Transferring selected formatted documents over a computer network using interface script
AssigneeCreative Internet Applications, Inc.
InventorRuth Sragner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for transmission of documents including word processing, spread sheets, and other formatted documents, over a computer network with no need for additional formatting software by using a CGI sending script to send e-mail with the selected document, in its native format, as an attachment to e-mail submissions or obtained directly from websites using standard word processing programs, with end user prerequisites for using the method and system being standard word processing software and e-mail capability; the form may returned to the server in electronic form, and the accompanying data posted to one or more databases, or automatically stored on disk, printed, or routed to other e-mail addresses.
Claims20
An internet-based automated document and data transfer system comprising:
- an internet network server with a resident server gateway interface script configured to attach selected documents to an e-mail addressed to a designated e-mail address,
- the server gateway interface script and the documents residing in a CGI bin of the network server,
- the server gateway interface script being a CGI sending script instructing said network server to send the e-mail to a user e-mail address and to attach to the e-mail a user-selected document in a selected document format,
- wherein each of the documents is stored on the network server in plural word processing formats, plural spreadsheet formats, and plural databases formats respectively.
An automated document transfer method enabling a user to remotely automatically select and locally receive a user-selected document in a user-selected document format from a network server, comprising the steps of:
- hosting plural documents on a network server, each of the plural documents being stored on the network server in plural document formats;
- and
- a CGI sending script residing on the network server sending instructions to the network server to originate and send an e-mail to a user e-mail address and to attach to the e-mail a selected document, from the plural documents, in a selected document format,
- wherein the selected document format is at least one of a word processing format, a spreadsheet format, and a database format.
An internet-based automated document and data transfer system comprising:
- an internet network server hosting plural selectable documents, the selectable documents being selectable from an internet browser screen offering plural documents to a remote internet user;
- a resident server gateway interface script configured to originate an e-mail and to attach a user-selected document to the e-mail, the resident server gateway interface script including a CGI sending script residing on said network server, said CGI sending script instructing said network server to originate and send the e-mail to a user e-mail address and to attach to the e-mail the selected document in a user-selected document format,
- wherein the selectable documents include data fields, each of the selectable documents being stored on the network server in plural document formats;
- and
- a CGI data extracting script which extracts user-entered data entered into data fields of a selected document returned from the user e-mail address and updates the database file with the extracted data by opening and amending the database file.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.