, wherein the application type of the second configurable application is a communications application that displays communications provided by the human user acting as an administrator and communications provided by one or more other human users of the website.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein a communication provided by the human user acting as an administrator to the communications application is automatically sent to a plurality of other human users of the system.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein a communication provided by the human user acting as an of administrator is associated with a start date upon which the communication is sent to the other human users of the website, the start date being configurable by the human user acting as an administrator.

52. The system of claim 51, further comprising a second configurable link that is associated with the communication provided by the user acting as an administrator, where the second configurable link includes information related to the start date.

53. The system of claim 49, wherein a communication provided by the human user acting as an administrator directly to the communications application is automatically and selectively sent to other human users of the website based at least in part on a business rule that is configurable by the human user acting as an administrator and based on at least one human user characteristic that is automatically tracked by the system and that includes information concerning the nature of past use of the system by the other human users.

54. The system of claim 49, wherein a communication provided by the human user acting as an administrator directly to the communications application is automatically and selectively sent to other human users of the website based at least in part on a business rule that is configurable by the human user acting as an administrator and based on at least one human user characteristic that is automatically tracked by the system and that includes information concerning an affiliation of a human user with certain groups of users on the website.

55. The system of claim 49, communications provided by human users of the system other than the human user acting as an administrator to be selectively displayed in the communications application based at least in part on a characteristic of the human user acting as an administrator that is automatically tracked by the system.

56. The system of claim 55, wherein the characteristic of the human user acting as an administrator is an affiliation of the human user acting as an administrator with certain groups of other human users on the system.

57. The system of claim 49, wherein at least one of the communications provided by a human user of the system other than the human user acting as an administrator is a product promotion communication.

58. The system of claim 49, wherein at least one of the communications is associated with a configurable start date upon which the communication will become visible in the communications application, the start date being configurable by the human user acting as an administrator.

59. The system of claim 49, wherein at least one of the communications is associated with a configurable end date upon which the communication is no longer visible in the communications application, the end date being configurable by the human user acting as an administrator.

60. The system of claim 49, further comprising an events application that schedules and displays events based at least in part on inputs received from the human user acting as an administrator, and wherein the communications related to events scheduled in the events application are automatically displayed in the communications application.

61. The system of claim 60, wherein communications related to events scheduled in the events application are further automatically transmitted to a group of other human users of the system whose members are selected by the human user acting as an administrator.

62. The system of claim 41, wherein the human user profiles include information associating a human user with a group of human users that is less than all human users of the system, and wherein the computing device determines content can be seen by which users based at least in part on the first business rule and whether users are associated with a particular group.

63. The system of claim 49, further comprising an administrator portal generated by the computing device and which is configured to enable the human user acting as an administrator to configure at least one of the first business rule and the second business rule.

64. A system, including a computing device, for managing content displayable on a website, comprising:

a plurality of configurable web pages that are generated by the computing device and that display a plurality of units of content to human users of the website, wherein at least some of the units of content are received by the computing device from the human users of the website;

wherein the plurality of configurable web pages includes a first configurable web page that is generated by the computer and includes units of content received from a human user acting as an administrator for the first configurable web page and units of content received from other human users of the website;

a first business rule that is configurable by the human user acting as an administrator, wherein the first business rule and information in the profiles of the human users are used to determine which units of content of the first configurable web page are viewable by which of the other human users of the website;

wherein at least one of the units of content is assigned a start date by the human user acting as an administrator, wherein the start date relates to a date upon which the unit of content will become viewable to other human users of the website; and

a configurable link associated with the unit of content that is generated by the computing device in accordance with the start date,

wherein each of the human users of the website acts as an administrator for at least a subset of web pages on the website.

65. The system of claim 64, wherein the computing device causes the configurable link to be embedded on the website beginning on the start date such that users of the website can activate the unit of content by selecting the configurable link.

66. The system of claim 64, wherein information concerning the start date and the first business rule is incorporated into the configurable link.