U.S. patent application number 15/637749 was filed with the patent office on 2019-01-03 for extendible user profiles.
The applicant listed for this patent is Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC. Invention is credited to Benny SCHLESINGER, Shira WEINBERG.
Application Number | 20190005592 15/637749 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 62716124 |
Filed Date | 2019-01-03 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20190005592 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
SCHLESINGER; Benny ; et
al. |
January 3, 2019 |
EXTENDIBLE USER PROFILES
Abstract
Implementations described herein disclose a system for providing
extendible user profiles for user groups by providing a group
formation user interface to a group administrator, wherein the
group formation user interface allows the group administrator to
add group specific fields, creating a group table including the
group specific fields, and linking the group table to the user
profile tables.
Inventors: |
SCHLESINGER; Benny; (Ramat
Hasharon, IL) ; WEINBERG; Shira; (Tel Aviv,
IL) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC |
Redmond |
WA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
62716124 |
Appl. No.: |
15/637749 |
Filed: |
June 29, 2017 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/437 20190101;
H04W 4/08 20130101; G06Q 50/01 20130101; H04L 67/306 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 50/00 20060101
G06Q050/00; G06F 17/30 20060101 G06F017/30; H04L 29/08 20060101
H04L029/08; H04W 4/08 20060101 H04W004/08 |
Claims
1. A method of providing extendible user profiles, comprising:
receiving a request from a group administrator to create a new
group for a group of users of an application; providing a group
formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the
group formation user interface allows the group administrator to
add group specific fields; creating a group table including the
group specific fields; and linking the group table to user profile
tables of the group of users.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a group
join user interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group
join user interface presents the group specific fields.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving values of
one or more of the group specific fields from the user joining the
group; and displaying the values of the group specific fields to
other members of the group.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the group
specific field overrides a field in the user profile table.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile table includes
one or more group joined fields for the one of more groups joined
by a user and the method further comprises adding the group to the
group joined fields.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising linking the group
table to the user profile table using based on the group join
field.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein a group specific field is shared
between at least two or more groups.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the group specific
fields are exposed to one or more other groups as specified by the
user.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the group specific
fields are exposed to one or more other groups as specified by the
group administrator.
10. A physical article of manufacture including one or more
tangible computer-readable storage media, encoding
computer-executable instructions for executing on a computer system
a computer process, the computer process comprising: receiving a
request from a group administrator to create a new group for a
group of users of a social networking application; providing a
group formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein
the group formation user interface allows the group administrator
to add group specific fields; creating a group table including the
group specific fields; linking the group table to user profile
tables of the group of users; and presenting a group join user
interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group join user
interface presents the group specific fields.
11. The physical article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the
computer-executable instructions further comprising receiving
values of one or more of the group specific fields from the user
joining the group.
12. The physical article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein the
computer executable instructions further comprising displaying the
values of the group specific fields to other members of the
group.
13. The physical article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein at
least one of the group specific field overrides a field in the user
profile table.
14. The physical article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the
user profile table includes a group joined field including listing
of one of more groups joined by a user and the method further
comprises adding the group to the group joined field.
15. The physical article of manufacture of claim 14, further
comprising linking the group table to the user profile table using
based on the group join field.
16. The physical article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein one or
more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more other
groups as specified by at least one of the user and the group
administrator.
17. A system for providing extendible user profiles, comprising:
memory; one or more processor units; an extendible user profiles
(EUP) module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more
processor units, the EUP module configured to: provide a group
formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the
group formation user interface allows the group administrator to
add group specific fields for a group of users of a social
networking application, and receive a plurality of group specific
fields from the group administrator; and a user profile manager
application stored in the memory and executable by the one or more
processor units, the user profile manager application configured
to: create a group table including the group specific fields, and
link the group table to a user profile table.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the EUP module is further
configured to present a group join user interface to a user joining
the group, wherein the group join user interface presents the group
specific fields.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the user profile manager
application is further configured to add one or more groups to the
group joined fields of the user profile table.
