U.S. patent application number 15/637615 was filed with the patent office on 2018-01-18 for centralized field rendering system and method.
The applicant listed for this patent is III Holdings 1, LLC. Invention is credited to Suzanne Berlin, Chintamani Maheshwar Chhatre, Sonali Prabhakar Gupta, Sitaram Inguva.
Application Number | 20180018301 15/637615 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35097510 |
Filed Date | 2018-01-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20180018301 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Berlin; Suzanne ; et
al. |
January 18, 2018 |
CENTRALIZED FIELD RENDERING SYSTEM AND METHOD
Abstract
The invention includes system for centralized rendering of user
interface elements based on configurations as described in XML. A
developer may create a definition for a field based on the nature
of the information to be displayed to a user within a single file.
Such definition will affect all future instances of the particular
data type without a need to modify and/or compile code residing
either within an HTML file or on a server.
Inventors: |
Berlin; Suzanne; (Peoria,
AZ) ; Gupta; Sonali Prabhakar; (Pune, IN) ;
Inguva; Sitaram; (Phoenix, AZ) ; Chhatre; Chintamani
Maheshwar; (Pune, IN) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
III Holdings 1, LLC |
Wilmington |
DE |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
35097510 |
Appl. No.: |
15/637615 |
Filed: |
June 29, 2017 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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14061502 |
Oct 23, 2013 |
9697181 |
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15637615 |
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10711926 |
Oct 13, 2004 |
8589787 |
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14061502 |
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60563930 |
Apr 20, 2004 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/80 20190101;
G06F 40/103 20200101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/21 20060101
G06F017/21; G06F 17/30 20060101 G06F017/30 |
Claims
1. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing system, a request
for a web resource; identifying, by the computing system, a
resource type of the requested web resource, and in response to
determining that the resource type uses a particular type of script
embedded in the web resource, compiling the web resource into a
servlet; retrieving, by the computing system, an Extensible Markup
Language (XML) tag from the web resource in response to the
request; matching, by the computing system, the XML tag to a tag in
a data type definition (DTD) file to obtain information indicating
a first class file for use in rendering a user interface element
for the web resource; mapping, by the computing system, the first
class file within the servlet based on the obtained information;
and performing a first rendering, by the computing system, of the
user interface element for the web resource by executing program
code in the servlet based on the first class file; changing, by the
computing system based on user input, the class file indicated by
the DTD file for the tag from the first class file to a second
class file, wherein the DTD file is accessible using XML tags of
multiple different web resources; receiving a second request for
the web resource; matching, by the computing system, the XML tag to
the tag in the DTD file to obtain information indicating the second
class file; and performing a second rendering, by the computing
system, of the user interface element for the web resource for the
second request by executing program code based on the second class
file, wherein the second rendering uses a different format for the
user interface element than the first rendering.
2-20. (canceled)
21. The method of claim 1, wherein the different format is a
different input format for receiving data via the user interface
element.
22. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering multiple
different web resources based on a current class file indicated by
the DTD file for the tag.
23. The method of claim 1, wherein the executing the program code
based on the first class file includes preventing entry of values
that do not conform to the first class file.
24. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the DTD file
using a centralized server system that is accessible to multiple
application servers.
25. The method of claim 1, wherein the first class file and the
second class file are Java class files.
26. The method of claim 1, wherein the first rendering and second
rendering are further based on one or more XML parameters in the
web resource.
27. A system, comprising: one or more processing elements; and one
or more memories having program instructions stored thereon that,
when executed by the one or more processing elements, cause the one
or more processing elements to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a computing system, a request for a web resource;
identifying, by the computing system, a resource type of the
requested web resource, and in response to determining that the
resource type uses a particular type of script embedded in the web
resource, compiling the web resource into a servlet; retrieving an
Extensible Markup Language (XML) tag from the web resource in
response to the request; matching the XML tag to a tag in a data
type definition (DTD) file to obtain information indicating a first
class file for use in rendering a user interface element for the
web resource; mapping the first class file within the servlet based
on the obtained information; and performing a first rendering of
the user interface element for the web resource by executing
program code in the servlet based on the first class file;
changing, based on user input, the class file indicated by the DTD
file for the tag from the first class file to a second class file,
wherein the DTD file is accessible using XML tags of multiple
different web resources; receiving a second request for the web
resource; matching the XML tag to the tag in the DTD file to obtain
information indicating the second class file; and performing a
second rendering of the user interface element for the web resource
for the second request by executing program code based on the
second class file, wherein the second rendering uses a different
format for the user interface element than the first rendering.
28. The system of claim 27, wherein the different format is a
different input format for receiving data via the user interface
element.
29. The system of claim 27, wherein the operations further comprise
rendering multiple different web resources based on a current class
file indicated by the DTD file for the tag.
30. The system of claim 27, wherein the first rendering and second
rendering are further based on one or more XML parameters in the
web resource.
31. The system of claim 27, wherein the executing the program code
based on the first class file includes preventing entry of values
that do not conform to the first class file.
32. The system of claim 27, wherein the operations further comprise
storing the DTD file using a centralized server system that is
accessible to multiple application servers.
33. The system of claim 27, wherein the first class file and the
second class file are Java class files.
34. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions
stored thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the
computing device to perform operations comprising: receiving, by a
computing system, a request for a web resource; identifying, by the
computing system, a resource type of the requested web resource,
and in response to determining that the resource type uses a
particular type of script embedded in the web resource, compiling
the web resource into a servlet; retrieving an Extensible Markup
Language (XML) tag from the web resource in response to the
request; matching the XML tag to a tag in a data type definition
(DTD) file to obtain information indicating a first class file for
use in rendering a user interface element for the web resource;
mapping the first class file within the servlet based on the
obtained information; and performing a first rendering of the user
interface element for the web resource by executing program code in
the servlet based on the first class file; changing, based on user
input, the class file indicated by the DTD file for the tag from
the first class file to a second class file, wherein the DTD file
is accessible using XML tags of multiple different web resources;
receiving a second request for the web resource; matching the XML
tag to the tag in the DTD file to obtain information indicating the
second class file; and performing a second rendering of the user
interface element for the web resource for the second request by
executing program code based on the second class file, wherein the
second rendering uses a different format for the user interface
element than the first rendering.
35. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 34,
wherein the different format is a different input format for
receiving data via the user interface element.
36. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 34,
wherein the operations further comprise rendering multiple
different web resources based on a current class file indicated by
the DTD file for the tag.
37. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 34,
wherein the first rendering and second rendering are further based
on one or more XML parameters in the web resource.
38. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 34,
wherein the executing the program code based on the first class
file includes preventing entry of values that do not conform to the
first class file.
39. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 34,
wherein the operations further comprise storing the DTD file using
a centralized server system that is accessible to multiple
application servers.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of, claims priority to
and the benefit of, U.S. Ser. No. 10/711,926 filed on Oct. 13, 2004
and entitled "CENTRALIZED FIELD RENDERING SYSTEM AND METHOD." The
'926 application claims priority to, and the benefit of, U.S.
Provisional Patent Application No. 60/563,930 filed on Apr. 20,
2004. Both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their
entirety.
FIELD OF INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates generally to the presentation
of user interface elements within a software application or
Internet webpage, and more particularly, to a system and method for
rendering fields and setting field properties in a centralized
repository (e.g., an XML document) to facilitate consistent
implementation and efficient development and maintenance of
software user interfaces and webpages.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Personal computer users have grown accustomed to interacting
through user interface elements such as, for example, graphic
representations of buttons, check boxes, text fields, menus, lists,
drop-down boxes and the like. Likewise, users of the Internet are
familiar with web browser applications which receive data in the
form of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and transform it into a
graphical representation of the data including the user interface
elements as described.
[0004] HTML has been universally adopted as the standard language
used to define webpage presentation and HTML remains the core
building block of websites and web applications. As expected, a
number of technologies have been implemented to compliment HTML by
providing functionality not available in HTML such as the ability
to present dynamic content within webpages. In order to provide a
mechanism to facilitate the delivery of dynamic web content,
Microsoft introduced Active Server Pages (ASP). ASP is a server
based technology which enables a developer to imbed a subset of the
Visual Basic language, termed VBScript, within an HTML document.
When a browser application submits a request to a web server for an
ASP document, the server extracts and processes the VBScript which
may include instructions for database transactions.
[0005] Another compliment to HTML was developed by Sun Microsystems
as a subset to the Java platform. The concept behind Java Server
Pages (JSP) is very similar to that of the ASP, except that with
JSP, JavaScript (instead of VBScript) is imbedded within a HTML
document. Like ASP, JSP documents are processed by a server,
however there are a number of differences on how each is processed.
Aside from the differences in processing, each produce similar
results which are transmitted to a client browser in the form of an
HTML data stream.
