AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY OF A COMPLEX DOCUMENT BASED ON PRODUCTION CONTRAINTS

• US 20080270470A1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Morales, Javier A., Farrell, Michael E., Buck, Arlene J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,479,091 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

A method for assembling a document generates a set of candidate content items for inclusion in the document, The content items may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, A set of production criteria for printing the candidate content items as a document may be selected. An inclusion constraint is automatically applied to the set of production criteria. If the set of production criteria does not satisfy the inclusion constraint, a conflict may be resolved. One or more production criteria in the set may be identified that may be modified. A user selection of at least one production criteria that may be modified may be received. The identified production criteria may be modified according to the user selection. A document may be created that includes the modified production criteria and the candidate content items. The document may be published.

Claims

1. A method of assembling a document comprising:

generating a set of candidate content items by, selecting a plurality of content items from a computer-readable storage medium;

selecting a set of production criteria for printing the candidate content items;

automatically applying an inclusion constraint to the set of production criteria;

if the set of production criteria does not satisfy the inclusion constraint, resolving a conflict by;

identifying one or more production criteria in the set that may be modified.

receiving a user selection of one or more of the production criteria that may be modified, and

modifying the identified production criteria according to the user selection;

creating a document that includes the modified production criteria and the candidate content items; and

publishing the document.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the content items has an associated cost, each of the production criteria has an associated cost, the inclusion constraint comprises a maximum total cost, and applying the inclusion constraint comprises:

summing the costs associated with each candidate content item and each production criteria to yield a total cost; and

comparing the total cost to the maximum total cost.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically applying an inclusion constraint and resolving a conflict are repealed until the set of production criteria satisfies the inclusion constraint.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically adjusting the inclusion constraint based on an amount of advertising content to be included in the document.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

permitting a user to adjust the inclusion constraint.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the set of content items does not satisfy the inclusion constraint, resolving a conflict by;

identifying one or more candidate content items in the set to be removed, and

removing the identified candidate content items from the set.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein creating the document comprises ordering the candidate content items based on one or more of the following:

date of publication of the content item,

time-stamping the content item,

user-defined order,

alphabetizing by title,

alphabetizing by topic, and

alphabetizing by author'"'"'s name.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein production criteria comprises an associated cost based on the type of candidate content items.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of non-selected content items;

automatically applying an exclusion constraint to the plurality of non-selected content items to determine whether one or more of the non-selected content items satisfy an exclusion constraint; and

if one or more of the non-selected content items satisfy the exclusion constraint;

identifying one or more non-selected content items to be removed, and

removing the identified non-selected content items, and

including the non-selected content items that were not removed in the document.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the non-selected content items comprise advertising content.

12. A method of assembling a document comprising:

generating a set of candidate content items by selecting a plurality of content items;

selecting a set of production criteria for printing the candidate content items;

if the production criteria in the set and the candidate content items in the set do not satisfy an inclusion constraints resolving a conflict by;

identifying one or more candidate content items in the set to be removed.

removing the identified candidate content items from the set,

identifying one or more production criteria in the set to be modified, and

modifying the identified production criteria;

creating a document that includes the candidate content items that were not removed; and

publishing the document in accordance with modified production criteria.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein each of the candidate content items have an associated cost, each of the production criteria have an associated cost, the inclusion constraint comprises a maximum total costs and applying the inclusion constraint comprises summing the cost associated with each candidate content item and each production criteria to yield a total cost and comparing the total cost to the maximum total cost.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein identifying one or more candidate content items to be removed comprises ranking the content items by at least one of the following:

most recently added,

highest rated,

most popular, and

volume of prior use by a user.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein automatically applying an inclusion constraint and resolving a conflict is repeated until the production criteria satisfies the inclusion constraint.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

adjusting the inclusion constraint based on an amount of advertising content to be included in the document.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of non-selected content items;

automatically applying an exclusion constraint to the plurality of non-selected content items to determine whether one or more of the plurality of non-selected content items satisfy the exclusion constraint; and

if one or more of the plurality of non-selected content items satisfy the exclusion constraint;

identifying one or more non-selected content items to be removed, and

removing the identified non-selected content items, and

including the non-selected content items tat were not removed in the document.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the non-selected content items comprise advertising content.

19. An automatic document creation system, comprising:

one or more storage media containing electronic representations of a plurality of content items;

a computing device that;

selects a set of candidate content items from the content items in the storage media, selects a set of production criteria,

applies an inclusion constraint to the set of production criteria to determine whether the set satisfies the inclusion constraint,

if the inclusion constraint is not satisfied, identifies one or more production criteria in the set that may be modified,

receives a user selection of at least one of the production criteria that may be modified,

modifies the identified production criteria according to the user selection, and

creates a document that includes the modified production criteria and the candidate content items; and

a printing device that publishes the document.