20. The system of claim 17, at least one of the group specific
field overrides a field in the user profile table.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] Advances in computing and mobile technologies have resulted
in people using a large number of applications to participate in
various activities. Many of these applications, such as social
networking applications, texting applications, photo sharing
applications, dating applications require users to create user
profiles including various information about the users.
Furthermore, some of these applications also allow users to create
groups where members of the group may share information among the
group members. For example, a social networking application may
allow a group administrator to form a group of members that live in
a particular neighborhood.
SUMMARY
[0002] Implementations described herein disclose a system for
providing extendible user profiles for user groups by providing a
group formation user interface to a group administrator, wherein
the group formation user interface allows the group administrator
to add group specific fields, creating a group table including the
group specific fields, and linking the group table to the user
profile tables.
[0003] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of
concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in
the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify
key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter,
nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed
subject matter.
[0004] Other implementations are also described and recited
herein.
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the
present technology may be realized by reference to the figures,
which are described in the remaining portion of the specification.
In the figures, like reference numerals are used throughout several
figures to refer to similar components.
[0006] FIG. 1 illustrates an example implementation of a system for
providing extendible user profiles.
[0007] FIG. 2 provides an example visual representation of user
profile provided by the extendible user profile system disclosed
herein.
[0008] FIG. 3 illustrates example operations of the system for
providing extendible user profiles.
[0009] FIG. 4 illustrates alternative example operations of the
system for providing extendible user profiles.
[0010] FIG. 5 illustrates alternative example operations of the
system for providing extendible user profiles.
[0011] FIG. 6 illustrates an example system that may be useful in
implementing the described technology for providing extendible user
profiles.
[0012] FIG. 7 illustrates an example mobile device that may be
useful in implementing the described technology for providing
extendible user profiles.
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS
[0013] Users of computing devices use a large number of
applications to get information and to interact with other users.
For example, social networking applications are widely used by
consumers to interact with other members of such social network.
Many of these applications require users to create user profiles
including various information about the users. For example, a photo
sharing application may require users to provide their name, email
address, data of birth, city and state of residence, and a profile
picture. Furthermore, some of these applications also allow users
to create groups where members of the group may share information
among the group members. A user creating a group is referred to as
the group administrator.
[0014] Common user profiles are used for different purposes,
however, they contain the same set of information about the users.
However, when a group administrator creates a group of selected
members, the group administrator does not have the flexibility to
add group specific information in the member profiles. For example,
if a social networking application requires its users to provide
name, email, and birthdate for creating a profile on the social
networking application, a group administrator that wants to create
a group of members having dogs is not able to request that each
group member profile have information about the name of the
member's dogs, the breed of the dog, and a photograph of the
dog.
[0015] An extendible user profile (EUP) system disclosed herein
allows users to provide extendible profiles including additional
information about the group members in the member profile. For
example, a messaging application may require its users to provide a
name, phone number, and email address for its users' profiles.
However, when a user decides to create a group (and thus become the
group administrator of the created group) of users that share a
particular characteristic, such group administrator may want more
information about the member users of the group (referred to
hereinafter as "group members"). For example, if a user Alice wants
to make a group for the users that have cats called "cat lovers of
Herzliya" so the members who live in Herzliya and who like cats can
share stories and information about cats, Alice may want each
member of the cat lovers of Herzliya to have the name(s) of their
cat(s) and the cats' pictures as part of their profile. The EUP
disclosed herein allows Alice to do so as the group administrator
for the cat lovers of Herzliya.
[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates an example implementation of an EUP
system 100 for providing extendible user profiles for such members
of groups. Specifically, the EUP system 100 is show to be used by
users Mina 102 and Tamir 106 using their computing devices such as
smartphone 104 and 108. Specifically, Mina 102 and Tamir 106 may be
users of a social network app 110 that they use via smartphones 104
and 108. Specifically, the social network app 110 may be installed
as a client application on the smartphones 104 and 108 and
supported by a social network application server 120.
[0017] In one implementation of the EUP system 100, the social
network application server 120 may be implemented on a cloud server
with various components located on various disparate servers, but
connected to each other by a network 180, such as the Internet. As
illustrated, the social network application server 120 includes a
social networking application 122 and a social networking datastore
126. The social networking application 122 may be implemented by
computer instructions stored in a computer readable memory where
the instructions are executable on a computer processor.
[0018] The social networking application 122 also includes a user
profile manager module 124 and an EUP module 112. The user profile
manager module 124 may be configured to manage the profiles of
various users of the social networking application 122. For
example, the user profile manager module 124 may manage the user
profiles 128 stored in the social networking datastore 126.
Specifically, the user profiles 128 are stored in a schema with
extendible records. Specifically, the user profile table may
include fields for each user as required by the social networking
application 122. In the example implementation, each user profile
includes at least a user identification (uID), a user name (uName),
and user email (uEmail).
[0019] However, for the EUP system 100, the user profile records
are extendible to include additional information about the users.
Specifically, the user profiles 128 are extendible based on the
context of member groups that the users are members of. For
example, if a user is a member of a group, a field identifying the
name of the group may be added to the user record.
[0020] Furthermore, the EUP module 112 may be working with local
EUP modules 112a, 112b located on client devices to enable users
such as Mina 102 and Tamir 106 to create member groups, extend the
member profiles with additional fields and to populate such
extendible user profiles. For example, Tamir 106 may be interested
in creating a new member group called Dog Lovers for the users that
love dogs. In this case, Tamir 106 may select an option to create a
new group and in response to it, the EUP module 112b presents an
EUP group formation user interface (UI) 140 to Tamir 106.
[0021] The EUP group formation UI 140 includes an option for Tamir
106 to add the name of the group where Tamir 106 may type in the
name of the group Dog Lovers. The EUP group formation UI 140 also
provides an option for Tamir 106 to add fields to the user profiles
of group members of Dog Lovers. For example, Tamir 106 can add a
field for "Dog Name," and field for "Dog Breed." Once Tamir 106 has
provided all the fields for the group Dog Lovers, Tamir 106 may
select the option to add participants to the group Dog Lovers. For
example, Tamir 106 may add Mina Goldstein from the contact list of
the smartphone 108. Once the participants are added, Tamir 106 may
select the invite option 142 to invite the participants, including
Mina Goldstein, to join the Dog Lovers group.
[0022] Once Tamir 106 selects the invite option 142, the EUP module
112b may send a message to the social networking application 122
about the creation of the new group, Dog Lovers, by Tamir 106.
Specifically, the EUP module 112b may also communicate to the
social networking application 122 the list of new fields that
Tamir, "Dog Name," and "Dog Breed," that Tamir would like to add to
the profiles of Dog Lovers group members. Additionally, the EUP
module 112b may also send the list of participants, including Mina
Goldstein, to the social networking application 122.
[0023] Upon receiving the list of field names to be added to the
user profiles, the user profile manager module 124 may add group
name as a field to the profile record for the user. Furthermore,
the user profile manager module 124 also includes a Dog Lovers
group table 130 for the group Dog Lovers including fields of user
identification (uID), user's dog's name (uDog), and the breed of
the user's dog (uBreed). As the user profile manager module 124
receives additional information from each participant in the group
Dog Lovers, the user profile manager module 124 may add records for
each such group member in the Dog Lovers group table 130.
[0024] In one implementation, the user profile manager module 124
is configured to add one field to the profile record for each group
that is joined by a user. Thus, for example, a profile record 128a
is shown to have a field for a first group (uGroup1), a profile
record 128b is shown to have fields for a Dog Lovers group (uGrDL)
and Car Lovers group (uGrCL), and profile record 128c is shown to
have a field for the Dog Lovers group (uGrDL). Additionally, the
social networking datastore 126 includes the Dog Lovers group table
130 and a Car Lovers table 132.
[0025] Upon receiving the list of participants, such as Mina
Goldstein, from the EUP group formation UI 140 on the smartphone
108, the EUP module 112 communicates with the client EUP modules of
the participants' devices. For example, the EUP module 112 sends a
message to the EUP module 112a on Mina 102's smartphone 104
indicating to Mina that she has been invited to join the Dog
Lover's group. If Mina accepts the invitation, the EUP module 112a
presents a EUP group join UN 150 to Mina. The EUP join UI 150 may
present Mina 102 with options to provide values for the group
fields for the Dog Lovers group, namely dog name Betty and dog
breed Hound.
[0026] In one implementation, the EUP join UI 150 also gives Mina
102 the option to invite other users, such as Kana, to the Dog
Lovers group. However, in an alternative implementation, addition
of such additional participants, such as Kana, to the Dog Lovers
group may have to be approved by the group administrator Tamir 106.
Once Mina 102 selects a join button 152 to join the group, the
values Betty and Hound for the group fields are communicated to the
EUP module 112 and to the user profile manager module 124. The user
profile manager module 124 adds these values to the Dog Lovers
group table 130.
[0027] Once the group fields for a given group member to a
particular group are added to the group table, if another group
member of that group views the profile of the given group member,
they will be see all values of all the fields in the profile. Thus,
once Mina 102 has joined the Dog Lovers group and given the values
of dog name and dog breed, if Tamir 106 views Mina 102's profile,
Tamir 106 will see Mina's name, email, dog name, and dog breed in
her profile view.
[0028] Note that in the illustrated implementation, Mina 102
provided the name of the dog and its breed while joining the Dog
Lover's group. In an alternative implementation, Mina 102 may join
the group without providing such information. In yet another
implementation, the group administrator Tamir 106 may identify one
of more of the group fields (dog name and dog breed) as mandatory
for a participant to join the Dog Lover's group, in which case,
Mina 102 is able to join the Dog Lovers group after she provides
such information. Yet alternatively, Mina may also be given the
option to let the Dog Lovers group share the values of the dog name
and dog breed with users of other group or users that are not
members of the Dog Lovers group.
[0029] In the implementation of the EUP system 100, the social
networking application 122 also allows a specific group field to
override a field from the user profile. For example, the Dog Lovers
group may also include a field for the user's photograph with a dog
(u&dPhoto) while the user profile for the social networking
application may include a field for user's photograph (uPhoto). In
such an implementation, a user that is also a member of the Dog
Lovers group may specify that in specific context, the value of
u&dPhoto is displayed in the user's profile in place of the
uPhoto. For example, if Mina 102 has provided her picture with
Betty, she can specify that when a member of the Dog Lover's group
views her profile, her photograph with Betty is shown in her
profile.
[0030] FIG. 2 provides an example visual representation of user
profile fields 200 provided by the extendible user profile system
disclosed herein. Specifically, the user profile fields 200 may
include application user profile fields 202 required by an
application, such as a social networking application. The user
profile fields 200 also includes group fields for a pet owners
group 210, group fields for a dog owners group 220, and group
fields for a professional networking group 230.
[0031] As shown, the extendible user profile system disclosed
herein allows group administrators for each of the groups 210, 220,
230 specify group fields for its members. When a user of the
application joins one of the groups 210, 220, 230, the user may
provide values of the group specific fields. For example, when a
user joins the dog owners group 220, the user may provide values of
the dog name, the dog breed, and the photo with dog. The user may
also specify that they would like to override one of the
application user profile fields 202 when viewed by other members of
such group. Thus, a member of the dog owner's group 220 may specify
that when other members of the dog owners group 220 view the
profile, the photo with dog is shown.
[0032] Yet alternatively, the user may also specify to adopt a
field from another group for use in a selected group. Thus, if a
user has already joined the pet owners group 210 and provided a
photo with pet, the user may specify that when a member of the dog
owners group 220 views the profile, the photo with pet is shown to
such member. Yet alternatively, a user may provide a value of an
application user profile field 202 that is generally opaque to
other users of the application but it may be used as a group field.
For example, the email address may be part of the application user
profile fields 202 but not disclosed to other users. However, upon
joining the professional networking group 220, the user may specify
that the members of the professional networking group 220 should be
able to see the email address from the application user profile
fields 202. In an alternative implementation, this option to adopt
a field from another group may also be available to a group
administrator. For example, the group administrator of the groups
cat lovers of Herzliya and of pet lovers of Herzliya may indicate
that the "picture with a pet" field that he defined in each of
these two groups is the same one. This way if a user joins one of
these two groups and sets his photo with his cat, later when that
user joins the second group, this field is already pre-populated
with his picture from the first group and is just awaiting his
confirmation.
[0033] FIG. 3 illustrates example operations 300 of the system for
providing extendible user profiles. Specifically, an operation 302
receives a request from a user of an application to create a group.
For example, the operation 302 may receive a request from a user to
create a parent-teacher association (PTA) group. An operation 304
presents a group formation UI (such as the group formation UI 140)
of FIG. 1. An operation 306 receives a list of group fields. For
example, in the case of the user (group administrator) creating the
PTA group, the group administrator may specify the child name,
child school year, and child sport as the fields for users joining
the PTA group.
[0034] An operation 308 may receive group field types or list of
drop down values that a user can select from. For example, for the
PTA group, the group administrator may specify that the type of
child school year is numeric. Alternatively, other fields can be
specified to be text, image, etc. Optionally, the PTA group
administrator may limit the size of the field to specific number of
characters, or specify the field to be of a specific type, such as
a numeric field, a field that can be selected from a set of values
(e.g.: male, female), or a field that contains a specific type of
file (jpg, pdf), etc. Alternatively, the PTA group administrator
may provide a list of sports that a user can select from when
populating the child sport. An operation 310 receives group field
conditions. For example, the PTA group administrator may specify
that the child school year is no less than 5 and no greater than
12. An operation 312 receives a list of participants that the group
administrator would like to invite to join the group. An operation
314 saves various information received at operations 306 to 314 and
communicates with a user profile manager module (such as the user
profile manager module 124 of FIG. 1).
[0035] FIG. 4 illustrates alternative example operations 400 of the
system for providing extendible user profiles. An operation 402
receives the group information from the group administrator
including the list of group fields, various characteristics of the
group fields, and the list of participants invited to join the
group. For example, for the group administrator creating the PTA
group, the operation 402 receives the name of the PTA group, the
list of fields child name, child school year, and child sport and
their types, restrictions, etc., and the list of users invited by
the PTA group administrator to join the PTA group.
[0036] An operation 404 creates a PTA group table for the PTA group
including the PTA group fields child name, child school year, and
child sport. Each record of the PTA group table also includes a
user ID that identifies the group member. An operation 406 sends
invites to the participants provided by the PTA group
administrator. For example, such an invite may be a text message on
a mobile device, an email, a message within the application, etc.
In response to the invite, the user may elect to join the group an
operation 408 determines if the invited participant has accepted
the invite.
[0037] If the invited participant has accepted the invite, an
operation 410 presents the EUP group join UI (such as the EUP group
join UI 150 of FIG. 1). The invited participant may provide various
information such as values of the group fields using the EUP group
join UI. An operation 412 determines if the participant has joined
the group. If the invited participant has joined the group, an
operation 414 creates a participant record in the group table. For
example, if a participant Joe fills out the information including
values of the PTA group fields using the EUP group join UI and
selects the join option to of the EUP group join UI, the operation
414 creates a record for Joe in the PTA group table.
[0038] An operation 416 adds a group field values with the ID of
the user to the group table. For example, in the example where Joe
is joining the PTA group, the values of the PTA group fields as
provided by Joe are used to create a new record for Joe in the PTA
group table. An operation 418 adds an extendible group ID field to
the user profile record for Joe so as to link Joe's PTA group field
values from the PTA group table to other field values of Joe's user
profile record.
[0039] FIG. 5 illustrates alternative example operations 500 of the
system for displaying extendible user profiles. An operation 502
receives a request to view a profile of a group member. For
example, such request may result from a search by another user, or
simply a user clicking on an icon of the group member. An operation
504 determines if the request from a group member or from another
user. For example, in the case of Joe being a member of the PTA
group, if Rachel has requested to view Joe's profile, the operation
504 determines if Rachel is part of the PTA group or not. Note that
if Joe is part of more than one group, the operation 504 determines
if Rachel is part of any of such groups that Joe is a member
of.
