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Description  |
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the field of computer network
applications, and in particular a web page generator for automatic
generation of web pages in Internet and Intranet environments.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
With the advent of network communications, more and more organizations are
becoming interested in taking advantage of new features and functionality
that network applications provide. One of the useful features provided by
networked communication is allowing individuals in an organization or
members of the public to obtain information about other individuals
associated with a particular organization.
Large organizations in which individuals are geographically spread out or
in which there is a high degree of employee movement or turnover suffer
from a problem of not being able to locate, contact and obtain information
on different individuals within the organization. A present solution to
this problem is to publish (on paper) an organizational or corporate
directory listing of names, departments, telephone numbers and other
contact information relating to individuals within the organization. The
distribution of such a corporate directory to all persons interested in
its contents presents an enormous logistical problem.
With the advent of Intra-company and Inter-company communications, as well
as network access to organizational computer systems, a computer
application may be loaded onto a computer server so that individuals are
able to obtain immediate and current access to the organization's
resources.
With more and more companies and organizations implementing internal
networks and connecting themselves to the Internet, Internet based
applications are proliferating.
The task facing organizations wishing to publicize information about
individuals within, is to create an accurate, accessible, easy to use and
up-to-date mechanism to store and display personal information about each
of those individuals. A traditional solution is to create a specialized
computer application which stores such information. However, setting up
such an application requires a high level of skill. When persons set up
such applications are not adequately skilled and knowledgeable the results
are often haphazard and fraught with bugs. There are often problems in
making the application accessible to the public.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The web page generator of the present invention provides automatic web page
creation of an organizational directory for use in an Internet and
Intranet environment. The web page directory is created from data stored
in the directory application component of the web page generator and after
being placed on a web server, allows any individual who has network access
to the web server offering the web page to view the directory information
in a web page format. In another aspect of the present invention, the web
pages are created by the web page generator at the time the user makes a
request for display of that web page. In a further aspect of the present
invention, the web page generator also provides for an interface to a
Private Branch Exchange (PBX) telephone switch for automatic access to PBX
functions through the web page automatically generated in accordance with
the principles of the invention.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a
method for automatic generation of a web page organizational directory
comprising:
a) creating and saving a member web page template and parent web page
template each containing fields for storing specific information;
b) inputting member information into a directory database for each of a
plurality of members;
c) retrieving the member web page template and the member information from
the database;
d) for each of the plurality of members replacing the fields in the member
web page template with the member information and saving the member web
page template with the fields replaced with the member information as a
member specific web page;
e) retrieving the parent web page template;
f) for each member in the database, inserting the member information
regarding each member from the database into the fields of the parent web
page template and creating links to associate each member whose member
information has been inserted into the fields of the parent web page
template to the member specific web page to create a new parent web page;
and
g) posting each member specific web page and the parent web page to a web
server.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a
method for automatic generation of a web page organizational directory
comprising:
a) inputting and saving member information into a directory database for
each of a plurality of members;
b) creating one or more associative data gathering and formatting
mechanisms for searching the directory database, generating in web page
format, a list of selected elements relating to each of the members and
sending the list to a requesting unit;
c) creating and saving a parent web page template containing one or more
activation fields that is each associated with one of the data gathering
and formatting mechanisms for activating the associated data gathering and
formatting mechanism;
d) posting the parent web page template to a web server;
e) activating the activation field on the parent web page from the
requesting unit;
f) displaying the directory list on the requesting unit.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided in
an environment where directory information is accessible on a network
device, a method for automatic generation of a web page organizational
directory comprising:
a) creating one or more data gathering mechanisms for accessing, searching
and retrieving directory information from the network device and
delivering the information to a data formatting mechanism;
b) creating one or more data formatting mechanisms for generating in web
page format a list of selected elements received from the data gathering
mechanism and sending the list to a requesting unit;
c) creating and saving a parent web page template containing one or more
activation fields for activating an associated data gathering mechanism;
d) posting the parent web page template to a web server;
e) activating the activation field on the parent web page from the
requesting unit;
f) displaying the directory list on the requesting unit.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A detailed description of the preferred embodiment is provided herein
below, with reference to the following drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting an overview of a network system for
implementing the web page generator of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a directory application according to the present
invention showing the typical basic steps for adding or deleting a
directory item class;
FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a further directory application according to the
present invention showing the typical basic steps for adding or deleting a
directory entry and generating the appropriate web pages;
FIGS. 4a and 4b are example data entry screens for the directory
applications of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is an example of HTML template code for an employee web page
generated according to the present invention;
FIG. 6 is an example of the web page generated from the HTML code of FIG.
5;
FIG. 7 is an example of HTML template code for a company web page, which is
a parent web page linking to various sub pages, generated according to the
present invention; and
FIG. 8 is an example of the web page generated from the HTML code of FIG. 7
.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Turning to FIG. 1, web server 110 is connected to local area network 140.
Web server 110 is a standard Internet or Intranet computing machine, as is
well known in the art, that is capable of displaying web pages of
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format. HTML is a markup system used to
create Hypertext documents that are portable from platform to platform. To
accomplish this, it uses the Internet Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
which allows transfer of information from client to server. It is an
application that is designed to conform to International Standard ISO
8879--Standard Generalized Markup Language. HTML and HTTP standards are
managed by an Industry Consortium, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
jointly hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for
Computer Science ›MIT/LCS! in the United States, the Institut National de
Recherche en Informatique ›INRIA! in Europe, and the Keio University
Shonan Fujisawa Campus in Asia. In the preferred embodiment, the web
server 110 supports the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and is capable of
running CGI programs. CGI is a publicly available method, used by web
servers and web clients to mediate interaction between them.
Directory web pages generated by the present invention are stored in
computer memory 130 of web server 110 and are made accessible to local
user 160 and/or remote user 170 at the discretion of the administrator of
the web server 110. Local user 160 and remote user 170 can use a standard
web browser, such as Netscape.TM. from Netscape Communication Corporation
or Microsoft Internet Explorer.TM. from Microsoft Corporation, which can
read HTML coded web pages to display directory web pages stored in memory
130 and can communicate with web server 110 using CGI. In the operation of
the present invention in an Intranet environment, local user 160 who is
connected to local area network 140, obtains access to web server 110
wherein directory web pages stored in memory 130 are offered and
displayed. For administration purposes, local user 160 may also be an
administrator who runs the directory application and web page generator
stored in application database 125 on application server 120. For Internet
access, remote user 170, via wide area network 150, obtains access to web
server 110 through local area network 140 to display directory web pages
stored in memory 130.
The directory application and web page generator is executed by a user who
has administrator access to the directory application and web page
generator stored in application database 125 on application server 120.
The directory application in the preferred embodiment may be written in
any appropriate computer language that provides for data entry and
control, and storage of information to database 125 in a network
environment. For example "C" may be used as the programming language and
ORACLE may be used as the database, but the invention is not limited to
being implemented in this language or database. In an alternate
embodiment, the application could be written as a CGI program, which is
accessed through the network environment by an administrator using a
standard web browser. The application is described in further detail with
reference to the Figures that follow.
In an alternate embodiment (not shown), application server 120 and web
server 110 may be the same physical machine.
Turning to FIG. 2, a flow chart example is provided of the logic of the
directory application for adding or deleting an item class. The
information stored by the application, and ultimately displayed by the web
page is categorized by item. It is therefore necessary to create a list in
the database of the various classes of items. An item may be an employee,
work group, communications group, room, resource, project or any other
appropriate name for grouping people or resources. To create a class of
items, the class must be given a name, and assigned an HTML template to be
used for a specific instance of that class. An example of a template is
described in greater detail below with respect to FIG. 5.
At step 200, the directory application and web page generator is started on
application server 120. In the application, the administrator who runs the
program is presented with a choice of whether to add or delete an item
class (step 202). If the administrator chooses to add an item, the
administrator is then prompted for the name of the item class to add (step
204). The administrator is then prompted for the names of fields in the
database which should be used to describe particular features of this
class of item, and the size of each field. (step 206) For example, for an
Employee item, such features or field names might be employee name, title,
phone number, address, and e-mail address. It could also be the field name
for the name of a CGI program to run to obtain features of the item or
additional information to display. These are merely examples, the field
names and number of fields is not limited by the application.
At step 208, the administrator is prompted for the name of the file
containing the specific web page template or templates to be used when
creating a specific instance of this class of item. The web page template
or templates may be created before or after the item class is created, but
they must be in place before a specific instance of the class is created.
It is also within the sphere and scope of the invention that the user
could choose from a selection of templates as to the style of web page
created. In an alternate embodiment (not shown), the directory application
can be programmed to prompt the administrator to include a picture or logo
for each entry, which can also be used in a specific instance of the web
page. The web page template may incorporate additional properties that
enhance the functions of the web page relating to features of an added
class of item. Any valid HTML command, item, or aspect may be incorporated
in the web page template.
The name of the added class of item is then stored in the database, and the
appropriate database table is created relating to this class of item. The
procedure then terminates at step 214.
If at step 202, the administrator chose to delete a class of items, the
administrator is then prompted to provide the name of a class of items to
delete (step 210). At step 212, when the administrator has entered the
name of the class of items to delete, the program removes that class of
items, and the database table relating to that class of items.
Turning to FIG. 3, a flow chart example is provided of the directory
application for adding or deleting a directory entry and generating the
appropriate web page. At step 240, the directory application and web page
generator is started on application server 120. In the application, the
administrator who runs the program is presented with a choice of whether
to add or delete an item (step 242). If the administrator chooses to add
an item, the administrator is then presented with the choice of which
category of item to add (step 244). The administrator then chooses from
one of the classes of items that were created as described with respect to
FIG. 2, above. For example, the administrator may choose to add an
employee (step 244), in which case the administrator is then prompted for
specific information on the employee to be inserted in the data base and
displayed on the web pages. In an alternate embodiment, each of the above
steps could be implemented as CGI programs that generate appropriate forms
as necessary on a standard web browser used by the administrator to
administer the program.
FIG. 4a illustrates an example data entry screen 302 to add an employee in
accordance with step 246. It will be understood by a person of ordinary
skill in the art that whereas, for the purpose of this example, the added
item is an employee, other items and items of other classes which can have
different numbers and types of fields, including CGI programs in fields,
may be added in a similar manner. Field names 310, 320, 330, 340, 350 and
360 of FIG. 4A represent examples of fields in a data lo base table for
storage of information regarding a specific item of the employee class. In
the present example, the administrator enters the employee name 315, title
325, phone number 335, address 345, e-mail address 355 and employee web
page file name 365 into the data entry fields. Returning to FIG. 3, once
data entry is complete, the information is stored in the data base 125
(step 248).
At step 250, the web page generation is commenced by retrieval of the web
page template, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 5. The template
of FIG. 5 is specified as the template file designated when this class of
item was created (as described above with reference to FIG. 2). The
template of FIG. 5 is merely an example and may be modified to add
additional HTML code to add header, graphical information, stylistic
items, or any valid HTML code or function to suit the desires of the
administrator. Elements 415a, 415b and 415c correspond to the employee
name 315 entered as illustrated in FIG. 4a. Likewise, elements 425, 435,
445, and 455 correspond to title 325, phone 335, address 345, e-mail
address 355 and employee web page file name 365 entered as illustrated in
FIG. 4a. The replacement of the various data elements into the template is
done at step 252 of FIG. 3 and the generated web page is then saved at
step 254 with the employee web page file name 365 entered as illustrated
in FIG. 4a.
Turning to FIG. 6, the web page generated from the HTML code of FIG. 5 is
illustrated. Employee name elements 515b and 515c correspond to data entry
elements 415b and 415c from FIG. 5. Likewise, data elements 525, 535, 545
and 555 correspond to elements 425, 435, 445, 455 from FIG. 5.
Returning to the data flow diagram of FIG. 3, the parent web page is then
regenerated as illustrated in step 270. This step involves sequentially
stepping through the entire data base 125 of employees to generate a list
of employee names and their corresponding web page file names. A parent
web page displaying all of the employee names and providing links to each
associated individual employee web page in then generated.
FIG. 7 illustrates example HTML code for a parent web page providing a list
of employees. As an example, employee names 615 and 699, are inserted in
the template from information stored in the data base at step 248 of the
flow chart of FIG. 3. Likewise, web page file names 665 and 698 are
retrieved and inserted in the template in the data base from information
stored at step 248 of the flow chart illustrated in FIG. 3. Employee names
615 and 699 and employee web page file names 665 and 698 are merely
examples of some of the employee names and employee web pages listed in
the data base. Entries similar to employee web page file name 698 and
employee name 699 are required to be inserted for each employee entry in
the data base. Once all of the employees have been included in the
template, the parent web page HTML code is then saved to disk within
server 120.
Returning to the flow chart of FIG. 3, the employee web pages and parent
web page are then copied to or posted to the web server 110 for storage in
memory 130, as illustrated at step 280. The web pages are then available
to be displayed by the web server 110. The directory application and web
page generator terminates at step 299.
Turning to FIG. 8, the web page generated from the HTML code of FIG. 7 is
illustrated. This represents a typical parent web page that a local user
160 or remote user 170 might see. Employee name elements 715 and 798
correspond to data entry elements 615 and 699 from FIG. 7. In this
example, the names are underlined, indicating that when a local user 160
or remote user 170 accesses this web page and clicks on a particular name,
such as name element 715, the appropriate associated web page
corresponding to that employee are then downloaded and displayed to the
user.
Returning to step 210 of the flow chart in FIG. 3, if the administrator
chooses to delete an item, the choice must then be made regarding which
item should be deleted as illustrated at step 256. In this example, the
administrator chooses to delete an employee. At step 258, the
administrator must choose which specific employee to delete. This is
further illustrated on the "DELETE EMPLOYEE" screen 304 of FIG. 4b.
Employee name 310 is displayed on the screen and the administrator types
in the name of the specific employee 315 to be deleted from the data base
and from the web pages. Once the specific employee 315 had been entered,
that record is removed from the data base as illustrated at step 260 of
FIG. 3. At step 270, the parent web page must then be regenerated so that
the specific employee that has been deleted does not appear on the parent
web page. The web page generator program then proceeds to steps 280 and
299 as described above.
In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, the web page generator
can operate to dynamically generate and display the web page directory
from either an existing source of directory information or one created by
a procedure described above. This implementation is particularly useful
where the data changes rapidly, and allows for the generation and posting
of web pages as they are needed, instead of generating web pages with
every change to the underlying data. In the circumstances where the
directory information already exists, the only requirement is that the
fields of the directory information be accessible by a CGI program. With
respect to using the procedure described above, this could be performed in
the following manner. Returning to FIG. 3, the administrator would add
information regarding a directory entry as previously described in steps
240, 242, 244, 246 and 248. The routine would them terminate at step 299.
A parent web page is set up that contains a selected link which when
activated, handles the display of the requested database information. But,
instead of the pre-generated web page containing the list of the items in
the database, it is associated with the location and name of a CGI program
to be run. Execution of CGI programs in this manner is well known is the
art. When the local user 160 or remote user 170 actuates the link, the
associated CGI program is executed. The CGI program queries the
application database 125, extracts the relevant information from the
application database 125, and formats and returns the information as a
dynamically prepared web page. As a result, the web pages returned to the
user are dynamically prepared on an as requested basis and always reflect
the most current information in the application database 125.
This embodiment is particularly useful in circumstances where the basic
data for the present invention already exists as part of some other
unrelated computer application. The necessity to maintain a separate,
duplicate body of information is removed as the actual direct source of
the information could be used as the basis for the web page generator of
the present invention. This further reduces the demand of and in some
cases can remove the need for an administrator.
In a further embodiment of the invention, which extends and expands on the
dynamic generator and display of web pages utilizing CGI programs
described above, the CGI programs could be written to query, obtain,
format and return information from devices and resources that frequently
change status. For example, upon actuation of a link by a local user 160
or remote user 170, an associated CGI program could be written to query
the status of a device, such as a private branch exchange telephony switch
to determine the status or features of a particular line on the telephony
switch and return them to the local user 160 or remote user 170 as a
dynamically generated web page. Thus, local user 160 or remote user 170
could determine, through the mechanism of a dynamically generated web page
of the present invention whether a particular individual is on the phone.
Furthermore, a web phone interface could be set up, through the use of a
CGI program between a local user 160 or remote user 170 and a person
listed on a directory page generated by the present invention. These are
merely examples of features which could be implemented in conjunction with
devices and the web page generator of the present invention.
It is within the scope and sphere of the invention that the web pages
created and generated by the invention could be cascaded, such that
classes of items may also be grouped together to create a superclass, and
pages for specific items can be linked to sub-pages. A parent page for
these superclasses can be created to obtain access to classes of items.
The method and manner in which such superclasses of web pages or sub-pages
of web pages can be created is similar to the method described with
respect to FIGS. 2 to 8 and the alternate embodiments described above.
In an alternative embodiment, web pages generated according to the method
of the present invention can be incorporated or linked to a master web
page for an organization or enterprise. Appropriate software, which is
well within the capability of a software programmer, can be written as a
front-end application to allow searching of the directory web-pages
created by the method of the present invention. A local user 160, or
remote user 170 could utilize such search software to locate the name of a
desired employee, and then have the appropriate web page which was
generated by the method of the present invention displayed to the user.
The web-pages generated by the invention can be used as part of an
automatic attendant for people to find members of the organization and to
communicate with them.
In a further alternative embodiment, the template web pages discussed with
respect to FIGS. 2-8 can incorporate applications that are embedded into
the web pages generated by the method of the present invention by
utilizing a downloadable platform independent application, such as a Java
program. Java is a hardware independent interpreted language from Sun
Microsystems.RTM. whose programs can be incorporated in HTML pages,
thereby enabling mini-programs called "applets" to be downloaded from a
server, such as the web server 110 of FIG. 1, and run on client machines.
