Apparatus and method for providing selective views of on-line surveys

• US 20030050939A1
• Filed: 09/13/2001
• Published: 03/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Malik, Nadeem, Dietz, Timothy Alan, Holloway, Lane Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 6,754,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/194 Calculation of difference between files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing selective views of on-line surveys are provided. With the apparatus and method, each survey has a survey data structure and a template data structure. In a preferred embodiment, the data structures represent tree structures having nodes, child nodes, links between nodes and child nodes, and the like, for the survey and the template. Changes to the survey are made in the template data structure. The survey data structure and the template data structure are compared to one another, and nodes are either added, subtracted, or modified based on the differences between the survey data structure and the template data structure. In this way, the survey data structure retains the information that is already in present in it, such as the questions and answers previously provided. Thereafter, when the survey is again presented to a user, the user'"'"'s previous answers to questions still remaining in the survey are displayed but no answers are displayed for newly added questions. In addition, if the questions are modified, the modified questions are presented with no answers displayed until provided by the user. In this way, answer data for questions that were previously answered and are still remaining in the survey after modification are not lost. In addition, the survey data itself is not corrupted by the modification of the survey.

Claims

1. A method of updating a survey, comprising:

updating a survey template data structure;

comparing the updated survey template data structure to a current survey data structure; and

modifying the current survey data structure based on differences between the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure to thereby generate an updated current survey data structure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the current survey data structure includes adding one or more nodes to a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in the updated survey template data structure but not in the current survey data structure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the current survey data structure includes deleting one or more nodes from a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in the current survey data structure but not in the updated survey template data structure.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the current survey data structure includes changing one or more nodes in a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in both the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure but having different values in the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein changing one or more nodes includes modifying a text associated with a tag for the one or more nodes.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein changing one or more nodes includes deleting a node from the current survey data structure and adding a node from the updated survey template data structure to the current survey data structure in place of the deleted node.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation of the updated current survey data structure includes an output of old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers and an output of new questions in the updated current survey data structure without associated previously provided answers.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation of the updated current survey data structure includes an output of old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers, and wherein the output of the old questions and associated previously provided answers does not include questions deleted by updating the current survey data structure.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation includes old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers, and old questions in the updated current survey data structure that have had their values changed, without associated previously provided answers.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the current survey data structure based on differences between the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure is performed without losing previously provided answer data associated with questions in the current survey data structure that are not updated in the updated survey template data structure.

11. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for updating a survey, comprising:

first instructions for updating a survey template data structure;

second instructions for comparing the updated survey template data structure to a current survey data structure; and

third instructions for modifying the current survey data structure based on differences between the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure to thereby generate an updated current survey data structure.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the third instructions for modifying the current survey data structure include instructions for adding one or more nodes to a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in the updated survey template data structure but not in the current survey data structure.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the third instructions for modifying the current survey data structure include instructions for deleting one or more nodes from a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in the current survey data structure but not in the updated survey template data structure.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the third instructions for modifying the current survey data structure include instructions for changing one or more nodes in a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in both the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure but having different values in the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the instructions for changing one or more nodes include instructions for modifying a text associated with a tag for the one or more nodes.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the instructions for changing one or more nodes include instructions for deleting a node from the current survey data structure and instructions for adding a node from the updated survey template data structure to the current survey data structure in place of the deleted node.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

fourth instructions for presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation of the updated current survey data structure includes an output of old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers and an output of new questions in the updated current survey data structure without associated previously provided answers.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

fourth instructions for presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation of the updated current survey data structure includes an output of old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers, and wherein the output of the old questions and associated previously provided answers does not include questions deleted by updating the current survey data structure.

19. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

fourth instructions for presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation includes old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers, and old questions in the updated current survey data structure that have had their values changed, without associated previously provided answers.

20. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the third instructions for modifying the current survey data structure based on differences between the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure are executed without losing previously provided answer data associated with questions in the current survey data structure that are not updated in the updated survey template data structure.

21. An apparatus for updating a survey, comprising:

means for updating a survey template data structure;

means for comparing the updated survey template data structure to a current survey data structure; and

means for modifying the current survey data structure based on differences between the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure to thereby generate an updated current survey data structure.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the means for modifying the current survey data structure includes means for adding one or more nodes to a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in the updated survey template data structure but not in the current survey data structure.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the means for modifying the current survey data structure includes means for deleting one or more nodes from a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in the current survey data structure but not in the updated survey template data structure.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the means for modifying the current survey data structure includes means for changing one or more nodes in a tree structure representation of the current survey data structure, the one or more nodes being present in both the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure but having different values in the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the means for changing one or more nodes includes means for modifying a text associated with a tag for the one or more nodes.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the means for changing one or more nodes includes means for deleting a node from the current survey data structure and means for adding a node from the updated survey template data structure to the current survey data structure in place of the deleted node.

27. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising:

means for presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation of the updated current survey data structure includes an output of old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers and an output of new questions in the updated current survey data structure without associated previously provided answers.

28. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising:

means for presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation of the updated current survey data structure includes an output of old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers, and wherein the output of the old questions and associated previously provided answers does not include questions deleted by updating the current survey data structure.

29. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising:

means for presenting a presentation of the updated current survey data structure to a user, wherein the presentation includes old questions in the updated current survey data structure associated with previously provided answers, and old questions in the updated current survey data structure that have had their values changed, without associated previously provided answers.

30. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the means for modifying the current survey data structure based on differences between the current survey data structure and the updated survey template data structure operates without losing previously provided answer data associated with questions in the current survey data structure that are not updated in the updated survey template data structure.