[0040] If the operation 504 determines that Rachel is not member of
any group that Joe is a member of, an operation 506 shows a generic
user profile of Joe. However, if Rachel is a member of a group such
as the PTA group that Joe is also a member, an operation 508
fetches Joe's user record from the PTA group table. For example,
the Joe's record from the PTA group table may include values of the
fields child name, child school year, and child sport.
[0041] An operation 508 determines if Joe has specified any field
overrides. For example, Joe may have specified that the value of
the child name as provided in the PTA group table is displayed to
members of the PTA group instead of a child name value given in the
generic profile of Joe. If there is such an override, an operation
512 replaces the value of the overridden field with the value from
the PTA group table. An operation 514 merges the group field values
with the profile field values and an operation 516 displays such
merged field values as part of the profile presented to Rachel.
[0042] FIG. 6 illustrates an example system 600 that may be useful
in implementing the image rendition system disclosed herein. The
example hardware and operating environment of FIG. 6 for
implementing the described technology includes a computing device,
such as a general-purpose computing device in the form of a
computer 20, a mobile telephone, a personal data assistant (PDA), a
tablet, smart watch, gaming remote, or other type of computing
device. In the implementation of FIG. 6, for example, the computer
20 includes a processing unit 21, a system memory 22, and a system
bus 23 that operatively couples various system components including
the system memory to the processing unit 21. There may be only one
or there may be more than one processing unit 21, such that the
processor of a computer 20 comprises a single central-processing
unit (CPU), or a plurality of processing units, commonly referred
to as a parallel processing environment. The computer 20 may be a
conventional computer, a distributed computer, or any other type of
computer; the implementations are not so limited.
[0043] In the example implementation of the computing system 600,
the computer 20 also includes a EUP module 650 providing one or
more functions of the EUP system disclosed herein. The system bus
23 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory
bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, a switched fabric,
point-to-point connections, and a local bus using any of a variety
of bus architectures. The system memory may also be referred to as
simply the memory, and includes read-only memory (ROM) 24 and
random access memory (RAM) 25. A basic input/output system (BIOS)
26, containing the basic routines that help to transfer information
between elements within the computer 20, such as during start-up,
is stored in ROM 24. The computer 20 further includes a hard disk
drive 27 for reading from and writing to a hard disk, not shown, a
magnetic disk drive 28 for reading from or writing to a removable
magnetic disk 29, and an optical disk drive 30 for reading from or
writing to a removable optical disk 31 such as a CD ROM, DVD, or
other optical media. The computer 20 may be used to implement an
EUP module such as the EUP module 112 of FIG. 1.
[0044] Furthermore, instructions stored on the memory of the
computer 20 may be used by an EUP system. Similarly, instructions
stored on the memory of the computer 20 may also be used to
implement one or more operations of a EUP system disclosed
herein.
[0045] The hard disk drive 27, magnetic disk drive 28, and optical
disk drive 30 are connected to the system bus 23 by a hard disk
drive interface 32, a magnetic disk drive interface 33, and an
optical disk drive interface 34, respectively. The drives and their
associated tangible computer-readable media provide nonvolatile
storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program
modules and other data for the computer 20. It should be
appreciated by those skilled in the art that any type of tangible
computer-readable media may be used in the example operating
environment.
[0046] A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk,
magnetic disk 29, optical disk 31, ROM 24, or RAM 25, including an
operating system 35, one or more application programs 36, other
program modules 37, and program data 38. A user may generate
reminders on the personal computer 20 through input devices such as
a keyboard 40 and pointing device 42. Other input devices (not
shown) may include a microphone (e.g., for voice input), a camera
(e.g., for a natural user interface (NUI)), a joystick, a game pad,
a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like. These and other input
devices are often connected to the processing unit 21 through a
serial port interface 46 that is coupled to the system bus, but may
be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game
port, or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 47 or other type
of display device is also connected to the system bus 23 via an
interface, such as a video adapter 48. In addition to the monitor,
computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not
shown), such as speakers and printers.
[0047] The computer 20 may operate in a networked environment using
logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as remote
computer 49. These logical connections are achieved by a
communication device coupled to or a part of the computer 20; the
implementations are not limited to a particular type of
communications device. The remote computer 49 may be another
computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a client, a peer device
or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of
the elements described above relative to the computer 20. The
logical connections depicted in FIG. 6 include a local-area network
(LAN) 51 and a wide-area network (WAN) 52. Such networking
environments are commonplace in office networks, enterprise-wide
computer networks, intranets and the Internet, which are all types
of networks.
[0048] When used in a LAN-networking environment, the computer 20
is connected to the local area network 51 through a network
interface or adapter 53, which is one type of communications
device. When used in a WAN-networking environment, the computer 20
typically includes a modem 54, a network adapter, a type of
communications device, or any other type of communications device
for establishing communications over the wide area network 52. The
modem 54, which may be internal or external, is connected to the
system bus 23 via the serial port interface 46. In a networked
environment, program engines depicted relative to the personal
computer 20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote
memory storage device. It is appreciated that the network
connections shown are example and other means of communications
devices for establishing a communications link between the
computers may be used.
[0049] In an example implementation, software or firmware
instructions for the EUP system disclosed herein may be stored in
system memory 22 and/or storage devices 29 or 31 and processed by
the processing unit 21. User profile data may be stored in system
memory 22 and/or storage devices 29 or 31 as persistent
data-stores. An EUP module 650 communicatively connected with the
processing unit 21 and the memory 22 may enable one or more of the
capabilities of the EUP system disclosed herein.
[0050] In contrast to tangible computer-readable storage media,
intangible computer-readable communication signals may embody
computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or
other data resident in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier
wave or other signal transport mechanism. The term "modulated data
signal" means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics
set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the
signal. By way of example, and not limitation, intangible
communication signals include wired media such as a wired network
or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic,
RF, infrared and other wireless media.
[0051] FIG. 7 illustrates another example system (labeled as a
mobile device 700) that may be useful in implementing the described
technology. The mobile device 700 includes a processor 702, a
memory 704, a display 706 (e.g., a touchscreen display), and other
interfaces 708 (e.g., a keyboard). The memory 704 generally
includes both volatile memory (e.g., RAM) and non-volatile memory
(e.g., flash memory). An operating system 710, such as the
Microsoft Windows.RTM. Phone operating system, resides in the
memory 704 and is executed by the processor 702, although it should
be understood that other operating systems may be employed.
[0052] One or more application programs 712 are loaded in the
memory 704 and executed on the operating system 710 by the
processor 702. Examples of applications 712 include without
limitation email programs, scheduling programs, personal
information managers, Internet browsing programs, multimedia player
applications, etc. A notification manager 714 is also loaded in the
memory 704 and is executed by the processor 702 to present
notifications to the user. For example, when a promotion is
triggered and presented to the shopper, the notification manager
714 can cause the mobile device 700 to beep or vibrate (via the
vibration device 718) and display the promotion on the display
706.
[0053] The mobile device 700 includes a power supply 716, which is
powered by one or more batteries or other power sources and which
provides power to other components of the mobile device 700. The
power supply 716 may also be connected to an external power source
that overrides or recharges the built-in batteries or other power
sources.
[0054] The mobile device 700 includes one or more communication
transceivers 730 to provide network connectivity (e.g., mobile
phone network, Wi-Fi.RTM., BlueTooth.RTM., etc.). The mobile device
700 also includes various other components, such as a positioning
system 720 (e.g., a global positioning satellite transceiver), one
or more accelerometers 722, one or more cameras 724, an audio
interface 726 (e.g., a microphone, an audio amplifier and speaker
and/or audio jack), and additional storage 728. Other
configurations may also be employed.
