Abstract:
A system and method for providing management such as creation, manipulation, storage, control, and retrieval of digital content for a company on a global basis. Digital content is created and stored in, for example, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format using the relationship between component mapping information and content information comprising webpage components. The XML data is developed by defining page components, mapping the components on a page and indexing the page for future retrieval of the page. The data is then stored in a single database, as segments related to the page, for call-up by a user.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/769,887 entitled “INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE FOR THE INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT” filed on Jan. 25, 2001, which application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/178,456 filed on Jan. 27, 2000, both of which are contained herein by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for managing content of a company-wide intranet or internet website, and more particularly, to systems for organizing data related in a single database so the content can be managed from a global perspective. 
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     As more and more companies begin to provide a presence on the internet, they are confronted with the issues of presentation of information and conformity within the preparation of the presentations. Various schemes have been presented to assist the companies in preparing the presentation screens that would appear on the internet website, along with placing the presentation of the page in a location or locations that are linked, requiring a user to traverse various web pages to obtain the presentation desired. Such approaches have included delegated authority systems, have used content aggregation, have provided graphical interfaces and dynamically generated web documents. Other general website management has included editing and generating information, data access/processing systems, automatic publishing systems and group ware systems. These approaches generally demand a knowledge of the HTML operating language, a capability generally only found in the website programmers and not among general employees. 
     The prior art generally fails to disclose a process for implementing changes to an internet website, such that employees in a corporation may define and enforce a common style of page layout to provide an application that can be accessed by multiple users at the same time by an internet browser, where the application allows corporate employees to manage content, create new web pages, process content through workflow, and define new content and style which can then be provided to a user without an undue amount of searching to find the desired information. Accordingly, once the presentation page is completed, data elements relating to the significance of the content are utilized to store information relating to the content in various locations or sites, with the various sites interconnected through the use of links. Thus, to obtain the information desired, a user may, of necessity, be forced to traverse several links to obtain the desired page with the required information. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The previously described deficiencies in the prior art are addressed in the present invention which, in conjunction with a content management application, provides an intranet application to provide a system for implementing changes to both an intranet or an internet website and, permitting a company to manage content for its website from a global perspective. The content, created and stored once, can then be shared and managed across a global organization. The information architecture system is the basic underlying infrastructure that allows a company to efficiently manage its content while taking advantage of various efficiencies. The data can thus be viewed from a holistic perspective utilizing a structure of website contents that results from the relationship between objects on the physical pages, i.e., appearance only, instead of the prior art reliance on the significance of the data elements displayed on the page, thereby providing a look and feel driven structure. The system function supports a workflow model for the launching of content and is extensible so the information architecture does not need to be expanded in order to support new data. Further, the system is platform and software independent whereby the content stored in the infrastructure can be delivered on any platform with the system providing granularity of content management. In one exemplary embodiment, the system makes use of the extensible Markup Language (XML) to store relevant content. The use of XML provides extensible data schema, content reuse, also known as repurposing, and flexible look and feel. Since the information architecture is XML based, it can be implemented either using a database, XML repository or a flat file based system. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The above and other features and advantages of the present invention are hereinafter described in the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals are used to identify the same or similar parts or steps in the similar views, and: 
         FIG. 1  is an exemplary representation of the workflow and page storage aspect of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is an exemplary block diagram depicting an embodiment of the Information Architecture System using Content Management of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is an exemplary block diagram depicting a user accessing the global database of the Information Architecture System; 
         FIGS. 4   a - 4   c  are exemplary screen presentations provided by a user of the Information Architecture System; and 
         FIG. 5  is an exemplary workflow diagram depicting a logical data model of the information architecture. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present invention may be described herein in terms of functional block components and various processing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocks may be realized by any number of hardware and/or software components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, the software elements of the present invention may be implemented with any programming or scripting language such as C, C++, Java, PERL, or the like, with the various algorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures, objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further it should be noted that the present invention may employ any number of conventional techniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, network control, and the like. Still further, the invention could be used to detect or prevent security issues with a scripting language, such as JavaScript, VBScript or the like. 
     It should be appreciated that the particular implementations shown and described herein are illustrative of the invention and its best mode and are not intended to otherwise limit the scope of the present invention in any way. Indeed, for the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, application development and other functional aspects of the systems (and components of the individual operating components of the systems) may not be described in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown in the various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships or physical connections may be present in a practical electronic transaction system. 
