US20190005592A1 - Extendible user profiles - Google Patents

Abstract

Implementations described herein disclose a system for providing extendible user profiles for user groups by providing a group formation user interface to a group administrator, wherein the group formation user interface allows the group administrator to add group specific fields, creating a group table including the group specific fields, and linking the group table to the user profile tables.

Description

BACKGROUND
• Advances in computing and mobile technologies have resulted in people using a large number of applications to participate in various activities. Many of these applications, such as social networking applications, texting applications, photo sharing applications, dating applications require users to create user profiles including various information about the users. Furthermore, some of these applications also allow users to create groups where members of the group may share information among the group members. For example, a social networking application may allow a group administrator to form a group of members that live in a particular neighborhood.
SUMMARY
• Implementations described herein disclose a system for providing extendible user profiles for user groups by providing a group formation user interface to a group administrator, wherein the group formation user interface allows the group administrator to add group specific fields, creating a group table including the group specific fields, and linking the group table to the user profile tables.
• This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
• Other implementations are also described and recited herein.
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS
• A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present technology may be realized by reference to the figures, which are described in the remaining portion of the specification. In the figures, like reference numerals are used throughout several figures to refer to similar components.
• FIG. 1 illustrates an example implementation of a system for providing extendible user profiles.
• FIG. 2 provides an example visual representation of user profile provided by the extendible user profile system disclosed herein.
• FIG. 3 illustrates example operations of the system for providing extendible user profiles.
• FIG. 4 illustrates alternative example operations of the system for providing extendible user profiles.
• FIG. 5 illustrates alternative example operations of the system for providing extendible user profiles.
• FIG. 6 illustrates an example system that may be useful in implementing the described technology for providing extendible user profiles.
• FIG. 7 illustrates an example mobile device that may be useful in implementing the described technology for providing extendible user profiles.
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS
• Users of computing devices use a large number of applications to get information and to interact with other users. For example, social networking applications are widely used by consumers to interact with other members of such social network. Many of these applications require users to create user profiles including various information about the users. For example, a photo sharing application may require users to provide their name, email address, data of birth, city and state of residence, and a profile picture. Furthermore, some of these applications also allow users to create groups where members of the group may share information among the group members. A user creating a group is referred to as the group administrator.
• Common user profiles are used for different purposes, however, they contain the same set of information about the users. However, when a group administrator creates a group of selected members, the group administrator does not have the flexibility to add group specific information in the member profiles. For example, if a social networking application requires its users to provide name, email, and birthdate for creating a profile on the social networking application, a group administrator that wants to create a group of members having dogs is not able to request that each group member profile have information about the name of the member's dogs, the breed of the dog, and a photograph of the dog.
• An extendible user profile (EUP) system disclosed herein allows users to provide extendible profiles including additional information about the group members in the member profile. For example, a messaging application may require its users to provide a name, phone number, and email address for its users' profiles. However, when a user decides to create a group (and thus become the group administrator of the created group) of users that share a particular characteristic, such group administrator may want more information about the member users of the group (referred to hereinafter as “group members”). For example, if a user Alice wants to make a group for the users that have cats called “cat lovers of Herzliya” so the members who live in Herzliya and who like cats can share stories and information about cats, Alice may want each member of the cat lovers of Herzliya to have the name(s) of their cat(s) and the cats' pictures as part of their profile. The EUP disclosed herein allows Alice to do so as the group administrator for the cat lovers of Herzliya.
• FIG. 1 illustrates an example implementation of anEUP system100 for providing extendible user profiles for such members of groups. Specifically, the EUPsystem100 is show to be used by users Mina102 and Tamir106 using their computing devices such assmartphone104 and108. Specifically, Mina102 and Tamir106 may be users of asocial network app110 that they use viasmartphones104 and108. Specifically, thesocial network app110 may be installed as a client application on thesmartphones104 and108 and supported by a socialnetwork application server120.
