DETAILED ACTION
A. This action is in response to the following communications: Transmittal of New Application filed 07/15/2024.
B. Claims 1-20 remains pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to certain methods of organizing human activity without significantly more. The claim(s) 1, 12 and 20 recite(s) “determining a first field; determining a second field and obtaining a target file”, grouping of abstract ideas. The mere nominal recitation of a generic processor, method and medium storage devices does not take the claim out of the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping. Thus, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claim as a whole merely describes how to generally “apply” the concept of storing and updating table record information in a computer environment. The claimed “method”,” electronic device” and “storage medium” are recited at a high level of generality and are merely invoked as tools perform an existing table records update process. Even considered in combination, simply implementing the abstract idea on a generic computer with storage devices recited at a high level of generality is not a practical application of the abstract idea.The limitation displaying (data selections) on a generic user interface executed by a generic computer, as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components. That is, other than reciting “by a processor,” nothing in the claim element precludes the step from practically being performed in the mind. For example, but for the “by a processor” language, “in response to receiving” in the context of this claim encompasses the user manually organizing data.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to the significantly more than the judicial exception because as noted previously, the method, device and the storage devices individually and in combination merely describe how to generally “apply” the concept of updating table records in a computer environment. The same applies here. (MPEP 2106.05(d). Thus, even when viewed as a whole, nothing in the claims adds significantly more (i.e. an inventive concept) to the abstract idea.
The claim is ineligible.
Claims 2-11 and 13-19 do not include elements that amount to significantly more than the abstract idea and are also rejected under the same rational.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Stachura, Thomas (US Pub. 2022/0374213 A1), herein referred to as “Stachura”.
As for claims 1, 12 and 20, Stachura teaches. A method for processing information and corresponding electronic device of claim 12 and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program code of claim 20, comprising (specific to claim 12 at least one memory and at least one processor;
wherein the at least one memory is configured to store program code, and the at least one processor is configured to call the program code stored in the at least one memory to (par. 66 hardware environment that is used to execute instructions to carry out functionality discussed throughout disclosure); (specific to claim 20 wherein the program code, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute (par. 29 a webifier system may include one or more processors, and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to generate an interactive software application (e.g., a web application)):
determining a first field in a first table in response to a first operation event, wherein the first field corresponds to one or more first cells, and the one or more first cells have links recorded therein;
(par. 58 summary of how information is exchanged; Data transfer may be one-way or bi-directional between the blueprint spreadsheets and the resultant software application, in some embodiments, thereby allowing amended data to be transferred to and from the software application and the spreadsheet form, either back to the original spreadsheet(s) or new spreadsheet(s));
(par. 59 Overview of the spreadsheet application displayed on the user interface Spreadsheet software applications generally operate on data entered in cells of a spreadsheet, where each cell of the spreadsheet may contain numeric data, text data, or the results of formulas that automatically calculate and display a value based on math equations, the contents of one or more other cells, or even externally linked data);
(par. 66 description on the software component called webifier; The webifier control logic may also be referred to herein as data server software, webifier system, webifier software, webifier plugin, or simply webifier. Functionality of the data server software may refer to operations or decisions made automatically based on rules coded into the control logic, made manually by a user providing input into the system, and/or a combination of automatic processing based on user input (e.g., queries, data updates, etc.).
determining a second field in the first table in response to a second operation event, wherein the second field corresponds to one or more second cells (par. 41 example that the spreadsheet has more than one record of the table displayed within the user interface; a webifier system may generate a spreadsheet user interface presenting data records of a data file, wherein the spreadsheet user interface displays the data records in a row and column tabular format comprising a plurality of cells, and wherein the spreadsheet user interface allows users to define formulas to calculate the value of a first cell of the spreadsheet user interface based on a value of a second cell of the spreadsheet user interface) (par. 70 The designer may set up and define a data source as a table where each row is a record of the data source, and/or define the data source as the spreadsheet file where each individual spreadsheet is a record of the data source) (par. 71 webifier software, either automatically or responsive to user input, may analyze the spreadsheet to identify data sources and data records); and
obtaining, in response to a third operation event, a target file pointed to by a link in a first cell corresponding to the first field, and displaying the target file in a second cell corresponding to the first cell (par. 118 FIG. 45 is a screenshot of a Link type of page being defined, with a thumbnail illustrating a preview of a hyperlink that will be generated and where the destination the visitor will be directed to upon clicking the link is specified as a specific calendar destination page; par. 142 fig. 70-73 adding link to table spreadsheet; par. 186 one cell can be linked to a destination page source data).
As for claims 2 and 13, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 1, wherein displaying the target file in the second cell corresponding to the first cell comprises storing the target file in the second cell as an attachment; and/or wherein the target file pointed to by the link is displayed in a second cell corresponding to the second field in a record where the link is located, and the first cell corresponds to a second cell located in a same record (par. 173-175 template sheets are user interface templates that will render interactive interfaces within a spreadsheet and the template sheets may be nested such as a many to many relationship between parent template and nested template and to several levels of depth (Fig. 76); If the source record(s) for populating the template are not the same as the parent template, parameters could be passed in to the USETEMPLATE function that would allow the template to know what source data, in much the same way as a non-nested template sheet does for some page types (as further described below). This allows for scenarios such as an invoice template containing a list of “invoice items” within it that needs to be populated from records on different record sheets. This describes an attachment within a first spreadsheet to include nested template file. The webifier software may allow for Template Sheet cells to have formulas that reference other cells within the Template Sheet, cells within other Template Sheets, record sheet data, or a mix of all of the above within the same cell. )
As for claims 3 and 14, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises before determining the first field in the first table in response to the first operation event:
displaying, in response to a trigger operation on a target plug-in in a first table page, a target interface in the first table page, wherein the target interface has a first region used for inputting or selecting a first field where a link is located, and a second region used for inputting or selecting a second field where an attachment is displayed (par. 173-175 the template sheets nested into to spreadsheet user interface allows for cross spreadsheet interaction as discussed in claim 2 analysis above as one example of this functionality).
As for claims 4 and 15, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining the first field in the first table comprises: obtaining content input or selected in the first region to determine the first field; and/or
wherein determining the second field in the first table comprises: obtaining content input or selected in the second region to determine the second field (par. 175, 196 add edit cells and edit record pages allows for the system to obtain input from the user to input/select first/second regions to determine first/second fields displayed on the spreadsheet user interface and to pick and choose to use template sheet as well).
As for claims 5 and 16, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 3, wherein the target interface further has a third region used for inputting or selecting the first table, and fields in the first region and the second region are restricted to fields of the first table in the third region; and/or
wherein the target interface further has a target option, and the target option is used for determining, when obtaining the target file pointed to by the link, whether to obtain a target file pointed to by a link in the first cell corresponding to a second cell where a target file is already displayed (par. 175 attachment is linked through the implementing nested template sheet and/or par. 202 adding nested container pages which contain one or more instances of another page; par. 192 adding an insert page and custom user interface template source).
As for claims 6 and 17, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining, in response to the third operation, the target file pointed to by the link in the first cell corresponding to the first field, comprises:
obtaining, in response to the third operation event, the link in the first cell corresponding to the first field; determining whether the link is a valid link by using a preset regular expression; and
obtaining the target file pointed to by the link in a case that the link is a valid link (par. 234-236 The data validation could be on the cell definition XML, or the data validation rules could be defined elsewhere as a group in the spreadsheet definition along with a list of cells the rules are applied against. The destination system may extract and process that information from the spreadsheet definition. During input such as an insert or edit of a value from the destination system that corresponds to the cell which had the data validation rule applied on it within the spreadsheet, the destination system would then evaluate the visitor's input value as compared to these validation rules. The destination system may enforce the data validation rules regardless of the method of visitor input, including input methods such as input forms (FIG. 93), CSV import pages (FIG. 87), or externally automated webifier API calls.).
As for claims 7 and 18, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
displaying, in a case that a plurality of same links exist in a same first cell corresponding to the first field, a respective target file corresponding to any of the plurality of same links in a second cell of the second field corresponding to the first cell; and/or
displaying, in a case that same links exist in different first cells corresponding to the first field, a respective target file corresponding to each of the same links in a second cell of the second field corresponding to the first cell (par. 287 When a file is uploaded in an insert page, the newly inserted cell may be auto-filled with the function WEBIFIERINSERTFILE. The first parameter in the formula may be the same key as the previous cell. If the previous cell key parameter was a cell reference, it may be auto incremented to refer to the cell below. The second parameter may be the new number of files so that when the cells is viewed on the website it may display the newly uploaded file. Another example is the system would allow for repeat linked content if the user desired too add this; par. 118 FIG. 45 is a screenshot of a Link type of page being defined, with a thumbnail illustrating a preview of a hyperlink that will be generated and where the destination the visitor will be directed to upon clicking the link is specified as a specific calendar destination page; par. 142 fig. 70-73 adding link to table spreadsheet; par. 186 one cell can be linked to a destination page source data)..
As for claims 8 and 19, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
modifying a first target file in the first table in response to a fourth operation event;
displaying, in a case that the first table has a second target file with same content as the first target file before modification, prompt information to prompt whether to execute same modification on the second target file as on the first target file; and executing or not executing, based on a fifth operation event executed on the prompt information, the same modification on the second target file as on the first target file; and wherein the first target file and the second target file are target files displayed in the first table (par. 251 the destination system may add an Overlay Sheet to the spreadsheet definition. The Overlay Sheet may initially be a duplicate of the row-record sheet with all of the same values; par. 264 destination system has the option to lock or block access to same files that an author maybe be editing while a user is trying to access the file).
As for claim 9, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
opening, in response to a sixth operation event on the link in the first cell corresponding to the first field, the target file corresponding to the link in the first table (par. 291 example of user clicking on thumbnails that link to external data that is not presented on the spreadsheet; par. 310 page thumbnails updated which link to external data pages (e.g. Insert Page)).
As for claim 10, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining the target file pointed to by the link in the first cell corresponding to the first field and displaying the target file in the second cell corresponding to the second field of the first table comprises:
obtaining a respective target file pointed to by a link in each of the first cells corresponding to the first field, and displaying the respective target file in a second cell corresponding to the second field of the first table; or skipping, in response to the target file or another file existing in the second cell, a link in a first cell corresponding to the second cell where the target file exists (par. 180 discusses batch downloading and uploading linked data files stored into the webifier data store. The webifier software may have an input form that accepts the uploading of a xlsx spreadsheet file (FIG. 68), e.g., data 129 (FIG. 1). Alternatively, the webifier may have integration to fetch the spreadsheet definition via a web-service API from a cloud and web based spreadsheet tool, either a group of sheets at a time, if the API allows it, or even cell by cell, if the API requires it. For brevity, all these methods are referred to herein as “uploading”, or uploading of spreadsheet definitions or data files into the webifier data store, e.g., database 131 (FIG. 1). Notably, separate steps are not required for uploading records and uploading interface templates, they can occur with one step from the designer from one spreadsheet definition, or they may occur at separate times.).
As for claim 11, Stachura teaches. The method according to claim 1, wherein a field attribute of the first field is a link field, and a field attribute of the second field is an attachment field (par. 174-175 example of attachment, populating cells with information from another sheet; par. 310 example of link field displayed as thumbnail that links to insert page).
(Note :) It is noted that any citation to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the references should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. In re Heck, 699 F.2d 1331, 1332-33, 216 USPQ 1038, 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1983) (quoting In re Lemelson, 397 F.2d 1006,1009, 158 USPQ 275, 277 (CCPA 1968)).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Dynamic Generation Of Target Files From Template Files And Tracking Of The Processing Of Target Files
Document ID
US 20130179477 A1
Date Published
2013-07-11
Abstract
Target file generation systems and methods are described, which are optionally for use by ordinary computer users enable those users to readily generate target files without the requirement that they know the internal layout structures of the target files. A user is enabled to select a template file from a plurality of template files via a user interface configured to be displayed on a computer display to the user, wherein the template files include changeable fields associated with corresponding field delimiters and prompting labels. An incomplete software program file containing variable name locations is accessed from memory. The program file is parsed to locate the variable name locations. The label names obtained from the template file selected by the user are inserted into the variable name locations to further complete the software program file. The software program file is stored in computer memory.
Viewports And Sub-Pages For Web-Based User Interfaces
Document ID
US 20230195826 A1
Date Published
2023-06-22
Abstract
An embodiment may involve web page metadata that defines a web page, first sub-page metadata that defines a first sub-page, and second sub-page metadata that defines a second sub-page, wherein the web page metadata includes specification of a viewport, and wherein the viewport is associated with an identifier. One or more processors may be configured to: receive a request for the web page; resolve the web page metadata into web content, wherein resolving the web page metadata includes: (i) determining, based on the identifier, a route associated with the viewport, (ii) determining, based on the route, a set of conditions associated with the viewport, (iii) determining that a particular condition is satisfied, wherein the particular condition is associated with the first sub-page and (iv) placing, based on the particular condition being satisfied, the first sub-page metadata in the viewport; and transmit the web content.
Inquires
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to NICHOLAS AUGUSTINE at telephone number (571)270-1056.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
PNG
media_image1.png
213
559
media_image1.png
Greyscale
/NICHOLAS AUGUSTINE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2178 June 24, 2026
Prosecution Insights