JP2005506593A - System and method for defining and displaying composite web pages - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for defining and presenting a composite web page in a computer processing environment that identifies a web page that references at least one associated element and defines a list of associated elements Parses the page, receives a user selection of one or more related elements from the list, displays the selected element on the composite web page, identifies the elements of the composite web page, In addition, by receiving a user request for presenting a composite web page by performing a search and presenting the retrieved element, an element related to the specification of the web page selected by each user Web content can be dynamically defined and displayed based on this.

Description

【Technical field】
[0001]
The present invention relates to generating and displaying information on a network. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for dynamically assembling and displaying web page content from one or more data sources.
[Background]
[0002]
For the last 20 years or more, global network usage in interconnected computers has increased at a tremendous rate, usually cited by the “Internet” or “World Wide Web”. A particularly useful aspect of the Internet is that it allows information to be sent and retrieved to and from third parties via web pages or email ("e-mail"). Millions of Internet users rely on this aspect of the network on a daily basis to send and retrieve important business information as well as news, advertisements, and other information.
[0003]
To increase user intimacy with web browser technology, browsers have become the preferred graphical user interface (“GUI”) for accessing remote information warehouses and / or computer programs on the Internet. ing. Information accessed in this way is usually displayed in a web page form, representing the access point on each page.
[0004]
Presenting web pages using web browsers is problematic in some environments. For example, traditional GUIs become sluggish when it is necessary to view information from many web pages simultaneously. Another example in environments where traditional GUI presentation is slow is the need to simultaneously command and control many remote applications. Since a typical web page occupies a substantial space area on a computer monitor screen, presentation of the approach becomes a problem at least to some extent. And many web pages can't be seen completely on the computer screen at the same time.
[0005]
One traditional solution to this presentation problem involves manually turning a plurality of web pages on a computer screen. This solution is inefficient, tedious and confusing for the user.
[0006]
Another solution to this presentation problem is to have a computer programmer create a specially designed program to combine related web pages. New computer code is created by such a programmer to generate a composition with a new set of web pages. Since the end user has little control over this process, this is an “information disclosure” that controls what the originator of information will see on the resulting composite page. Configure effectively. Therefore, such a solution is expensive and slow and cannot be easily repeated. Furthermore, such a solution adds the disadvantage that the composite web page or composition process generated by the end user cannot be controlled and modified.
[0007]
(Related application)
This application claims priority from US Provisional Application No. 60/265223, filed Jan. 31, 2001, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Also, the US non-provisional application entitled “System and Method for Generating Same-Type Data Driven Web Pages” filed at the same time is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
[Means for Solving the Problems]
[0008]
(Summary of Invention)
The present disclosure provides a method and system for defining and presenting a composite web page in a computer processing environment. In accordance with one aspect of this disclosure, a method for defining a composite web page is disclosed. The method includes identifying a web page that references at least one associated element, parsing a web page that defines a list of associated elements, and one or more associated from the list. Receiving a user selection of the selected element. The selected element is intended to be displayed on the composite web page. In order to allow the user to search the composite web page without redefining, the user selection is registered or stored for later reference.
[0009]
In accordance with the second aspect of this disclosure, a method for presenting a composite web page is disclosed. The method includes receiving a user request to present a composite web page, eg, by identifying and searching for elements of the composite web page, and elements retrieved to form the composite web page Including presenting.
[0010]
A system for defining a composite web page is also disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes an arithmetic processing unit and a memory that stores instructions that can execute arithmetic processing for controlling the operation of the arithmetic processing unit. The executable instructions for the operation define an instruction for identifying a web page that references at least one related element, a list of related elements, and present the list to the user Contains instructions for parsing web pages. Further, the executable instructions for the operation include instructions for receiving a user selection of one or more associated elements from the list and registering the user selection. The selected element is the element that is intended to contain the composite web page for future presentation.
[0011]
A system for displaying a composite web page is also disclosed. The system includes an arithmetic processing unit and a memory for storing instructions that can execute arithmetic processing for controlling the operation of the arithmetic processing unit. Arithmetic executable instructions include instructions for receiving a user request to display a composite web page and instructions for identifying at least one element of the composite web page. Also, the executable instructions for the operation include instructions for retrieving the identified elements and instructions for presenting them to form a composite web page.
[0012]
A computer readable recording medium including processing instructions for performing the disclosed method is also disclosed.
