Providing scalable, alternative component-level views

• US 20050071757A1
• Filed: 09/30/2003
• Published: 03/31/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Leah, Robert C., Kenna, Kimberly D., Joshi, Niraj P., Ehrich, Nathanael F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,308,649 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for improved handling of alternative content selection. Using these techniques, content designers specify alternative content views that are designed for use under different conditions, and a particular alternative view is programmatically selected (according to applicable conditions) when preparing content for delivery to a target. Preferably, the alternative views are provided on a component-level basis, where the selected component view or version then forms part of a larger view (such as a Web page). Optionally, more than one component may be designed to vary simultaneously. In this case, the components may vary independently of one another.

Claims

1. A method of selecting component-level views, comprising steps of:

receiving a request for content;

locating a template for the requested content, wherein the template specifies a plurality of alternative views of a component that forms a portion of the content;

evaluating one or more factors to determine an evaluation result, wherein the determined evaluation result corresponds to a particular one of the specified alternative views; and

using the particular one of the specified alternative views for the portion of the content.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the request is received from a client and further comprising the step of returning a response to the client, wherein the response includes the particular one of the specified alternative views.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the requested content is a particular Web page and the template is a Web page template.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the template is specified in a markup language document.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the template is specified in a scripting language and is embedded in a markup language document.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of using the determined evaluation result to identify the particular one of the specified alternative views.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein each of the alternative views is specified as a child element of a particular parent element, wherein each child element has as a value its associated alternative view.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the template specifies alternative views for a plurality of components and wherein the evaluating and using steps apply to each of the specified components.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the using step further comprises the step of omitting, from the response, the specification of the alternative views which were not selected by the evaluating step.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the using step further comprises the step of omitting, from the response, the particular parent element and the child elements which were not selected by the evaluating step.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the using step further comprises the step of substituting the selected alternative view for the specification of the plurality of alternative views.

12. The method according to claim 3, wherein the using step further comprises the step of using the selected alternative view to generate a version of the particular Web page that reflects the one or more evaluated factors.

13. A method of generating content using alternative component-level views, comprising steps of:

determining that content should be generated from a particular template, wherein the template specifies a plurality of alternative views of a component that forms a portion of the content and also specifies an associated selection identifier for each of the specified alternative views;

evaluating one or more factors to determine an evaluation result, wherein the determined evaluation result corresponds to a particular one of the selection identifiers, thereby selecting the associated one of the specified alternative views; and

using the selected alternative view for the portion of the content to generate a version of the content.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising the step of distributing the generated version of the content to a destination.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising the step of storing the generated version of the content in a repository.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the using step further comprises the step of embedding the selected alternative view into the generated version of the content.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein the using step further comprises the step of embedding an identifier of the selected alternative view into the generated version of the content.

18. A system for selecting component-level views in a computing environment, comprising:

means for receiving a client request for a particular Web page;

means for locating a template for the particular Web page, responsive to the means for receiving the client request, wherein the template specifies a plurality of alternative views of a component that forms a portion of the particular Web page along with an associated selection identifier for each of the specified alternative views;

evaluating one or more factors to determine an evaluation result, wherein the determined evaluation result corresponds to a particular one of the selection identifiers, thereby selecting the associated one of the specified alternative views; and

using the selected alternative view for the portion when generating the particular Web page requested by the client.

19. A computer program product for generating content using alternative component-level views, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for determining that content should be generated from a particular template, wherein the template specifies a plurality of alternative views of a component that forms a portion of the content;

computer-readable program code means for evaluating one or more factors to determine an evaluation result, wherein the determined evaluation result corresponds to a particular one of the specified alternative views; and

computer-readable program code means for using the particular one of the alternative views for the portion of the content to generate a version of the content.