[0006] Extensible Markup Language (XML) was developed to provide a
means to format data within a webpage. XML resembles HTML in
appearance and structure, however XML is functionally different.
HTML is used to display data, while XML is used to describe the
data. XML has provided developers with a means for displaying
different types of data in a consistent manner. For example, a
directory service website may provide users with a means to enter a
name of an individual or business into a search field. Following a
database search on the name, data relating to one or more matches
may include a telephone number, address, city, state, zip code and
the like. In order to ensure that all telephone numbers are
formatted and displayed consistently, a developer may create
formatting instructions within a data type definition (DTD) file.
When a data type is defined, a developer need only to add an XML
tag within an HTML document which corresponds to a like tag in the
DTD. The DTD tag is followed by an instruction set which explains
how to format the telephone number. The same may apply to all of
the other data types in the above example. Additionally, XML frees
the developer from the tedious and sometimes difficult task of
writing program code to format data. Formatting data may be a very
time and resource consuming activity, because each occurrence of
data requires logic to describe how the data is to be presented.
Because data is often displayed within fields on webpages, a
similar problem exists in defining field types and properties.
[0007] In a typical web-based project, the fields are implemented
in the individual webpages. As such, if like fields are displayed
on multiple webpages the code is often duplicated for each
occurrence of the field. Any modification to a field typically
requires the developer to modify all occurrences of that field
throughout a website. One prior art solution was to re-use existing
code for a similar field by centralizing such code. Additionally,
webpages may present different views which have different purposes,
such as, for example, data manipulation screens, reporting or
simply displaying some information. These views typically consist
of fields, which are repeated in different views in an application,
wherein the fields include, for example, date of birth and Social
Security number. In general, the rendering of these fields may be
handled in respective webpages. However, rendering fields in
different webpages often leads to repetition of code. Moreover,
even though it is often a business requirement that the display of
the field is substantially the same throughout the application, it
is coded at multiple locations in different ways. Accordingly, any
change required in display or other attributes of the field may
often require a change in all the views (webpages) where the field
is used. The different changes typically result in repetitive
work.
[0008] Therefore, a need exists for a user interface rendering
utility to assist individual developers and development teams in
the construction and maintenance of software applications and
Internet webpages. Further, a need exists for a system and method
for managing multiple instances of a user interface control element
in order to ensure consistency and universal application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] In general, the invention includes a framework for
displaying different business information in web-based applications
using XML, thereby providing a centralized and reusable
presentation configuration. More particularly, the invention uses
an XML configuration file, along with the centralized
infrastructure classes, to define the fields. This definition
approach does not require any re-compiling when new fields are
added or changed. The invention creates a substantially consistent
user experience by including a standard field definition across the
entire application. The advantages of the invention include reduced
development cost, faster time to market, increased quality and a
better customer experience due to a consistent user interface.
[0010] In one exemplary embodiment, the system may include credit
card application processing software in which a user may apply for
a card online. The user may apply for two types of cards, namely a
credit card and a charge card. During the application process, a
field such as Personal Annual Income is shown to the user in both
the applications. In both applications, the Personal Annual Income
field is represented as a dropdown box and the display is handled
separately in the respective webpages. If the business desires a
change to this field to create a text box, then both webpages would
need to be changed. However, with the present invention, the system
reuses and stores the logic of rendering the field at a centralized
location such that each webpage uses the utility of the present
invention for displaying the field. In this manner, the logic is
stored in a central location, and in case of any change, only one
centralized change is needed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY DRAWINGS
[0011] A more complete understanding of the present invention may
be derived by referring to the detailed description and claims when
considered in connection with the Figures, wherein like reference
numbers refer to similar elements throughout the Figures, and:
[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary major
system components for a field rendering system; and,
[0013] FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method for
rendering of webpage interface elements.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
[0014] The detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the
invention herein makes reference to the accompanying drawings,
which show the exemplary embodiment by way of illustration and its
best mode. While these exemplary embodiments are described in
sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice
the invention, it should be understood that other embodiments may
be realized and that logical and mechanical changes may be made
without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus,
the detailed description herein is presented for purposes of
illustration only and not of limitation.
[0015] System
[0016] In general, the invention includes a system and method for
rendering fields. In one embodiment, the invention defines a field
type within XML and employs a rendering engine 130 to insert the
defined field into an HTML document. With reference to FIG. 1, a
client computer 100 may be connected to the Internet through a
browser application 105 to request a webpage from a web server 110.
XML 120, which may contain a tag followed by data identifying a
field type, may be extracted from a JSP and processed by a
rendering engine 130 which adds the defined field to the JSP before
creating an HTML data stream to send back to the requesting
browser. A website user may then view and modify data contained
within the rendered fields which have been consistently
incorporated within one or more webpages. For example, an online
banking website may contain a field to collect account number data.
There may be several pages or locations throughout the website
where account number data may be requested. Facilitating the
methods of the prior art, a developer would normally create and/or
duplicate code or create multiple references to centralized code in
order to create each occurrence of a field. The present invention
enables a developer to define field properties through XML,
removing the need to repeatedly write field specific code or code
references to centralized functions.
[0017] Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or
displays discussed herein may be facilitated through a website
having web pages. The term "web page" as it is used herein is not
meant to limit the type of documents and applications that might be
used to interact with the user. For example, a typical website
might include, in addition to standard HTML documents, various
forms, Java applets, JavaScript, active server pages (ASP), common
gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensible markup language (XML),
dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), helper applications,
plug-ins, and the like. A server may include a web service which
receives a request from a web server. The web server retrieves the
appropriate web pages and sends the data or applications for the
web pages to the IP address. Web services are applications which
are capable of interacting with other applications over a
communications means, such as the internet. Web services are
typically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, WSDL
and UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and are
covered in many standard texts. See, e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB
SERVICES: A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003), hereby incorporated
by reference.
[0018] As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art,
the present invention may be embodied as a customization of an
existing system, an add-on product, upgraded software, a stand
alone system (e.g., kiosk), a distributed system, a method, a data
processing system, a device for data processing, and/or a computer
program product. Furthermore, the present invention may take the
form of a computer program product on a computer-readable storage
medium having computer-readable program code means embodied in the
storage medium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may
be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, optical storage devices,
magnetic storage devices, and/or the like.
[0019] Client computer 100 may include any hardware and/or software
suitably configured to process instructions from software programs.
Client computer 100 includes any device capable of connecting to a
network via any known means and exchanging data with one or more
other computing devices. Client computer 100 may take the form of a
personal computer, although other types of computing units may be
used including laptops, notebooks, hand held computers, set-top
boxes, cellular telephones, touch-tone telephones and the like.
Further, client computer 100 may include a "pervasive computing
device," which may include a traditionally non-computerized device
that is embedded with a computing unit. Examples can include
watches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances, restaurant tables
embedded with RF readers, wallets or purses with imbedded
transponders, etc.
[0020] Browser 105 may include any hardware and/or software
suitably configured to facilitate viewing and/or interacting with
Internet webpages. Browser 105 may reside on any device capable of
connecting to a web server 110. Such devices may comprise, for
example, a computer, hand-held computer, cellular telephone, kiosk,
automobile navigation system and the like.
[0021] Web server 110 may include any hardware and/or software
suitably configured to send, receive and process data either
directly or indirectly through a network connection with browser
105. A web server 110 may facilitate processing of simple webpage
requests as well as for those requiring the services of a rendering
system 145. A transmission of data to or from a web server 110 may
originate from a browser 105 or any other system or component of
the rendering system 145. A web server 110 may comprise all or some
of the components of a rendering system 145 or may serve to receive
routing requests to one or more other systems housing rendering
system 145 components. In order to dynamically construct a webpage
in response to a browser 105 request, web server 110 may compile
code contained within a JSP 115 into a servlet. A web server 110
may operate as a single entity in a single geographic location or
as separate computing components located together or in separate
geographic locations. Further, web server 110 may send, receive and
process data via a data network both to and from one or more
Internet servers.
[0022] JSP 115 is a component of Sun Microsystems Java 2 platform
(J2EE) which is a platform independent programming language and
environment. JSP technology provides a simplified method for
creating dynamic webpage content while allowing developers to
encapsulate HTML for static content and XML within a JSP 115 source
page. A JSP compiler residing on a server, compiles a JSP into a
servlet which processes any directives scripted into the JSP 115.
Practitioners will appreciate that other technologies such as
Active Server Pages (ASP) and Hypertext Pre-Processor (PHP) have
been developed to address similar issues. JSP is used herein to
describe the basic functionality of the rendering system and the
invention may serve its intended purpose when used in conjunction
with varying technologies with or without minor modifications.
[0023] XML 120 is an industry-standard protocol administered by the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which defines data format for
structured documents. XML 120 uses tags to identify types of data
to be formatted within an HTML document. XML 120 also allows
developers to define their own formatting standards. For example, a
developer wanting to ensure that telephone numbers are formatted
consistently throughout their website, may create an XML 120 tag
corresponding to "phone_no" which corresponds to an entry in an XML
120 configuration file 125 defining a format for telephone numbers.
Configuration file 125 will be discussed in greater detail below.
XML 120 data may be extracted from a JSP 115 and formatted in
accordance with rules contained within a configuration file 125.
XML 120 may also format data derived from a database 140 according
to formatting rules. XML 120 data relating to a user interface
element, and more particularly a field, may be formatted according
to a configuration file 125 and transmitted to a rendering engine
130.
[0024] DTD and XML Schema 125 are used in conjunction with an
implementation of XML 120. Both DTD and XML Schema 125 serve to
provide configuration information to XML 120 as described above in
reference to a "configuration file". DTD and XML Schema 125 are
different technologies with similar functionality, therefore it
will be appreciated that DTD and XML Schema 125 are
interchangeable. As used herein, DTD and XML Schema 125 may be
referred to simply as, DTD 125. DTD 125 provides data formatting
rules based on XML 120 tags. As XML 120 is processed, tags are
referenced and matched with corresponding tags within a DTD 125
which is followed by formatting rules.
[0025] Rendering engine 130 may be a Java servlet or any other
component capable of executing programming instructions. Rendering
engine 130 may determine which class files 135 to incorporate
within a webpage based on data extracted from XML 120. Rendering
engine 130, as used herein, may include any hardware and/or
software suitably configured to accept input based on formatting
rules and employ the appropriate class files 135 or software
components within an HTML document. Rendering engine 130 may
comprise one or more servlets or any other programming logic to
interpret XML 120 data and construct field components within an
HTML document. In another embodiment, a rendering engine 130 may
receive additional parameters defining one or more additional field
properties for a field component. For example, a rendering engine
130 may receive additional parameters in the form of XML formatting
rules defining the background color for a particular field type.
Practitioners will appreciate that while specific reference is made
toward rendering of field components, other user interface
components may be rendered through the same system and method.
[0026] Class files 135 may include any software suitably configured
to use programming logic to define user interface elements and/or
process commands and data. A rendering engine 130 may reference or
incorporate class files 135 within a JSP 115 which, when compiled,
creates an HTML data stream which may be transmitted from a web
server 110 to a browser 105 application. As used herein, class
files 135 are program components which define the appearance and
behavior of user interface elements, and more specifically, the
properties of a field. Class files 135 are most commonly associated
with the Java platform, however there are a number of other
technologies which encapsulate similar utility to that of a Java
class file.
[0027] Database 140 may include any hardware and/or software
suitably configured to facilitate storage and retrieval of data
which may be used within an Internet environment. For simplicity,
the database 140 is illustrated and described herein as a single
database. One skilled in the art will appreciate that a web server
110 may employ any number of databases in any number of
configurations. Further, the database 140 may be any type of
database, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or
the like. Common database products that may be used to implement
the databases include DB2 by IBM (White Plains, N.Y.), various
database products available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood
Shores, Calif.), Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by
Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Wash.), or any other suitable
database product. Moreover, the databases may be organized in any
suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookup tables. Each
record may be a single file, a series of files, a linked series of
data fields or any other data structure. Association of certain
data may be accomplished through any desired data association
technique such as those known or practiced in the art. For example,
the association may be accomplished either manually or
automatically. Automatic association techniques may include, for
example, a database search, a database merge, GREP, AGREP, SQL,
and/or the like. The association step may be accomplished by a
database merge function, for example, using a "key field" in
pre-selected databases or data sectors.
[0028] More particularly, a "key field" partitions the database
according to the high-level class of objects defined by the key
field. For example, certain types of data may be designated as a
key field in a plurality of related data tables and the data tables
may then be linked on the basis of the type of data in the key
field. In this regard, the data corresponding to the key field in
each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of the
same type. However, data tables having similar, though not
identical, data in the key fields may also be linked by using
AGREP, for example. In accordance with one aspect of the present
invention, any suitable data storage technique may be utilized to
store data without a standard format. Data sets may be stored using
any suitable technique, including, for example, storing individual
files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing a domain
whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or more
elementary files containing one or more data sets; using data sets
stored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data
sets stored as records in a single file (including compression, SQL
accessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by
first tuple, etc.); block of binary (BLOB); stored as ungrouped
data elements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as
ungrouped data elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax
Notation (ASN.1) as in ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other
proprietary techniques that may include fractal compression
methods, image compression methods, etc.
[0029] In one exemplary embodiment, the ability to store a wide
variety of information in different formats is facilitated by
storing the information as a Block of Binary (BLOB). Thus, any
binary information can be stored in a storage space associated with
a data set. As discussed above, the binary information may be
stored on the financial transaction instrument or external to but
affiliated with the financial transaction instrument. The BLOB
method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formatted as
a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixed
storage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices
with respect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least
recently used, etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store
various data sets that have different formats facilitates the
storage of data associated with the financial transaction
instrument by multiple and unrelated owners of the data sets. For
example, a first data set which may be stored may be provided by a
first issuer, a second data set which may be stored may be provided
by an unrelated second issuer, and yet a third data set which may
be stored, may be provided by an third issuer unrelated to the
first and second issuer. Each of these three exemplary data sets
may contain different information that is stored using different
data storage formats and/or techniques. Further, each data set may
contain subsets of data which also may be distinct from other
subsets.
[0030] As stated above, in various embodiments of the present
invention, the data can be stored without regard to a common
format. However, in one exemplary embodiment of the present
invention, the data set (e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standard
manner when provided for manipulating the data onto the financial
transaction instrument. The annotation may comprise a short header,
trailer, or other appropriate indicator related to each data set
that is configured to convey information useful in managing the
various data sets. For example, the annotation may be called a
"condition header", "header", "trailer", or "status", herein, and
may comprise an indication of the status of the data set or may
include an identifier correlated to a specific issuer or owner of
the data. In one example, the first three bytes of each data set
BLOB may be configured or configurable to indicate the status of
that particular data set; e.g., LOADED, INITIALIZED, READY,
BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes of data may be
used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer, user,
transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each of
these condition annotations are further discussed herein.
[0031] The data set annotation may also be used for other types of
status information as well as various other purposes. For example,
the data set annotation may include security information
establishing access levels. The access levels may, for example, be
configured to permit only certain individuals, levels of employees,
companies, or other entities to access data sets, or to permit
access to specific data sets based on the transaction, carrier,
issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, the security information may
restrict/permit only certain actions such as accessing, modifying,
and/or deleting data sets. In one example, the data set annotation
indicates that only the data set owner or the user are permitted to
delete a data set, various identified carriers are permitted to
access the data set for reading, and others are altogether excluded
from accessing the data set. However, other access restriction
parameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a
data set with various permission levels as appropriate.
[0032] The data, including the header or trailer may be received by
a stand alone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify,
or augment the data in accordance with the header or trailer. As
such, in one embodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the
transaction device along with the associated issuer-owned data but
instead the appropriate action may be taken by providing to the
transaction instrument user at the stand alone device, the
appropriate option for the action to be taken. The present
invention may contemplate a data storage arrangement wherein the
header or trailer, or header or trailer history, of the data is
stored on the transaction instrument in relation to the appropriate
data.
[0033] The various system components discussed herein may include
one or more of the following: a server or other computing systems
including a processor for processing digital data; a memory coupled
to said processor for storing digital data; an input digitizer
coupled to the processor for inputting digital data; an application
program stored in said memory and accessible by said processor for
directing processing of digital data by said processor; a display
device coupled to the processor and memory for displaying
information derived from digital data processed by said processor;
and a plurality of databases. Various databases used herein may
include: user data, debt data, income data, carrier data; financial
institution data; and/or like data useful in the operation of the
present invention. As those skilled in the art will appreciate,
customer computer may include an operating system (e.g., Windows
NT, 95/98/1000, OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well as
various conventional support software and drivers typically
associated with computers. Customer computer can be in a home or
business environment with access to a network. In an exemplary
embodiment, access is through a network or the Internet through a
commercially-available web-browser software package.
[0034] As used herein, the term "network" shall include any
electronic communications means which incorporates both hardware
and software components of such. Communication among the parties in
accordance with the present invention may be accomplished through
any suitable communication channels, such as, for example, a
telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet, point of
interaction device (point of sale device, personal digital
assistant, cellular phone, kiosk, etc.), online communications,
off-line communications, wireless communications, transponder
communications, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN),
networked or linked devices and/or the like. Moreover, although the
invention is frequently described herein as being implemented with
TCP/IP communications protocols, the invention may also be
implemented using IPX, Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI or any number
of existing or future protocols. If the network is in the nature of
a public network, such as the Internet, it may be advantageous to
presume the network to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers.
Specific information related to the protocols, standards, and
application software utilized in connection with the Internet is
generally known to those skilled in the art and, as such, need not
be detailed herein. See, for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET
STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2 COMPLETE, various authors,
(Sybex 1999); DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY, MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997);
and LOSHIN, TCP/IP CLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997) and DAVID GOURLEY AND
BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (1002), the contents of
which are hereby incorporated by reference.
[0035] The various system components may be independently,
separately or collectively suitably coupled to the network via data
links which includes, for example, a connection to an Internet
Provider (ISP) over the local loop as is typically used in
connection with standard modem communication, cable modem, Dish
networks, ISDN, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless
communication methods. See, e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA
COMMUNICATIONS (1996), hereby incorporated by reference. It is
noted that the network may be implemented as other types of
networks, such as an interactive television (ITV) network.
Moreover, the system contemplates the use, sale or distribution of
any goods, services or information over any network having similar
functionality described herein.
[0036] The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable
website or other Internet-based graphical user interface which is
accessible by users, hosts or operators of the system. In one
embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),
Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are
used in conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft
NT web server software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and
a Microsoft Commerce Server. Additionally, components such as
Access or Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL,
Interbase, etc., may be used to provide an Active Data Object (ADO)
compliant database management system.
[0037] The present invention may be described herein in terms of
functional block components, screen shots, optional selections and
various processing steps. It should be appreciated that such
functional blocks may be realized by any number of hardware and/or
software components configured to perform the specified functions.
For example, the present invention may employ various integrated
circuit components, e.g., memory elements, processing elements,
logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, which may carry out a
variety of functions under the control of one or more
microprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the software
elements of the present invention may be implemented with any
programming or scripting language such as C, C++, Java, COBOL,
assembler, PERL, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, extensible
markup language (XML), with the various algorithms being
implemented with any combination of data structures, objects,
processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, it
should be noted that the present invention may employ any number of
conventional techniques for data transmission, signaling, data
processing, network control, and the like. Still further, the
invention could be used to detect or prevent security issues with a
client-side scripting language, such as JavaScript, VBScript or the
like. For a basic introduction of cryptography and network
security, the following may be helpful references: (1) "Applied
Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C," by
Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,
1996); (2) "Java Cryptography" by Jonathan Knudson, published by
O'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) "Cryptography & Network
Security: Principles & Practice" by William Stalling, published
by Prentice Hall; all of which are hereby incorporated by
reference.
[0038] The invention is described herein with reference to screen
shots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods,
apparatus (e.g., systems), and computer program products according
to various aspects of the invention. It will be understood that
each functional block of the block diagrams and the flowchart
illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks in the block
diagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively, can be
implemented by computer program instructions. These computer
program instructions may be loaded onto a general purpose computer,
special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing
apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions which
execute on the computer or other programmable data processing
apparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in
the flowchart block or blocks.
[0039] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a
computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other
programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular
manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable
memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction
means which implement the function specified in the flowchart block
or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded
onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to
cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer
or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented
process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or
other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the
functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.
[0040] Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and
flowchart illustrations support combinations of means for
performing the specified functions, combinations of steps for
performing the specified functions, and program instruction means
for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood
that each functional block of the block diagrams and flowchart
illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks in the block
diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by either
special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform the
specified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of special
purpose hardware and computer instructions
[0041] Method
[0042] Referring now to FIG. 2, the process flow depicted is merely
an embodiment of the invention and is not intended to limit the
scope of the invention as described above. For example, the steps
recited in any of the method or process descriptions may be
executed in any order and are not limited to the order presented.
It will be appreciated that the following description makes
appropriate references not only to the steps depicted in FIG. 2,
but also to the various system components as described above with
reference to FIG. 1. Further, illustrations of the process flows
and the descriptions thereof may make reference to webpages,
websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitioners will appreciate
that the illustrated steps described below may exist in any number
of configurations including the use of webpages, web forms, popup
windows, prompts and the like. It should be further appreciated
that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may be
combined onto single webpages but have been expanded for the sake
of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and described as
single process steps may be broken down into multiple webpages but
have been combined for simplicity.
[0043] Practitioners will further appreciate that there are a
number of methods for displaying data within a browser based
document. Data may be represented as standard text or within a
fixed list, scrollable list, drop-down list, editable text field,
fixed text field, pop-up window, and the like. Likewise, there are
a number of methods available for modifying data in a webpage such
as, for example, free text entry using a keyboard, selection of
menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and the like.
[0044] In the description for FIG. 2, common reference is made to
the process steps of transacting data transmissions between client
computer 100, a web server 110 and any of the components within a
rendering system 145. The process steps, whether for transmitting a
query, a command, or data to a component within the rendering
system 145, may be very similar with only minor variances between
them. However, a practitioner will appreciate that the steps as
described below may be accomplished through any number of process
steps and methods producing similar results. As used herein,
"transmit" may include sending electronic data from one system to
another over a network connection or among varying components of
the same system. Additionally, as used herein, "data" may include
encompassing information such as commands, queries, files, data for
storage, and the like in digital or any other form.
[0045] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary method for facilitating the
rendering of webpage interface elements. A web browser 105 may
facilitate a request for a webpage (step 200), wherein the request
may be transmitted to a web server 110 which may process the
request and determine whether the webpage is a JSP (step 205). When
web server 110 receives a request for a webpage, a web server 110
may determine the type of webpage requested. For example, there are
several technologies used to process a webpage such as JSP, HTML,
ASP, PHP, etc. A web server 110 may determine how to process a
webpage request based on a webpage file extension. In the examples
above, the file extension would be either .jsp, .html, .asp or
.php, respectively. FIG. 2 presents a high-level view of the
processing steps for a JSP webpage. Therefore, a non-JSP webpage
may be processed according to its file type (step 215) prior to
determining if the webpage includes a request for data (step 225).
Practitioners will appreciate that the rendering process as
described herein may be adapted to other webpage processing
technologies.
[0046] If a requested webpage is a JSP (step 210), then a JSP
engine may compile the JSP into a servlet (step 220). A servlet is
a small program which is executed on a server and will later be
used to create an HTML data stream which can be read by a browser
application 105. A servlet may include a request for data from a
database system (step 225). If there is a request for data (step
230), then a servlet may generate a database query (step 235) to
extract the data according to defined parameters. A servlet may
also request that data be written to a database to be stored.
[0047] The parse XML (step 240) may read and format XML statements
from within the servlet. Parsing identifies tags which are used to
identify how to format XML data according to a DTD (step 245). A
DTD provides specific instructions on how to format various data
classes. For example, in a typical implementation of XML, a
statement may contain a tag labeled "birthdate" followed by the
data to be formatted. A DTD may also contain a tag labeled
"birthdate" which would define how the data should be formatted. In
an example relating to the present invention, an XML tag may be
labeled "account_no" and a corresponding tag in a DTD may be
followed with a Java class file name such as XTextBox. The class
file name may be used by a rendering engine 130 to reference the
XTextBox class file in order to display an account number within a
standard textbox. Practitioners will appreciate that there are a
number of user interface elements which may be represented within
class files and employed within the present invention to render
those elements within a webpage. Examples of user interface
elements may include, for example, a button, check box, radio box,
text field, menu, list, drop-down box and the like.
[0048] As in the example above, a rendering engine (step 250) may
process XML data in order to create a presentation of the data
according to its type. A rendering engine 130 may map the class
file within a servlet (step 255) in order for the class file to be
properly processed when the servlet creates a document in a format
that can be read by a browser application 105. The servlet may then
convert data to any HTML format (step 260) and transmit the HTML
document to a client browser in an HTML stream (step 265).
Practitioners will appreciate that a servlet may use any web based
technology known in the art to create and deliver electronic
documents to a browser application in order to be displayed.
[0049] Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have
been described above with regard to specific embodiments. However,
the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s)
that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or
become more pronounced are not to be construed as critical,
required, or essential features or elements of any or all the
claims. As used herein, the terms "comprises", "comprising", or any
other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive
inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that
comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements
but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to
such process, method, article, or apparatus. Further, no element
described herein is required for the practice of the invention
unless expressly described as "essential" or "critical".
[0050] It should be understood that the detailed description and
specific examples, indicating exemplary embodiments of the present
invention, are given for purposes of illustration only and not as
limitations. Many changes and modifications within the scope of the
instant invention may be made without departing from the spirit
thereof, and the invention includes all such modifications.
Corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all
elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure,
material, or acts for performing the functions in combination with
other claim elements as specifically claimed. The scope of the
invention should be determined by the appended claims and their
legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given above.
* * * * *