This additional functionality can be incorporated into the web pages
generated by the method of the present invention and utilized by a local
user 160 or remote user 170, using a Java-enabled browser. The benefit of
this alternative embodiment is that a sophisticated organizational
directory may be maintained by an administrator without the necessity of
the administrator having in-depth programming experience.
For example, when a local user 160 or remote user 170 accesses the web
server 110 and uses the organizational directory generated by the present
invention to find someone, the user must "click" on the person's name and
the person's associated web page is the displayed to the user. The
displayed web page can include a "call" and a "mail" button. If the local
user 160 or remote user 170 "clicks" on the "call" button, then the person
is "called" using an associated web phone applet. Such web phone
applications are well known in the art. If the local user 160 or remote
user 170 "clicks" the "mail" button, then a mail message can be composed,
using an email applet, such as is known in the art, and sent to the person
whose web page is being displayed. These features can easily be
incorporated into the system of the present invention by one of ordinary
skill in the art by modifying the item class routine in FIG. 2 to prompt
for the name of one or more applets to associate with the item class. In
order to provide the functions described above, the template as described
by FIG. 5 can easily be modified by one of ordinary skill in the art of
writing such applications to facilitate the display and operation of the
desired buttons, and execution of the desired Java applet.
In addition, modifications in a like manner can be made so that a status
button appears on the web page generated by the method of the present
invention for each person so as to give the "status" of the person whose
web page is being displayed (e.g. out of town, busy, idle, do not disturb,
et cetera).
Furthermore, a web page may be generated for a room or resource in the
manner described with respect to FIGS. 2-8 and an appointment scheduling
applet can be incorporated into the web page for the room or resource
generated by the method of the present invention. Thus, a room or resource
can be booked using the generated web page, with calendar status being
visible on the web page. Resources, (i.e. rooms, overhead projectors, et
cetera), can also be added to the organizational directory and may also
have their own web page to show status. Project rooms can be set up
automatically, where groups which provide organizational support (e.g.
human resources or documentation), can be provided with a web page per
client (project) where information can be posted and updated. For example,
if one project has two people to hire, then that project may have
generated a joint HR web page, where the HR rep can post status, new
resumes etc., and a user can request interviews to be set up, et cetera.
Once created, these web pages use existing technology for access and
display and posting information. Java applets can be written to accomplish
these tasks.
It is also within the sphere and scope of the present invention to add
features such as video calls, shared workspace, voice messaging, and fax,
to the web pages generated according to the method of the present
invention so as to enable communication between the local user 160 or
remote user 170 and the desired person in the organization. The
alternatives and contemplated additional features are not meant to be
exhaustive, but merely indicative of the alternatives and features that
can be implemented in accordance with the present invention.
In yet a further alternative embodiment of the invention, the web-pages
generated by the present method may be designed to interface with a PBX
180 (FIG. 1). By utilizing a platform independent downloadable
application, such as a Java applet, a communication back to the PBX 180
from a local user 160 or remote user 170 may be provided for enhanced
telephony notification and control via the web pages generated by the
method of the present invention. This allows for additional functionality
and features such that a sophisticated organizational web page directory
may be generated by the method of the present invention for communication
with a PBX. This sophisticated web page organizational directory may be
maintained by an administrator without the necessity of the administrator
having in-depth programming experience or knowledge of programming a PBX.
The facilitation of connections between a Java enabled browser and a PBX
is further described in Canadian patent application no. 2187240, filed
Oct. 7, 1996, entitled Network Control of Telephone Services Using
Downloadable Applications, pending.
For example, a communications group can be added into the organizational
directory as an item class in the manner described with respect to FIGS.
2-8. The templates of FIGS. 5 and 7 can be modified by one skilled in the
art so that Java type applets that communicate with the PBX 180 are
written and incorporated into the templates. In this manner, hunt groups
and key line groups on the PBX can be set up within a web page. In the
case of a key line group, the template for members of the organization
(e.g. employee) can be set up such that every member is provided with a
line status indicator on their personal web page. When the appropriate
downloadable platform independent application button is pressed by a local
or remote user, the associated Java applet is then downloaded and run to
communicate with the PBX 180 to determine the telephone status and
features of that user's set, and to display those settings on the web
page. Such settings can optionally be changed by a user with appropriate
security clearance. Virtually any PBX feature, for example, call
forwarding, call screening, or the call preferences for the person, can be
added to an individual's web page, and easily generated by an
administrator utilizing the automatic web page generator application of
the present invention.
Although the invention has been described in terms of the preferred and
several alternative embodiments described herein, those skilled in the art
will appreciate other embodiments and modifications which can be made
without departing from the sphere and scope of the teachings of the
invention. All such modifications are intended to be included with the
scope of the claims appended hereto.
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