Combined synchronous and asynchronous tag deployment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10241986-B2
Application number	US-201414556545-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2014
Priority date	Aug 30, 2013
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

A tag management system can implement a combined synchronous and asynchronous tag-loading scheme. In an embodiment of this scheme, a synchronous tag may be included at the top of or near the top of a content page. This synchronous tag can hide one or more page elements that are to be modified by a subsequent asynchronous personalization tag. Subsequently, the asynchronous personalization tag can update the page element and then cause the page element to be displayed. As a result, flicker between the old and new page elements can be reduced or avoided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of avoiding flicker between versions of a page element of a content page, the method comprising:
under control of a physical computing device:
storing, in one or more memory devices, a content page comprising a first tag container, a second tag container, a first version of a first page element, and a second page element, the content page having a body section that includes a first portion and a second portion different from the first portion, the first page element being in the first portion of the body section and the second page element being in the second portion of the body section;
prior to loading the body section for display in a browser, synchronously executing the first tag container so that loading of the body section for display in the browser is prevented until execution of the first tag container is completed,
wherein said synchronously executing the first tag container comprises:
requesting a first script from a first server via a computer network according to first container instructions of the first tag container,
receiving the first script via the computer network, and
executing the first script so that, according to first script instructions of the first script, the first version of the first page element is hidden from display by the browser upon loading of the body section for display in the browser;

loading the body section for display in the browser so that the second page element is loaded and presented as visible by the browser and, according to the first script instructions, the first version of the first page element is loaded and hidden from display by the browser; and
asynchronously executing the second tag container comprising:
requesting a second script from a second server via the computer network according to second container instructions of the second tag container,
receiving the second script via the computer network, and
executing the second script so that, according to second script instructions of the second script, a second version of the first page element is loaded and presented as visible by the browser in place of the first version of the first page element that was loaded and hidden from display by the browser.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said executing the first script and said executing the second script are together configured to prevent page element flickering when rendering the first version of the first page element and the second version of the first page element.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said executing the first script comprises modifying a Document Object Model (DOM) of the content page to assign a hidden visibility attribute to the first version of the first page element.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first page element comprises at least one of an image, a video, or a text.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first tag container is placed before the second tag container in the content page so that the first tag container is executed before the second tag container.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first tag container is placed within an HTML head tag.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said executing the second script comprises assigning a reveal visibility attribute to the second version of the first page element.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said executing the first script comprises executing the first script so that, according to the first script instructions, the first version of the first page element is hidden from display by the browser without removing the first version of the first page element from a layout of the content page.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said executing the first script comprises executing the first script so that, according to the first script instructions, the first version of the first page element is hidden from display by the browser by removing the first version of the first page element from a layout of the content page.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said executing the first script comprises executing the first script so that, according to the first script instructions, the first version of the first page element is hidden from display by the browser by deleting the first version of the first page element from the content page.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein said executing the first script comprises executing the first script so that, according to the first script instructions, the first version of the first page element is hidden from display by the browser by overlaying the first version of the first page element with another element upon loading of the body section for display in the browser.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said executing the second script comprises calling a function of the first script so that the second version of the first page element is presented as visible by the browser.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second script is part of at least a first digital tag and a second digital tag, the second digital tag being separate from the first digital tag, wherein said executing the second script comprises:
executing the first digital tag so that, according to first tag instructions of the first digital tag, the second version of the first page element is loaded; and
executing the second digital tag so that, according to second tag instructions of the second digital tag, the second version of the first page element is presented as visible by the browser.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein said asynchronously executing the second tag container comprises:
requesting a third script from a third server via the computer network according to the second container instructions,
receiving the third script via the computer network, and
executing the third script so that, according to third script instructions of the third script, data indicative of user interactions with the content page is gathered and transmitted via the computer network.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first server is the same as the second server.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first version of the first page element is the same as the second version of the first page element.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first version of the first page element is identified by an opening HTML tag of the content page and a closing HTML tag of the content page.

18. A system for avoiding flicker between versions of a page element of a content page, the system comprising:
one or more memory devices configured to store a content page comprising a first tag container, a second tag container, a first version of a first page element, and a second page element, the content page having a body section that includes a first portion and a second portion different from the first portion, the first page element being in the first portion of the body section and the second page element being in the second portion of the body section; and
one or more hardware processors in communication with the one or more memory devices, the one or more hardware processors being configured to:
prior to loading the body section for display in a browser, synchronously execute the first tag container so that loading of the body section for display in the browser is prevented until execution of the first tag container is completed,
wherein synchronous execution of the first tag container by the one or more hardware processors causes the one or more hardware processors to:
request a first script from a first server via a computer network according to first container instructions of the first tag c

Assignees

• Tealium Inc

Inventors

• Anderson Michael
• Gavin Tyron
• Sulin Colin Douglas
• Curry-Towneley-O'Hagan Fiann James
• Faurholt Kevin Thomas
• Browning Adrian Leslie

Classifications

• G06F40/197 Primary

  Version control (for software G06F8/71) · CPC title

• G06F16/958

  Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking · CPC title

• G06Q30/0201 Primary

  Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data · CPC title

• G06F17/2288 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic