Controlling web page behaviour

• US 10,430,037 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2012
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: D4T4 Solutions Plc
• Original Assignee: D4T4 Solutions Plc
• Inventors: O'Donnell, Dara James Edward, Goldspink, Lincoln Mark Vaughan
• Primary Examiner(s): Weng, Pei Yong
• Application Number:
  US14/003,047
• Publication Number:
  US 20140026081A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,765 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method of controlling webpage behaviour on a web enabled device 3 in order to assist in, for example, collection of monitoring information, preserving session context, and improving security. The method includes monitoring a user interaction with a webpage (step 203), using a client side module 31 at the web enabled device 3, and determining whether predetermined conditions are satisfied (step 204). Where the predetermined conditions are satisfied the further steps below are carried out: capturing details concerning an intended result of said user interaction (step 205), using the client side module; at least temporarily preventing occurrence of the intended result of said user interaction using the client side module (step 206); carrying out additional processing (step 207) using the client side module; determining a controlled result (step 208), using the client side module, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and causing the controlled result to occur (step 209). The additional processing might, for example, include collecting monitoring information, dynamically re-writing the URL to allow preservation of session context, or performing in checks or modifications to improve security.

Claims

1. A web enabled device arranged for controlling webpage behavior on the web enabled device, the web enabled device being arranged under the control of software to:

monitor a user interaction with a webpage, using client side page tagging webpage monitoring with a client side JavaScript module running within the webpage on the web enabled device, the client side module being delivered from a server to the web enabled device upon being called from tagging in the webpage or being loaded from a storage of the web enabled device having previously been delivered from the server, upon being called from tagging in the webpage;

determine whether predetermined conditions are satisfied, and being arranged, where the predetermined conditions are satisfied, to;

capture details concerning an intended result of said user interaction, using the client side module running within the webpage, the intended result being an intended resulting operation of the web enabled device;

cancel occurrence of the intended result of said user interaction using the client side module running within the webpage;

carry out additional processing using the client side module running within the webpage;

determine a controlled result, using the client side module running within the webpage, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and

cause the controlled result to occur,

wherein, the predetermined conditions comprise the user interaction being one having an intended result of causing a page transition at the web enabled device, which would lead to navigation to a target page, and said details concerning the intended result of said user interaction comprise capturing the uniform resource locator (URL) of the target page, and the controlled result is a controlled resulting operation of the web enabled device and comprises one of;

i) no action in response to the user interaction such that navigation is cancelled;

ii) a regeneration, under control of the client side module running within the webpage, of the intended result leading to navigation to the target page but after a delay introduced by the additional processing; and

iii) a modified result, determined under control of the client side module running within the webpage, which is a modified resulting operation of the web enabled device leading to navigation to the target page but with a modified version of the captured uniform resource locator (URL) query string or with referrer information deleted or leading to navigation to a different page.

2. A web enabled device according to claim 1 in which the carrying out additional processing comprises introducing a delay between said user interaction and the step of causing the controlled result to occur.

3. A web enabled device according to claim 2 in which the carrying out additional processing comprises carrying out further processing steps during said delay.

4. A web enabled device according to claim 2 in which the additional processing comprises using a timer to control said delay.

5. A web enabled device according to claim 1 in which the additional processing comprises any one of or any combination of:

dynamic URL re-writing of a URL for a target page identified in the captured details concerning the intended result of said user interaction to append selected parameters;

processing and exporting monitoring data collected during interaction with the webpage;

verifying whether a target page specified in a page transition identified in the captured details concerning the intended result of said user interaction belongs to a predetermined set of valid pages;

determining whether referrer information held at the web enabled device should be deleted to prevent onward transmission to a subsequent page.

6. A web enabled device according to claim 5 in which there is dynamic URL re-writing and the selected parameters appended to the URL in the URL re-writing comprise session context parameters for the client side module.

7. A web enabled device according to claim 1 in which the determining whether predetermined conditions are satisfied comprises the steps of the client side module applying a filter to the user interaction with the webpage and determining whether said user interaction passes said filtering.

8. A web enabled device according to claim 7 in which at least one of the filter specifies at least one type of interaction which passes the filter and the filter specifies at least one characteristic of an interaction which is at least one of necessary and sufficient for the respective interaction to pass the filter.

9. A web enabled device according to claim 8 in which the characteristic of an interaction comprises a characteristic of an intended result of the interaction.

10. A web enabled device according to claim 1 in which the web enabled device is arranged to cause the intended result to occur as the controlled result if at least one of:

the additional processing fails;

the additional processing fails to complete before the end of a delay allowed by a timer as part of the additional processing;

fail-safe interaction cancelling of the web enabled device is invoked.

15. A non-transitory machine readable medium carrying a computer program comprising code portions which when loaded and run on a web enabled device cause the web enabled device to constitute a web enabled device as claimed in claim 1 arranged for controlling webpage behavior on the web enabled device, the web enabled device being arranged under the control of software to:

monitor a user interaction with a webpage, using client side page tagging webpage monitoring with a client side JavaScript module running within the webpage on the web enabled device, the client side module being delivered from a server to the web enabled device upon being called from tagging in the webpage or being loaded from a storage of the web enabled device having previously been delivered from the server, upon being called from tagging in the webpage;

determine whether predetermined conditions are satisfied, and being arranged, where the predetermined conditions are satisfied, to;

capture details concerning an intended result of said user interaction, using the client side module running within the webpage, the intended result being an intended resulting operation of the web enabled device;

cancel occurrence of the intended result of said user interaction using the client side module running within the webpage;

carry out additional processing using the client side module running within the webpage;

determine a controlled result, using the client side module running within the webpage, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and

cause the controlled result to occur,

wherein, the predetermined conditions comprise the user interaction being one having an intended result of causing a page transition at the web enabled device, which would lead to navigation to a target page, and said details concerning the intended result of said user interaction comprise capturing the uniform resource locator (URL) of the target page, and the controlled result is a controlled resulting operation of the web enabled device and comprises one of;

i) no action in response to the user interaction such that navigation is cancelled;

ii) a regeneration, under control of the client side module running within the webpage, of the intended result leading to navigation to the target page but after a delay introduced by the additional processing; and

iii) a modified result, determined under control of the client side module running within the webpage, which is a modified resulting operation of the web enabled device leading to navigation to the target page but with a modified uniform resource locator (URL) query string or with referrer information deleted or leading to navigation to a different page.

16. A web enabled device according to claim 1, wherein (a) if the user interaction is an activation of a link, the link activation event'"'"'s prevent default method is invoked to cancel occurrence of the intended result, and (b) if the user interaction is activation of a submit on a form, the step of cancelling occurrence of the intended result comprises wrapping the form in another object,

wherein wrapping the form in another object comprises renaming an original submit function of the form from an old name to a new name and renaming said other object with the old name of the original submit function.

17. A web enabled device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined conditions further comprise fail-safe interaction cancelling being supported by the web-enabled device.

11. A method of controlling webpage behavior on a web enabled device comprising the steps of:

monitoring a user interaction with a webpage, using client side page tagging webpage monitoring with a client side JavaScript module running within the webpage on the web enabled device, the client side module being delivered from a server to the web enabled device upon being called from tagging in the webpage or being loaded from a storage of the web enabled device having previously been delivered from the server, upon being called from tagging in the webpage;

determining whether predetermined conditions are satisfied, and where the predetermined conditions are satisfied, carrying out the further steps of;

capturing details concerning an intended result of said user interaction, using the client side module running within the webpage, the intended result being an intended resulting operation of the web enabled device;

cancelling occurrence of the intended result of said user interaction using the client side module running within the webpage;

carrying out additional processing using the client side module running within the webpage;

determining a controlled result, using the client side module running within the webpage, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and

causing the controlled result to occur,

wherein, the predetermined conditions comprise the user interaction being one having an intended result of causing a page transition at the web enabled device which would lead to navigation to a target page, and said details concerning the intended result of said user interaction comprise capturing the uniform resource locator (URL) of the target page, and

the controlled result is a controlled resulting operation of the web enabled device and comprises one of;

i) no action in response to the user interaction such that navigation is cancelled;

ii) a regeneration, under control of the client side module running within the webpage, of the intended result leading to navigation to the target page but after a delay introduced by the additional processing; and

iii) a modified result, determined under control of the client side module running within the webpage, which is a modified resulting operation of the web enabled device, leading to navigation to the target page but with a modified captured uniform resource locator (URL) query string or with referrer information deleted or leading to navigation to a different page.