     As hereinafter described, the present invention is directed to a system and method for providing management such as creation, manipulation, storage, control, and retrieval of digital content for use in such as a company website on a global basis and includes support for new page layouts and component layouts (i.e., support for new presentation styles whether in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Wireless Markup Language (WML), PDF, or any other authoring language in which the presentation may be written). 
     Further, the present invention permits content repurposing, i.e., the reuse of existing content for other forms of media once the content has been produced and stored in a database. Accordingly, repurposing permits use of the content in such forms as mail, print, or other websites or any application in which the printed or electronic word is used and which may take advantage of the content stored in the database. 
     The information architecture of the present invention provides for a separation of data from the presentation itself. Thus, the information architecture data content, not being tied to the presentation, may, for example, enable the database to support various foreign languages, formats and medias. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is shown at  100  an exemplary representation of the flow diagram of the information architecture system of the present invention. The site administrator  102 , initiates a project to develop a new web page by assigning an author  106  to create the page and its XML representation is stored in the database using a content management application system  108 . This starts the workflow  104  whereby the author creates the page, then the author submits it for approval through various levels. Once the approvals are obtained, the site administrator  102  approves a content launch  110 . While various scripting languages may be used in creating content and/or a page, by way of example only and not by way of limitation, the content/page is written in the extensible Markup Language (XML) and is stored in database  120  as an XML file. 
     An external web user  130  wishing to access the information contained in the page would request the page through a Content Delivery Application (CDA) translator  140 . The CDA translator  140  would query the database  120 , retrieve the page and translate the XML file into an HTML page or any other presentation format suitable for user&#39;s device for presentation to the user  130 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown at  200 . This embodiment uses a workflow group, such as shown in  FIG. 1 , under control of the local site administrator  202 . The workflow group includes a content author  206  and content approvers  208 . Once the site administrator  202  initiates a project and verbally communicates the user ID and password to each new user designated in the workflow, designated content author  206  creates and edits items using content management applications. 
     Designated content approvers  208  review the content items produced by content author  206  and pass them through an approval process. Content approvers  208  mark the items as approved or rejected and, when the new content has been approved by all concerned users in the workflow, local site administrator  202  launches the content to the global database  220 . Users, using web browsers  230   a ,  230   b ,  230   c , interface through the worldwide web  232  to review the launched content. In some instances, the request must be processed through a firewall  234  providing security to the global database  220 . Again, the XML file from the global database containing the requested information is processed through a CDA translator into HTML, or a representation suitable for the user&#39;s device, passed through the firewall  234  and presented in an HTML or suitable representative language format on the worldwide web  232  for access by the web user requesting the information. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 3 , there is shown an exemplary block diagram at  300  of a user accessing the global database of the network architecture system of the present invention. A user  330  connects to the internet or worldwide web  332 , logging on through a firewall  334 , if such is present, to a CDA translator to request information from database  320 . The database, comprising various XML files relating to the various pages stored therein in XML, as Segment  1 ,  350 , Segment  2 ,  352  through Segment X,  354 . Once the proper segment containing the requested page is located, it is transmitted from the database  320  to the CDA translator, which translates the XML file to, for example, an HTML page for presentation through the firewall  334  to the internet  332  for presentation to user  330 . 
     Referring also to  FIGS. 4   a - 4   c , exemplary screen presentations accessible by user of the network architecture system are shown. The presentations  4   a ,  4   b ,  4   c  correspond to the various segments  350 ,  352 ,  354  depicted in  FIG. 3  comprising the information relating to the content contained within the page. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 5 , each exemplary information segment shown in  FIG. 3  may be seen to include a top level index to the information contained within the page/segment at  502 . The page index defines the location of page level information at  504 . Page level information  504  defines segment component mapping at  506 . Information contained within page component mapping  506  relates to component content information  508 . Component content information  508  contains information relating to the various parts of a page, such as the navigation components, the cross-sell components, copyright components, and the like. Additionally, the component content information  508  includes page key word relationships, along with the component type information  510 . Component type information  510  further defines the component item information used in generating various items within a page. Base element information  514  provides information used in developing the component item information  512 . 
     Accordingly, corresponding structures, acts, and equivalents of all elements in the claims below are intended to include any structural material or acts for performing the functions in combination with other elements as specifically claimed. The scope of the invention should be determined by the allowed claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given above.