Methods and Systems for Using Field Characteristics to Index, Search For, and Retrieve Forms

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016364458-A1
Application number	US-201514734441-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 9, 2015
Priority date	Jun 9, 2015
Publication date	Dec 15, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods disclosed herein provide form search results in response to form-specific search criteria. One embodiment involves receiving, at an electronic form search server, input providing form-specific search criteria comprising one or more field characteristics. The embodiment further involves identifying, by the electronic form search server, one or more forms as search results based on form-specific search criteria. The embodiment further involves providing, by the electronic form search server, the search results.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . In a computer network environment, a method for providing search results that include one or more forms in response to form-specific search criteria, the method comprising:
storing, at an electronic form search server, field characteristics of a plurality of forms; receiving, at the electronic form search server, input providing form-specific search criteria comprising field characteristics; using, by the electronic form search server, the field characteristics of the form-specific search criteria to identify one or more forms from the plurality of forms as search results based on the one or more forms identified as search results having field characteristics similar to the field characteristics of the form-specific search criteria, and providing, by the electronic form search server, the search results.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results comprises comparing field locations identified as search criteria with field locations within potential search result forms.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein the field locations each comprise a vector representing a distance and direction to one or more points within the form.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results comprises comparing a number of fields identified as a search criteria with respective numbers of fields within potential search result forms.

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results comprises comparing field-specific search criteria with field specific metadata from within potential search result forms.

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results comprises comparing a layout of fields identified as a search criteria with layouts of fields within potential search result forms.

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results comprises comparing labels of fields identified as search criteria with labels of fields within potential search result forms.

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results comprises comparing multiple field characteristics identified as search criteria with multiple field characteristics of fields within potential search result forms, wherein the multiple field characteristics comprise two or more field location, field bounds, field label, field input type, field information type.

9 . The method of claim 1 further comprising weighting the multiple field characteristics based on historical search results.

10 . The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the input providing form-specific search criteria comprises:
receiving an input image of an input form; and
identifying the form-specific search criteria from the metadata of the input image.

11 . The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the input providing form-specific search criteria comprises:
receiving a scanned input image of an input form; and
automatically identifying the form-specific search criteria using image recognition.

12 . The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the input providing form-specific search criteria comprises:
receiving a derived format of an input form; and
automatically identifying the form-specific search criteria using graphic and text recognition.

13 . The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the input providing form-specific search criteria comprises:
receiving a scanned input image of a portion of an input form that is less than all of the input form; and
automatically identifying the form-specific search criteria using image recognition.

14 . The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the input providing form-specific search criteria comprises receiving text identifying form-specific search criteria.

15 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results based on the form-specific search criteria comprises searching a repository of forms identified based on search criteria specifying the repository.

16 . The method of claim 14 wherein the repository is a public repository accessible through the Internet.

17 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results comprises searching for live field forms based on search criteria specifying that search results should include only live-field forms.

18 . The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the one or more forms as search results comprises searching for completed forms based on search criteria specifying that search results should include only completed forms.

19 . In a computer network environment, a method for providing suggestions for changing an input form, the method comprising a server:
receiving at least a portion of an input form; using image recognition on the portion of the input form or identifying existing rendered graphic elements to identify one or more fields on the input form; identifying a live form corresponding to the input form by searching based on field characteristics of the input form; and based on identifying a live field in the live form, recommending changing a non-live field in the input form to correspond to the live field.

20 . A system comprising:
a processing device; and a memory device communicatively coupled to the processing device, wherein the processing device is configured to execute instructions included in the memory device to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at an electronic form search server, input providing form-specific search criteria comprising one or more field characteristics;
identifying, by the electronic form search server, one or more forms as search results based on form-specific search criteria by:
comparing a field layout identified as a first search criteria with field layouts within potential search result forms;
comparing field input types identified as a second search criteria with respective field input types within potential search result forms; and
comparing field information types as a third search criteria with respective field information types within potential search result forms; and

providing, by the electronic form search server, the search results.

Assignees

• Adobe Systems Inc

Inventors

• Thevenet Frederic
• Mathur Priyank
• Gaither Shawn
• Sherry Rudi
• Dakin Steve

Classifications

• G06F16/957 Primary

  Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation · CPC title

• G06F17/30395

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30554 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30011

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/3053

  Physics · mapped topic