[0055] In an example implementation, a mobile operating system,
various applications, and other modules and services may be
embodied by instructions stored in memory 704 and/or storage
devices 728 and processed by the processing unit 702. User
preferences, service options, and other data may be stored in
memory 704 and/or storage devices 728 as persistent datastores. An
EUP module 750 communicatively connected with the processor 702 and
the memory 704 may enable one or more of the capabilities of the
personalized user experience delivery system disclosed herein.
[0056] The EUP system disclosed herein provides solution to a
technological problem necessitated by user's desire to participate
in a large number of groups and to have selected and customized
profiles for the different groups. Specifically, the EUP system
disclosed herein provides an unconventional technical solution to
this technological problem by allowing group administrators to
create group specific fields for the users participating in the
group and the user's desire to override displaying of certain
fields in their profile with other fields as appropriate for a
specific group.
[0057] A method for providing extendible user profiles includes
receiving a request from a group administrator to create a new
group for a group of users of an application, providing a group
formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the
group formation user interface allows the group administrator to
add group specific fields, creating a group table including the
group specific fields, and linking the group table to user profile
tables of the group of users. In one implementation, the method
further includes presenting a group join user interface to a user
joining the group, wherein the group join user interface presents
the group specific fields. In an alternative implementation, the
method further includes receiving values of one or more of the
group specific fields from the user joining the group and
displaying the values of the group specific fields to other members
of the group.
[0058] In one implementation of the method, at least one of the
group specific field overrides a field in the user profile table.
Alternatively, the user profile table includes one or more group
joined fields for the one of more groups joined by a user and the
method further comprises adding the group to the group joined
fields. Yet alternatively, the method further includes linking the
group table to the user profile table using based on the group join
field. In one implementation, a group specific field is shared
between at least two or more groups. In another implementation, one
or more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more
other groups as specified by the user. Alternatively, one or more
of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more other
groups as specified by the group administrator.
[0059] A physical article of manufacture including one or more
tangible computer-readable storage media, encoding
computer-executable instructions for executing on a computer system
a computer process, wherein the computer process includes receiving
a request from a group administrator to create a new group for a
group of users of a social networking application, providing a
group formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein
the group formation user interface allows the group administrator
to add group specific fields, creating a group table including the
group specific fields, linking the group table to user profile
tables of the group of users, and presenting a group join user
interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group join user
interface presents the group specific fields.
[0060] In one implementation, the computer-executable instructions
further includes receiving values of one or more of the group
specific fields from the user joining the group. In another
implementation, the computer-executable instructions further
includes displaying the values of the group specific fields to
other members of the group. In yet another implementation, at least
one of the group specific field overrides a field in the user
profile table. Alternatively, the user profile table includes a
group joined field including listing of one of more groups joined
by a user and the method further comprises adding the group to the
group joined field. Yet alternatively, the computer-executable
instructions further includes linking the group table to the user
profile table using based on the group join field. Alternatively,
one or more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more
other groups as specified by at least one of the user and the group
administrator.
[0061] A system for providing extendible user profiles includes a
memory; one or more processor units; an extendible user profiles
(EUP) module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more
processor units, the EUP module configured to provide a group
formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the
group formation user interface allows the group administrator to
add group specific fields for a group of users of a social
networking application and receive a plurality of group specific
fields from the group administrator; and a user profile manager
application stored in the memory and executable by the one or more
processor units, the user profile manager application configured to
create a group table including the group specific fields and link
the group table to a user profile table.
[0062] In one implementation, the EUP module is further configured
to present a group join user interface to a user joining the group,
wherein the group join user interface presents the group specific
fields. Alternatively, the user profile manager application is
further configured to add one or more groups to the group joined
fields of the user profile table. Yet alternatively, at least one
of the group specific field overrides a field in the user profile
table.
[0063] The above specification, examples, and data provide a
complete description of the structure and use of exemplary
embodiments of the invention. Since many implementations of the
invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope
of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter
appended. Furthermore, structural features of the different
embodiments may be combined in yet another implementation without
departing from the recited claims.
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