Method And System Of Providing A Viewing Experience With Respect To A Document Having Read-only Content

• US 20110197144A1
• Filed: 01/06/2011
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sand Technology Incorporated (Constellation Software Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sand Technology Incorporated (Constellation Software Incorporated)
• Inventors: Coatta, Terry, Burnard, Grant, Constantin, Cristian George
• Application Number:
  US12/986,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20110197144A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

Computer-implemented methods of and systems for providing a viewing experience to a user are disclosed. In one such method, an electronic document is provided. The electronic document has read-only content and embedded executable code which executes upon opening the document. The executable code influences a viewing experience. A remote database having data about a user is provided and data is received from the database for use in conjunction with the embedded executable code in order to provide a viewing experience to the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of providing a viewing experience to a user, comprising the steps of:

providing an electronic document having read-only content, having embedded executable code which executes upon opening the document, and the executable code influences a viewing experience;

providing a remote database;

opening the electronic document;

receiving data regarding the user from the remote database; and

providing a viewing experience using the data in conjunction with the executable code.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data includes actions taken by a user with respect to the document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data includes actions taken by a user with respect to another document.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving additional executable code from the remote database, and the viewing experience is provided using the additional executable code in conjunction with the data, embedded executable code, or both.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the additional executable code is selected based on data in the remote database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is provided with a user input mechanism.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the user input mechanism is a modal window capable of receiving input from the user.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the user input mechanism includes a plurality of selectively editable fields.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the executable code to collect information about the user, and using the collected information to modify the viewing experience.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the collected information is an identifier associated with the user.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of sending the collected information to the remote database.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the additional step of updating the remote database with the collected information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the collected information includes an electronic document identifier and a user identifier.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the collected information includes actions taken by a user with respect to the document.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is in Portable Document Format.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the executable code is Javascript code.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the executable code is Flash code.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing experience is altered by changing the appearance of the electronic document.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing experience is altered by providing an interactive module.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the interactive module opens a new viewing window.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the interactive module communicates user input to the remote database.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the data from the remote database on a computer that is displaying the viewing experience to the user.

23. A system comprising:

a remote database having data and executable code;

an electronic document having read-only content, having embedded executable code which executes upon opening the document, and the executable code influences a viewing experience using data from the database; and

a communications channel between the electronic document and the remote database, wherein the communications channel is capable of transmitting the data from the database to the document.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the data includes actions taken by a user with respect to the document.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the data includes actions taken by a user with respect to another document.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the electronic document also has a user input mechanism.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the user input mechanism is a modal window capable of receiving input from the user.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the user input mechanism includes a plurality of selectively editable fields.

29. The system of claim 23, wherein the executable code also collects information about the user, and the executable code uses the collected information to modify the viewing experience.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the collected information is context sensitive information.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the collected information is an identifier associated with the user.

32. The system of claim 29, wherein the communications channel is also capable of transmitting the collected information to the remote database.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the executable code is capable of sending the collected information to the remote database.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the collected information includes actions taken by the user with respect to the document.

35. The system of claim 23, wherein the electronic document is in Portable Document Format.

36. The system of claim 23, wherein the executable code is Javascript code.

37. The system of claim 23, wherein the executable code is Flash code.

38. The system of claim 23, wherein the executable code is capable of altering the viewing experience by changing the appearance of the electronic document.

39. The system of claim 23, wherein the executable code is capable of altering the viewing experience by providing an interactive module.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the interactive module opens in a new viewing window.

41. The system of claim 39, wherein the interactive module is capable of communicating user input to the remote database.

42. The system of claim 23, wherein the communications channel includes a local memory device for storing data from the remote database until the data is ready to be provided to the executable code.

43. The system of claim 23 further comprising additional executable code in the remote database, which may be provided to a local computer and executed to provide the viewing experience in conjunction with the data, the embedded executable code, or both.