12. A web enabled device arranged for collecting client side webpage monitoring information, the web enabled device being arranged under the control of software to:

monitor user interactions with a webpage and collect monitoring information, using client side page tagging webpage monitoring with a client side JavaScript module running within the webpage at the web enabled device, the client side module being delivered from a server to the web enabled device upon being called from tagging in the webpage or being loaded from a storage of the web enabled device having previously been delivered from the server, upon being called from tagging in the webpage;

send data representative of said monitoring information from the web enabled device to a server;

determine whether an intended result of a monitored user interaction comprises a page transition, and

being arranged, where the intended result of the monitored user interaction comprises a page transition, to;

capture details concerning the intended result of said monitored user interaction, using the client side module;

at least temporarily prevent occurrence of the intended result of said monitored user interaction using the client side module running within the webpage;

carry out additional processing using the client side module running within the webpage;

determine a controlled result, using the client side module running within the webpage, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and

cause the controlled result to occur,

wherein said additional processing comprises using a timer to control a delay between said user interaction and the controlled result being caused to occur and the predetermined conditions comprise the user interaction being one having an intended result of causing a page transition at the web enabled device, which would lead to navigation to a target page, and said details concerning the intended result of said user interaction comprise capturing the uniform resource locator (URL) of the target page, and the controlled result is a controlled resulting operation of the web enabled device and comprises one of;

i) no action in response to the user interaction, such that the navigation is cancelled;

ii) a regeneration, under control of the client side module running within the webpage, of the intended result, leading to navigation to the target page but after some delay introduced by the additional processing; and

iii) a modified result, determined under control of the client side module running within the webpage, which is a modified resulting operation of the web enabled device, leading to navigation to the target page but with a modified captured uniform resource locator (URL) query string or with referrer information deleted or leading to navigation to a different page.

13. A web enabled device running a web client and arranged for maintaining session context, the web enabled device being arranged under the control of software to:

monitor a user interaction with a webpage, using client side page tagging webpage monitoring with a client side JavaScript module running within the webpage at the web enabled device, the client side module being delivered from a server to the web enabled device upon being called from tagging in the webpage or being loaded from a storage of the web enabled device having previously been delivered from the server, upon being called from tagging in the webpage;

determine whether an intended result of the monitored user interaction comprises a page transition to a target page, and being arranged, where the intended result of the monitored user interaction comprises a page transition, to;

capture details concerning the intended result of said user interaction including a URL for the target page, using the client side module running within the webpage;

at least temporarily prevent occurrence of the intended result of said user interaction using the client side module running within the webpage;

carry out additional processing using the client side module running within the webpage;

determine a controlled result, using the client side module running within the webpage, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and

cause the controlled result to occur,

wherein the additional processing by client side module running within the webpage comprises dynamic URL re-writing of the URL for the target page identified in the captured details concerning the intended result of said user interaction to provide a re-written URL including appended session context parameters; and

said controlled result comprises the web enabled device requesting the target page using the re-written URL.

14. A web enabled device arranged for providing security, the web enabled device being arranged under the control of software to:

monitor a user interaction with a webpage, using client side page tagging webpage monitoring with a client side JavaScript module running within the webpage at the web enabled device, the client side module being delivered from a server to the web enabled device upon being called from tagging in the webpage or being loaded from a storage of the web enabled device having previously been delivered from the server, upon being called from tagging in the webpage;

determine whether an intended result of the monitored user interaction comprises a page transition to a target page, and being arranged, where the intended result of the monitored user interaction comprises a page transition, to;

capture details concerning the intended result of said user interaction, using the client side module running within the webpage;

at least temporarily prevent occurrence of the intended result of said user interaction using the client side module running within the webpage;

carry out additional processing within the web client using the client side module running within the webpage;

determine a controlled result, using the client side module running within the webpage, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and

cause the controlled result to occur,

wherein the controlled result comprises one of;

the web enabled device requesting the target page whilst while suppressing referrer information; and

cancelling of the page request.