[0013]
The disclosed systems and methods allow a user to identify selected elements of one or more related web pages. The features and advantages of the proposed method and system will be more readily apparent from the preferred embodiment described below when used in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
[0014]
For the sake of a more complete understanding of the systems and methods disclosed in accordance with the present application, the following description is used in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals indicate like features: .
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
[0015]
(Details of the invention)
The method and system according to the present application defines and displays a composite web page based on a stored composite page definition. The page definition is stored locally in a page registry 160 as shown in FIG. 1A, for example, or stored in a distributed storage medium such as the page registry 160 shown in FIG. 1B.
[0016]
Returning to FIG. 1A, a block diagram of an exemplary service provider system 100 for defining and displaying a composite web page is shown. The service provider system 100 includes an application integration bus 110 that can retrieve and store information from various disparate data sources including, for example, applications 112, data sources 114, 116, and 118. It is out.
[0017]
The application integration bus 110 is a platform that facilitates communication between different computer programs in a stable and reliable manner. A good example of an application integration bus is Jasmine, manufactured by Computer Associates International, Islandia, New York. _ii It is a CA common service application officially known as FIG. 1A shows an application 112, data sources 114, 116, 118, and pages via local coupling such as POTS, wireless communication network, local area network (“LAN”), and wide area network (“WAN”). An application integration bus 110 coupled to a registry 160 is shown. FIG. 1B shows the application integration bus 110 coupled with the application 112, data sources 114, 116, 118, and page registry 160 via the Internet.
[0018]
Application integration bus 110 delivers data from disparate data sources to data format converter 120, which is a data format converter or other converter that provides a data representation of various types of information in a standard format. For example, in one embodiment, XML is used to display various types of information such as documents, spreadsheets, and databases.
[0019]
Data format converter 120 represents data in a format that is not suitable for displaying information, such as, for example, data in private binary format (eg, information such as text documents, spreadsheets, database information, and web information). Can be converted into a format suitable for XML syntax or data). In particular, the data format converter 120 traverses the data structure to, for example, a binary format and converts the data structure to a format suitable for XML syntax (or data) representation. Data format converter 120 uses the data received from application integration bus 110 to process the request and deliver data (eg, XML data) to GUI data manager 130.
[0020]
The GUI data manager 130 converts the data from the data format converter 120 into a format suitable for display to the user, for example, HTML or PDF format. For example, if the output of the data format converter 120 is XML data, the GUI data manager 130 converts the XML data into HTML data suitable for display for one or more users. In addition to the interface of the data format converter 120, the GUI data manager 130 accesses, updates, and maintains web pages stored in the page registry 160 via the application integration bus 110.
[0021]
The GUI data manager 130 responds to the request received from the web server 140. The web server provides a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) to the GUI data manager 130, and the GUI data manager 130 delivers a display definition of the data, such as, for example, a Hyper-Text Markup Language (“HTML”) code. To respond by. In general, the web server 140 provides web pages to a user 170 on the Internet 150.
[0022]
The operation of the system 400 and system 500 within the service provider system 100 shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B is described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, respectively.
[0023]
Although the described embodiment is an Internet based web page distribution and display solution, it should be understood that the methods disclosed herein may be applied to other systems. For example, wireless communication networks, LANs, WANs, extranets, intranets, and other similar types of networks can all support the disclosed methods.
[0024]
Referring to FIG. 2, a flow chart describing the operation of a procedure for defining a composite web page is shown. At process 205, the system identifies a web page from which one or more elements are extracted for use in the composite web page. The collection of web pages used by the system includes any web page that is analyzed into its components. Of course, plug-ins are used to analyze specific types of data on web pages. The system identifies a web page with a URL supplied by the user, for example, by typing, copying or dragging the URL displayed in the browser and dropping it into the work area. The identified web page references at least one associated element. Web page elements are, for example, text blocks, tables, digital images, or items from a tree structure that defines a web page. For example, an element of the page http://www.msnbc.com is a digital photograph associated with the first news story or the main heading at that time. The system parses the web page to define a list of related elements as shown in process 210. The parsing involves parsing the HTML source code of the identified web page, although any other technique for defining the element list is acceptable.
[0025]
At operation 215, the system presents a list of elements from the identified web page to the user. The list is organized such that, for example, a textual list, a graphical icon or a collection of lists is formatted to provide the actual web page appearance among other things. In one embodiment, the listed elements are presented to the user in the form of a tree structure as shown in FIG. For example, a list presentation in another method such as using an icon or a simple list may be used, but the list presentation in a tree structure format provides a list of relationships between elements to the user.
