GENERATING A FORM RESPONSE INTERFACE IN AN ONLINE APPLICATION

• US 20150324343A1
• Filed: 02/24/2015
• Published: 11/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: CARTER, BERNADETTE A., MERCER, KATHRYN L., WONG, CESAR A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,073,823 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/49 using very large corpora, e.g. the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

An approach is described for generating a form response interface in an online application. An associated method may include identifying a content post in an online application interface and facilitating evaluation of the content post. Upon determining that the content post is form-addressable based on the evaluation, the method may include generating a form response interface element including multiple alternatives and updating the online application interface to display the form response interface element with the content post. In an embodiment, facilitating evaluation according to the method may include parsing language in the content post to determine the presence of a form-addressable interrogatory element. In a further embodiment, facilitating evaluation according to the method may include analyzing comments posted in response to the content post to determine the presence of form-addressable common language elements.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a content post in an online application interface;

facilitating evaluation of the content post; and

upon determining that the content post is form-addressable based on the evaluation;

generating a form response interface element including multiple alternatives, and

updating the online application interface to display the form response interface element with the content post.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein facilitating evaluation of the content post comprises:

facilitating parsing of language in the content post;

upon determining that parsed language of the content post includes an interrogatory element, sending the parsed language to a natural language processing tool; and

upon determining, via data received from the natural language processing tool, that the interrogatory element permits selection of a response among multiple predetermined options, marking the content post as form-addressable.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating a form response interface element including multiple alternatives comprises:

for each of the multiple predetermined options;

creating a user-selectable alternative element corresponding to the predetermined option; and

adding the user-selectable alternative element to the form response interface element.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein facilitating evaluation of the content post comprises:

identifying one or more comments associated with the content post;

upon determining that a first designated threshold number of associated comments exist, sending language of the associated comments to a natural language processing tool; and

upon determining, via the natural language processing tool, that a second designated threshold number of associated comments exist that include common language elements capable of being expressed via multiple predefined options, marking the content post as form-addressable.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating a form response interface element including multiple alternatives comprises:

for each of the multiple predefined options;

creating a user-selectable alternative element corresponding to the predefined option; and

adding the user-selectable alternative element to the form response interface element.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the content post includes at least one of (i) an activity stream update associated with a social network, (ii) an electronic mail message, (iii) a user comment associated with a weblog posting, (iv) a product review submission, and (v) a marketing survey submission.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple alternatives include at least an affirmative alternative and a negative alternative if the content post includes an interrogatory element requiring an affirmative response or a negative response.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating statistics based on each of the multiple alternatives, wherein the statistics include a vote tally indicating at least one of;

(i) a number of votes received for each of the multiple alternatives and (ii) for each of the multiple alternatives, a number of comments received in response to the content post that are reflective of the alternative; and

updating the online application interface to display the statistics with the content post.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

upon updating the online application interface to display the statistics with the content post, displaying with the vote tally at least one of;

(i) for each of the multiple alternatives, a listing of each user who voted for the alternative and (ii) for each of the multiple alternatives, a listing of each user who provided a comment in response to the content post that is reflective of the alternative.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising,

upon updating the online application interface to display the statistics with the content post, hiding all responses to the content post upon which the statistics are based.