• In one implementation of the EUPsystem100, the socialnetwork application server120 may be implemented on a cloud server with various components located on various disparate servers, but connected to each other by anetwork180, such as the Internet. As illustrated, the socialnetwork application server120 includes asocial networking application122 and asocial networking datastore126. Thesocial networking application122 may be implemented by computer instructions stored in a computer readable memory where the instructions are executable on a computer processor.
• Thesocial networking application122 also includes a user profile manager module124 and anEUP module112. The user profile manager module124 may be configured to manage the profiles of various users of thesocial networking application122. For example, the user profile manager module124 may manage theuser profiles128 stored in thesocial networking datastore126. Specifically, theuser profiles128 are stored in a schema with extendible records. Specifically, the user profile table may include fields for each user as required by thesocial networking application122. In the example implementation, each user profile includes at least a user identification (uID), a user name (uName), and user email (uEmail).
• However, for the EUPsystem100, the user profile records are extendible to include additional information about the users. Specifically, theuser profiles128 are extendible based on the context of member groups that the users are members of. For example, if a user is a member of a group, a field identifying the name of the group may be added to the user record.
• Furthermore, the EUPmodule112 may be working withlocal EUP modules112a,112blocated on client devices to enable users such as Mina102 and Tamir106 to create member groups, extend the member profiles with additional fields and to populate such extendible user profiles. For example, Tamir106 may be interested in creating a new member group called Dog Lovers for the users that love dogs. In this case, Tamir106 may select an option to create a new group and in response to it, theEUP module112bpresents an EUP group formation user interface (UI)140 to Tamir106.
• The EUP group formation UI140 includes an option for Tamir106 to add the name of the group where Tamir106 may type in the name of the group Dog Lovers. The EUPgroup formation UI140 also provides an option for Tamir106 to add fields to the user profiles of group members of Dog Lovers. For example, Tamir106 can add a field for “Dog Name,” and field for “Dog Breed.” Once Tamir106 has provided all the fields for the group Dog Lovers, Tamir106 may select the option to add participants to the group Dog Lovers. For example, Tamir106 may add Mina Goldstein from the contact list of thesmartphone108. Once the participants are added, Tamir106 may select theinvite option142 to invite the participants, including Mina Goldstein, to join the Dog Lovers group.
• Once Tamir106 selects theinvite option142, the EUPmodule112bmay send a message to thesocial networking application122 about the creation of the new group, Dog Lovers, by Tamir106. Specifically, the EUPmodule112bmay also communicate to thesocial networking application122 the list of new fields that Tamir, “Dog Name,” and “Dog Breed,” that Tamir would like to add to the profiles of Dog Lovers group members. Additionally, the EUPmodule112bmay also send the list of participants, including Mina Goldstein, to thesocial networking application122.
• Upon receiving the list of field names to be added to the user profiles, the user profile manager module124 may add group name as a field to the profile record for the user. Furthermore, the user profile manager module124 also includes a Dog Lovers group table130 for the group Dog Lovers including fields of user identification (uID), user's dog's name (uDog), and the breed of the user's dog (uBreed). As the user profile manager module124 receives additional information from each participant in the group Dog Lovers, the user profile manager module124 may add records for each such group member in the Dog Lovers group table130.
• In one implementation, the user profile manager module124 is configured to add one field to the profile record for each group that is joined by a user. Thus, for example, aprofile record128ais shown to have a field for a first group (uGroup1), aprofile record128bis shown to have fields for a Dog Lovers group (uGrDL) and Car Lovers group (uGrCL), andprofile record128cis shown to have a field for the Dog Lovers group (uGrDL). Additionally, thesocial networking datastore126 includes the Dog Lovers group table130 and a Car Lovers table132.
• Upon receiving the list of participants, such as Mina Goldstein, from the EUPgroup formation UI140 on thesmartphone108, theEUP module112 communicates with the client EUP modules of the participants' devices. For example, theEUP module112 sends a message to theEUP module112aonMina102'ssmartphone104 indicating to Mina that she has been invited to join the Dog Lover's group. If Mina accepts the invitation, theEUP module112apresents a EUP group joinUN150 to Mina. TheEUP join UI150 may presentMina102 with options to provide values for the group fields for the Dog Lovers group, namely dog name Betty and dog breed Hound.
• In one implementation, theEUP join UI150 also givesMina102 the option to invite other users, such as Kana, to the Dog Lovers group. However, in an alternative implementation, addition of such additional participants, such as Kana, to the Dog Lovers group may have to be approved by thegroup administrator Tamir106. OnceMina102 selects ajoin button152 to join the group, the values Betty and Hound for the group fields are communicated to theEUP module112 and to the user profile manager module124. The user profile manager module124 adds these values to the Dog Lovers group table130.
• Once the group fields for a given group member to a particular group are added to the group table, if another group member of that group views the profile of the given group member, they will be see all values of all the fields in the profile. Thus, onceMina102 has joined the Dog Lovers group and given the values of dog name and dog breed, ifTamir106views Mina102's profile,Tamir106 will see Mina's name, email, dog name, and dog breed in her profile view.
• Note that in the illustrated implementation,Mina102 provided the name of the dog and its breed while joining the Dog Lover's group. In an alternative implementation,Mina102 may join the group without providing such information. In yet another implementation, thegroup administrator Tamir106 may identify one of more of the group fields (dog name and dog breed) as mandatory for a participant to join the Dog Lover's group, in which case,Mina102 is able to join the Dog Lovers group after she provides such information. Yet alternatively, Mina may also be given the option to let the Dog Lovers group share the values of the dog name and dog breed with users of other group or users that are not members of the Dog Lovers group.
• In the implementation of theEUP system100, thesocial networking application122 also allows a specific group field to override a field from the user profile. For example, the Dog Lovers group may also include a field for the user's photograph with a dog (u&dPhoto) while the user profile for the social networking application may include a field for user's photograph (uPhoto). In such an implementation, a user that is also a member of the Dog Lovers group may specify that in specific context, the value of u&dPhoto is displayed in the user's profile in place of the uPhoto. For example, ifMina102 has provided her picture with Betty, she can specify that when a member of the Dog Lover's group views her profile, her photograph with Betty is shown in her profile.
• FIG. 2 provides an example visual representation of user profile fields200 provided by the extendible user profile system disclosed herein. Specifically, the user profile fields200 may include application user profile fields202 required by an application, such as a social networking application. The user profile fields200 also includes group fields for apet owners group210, group fields for adog owners group220, and group fields for aprofessional networking group230.
• As shown, the extendible user profile system disclosed herein allows group administrators for each of thegroups210,220,230 specify group fields for its members. When a user of the application joins one of thegroups210,220,230, the user may provide values of the group specific fields. For example, when a user joins thedog owners group220, the user may provide values of the dog name, the dog breed, and the photo with dog. The user may also specify that they would like to override one of the application user profile fields202 when viewed by other members of such group. Thus, a member of the dog owner'sgroup220 may specify that when other members of thedog owners group220 view the profile, the photo with dog is shown.
• Yet alternatively, the user may also specify to adopt a field from another group for use in a selected group. Thus, if a user has already joined thepet owners group210 and provided a photo with pet, the user may specify that when a member of thedog owners group220 views the profile, the photo with pet is shown to such member. Yet alternatively, a user may provide a value of an applicationuser profile field202 that is generally opaque to other users of the application but it may be used as a group field. For example, the email address may be part of the application user profile fields202 but not disclosed to other users. However, upon joining theprofessional networking group220, the user may specify that the members of theprofessional networking group220 should be able to see the email address from the application user profile fields202. In an alternative implementation, this option to adopt a field from another group may also be available to a group administrator. For example, the group administrator of the groups cat lovers of Herzliya and of pet lovers of Herzliya may indicate that the “picture with a pet” field that he defined in each of these two groups is the same one. This way if a user joins one of these two groups and sets his photo with his cat, later when that user joins the second group, this field is already pre-populated with his picture from the first group and is just awaiting his confirmation.
• FIG. 3 illustratesexample operations300 of the system for providing extendible user profiles. Specifically, anoperation302 receives a request from a user of an application to create a group. For example, theoperation302 may receive a request from a user to create a parent-teacher association (PTA) group. Anoperation304 presents a group formation UI (such as the group formation UI140) ofFIG. 1. Anoperation306 receives a list of group fields. For example, in the case of the user (group administrator) creating the PTA group, the group administrator may specify the child name, child school year, and child sport as the fields for users joining the PTA group.
• Anoperation308 may receive group field types or list of drop down values that a user can select from. For example, for the PTA group, the group administrator may specify that the type of child school year is numeric. Alternatively, other fields can be specified to be text, image, etc. Optionally, the PTA group administrator may limit the size of the field to specific number of characters, or specify the field to be of a specific type, such as a numeric field, a field that can be selected from a set of values (e.g.: male, female), or a field that contains a specific type of file (jpg, pdf), etc. Alternatively, the PTA group administrator may provide a list of sports that a user can select from when populating the child sport. Anoperation310 receives group field conditions. For example, the PTA group administrator may specify that the child school year is no less than 5 and no greater than 12. Anoperation312 receives a list of participants that the group administrator would like to invite to join the group. Anoperation314 saves various information received atoperations306 to314 and communicates with a user profile manager module (such as the user profile manager module124 ofFIG. 1).
• FIG. 4 illustratesalternative example operations400 of the system for providing extendible user profiles. Anoperation402 receives the group information from the group administrator including the list of group fields, various characteristics of the group fields, and the list of participants invited to join the group. For example, for the group administrator creating the PTA group, theoperation402 receives the name of the PTA group, the list of fields child name, child school year, and child sport and their types, restrictions, etc., and the list of users invited by the PTA group administrator to join the PTA group.
• Anoperation404 creates a PTA group table for the PTA group including the PTA group fields child name, child school year, and child sport. Each record of the PTA group table also includes a user ID that identifies the group member. Anoperation406 sends invites to the participants provided by the PTA group administrator. For example, such an invite may be a text message on a mobile device, an email, a message within the application, etc. In response to the invite, the user may elect to join the group anoperation408 determines if the invited participant has accepted the invite.
• If the invited participant has accepted the invite, anoperation410 presents the EUP group join UI (such as the EUP group joinUI150 ofFIG. 1). The invited participant may provide various information such as values of the group fields using the EUP group join UI. Anoperation412 determines if the participant has joined the group. If the invited participant has joined the group, anoperation414 creates a participant record in the group table. For example, if a participant Joe fills out the information including values of the PTA group fields using the EUP group join UI and selects the join option to of the EUP group join UI, theoperation414 creates a record for Joe in the PTA group table.
• Anoperation416 adds a group field values with the ID of the user to the group table. For example, in the example where Joe is joining the PTA group, the values of the PTA group fields as provided by Joe are used to create a new record for Joe in the PTA group table. Anoperation418 adds an extendible group ID field to the user profile record for Joe so as to link Joe's PTA group field values from the PTA group table to other field values of Joe's user profile record.
• FIG. 5 illustratesalternative example operations500 of the system for displaying extendible user profiles. Anoperation502 receives a request to view a profile of a group member. For example, such request may result from a search by another user, or simply a user clicking on an icon of the group member. Anoperation504 determines if the request from a group member or from another user. For example, in the case of Joe being a member of the PTA group, if Rachel has requested to view Joe's profile, theoperation504 determines if Rachel is part of the PTA group or not. Note that if Joe is part of more than one group, theoperation504 determines if Rachel is part of any of such groups that Joe is a member of.
• If theoperation504 determines that Rachel is not member of any group that Joe is a member of, anoperation506 shows a generic user profile of Joe. However, if Rachel is a member of a group such as the PTA group that Joe is also a member, anoperation508 fetches Joe's user record from the PTA group table. For example, the Joe's record from the PTA group table may include values of the fields child name, child school year, and child sport.
• Anoperation508 determines if Joe has specified any field overrides. For example, Joe may have specified that the value of the child name as provided in the PTA group table is displayed to members of the PTA group instead of a child name value given in the generic profile of Joe. If there is such an override, anoperation512 replaces the value of the overridden field with the value from the PTA group table. Anoperation514 merges the group field values with the profile field values and anoperation516 displays such merged field values as part of the profile presented to Rachel.
• FIG. 6 illustrates anexample system600 that may be useful in implementing the image rendition system disclosed herein. The example hardware and operating environment ofFIG. 6 for implementing the described technology includes a computing device, such as a general-purpose computing device in the form of acomputer20, a mobile telephone, a personal data assistant (PDA), a tablet, smart watch, gaming remote, or other type of computing device. In the implementation ofFIG. 6, for example, thecomputer20 includes aprocessing unit21, asystem memory22, and asystem bus23 that operatively couples various system components including the system memory to theprocessing unit21. There may be only one or there may be more than oneprocessing unit21, such that the processor of acomputer20 comprises a single central-processing unit (CPU), or a plurality of processing units, commonly referred to as a parallel processing environment. Thecomputer20 may be a conventional computer, a distributed computer, or any other type of computer; the implementations are not so limited.
• In the example implementation of thecomputing system600, thecomputer20 also includes aEUP module650 providing one or more functions of the EUP system disclosed herein. Thesystem bus23 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, a switched fabric, point-to-point connections, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. The system memory may also be referred to as simply the memory, and includes read-only memory (ROM)24 and random access memory (RAM)25. A basic input/output system (BIOS)26, containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within thecomputer20, such as during start-up, is stored inROM24. Thecomputer20 further includes ahard disk drive27 for reading from and writing to a hard disk, not shown, amagnetic disk drive28 for reading from or writing to a removablemagnetic disk29, and anoptical disk drive30 for reading from or writing to a removableoptical disk31 such as a CD ROM, DVD, or other optical media. Thecomputer20 may be used to implement an EUP module such as theEUP module112 ofFIG. 1.
• Furthermore, instructions stored on the memory of thecomputer20 may be used by an EUP system. Similarly, instructions stored on the memory of thecomputer20 may also be used to implement one or more operations of a EUP system disclosed herein.
