Template selection for mapping a third-party web page to an object in a social networking system

• US 9,542,369 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2013
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tarjan, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn, Gregory J
• Application Number:
  US13/951,575
• Publication Number:
  US 20130318434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,264 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/201, 715/203, 715/234, 715/236, 715/239
• 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 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A social networking system includes a mechanism for customizing display of content from an external web page. Nodes associated with a web page are included in the social graph based on one or more tags included in a web page, which contain meta-information for defining the node in the social networking system, such as the type of the node. The social networking system retrieves the tags from the markup language document and stores their information in connection with the node for the web page while using the tags to identify a template that describes display of content from the web page. The template may include user interface elements for receiving input, allowing a user to interact with a node in the social graph associated with the web page, allowing user interactions with the web page content to be tracked by and reflected back within the social networking system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing a social graph of a social networking system, the social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of connections, each connection associated with a pair of nodes;

accessing information from a web page of an external website, wherein the web page allows users to perform actions associated with an entity, the web page provided in a domain that is different from a domain associated with the social networking system;

defining an additional node in the social graph of the social networking system at least in part according to the accessed information, the additional node comprising a representation of the entity in the social networking system;

generating, by the social networking system, a user interface element, the user interface element configured to perform an action associated with the entity and transmit information describing the action to the social networking system;

receiving requests, through the user interface element, from one or more users of the social networking system to perform a user action associated with the entity; and

responsive to the received requests, storing one or more connections in the social graph between the one or more users and the additional node, each connection associated with the user action related to the entity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a page template from a plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on the accessed information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting the page template from the plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on the accessed information comprises:

determining a type of the entity from the accessed information; and

selecting the page template from the plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on the determined type of the entity.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting the page template from the plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on the accessed information comprises:

selecting a page template from the plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on information from the web page and on the accessed information, the selected page template including instructions describing display of content from the web page using the domain associated with the social networking system; and

mapping information from the web page to the selected page template.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein accessing the information from the web page comprises:

obtaining a markup language document for the web page; and

identifying one or more tags in the markup language document, the tags containing the accessed information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more tags comprise at least one information item selected from a group consisting of:

a type of the node, a name of the node, a textual description associated with the node, location information associated with the node, and a unique identifier for the node, an identity of one or more users of the social networking system designated as an administrator of the node.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting the page template from the plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on the accessed information comprises:

determining a type of the node from one or more tags in the markup language document; and

selecting the page template from the plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on the type of the node.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the accessed information comprises a definition of a type of the node, and wherein the method further comprises limiting the one or more actions that a user can perform related to the additional node based on the type of the additional node.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting the page template from the plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on the accessed information comprises:

selecting a page template associated with the definition of the type of the node, the page template limiting enabled actions to actions associated with the definition of the type of the node.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting the page template from the plurality of predefined page templates based at least in part on the accessed information comprises:

receiving from a user device a request to display content from the web page using the domain associated with the social networking system; and

analyzing information from the web page to identify the page template including instructions describing display of content from the web page using the domain associated with the social networking system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional node in the social graph of the social networking system represents a page of content in the social networking system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional node in the social graph of the social networking system represents an event.

13. A method comprising:

storing a social graph of a social networking system, the social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of connections, each connection associated with a pair of nodes;

accessing a web page from a web server of an external web site, wherein the web page allows users to perform actions associated with an entity, the web page provided within a domain different from a domain of a social networking system;

receiving a markup language document for the web page, the markup language document including web page content and a definition of a type of a node associated with the web page content;

defining an additional node in the social graph of the social networking system at least in part according to the web page content, the additional node comprising a representation of the entity in the social networking system;

generating a user interface element within the domain of the social networking system, the user interface element configured to perform an action associated with the entity and transmit information describing the action to the social networking system;

receiving requests, through the user interface element, from one or more users of the social networking system to perform a user action associated with the entity; and

responsive to the received requests, storing one or more connections in the social graph between the one or more users and the additional node, each connection associated with the user action related to the entity.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

selecting a page template from a plurality of predefined page templates stored by the social networking system based on the type of the node associated with the web page, the page template including instructions describing display of content from the web.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user interface element enables the user to interact with a node in the social networking system associated with the web page.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the page template limits user interaction with the node in the social networking system to interactions associated with the definition of the type of the node.

17. A method for providing content, the method comprising:

storing a social graph of a social networking system, the social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of connections, each connection associated with a pair of nodes;

receiving a markup language document for a requested web page within a domain different from a domain of a social networking system, the markup language document including web page content and a definition of a type of a node associated with the web page content, the web page content comprising information about an entity;

defining an additional node in the social graph of the social networking system at least in part according to the web page content, the additional node comprising a representation of the entity in the social networking system;

generating, by the social networking system, a user interface element in a domain of the social networking system, the user interface element configured to perform an action associated with the entity and transmit information describing the action to the social networking system;

receiving requests, through the user interface element, from one or more users of the social networking system to perform a user action associated with the entity; and

responsive to the received requests, storing one or more connections in the social graph between the one or more users and the additional node, each connection associated with the user action related to the entity.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

selecting a page template associated with the web page from the plurality of page templates based on the type of the node associated with the web page.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting the page template associated with the web page from the plurality of page templates based on the type of the node associated with the web page comprises:

identifying one or more tags in the markup language document, the tags containing data describing the content of the web page;

determining the type of the node from one or more tags in the markup language document; and

determining a page template associated with the type of the node determined from the one or more tags in the markup language document.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the one or more tags comprise at least one information item selected from a group consisting of:

a type of the node, a name of the node, a textual description associated with the node, location information associated with the node, and a unique identifier for the node, an identity of one or more users of the social networking system designated as an administrator of the node.