[0026]
The system allows the user to select one or more listed elements or portions of the identified web page that are of particular interest in the listing as part of the composite web page. At process 220, the system receives a selection from the user of one or more elements that form at least a portion of the composite web page.
[0027]
As shown in operation 225, upon selection of one or more elements by the user, the system registers the user selection. Registering a user selection includes repeatedly storing the selection. Such repeated storage is accomplished by using a local registry or a registry on a remote server.
[0028]
Registration of the user selection includes generating a specification that includes data defining a composite web page that includes the identification of the selected element. Further, registration includes transmitting the specification over the Internet and storing the specification in a recurring registry, such as page registry 160. The specification includes either or both of information that considers how to fetch the entire web page and information on how to extract each selected element from the web page. The specification includes data identifying the source of the web page for each selected element as well as data identifying the selected element of the composite web page. The specification also includes information that takes into account how to retrieve web page data sources and extract each selected element from the associated web page data sources.
[0029]
Although the procedure of FIG. 2 is described simply for an identified web page, the procedure can also be used to define a composite page that comprises elements from multiple identified web pages. It is done. In one alternative approach, one or more web pages are identified and analyzed at process 205 and process 210, and the system presents a master list for selection of elements to the user. The master list includes, for example, several identifiers that consider the web page to which each element is related. This is therefore accomplished by segmenting or storing the element list.
[0030]
Alternatively, the system presents a separate list of elements for each identified web page. In such an embodiment, the user selects an element from among a plurality of element lists for defining a composite web page. The graphical user connects with an interface according to an embodiment as shown in FIG. 6 to select elements.
[0031]
It will be further appreciated that in an alternative embodiment, the procedure includes defining an identifier associated with the user. Examples of such identifiers include logon of the user's name, job role or status associated with the user, and identifier associated with a particular network node or computer. The identifier is stored in the registry to associate the composite web page with the user.
[0032]
Referring now to FIG. 3, a flowchart describing the operation of a procedure for presenting a composite web page is shown. At operation 305, the system receives a user request to present a predefined composite web page. The composite web page is pre-defined for the procedure of FIG. 2 or is defined for other procedures that result in the definition of a stored composite web page.
[0033]
The system identifies selected elements that make up the composite web page at operation 310 and retrieves the selected elements at operation 315. In one embodiment, the identifier of the selected element 310 is achieved by accessing a recurring registry, such as the page registry 160, and retrieving a specification that includes data defining the composite web page.
[0034]
After the selected element is identified, the system searches for it to be included in the composite web page. In one embodiment, according to the information stored in the registry, the system retrieves the last version of the data source for each web page that contains the elements selected to be presented on the composite web page. Each selected element is extracted from an associated web page data source based on the composite web page specification.
[0035]
At operation 320, the system presents the composite page in a web browser for presentation to the user. For example, it will be appreciated that presentation of a composite web page that includes an associated arrangement of selected elements is performed in accordance with instructions or data stored in the specification. Stored instructions or data may be defined by the user during the composite page definition process or selected such as screen size, data refresh request, usage frequency, or preferred layer order (or Z order) Defined automatically based on one or more factors including element characteristics.
[0036]
In another embodiment, the display of the composite web page is automatically defined by the display time. In this embodiment, the automatic determination is based on one or more execution time variables such as, for example, the range of windows that contain the composite web page.
[0037]
According to an embodiment, a procedure for displaying a composite web page to a user includes defining an identifier associated with the user and accessing a registry based on the identifier. Defining such user identifiers allows the user to request a composite web page tailored to the user's specific needs. Further, in embodiments where the page registry is stored on a remote server, the local computer can be a specific local computer operated by the user, as long as the local computer can access the registry of the remote server using, for example, the Internet. The user can request that the composite page be displayed.
[0038]
FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of a system for defining a composite web page 400. As shown in the figure, the system includes an arithmetic processing unit 410 and a memory 415. The memory 415 is connected to the arithmetic processing unit 410 and stores instructions that can execute arithmetic processing for defining a composite web page.
[0039]
Memory 415 includes composite web page definition logic 420 to allow a user to define a composite web page. The composite web page definition logic 420 uses a web page data source identifier 425 that identifies one or more web page data sources that include elements that the user selects to include in the composite web page. The definition logic 420 also identifies a list of related elements and analyzes a web page data source analyzer 430 and a list presentation logic 435 that respectively analyze the web page data source for presenting the list to the user. Is used. The user selection module 440 is used by the definition logic 420 to allow the user to select listed elements for inclusion in the composite web page.