18. A web enabled device arranged for controlling webpage behavior on the web enabled device, the web enabled device being arranged under control of software to:

monitor a user interaction with a webpage, using client side page tagging webpage monitoring with a client side JavaScript module running on the web enabled device, the client side module being delivered from a server to the web enabled device upon being called from tagging in the webpage or being loaded from a storage of the web enabled device having previously been delivered from the server, upon being called from tagging in the webpage;

determine whether predetermined conditions are satisfied, and being arranged, where the predetermined conditions are satisfied, to;

capture details concerning an intended result of said user interaction, using the client side module, the intended result being an intended resulting operation of the web enabled device;

cancel occurrence of the intended result of said user interaction using the client side module;

carry out additional processing using the client side module;

determine a controlled result, using the client side module, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and

cause the controlled result to occur,

wherein, the predetermined conditions comprise the user interaction being one having an intended result of causing a page transition at the web enabled device, which would lead to navigation to a target page, and said details concerning the intended result of said user interaction comprise capturing the uniform resource locator (URL) of the target page, and the controlled result is a controlled resulting operation of the web enabled device and comprises

a regeneration, under control of the client side module, of the intended result leading to navigation to the target page but after a delay introduced by the additional processing,

wherein during the delay introduced by the additional processing, the client side module is arranged to process and export monitoring data to a collection server.

19. A web enabled device according to claim 18, wherein (a) if the user interaction is an activation of a link, the link activation event'"'"'s prevent default method is invoked to cancel occurrence of the intended result, or (b) if the user interaction is activation of a submit on a form, the step of cancelling occurrence of the intended result comprises wrapping the form in another object,

wherein wrapping the form in another object comprises renaming an original submit function of the form from an old name to a new name and renaming said other object with the old name of the original submit function.

20. A web enabled device according to claim 18, wherein the predetermined conditions further comprise fail-safe interaction cancelling being supported by the web-enabled device.

21. A web enabled device arranged for maintaining session context, the web enabled device being configured to:

monitor a user interaction with a webpage, using client side page tagging web page monitoring with a client side JavaScript module running on the web enabled device, the client side module being delivered from a server to the web enabled device upon being called from tagging in the webpage or being loaded from a storage of the web enabled device having previously been delivered from the server, upon being called from tagging in the webpage;

send monitoring information to a collection server with session context parameters, using the client side module;

determine whether an intended result of the monitored user interaction comprises a page transition to a target page in one domain of a predetermined set of domains, and being arranged, where the intended result of the monitored user interaction comprises a page transition to a target page in one of a predetermined set of domains to;

capture details concerning the intended result of said user interaction including a URL for the target page, using the client side module;

at least temporarily prevent occurrence of the intended result of said user interaction using the client side module;

carry out additional processing using the client side module;

determine a controlled result, using the client side module, in dependence on said intended result and the additional processing; and

cause the controlled result to occur,

wherein the additional processing by client side module comprises, dynamic URL re-writing of the URL for the target page identified in the captured details concerning the intended result of said user interaction to provide a re-written URL including appended session context parameters based on said session context parameters being sent to the collection server; and

said controlled result comprises the web enabled device requesting the target page using the re-written URL,

wherein the web enabled device is further configured to;

load the target page and where the target page is appropriately client side tagged, call a second instance of the client side module; and

send monitoring information to the collection server using the second instance of client side module with session context parameters based on those extracted from the re-written URL.

22. A web enabled device according to claim 21, wherein (a) if the user interaction is an activation of a link, the link activation event'"'"'s prevent default method is invoked to cancel occurrence of the intended result, or (b) if the user interaction is activation of a submit on a form, the step of cancelling occurrence of the intended result comprises wrapping the form in another object,

wherein wrapping the form in another object comprises renaming an original submit function of the form from an old name to a new name and renaming said other object with the old name of the original submit function.

23. A web enabled device according to claim 21, wherein the predetermined conditions further comprise fail-safe interaction cancelling being supported by the web-enabled device.