• Thehard disk drive27,magnetic disk drive28, andoptical disk drive30 are connected to thesystem bus23 by a harddisk drive interface32, a magneticdisk drive interface33, and an opticaldisk drive interface34, respectively. The drives and their associated tangible computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thecomputer20. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any type of tangible computer-readable media may be used in the example operating environment.
• A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk,magnetic disk29,optical disk31,ROM24, orRAM25, including anoperating system35, one ormore application programs36,other program modules37, andprogram data38. A user may generate reminders on thepersonal computer20 through input devices such as akeyboard40 andpointing device42. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone (e.g., for voice input), a camera (e.g., for a natural user interface (NUI)), a joystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to theprocessing unit21 through aserial port interface46 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game port, or a universal serial bus (USB). Amonitor47 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus23 via an interface, such as avideo adapter48. In addition to the monitor, computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers.
• Thecomputer20 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such asremote computer49. These logical connections are achieved by a communication device coupled to or a part of thecomputer20; the implementations are not limited to a particular type of communications device. Theremote computer49 may be another computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a client, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to thecomputer20. The logical connections depicted inFIG. 6 include a local-area network (LAN)51 and a wide-area network (WAN)52. Such networking environments are commonplace in office networks, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet, which are all types of networks.
• When used in a LAN-networking environment, thecomputer20 is connected to thelocal area network51 through a network interface oradapter53, which is one type of communications device. When used in a WAN-networking environment, thecomputer20 typically includes a modem54, a network adapter, a type of communications device, or any other type of communications device for establishing communications over thewide area network52. The modem54, which may be internal or external, is connected to thesystem bus23 via theserial port interface46. In a networked environment, program engines depicted relative to thepersonal computer20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. It is appreciated that the network connections shown are example and other means of communications devices for establishing a communications link between the computers may be used.
• In an example implementation, software or firmware instructions for the EUP system disclosed herein may be stored insystem memory22 and/orstorage devices29 or31 and processed by theprocessing unit21. User profile data may be stored insystem memory22 and/orstorage devices29 or31 as persistent data-stores. AnEUP module650 communicatively connected with theprocessing unit21 and thememory22 may enable one or more of the capabilities of the EUP system disclosed herein.
• In contrast to tangible computer-readable storage media, intangible computer-readable communication signals may embody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data resident in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other signal transport mechanism. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, intangible communication signals include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.
• FIG. 7 illustrates another example system (labeled as a mobile device700) that may be useful in implementing the described technology. Themobile device700 includes aprocessor702, amemory704, a display706 (e.g., a touchscreen display), and other interfaces708 (e.g., a keyboard). Thememory704 generally includes both volatile memory (e.g., RAM) and non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory). Anoperating system710, such as the Microsoft Windows® Phone operating system, resides in thememory704 and is executed by theprocessor702, although it should be understood that other operating systems may be employed.
• One ormore application programs712 are loaded in thememory704 and executed on theoperating system710 by theprocessor702. Examples ofapplications712 include without limitation email programs, scheduling programs, personal information managers, Internet browsing programs, multimedia player applications, etc. Anotification manager714 is also loaded in thememory704 and is executed by theprocessor702 to present notifications to the user. For example, when a promotion is triggered and presented to the shopper, thenotification manager714 can cause themobile device700 to beep or vibrate (via the vibration device718) and display the promotion on thedisplay706.
• Themobile device700 includes apower supply716, which is powered by one or more batteries or other power sources and which provides power to other components of themobile device700. Thepower supply716 may also be connected to an external power source that overrides or recharges the built-in batteries or other power sources.
• Themobile device700 includes one ormore communication transceivers730 to provide network connectivity (e.g., mobile phone network, Wi-Fi®, BlueTooth®, etc.). Themobile device700 also includes various other components, such as a positioning system720 (e.g., a global positioning satellite transceiver), one ormore accelerometers722, one ormore cameras724, an audio interface726 (e.g., a microphone, an audio amplifier and speaker and/or audio jack), andadditional storage728. Other configurations may also be employed.
• In an example implementation, a mobile operating system, various applications, and other modules and services may be embodied by instructions stored inmemory704 and/orstorage devices728 and processed by theprocessing unit702. User preferences, service options, and other data may be stored inmemory704 and/orstorage devices728 as persistent datastores. AnEUP module750 communicatively connected with theprocessor702 and thememory704 may enable one or more of the capabilities of the personalized user experience delivery system disclosed herein.
• The EUP system disclosed herein provides solution to a technological problem necessitated by user's desire to participate in a large number of groups and to have selected and customized profiles for the different groups. Specifically, the EUP system disclosed herein provides an unconventional technical solution to this technological problem by allowing group administrators to create group specific fields for the users participating in the group and the user's desire to override displaying of certain fields in their profile with other fields as appropriate for a specific group.
• A method for providing extendible user profiles includes receiving a request from a group administrator to create a new group for a group of users of an application, providing a group formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the group formation user interface allows the group administrator to add group specific fields, creating a group table including the group specific fields, and linking the group table to user profile tables of the group of users. In one implementation, the method further includes presenting a group join user interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group join user interface presents the group specific fields. In an alternative implementation, the method further includes receiving values of one or more of the group specific fields from the user joining the group and displaying the values of the group specific fields to other members of the group.
• In one implementation of the method, at least one of the group specific field overrides a field in the user profile table. Alternatively, the user profile table includes one or more group joined fields for the one of more groups joined by a user and the method further comprises adding the group to the group joined fields. Yet alternatively, the method further includes linking the group table to the user profile table using based on the group join field. In one implementation, a group specific field is shared between at least two or more groups. In another implementation, one or more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more other groups as specified by the user. Alternatively, one or more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more other groups as specified by the group administrator.
• A physical article of manufacture including one or more tangible computer-readable storage media, encoding computer-executable instructions for executing on a computer system a computer process, wherein the computer process includes receiving a request from a group administrator to create a new group for a group of users of a social networking application, providing a group formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the group formation user interface allows the group administrator to add group specific fields, creating a group table including the group specific fields, linking the group table to user profile tables of the group of users, and presenting a group join user interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group join user interface presents the group specific fields.
• In one implementation, the computer-executable instructions further includes receiving values of one or more of the group specific fields from the user joining the group. In another implementation, the computer-executable instructions further includes displaying the values of the group specific fields to other members of the group. In yet another implementation, at least one of the group specific field overrides a field in the user profile table. Alternatively, the user profile table includes a group joined field including listing of one of more groups joined by a user and the method further comprises adding the group to the group joined field. Yet alternatively, the computer-executable instructions further includes linking the group table to the user profile table using based on the group join field. Alternatively, one or more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more other groups as specified by at least one of the user and the group administrator.
• A system for providing extendible user profiles includes a memory; one or more processor units; an extendible user profiles (EUP) module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processor units, the EUP module configured to provide a group formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the group formation user interface allows the group administrator to add group specific fields for a group of users of a social networking application and receive a plurality of group specific fields from the group administrator; and a user profile manager application stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processor units, the user profile manager application configured to create a group table including the group specific fields and link the group table to a user profile table.
• In one implementation, the EUP module is further configured to present a group join user interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group join user interface presents the group specific fields. Alternatively, the user profile manager application is further configured to add one or more groups to the group joined fields of the user profile table. Yet alternatively, at least one of the group specific field overrides a field in the user profile table.
• The above specification, examples, and data provide a complete description of the structure and use of exemplary embodiments of the invention. Since many implementations of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended. Furthermore, structural features of the different embodiments may be combined in yet another implementation without departing from the recited claims.

Claims (20)

What is claimed is:

1. A method of providing extendible user profiles, comprising:

receiving a request from a group administrator to create a new group for a group of users of an application;

providing a group formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the group formation user interface allows the group administrator to add group specific fields;

creating a group table including the group specific fields; and

linking the group table to user profile tables of the group of users.

2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising presenting a group join user interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group join user interface presents the group specific fields.

3. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising:

receiving values of one or more of the group specific fields from the user joining the group; and

displaying the values of the group specific fields to other members of the group.

4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein at least one of the group specific field overrides a field in the user profile table.

5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the user profile table includes one or more group joined fields for the one of more groups joined by a user and the method further comprises adding the group to the group joined fields.

6. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising linking the group table to the user profile table using based on the group join field.

7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein a group specific field is shared between at least two or more groups.

8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein one or more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more other groups as specified by the user.

9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein one or more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more other groups as specified by the group administrator.

10. A physical article of manufacture including one or more tangible computer-readable storage media, encoding computer-executable instructions for executing on a computer system a computer process, the computer process comprising:

receiving a request from a group administrator to create a new group for a group of users of a social networking application;

providing a group formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the group formation user interface allows the group administrator to add group specific fields;

creating a group table including the group specific fields;

linking the group table to user profile tables of the group of users; and

presenting a group join user interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group join user interface presents the group specific fields.

11. The physical article of manufacture ofclaim 10, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprising receiving values of one or more of the group specific fields from the user joining the group.

12. The physical article of manufacture ofclaim 11, wherein the computer executable instructions further comprising displaying the values of the group specific fields to other members of the group.

13. The physical article of manufacture ofclaim 10, wherein at least one of the group specific field overrides a field in the user profile table.

14. The physical article of manufacture ofclaim 10, wherein the user profile table includes a group joined field including listing of one of more groups joined by a user and the method further comprises adding the group to the group joined field.

15. The physical article of manufacture ofclaim 14, further comprising linking the group table to the user profile table using based on the group join field.

16. The physical article of manufacture ofclaim 10, wherein one or more of the group specific fields are exposed to one or more other groups as specified by at least one of the user and the group administrator.

17. A system for providing extendible user profiles, comprising:

memory;

one or more processor units;

an extendible user profiles (EUP) module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processor units, the EUP module configured to:

provide a group formation user interface to the group administrator, wherein the group formation user interface allows the group administrator to add group specific fields for a group of users of a social networking application, and

receive a plurality of group specific fields from the group administrator; and

a user profile manager application stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processor units, the user profile manager application configured to:

create a group table including the group specific fields, and

link the group table to a user profile table.

18. The system ofclaim 17, wherein the EUP module is further configured to present a group join user interface to a user joining the group, wherein the group join user interface presents the group specific fields.

19. The system ofclaim 18, wherein the user profile manager application is further configured to add one or more groups to the group joined fields of the user profile table.

20. The system ofclaim 17, at least one of the group specific field overrides a field in the user profile table.

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