[0040]
The composite web page definition logic stores user-selected elements using the selection registration module 445. In one embodiment, the selection registration module 445 generates a specification for the selected element, transmits the specification over the Internet, and places the specification in an iterative registry, such as the page registry 160 (shown in FIG. 1). Store. Of course, in an alternative embodiment, the recurring registry exists locally on the user computer. The specification includes information that considers how to fetch the entire web page, similar to how well each selected element is extracted from the web page.
[0041]
FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a system for a predefined composite web page 550. As shown in the figure, the system includes an arithmetic processing unit 510 and a memory 515. The memory 515 is connected to the arithmetic processing unit 510, and stores instructions that can execute arithmetic processing for presenting a composite web page.
[0042]
Memory 515 includes composite web page presentation logic 520 for presenting the composite web page to the user. The composite web page presentation logic 520 uses a composite web page request receiver 525 to receive a composite web page presentation request. The presentation logic 520 also uses the element identifier 530 to identify the element associated with the requested composite web page. In one embodiment, the element identifier 530 accesses a recurring registry, such as the page registry 160 (shown in FIG. 1), and retrieves a specification that includes data defining a composite web page. The specification includes data identifying the web page data source for each selected element as well as data identifying the selected element of the composite web page. The specification further includes information that takes into account how to retrieve a web page data source and extract each selected element from the associated web page data source.
[0043]
The element searcher 535 searches for the element identified by the element identifier 530. In one embodiment, element searcher 535 searches for the last version of each web page data source that includes the element selected to be presented on the composite web page according to information stored in the registry. Each selected element is extracted from an associated web page data source based on the composite web page specification.
[0044]
The composite web page presentation logic 520 uses a composite web page display 540 to display the web page to the user. In one embodiment, the indicator 540 defines an associated arrangement of selected elements that are executed in accordance with instructions or data stored in the specification. Stored instructions or data may be defined by the user during the synthesis page definition process or automatically defined based on one or more factors including the characteristics of the selected element. In another embodiment, the indicator 540 automatically defines the arrangement of elements at the display time. In this embodiment, the automatic definition is based on one or more execution time variables such as, for example, the range of windows that contain the composite web page.
[0045]
In an alternative embodiment, the system shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 is embodied as computer readable code stored on a computer readable medium. The code includes one or more instructions that can be computed by a computer / processor to produce a computer that operates in a selected manner. The computer-readable medium is an optical storage device such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk or a floppy (R) disk, a memory card, a RAM, a ROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM, or a flash memory. Or any other storage device capable of storing computer-readable arithmetic processing instructions.
[0046]
Referring now to FIG. 6, a typical graphical user interface for defining a composite web page is shown. Display 600 is a web page dialog that presents a user selection of web pages included in the composite web page.
[0047]
Display 600 is a navigation page 610 that displays the components of the selected web page. In the example shown, the elements of the selected web page are displayed in a tree format according to the HTML code of the selected web page. The navigation sheet allows the user to select a selected web page portion to be included in the composite web page. In the example shown, the user makes a selection 615.
[0048]
The presentation associated with the selection 615 is displayed on the preview sheet 620. The preview sheet 620 presents a graphical preview of the selected portion of the web page to provide the user with a visual proof that the selection 615 is suitable for the user's purpose. To enlarge or reduce the selection range, the user clicks on buttons 622 or 624, respectively.
[0049]
In addition, display 600 includes an area 630 for displaying some content selection criteria. Region 630 is used to assist presentation system 500 in identifying the selected element. This is particularly useful when considering dynamic web pages, such as pages that display frequently updated news and other pages, for example. Some content selection criteria defined at 630 define at least one portion of the specification associated with the content. An example of the specification data is shown in FIG.
[0050]
FIG. 8 is a computer screen screen 800 showing the presentation of a composite web page. Screen 800 is a typical result of procedure 300 formed by system 500. The selection shown in FIG. 6 is displayed as part of the composite web page at 810.
[0051]
Although the disclosed systems and methods are used in a single business to assist users, it is also envisioned that the disclosed systems and methods can be implemented by service providers on the Internet. Is done. By accessing websites that use applets that perform the disclosed methods, service providers have allowed the masses to create their own composite screens on other web pages. Such websites draw revenue, for example, by charging for regular funding or by negotiation generated from services by generating advertising revenue. In addition, such websites serve as “entrances” to other websites and derive revenue from the creation of predefined composite screens that can be realized by the user, and others included in such composite screens. Bill one or both of your company's content charges. In another embodiment, a service provider managing such a website accepts funding from other companies, so that a composite web page of content specified by the company can be, for example, a specific user specific Make it available to the group, the general public, or other companies for business-to-business purposes.
[0052]
Unlike typical web entry businesses such as yahoo.com or msn.com, business methods using the disclosed methods and systems can be easily connected to websites and by using service providers, A user can generate a composite screen of an arbitrary web page on the Internet.
[0053]
Although the disclosed systems and methods are described in terms of specific embodiments and applications, those skilled in the art may modify, without extending the disclosed scope, or without departing from its spirit. Further embodiments can be generated, including substitution and modification. Accordingly, it should be understood that only the drawings and descriptions in this disclosure are provided to facilitate understanding of the system and method and that the scope should not be limited thereby.
[Brief description of the drawings]
[0054]
FIG. 1A is a block diagram in an exemplary environment of the disclosed system and method.
FIG. 1B is a block diagram of another exemplary environment of the disclosed system and method.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary procedure for defining a composite web page, according to one embodiment of the disclosed method.
FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary procedure for displaying a composite web page, according to one embodiment of the disclosed method.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a system for defining a composite web page, according to one disclosed embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for displaying a composite web page, in accordance with one disclosed embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a computer screen display showing an exemplary graphical user interface for defining a composite web page.
FIG. 7 is a computer screen screen showing a portion of data included in a specification.
FIG. 8 is a computer screen screen showing display of a composite web page.

Claims (17)

Identify web pages,
Parse a web page to define a list of related elements,
Present the list to the user,
Receiving a user selection of one or more related elements from the list;
A method of defining a composite web page, comprising registering the user selection. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration includes storing the user selection in a local registry. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration includes storing the user selection in a storage area of a remote server. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating a specification including data defining a method for reading at least one web page associated with the selected element and a method for extracting the selected element. The method described in 1. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the web page includes identifying a plurality of web pages, and the list includes an element associated with each of the plurality of web pages. Method. The method of claim 5, further comprising defining a segment of the list according to each of the plurality of web pages. The method of claim 6, wherein the presenting includes presenting each segment of the list at a respective time. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining an identifier associated with the user, and wherein the registration includes storing the identifier. Receives a user's request to present a composite web page,
Identifying at least one element of the composite web page;
Search for the at least one element;
A method for presenting a composite web page, wherein the at least one element is presented to form the composite web page. The method of claim 9, wherein the identifying includes accessing a registry. The method of claim 10, wherein the identifying defines an identifier associated with the user and accesses a registry based on the identifier. The method of claim 9, wherein the searching includes searching a web page associated with an element and extracting the element from the associated web page. The method of claim 9, wherein the identifying includes a presentation including accessing a registry that includes data defining a location of each element and displaying each element according to the data. The method described. An arithmetic processing unit;
A memory combined with the arithmetic processing unit for storing arithmetically processable instructions for controlling the operation of the arithmetic processing unit;
Instructions for identifying a web page that references at least one associated element; instructions for parsing a web page defining a list of the associated elements; instructions for presenting the list to a user; and the list A user-selectable one or more associated elements from, a command to receive the selected element on the screen of a composite web page, and a processable instruction having a command to register the user selection A system for defining a composite web page characterized by including: An arithmetic processing unit;
A memory combined with the arithmetic processing unit for storing arithmetically processable instructions for controlling the operation of the arithmetic processing unit;
Instructions for receiving a user request to present a composite web page; instructions for identifying at least one element of the composite web page; instructions for retrieving the at least one element; and forming the composite web page And a command capable of performing an operation having a command for presenting the at least one element. Computer readable instructions for identifying web pages;
Computer readable instructions for parsing the web page defining a list of associated elements;
Computer readable instructions for presenting the list to a user;
Computer readable instructions for receiving a user selection of one or more associated elements from the list;
A computer readable storage medium encoded with processing instructions defining a composite web page including computer readable instructions for registering the user selection. Computer readable instructions for receiving a user request to present a composite web page;
Computer readable instructions for identifying at least one element of the composite web page;
Computer readable instructions for retrieving the at least one element;
A computer readable storage medium encoded with processing instructions for presenting a composite web page including computer readable instructions for presenting the at least one element forming the composite web page.

Images