Inputting data to a web page

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019034398-A1
Application number	US-201816054492-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 3, 2018
Priority date	May 22, 2008
Publication date	Jan 31, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system for inputting data to a web page that is selectively accessed and displayed through a web browser executing on a computing device includes an electronic scratch pad on the computing device that is configured to identify data entry fields on an accessed web page and to retrieve a label corresponding to any identified data entry field of the web page. The electronic scratch pad records the label and any user input that is input using a user input device to the corresponding data entry field.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for inputting data to a web page that is selectively accessed and displayed through a web browser, said system comprising:
a terminal; a storage area on the terminal to store label information and input information, wherein in response to movement of a cursor from a data entry field, input information corresponding to the data entry field is stored in the storage area; an electronic scratch pad stored in the storage area on said terminal that is configured to identify data entry fields on an accessed web page and to retrieve a number of first labels corresponding to any identified data entry field of said accessed web page; and in which:
said electronic scratch pad records said number of first labels and any user input that is input into a data entry field of the accessed web page, said user input and said number of first labels stored by said scratch pad being continuously displayed to a user of said terminal while said web browser is open;
in response to said web browser activating a new web page, said electronic scratch pad automatically enters a latest user input from multiple user inputs for a corresponding label into a data entry field on said new web page that has a second label that corresponds to one of said number of first labels for a data entry field from a previous web page into which that user input was previously entered.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the storage area is a volatile local memory area.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein in response to movement of the cursor from a data entry field, an identifier associated with the user input is stored in the storage area.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein an identifier is retrieved for each of the number of first labels.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein responsive to a change of user input within the data entry field, storing both an old user input and new user input in the storage area.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein responsive to the change of user input associated with the data entry field, displaying both the old user input and the new user input in the electronic scratch pad.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the electronic scratch pad displays multiple synonymous labels in a corresponding entry field portion.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein an instance of user input is associated with:
a first identifier associating the user input with a first label from the accessed web page; and a second identifier associating the user input with a different label from the accessed web page.

9 . A method for inputting data to a web page that is selectively accessed and displayed through a web browser executing on a computing device, said method comprising:
identifying data entry fields on an accessed web page with an electronic scratch pad on said computing device; retrieving a first label corresponding to any identified data entry field of said web page based on a positional relation to the identified data entry field, in which the first label is a string in a source code which describes the web page; recording said first label with said electronic scratch pad; recording, in response to movement of a cursor from a corresponding data entry field, in said electronic scratch pad any user input that is input using a user input device to the corresponding data entry field; terminating said electronic scratch pad together with the web browser when all web pages are closed; and erasing said stored user input in response to said web browser closing.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
in response to said web browser activating a new web page, retrieving a second label corresponding to any identified data entry field of said new web page; grouping said second label with said first label following a determination that said first label and said second label are synonyms; and automatically entering a latest user input from multiple user inputs corresponding to the first label into a data entry field on said new web page that corresponds to said second label.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising associating the first label with the corresponding data entry field based on a proximity between the first label and the corresponding data entry field on said web page.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first label and the corresponding data entry field are associated based on a same position in the vertical direction as indicated in the source code which describes the web page.

13 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising providing a visual indication of an association between an input label name of the new web page and an entry field portion on the electronic scratch pad that corresponds to the input label name.

14 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising providing a visual indication of an association between an input field of the new web page and an input information portion on the electronic scratch pad that corresponds to the input field.

15 . A computer program product for inputting data to a web page that is selectively accessed and displayed through a web browser executing on a computing device, said computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith for an electronic scratch pad, the computer readable program code comprising:
computer readable program code configured to:
initialize a storage area of a terminal after activating the web browser;
identify data entry fields on a web page accessed by said web browser and to retrieve a number of first labels corresponding to any identified data entry field of said web page,
record said number of first labels;
in response to movement of a cursor from a corresponding data entry field, record any user input that is input using a user input device to the corresponding data entry field, in which said user input and said number of first labels stored by said scratch pad are continuously displayed to a user of said computing device while said web browser is open,
in response to said web browser activating a new web page, automatically entering user input from a previous web page into a data entry field on said new web page that has a second label that corresponds to one of said number of first labels for a data entry field from a previous web page into which that user input was previously entered; and
in response to identifying a new label on said new web page, adding said new label to said scratch pad without storing corresponding input information in said scratch pad.

16 . The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein said number of first labels specify a type of data requested.

17 . The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprises computer readable program code to extract said number of first labels from metadata.

18 . The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprises computer readable program code to prioritize a display of a latest user input in the electronic scratch pad.

19 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein prioritizing a display of a latest user input comprises displaying it above other user inputs.

20 . The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprises computer readable program code to display a correspondence between labels and input fields based on user instruction.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Akiyama Koji
• Sawano Yoshiaki
• Shibutani Yashuhiro
• Takahashi Yasuaki

Classifications

• G06F40/174 Primary

  Form filling; Merging · CPC title

• G06F3/04842

  Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F3/0486

  Drag-and-drop · CPC title

• G06F40/166

  Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting · CPC title

• G06F17/243 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic