System and method for dynamic content retrieval

• US 20010044810A1
• Filed: 02/08/2001
• Published: 11/22/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sybase Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Sybase Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Timmons, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 6,735,586 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/513
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

Systems and methods for collecting information distributed over a computer network are described. Problems addressed by the invention include the marking of content distributed over a network, the instant display of current information distributed over a network, and the retrieval of information at a browser without an intermediary step to save the information. The invention enables customized aggregation of content distributed over a network in real-time. The invention includes a recursive scripting language. Scripts in the recursive scripting language may be used to point dynamically to web objects whose URLs have changed. Embodiments include a feature extraction object used for identifying similar information objects. Feature Extraction may use ‘fuzzy logic’ to insure that targeted content is identified despite modifications in the source page.

Claims

1. A method of parsing a script encoded in a recursive scripting language, wherein the script is at least partially parsed in a first server coupled to a wide area network, the method comprising:

parsing a first command in the script, the first command including a first operand, wherein the first operand is a URN, such that the first command corresponds to a load operation;

after parsing the first command, retrieving a network resource corresponding to the URN from the wide area network;

storing the network resource in a first hashtable;

returning the first hashtable to a second command in the script, wherein the first command is nested within the second command;

parsing the second command.

2. The method of

claim 1

, wherein the network resource is encoded at least partially in a first markup language.

3. The method of

claim 2

, wherein the network resource is encoded at least partially in a second markup language.

4. The method of

claim 3

, wherein the first and second markup languages are HTML and XML respectively.

5. The method of

claim 2

wherein the first markup language is HTML.

6. The method of

claim 2

, wherein the first markup language is XML.

7. The method of

claim 1

, wherein the wide area network is an internetwork.

8. The method of

claim 1

, wherein the parsing the first command occurs in the first server.

9. The method of

claim 8

, wherein the parsing the second command occurs on a second server, the second server in communication with the first server and the wide area network.

10. The method of

claim 9

, wherein the network resource is at least partially encoded in a markup language.

11. The method of

claim 10

, further comprising:

executing the second command, executing the second command further including retrieving a graphic object from the network resource.

12. The method of

claim 10

, further comprising:

executing the second command, executing the second command further including retrieving a headline from the network resource, the headline encoded at least partially in the markup language.

13. The method of

claim 10

, further comprising:

executing the second command, executing the second command further including retrieving one of a table from the network resource.

14. The method of

claim 10

, further comprising:

executing the second command, executing the second command further including retrieving one of a form from the network resource.

15. The method of

claim 1

, further comprising:

executing the second command, further including storing a results of the second command in a second hashtable;

returning the second hashtable to a third command in the script, wherein the second and first commands are nested within the third command.

16. The method of

claim 15

, wherein the network resource is at least partially encoded in HTML.

17. The method of

claim 15

, wherein the network resource is at least partially encoded in XML.

18. A string identifier for a segment of an electronic document, the electronic document encoded in at least one markup language, wherein the string identifier is stored on a first device coupled to a network and the electronic document is stored on a second device coupled to the network, the string identifier comprising:

a first character, the first character identifying an object type for the segment, the object type being one of the group consisting of a graphic object, a table, a text object, a headline object, and a form object;

a first substring, the first substring including a plurality of characters, each of the plurality of characters identifying an attribute from a plurality of attributes of the document segment, the plurality of characters ordered in descending order of significance.

19. The string identifier of

claim 18

, wherein the at least one markup language includes HTML.

20. The string identifier of

claim 18

, wherein the at least one markup language includes XML.

21. The string identifier of

claim 18

, further comprising:

a second substring, the second substring indicating a version number for the string identifier.

22. The string identifier of

claim 21

, wherein the object type appears in numerous instantiations in the electronic document.

23. The string identifier of

claim 22

, further comprising:

a third substring, the third substring including a numeral indicating an instantiation of the object type corresponding to the document segment.

24. The string identifier of

claim 18

, wherein each of the plurality of characters in the first substring is an English letter.

25. The string identifier of

claim 24

, wherein for each of the plurality of characters in the first substring, the corresponding attribute of the document segment has a value indicated by a lexical order of the corresponding English letter.

26. The string identifier of

claim 18

, wherein the network is an internetwork.

27. The string identifier of

claim 26

, wherein the first device is a web client.

28. The string identifier of

claim 27

, wherein the web client is a handheld device.

29. The string identifier of

claim 26

, wherein the second device is a web server.

30. The string identifier of

claim 18

, wherein the network is a local area network.

31. A method of parsing a string identifier for a segment of an electronic document, the electronic document encoded in at least one markup language on at least a first device coupled to a network, the method comprising:

parsing a first character from the string identifier, the first character identifying the segment as one of the group consisting of a graphic object, a table, a text object, a headline object, a form object;

parsing a first substring of the string identifier, the first substring including a plurality of characters ordered in descending order of significance, the plurality of characters identifying a plurality of attributes of the document segment.

32. The method of

claim 31

, wherein the parsing of the first character occurs at a second device coupled to the network.

33. The method of

claim 32

, wherein the first device is a web server, and the network is an internetwork.

34. The method of

claim 33

, wherein the second device is a web client coupled to the internetwork.

35. The method of

claim 34

, wherein the at least one markup language includes HTML.

36. The method of

claim 34

, wherein the at least one markup language includes XML.

37. A method of searching a first electronic document resident on a computer network system, the first electronic document at least partially encoded in a markup language, the method comprising:

retrieving a first string identifier for a feature in the first electronic document, the feature including a segment of the first document, the string identifier further including

a character indicating a first tag in the markup language,

a first plurality of characters, each character in the plurality of characters indicating an attribute encoded in the markup language;

retrieving a second string identifier, the second string identifier representing a feature of a second electronic document, the second electronic document comprising a newer version of the first electronic document, the second string identifier including

a character indicating a second tag in the markup language,

a second plurality of characters each character in the second plurality of characters indicating an attribute encoded in the markup language;

comparing the first string identifier to the second string identifier.

38. The method of

claim 37

, wherein a location of the feature in the first document differs from a location of the feature in the second document.

39. The method of

claim 37

, wherein comparing the first string identifier to the second string identifier includes determining if the first tag is identical to the second tag.

40. The method of

claim 39

, wherein the determining if the first tag is identical to the second tag further includes determining if the character indicating the second tag is identical to the character indicating the first tag.

41. The method of

claim 40

, wherein the first tag and the second tag correspond to at least one of a headline object, a graphic object, a table object, a form object.

42. The method of

claim 37

, wherein comparing the first string identifier to the second string identifier further includes calculating a distance metric between the first string identifier and the second string identifier.

43. The method of

claim 42

, wherein the distance metric is a Euclidean distance.

44. The method of

claim 43

, further comprising:

if the distance metric is less than a pre-determined threshold, retrieving the feature from the second electronic document.

45. The method of

claim 37

, wherein comparing the first string identifier to the second string identifier includes comparing each character in the first plurality of characters to a corresponding character in the second plurality of characters, in increasing order of significance.

46. The method of

claim 37

, wherein comparing the first string identifier to the second string identifier includes comparing each character in the second plurality of characters to a corresponding character in the first plurality of characters, in increasing order of significance.

47. The method of

claim 37

, wherein the first plurality of characters includes one or more wild card characters.

48. The method of

claim 37

, wherein comparing the first string identifier to the second string identifier includes evaluating a lexical order of the first string identifier and the second string identifier.

49. The method of

claim 48

, further comprising:

if the lexical order of the first string is greater than the second string, retrieving the feature from the second electronic document.

50. The method of

claim 37

, wherein the markup language is HTML.

51. The method of

claim 37

, wherein the markup language is XML.

52. A method of retrieving web content for a user, the user accessing the Internet via a web client, the method comprising:

sending a composite web page to the client, the composite web page including a first identifier and a second identifier, the first identifier including a character indicating a first type of web object to be accessed at the client, and the second identifier including a second type of web object to be accessed at the client;

processing the composite web page at the web client;

while processing the composite web page, receiving the first identifier at a first content server, the first content server dedicated to searching for the first type of web object;

upon receiving the first identifier at the first content server, searching a first source web page for the first type of web object, searching the first source web page further including

locating a first web object of the first web object type from the first source page;

sending the first web object to the web client via the first content server for display on the composite web page;

while processing the composite web page, receiving the second identifier at the second content server, the second content server dedicated to searching for the second web object type;

upon receiving the second identifier at the second content server, searching a second source web page for the second web object type, searching the second source web page further including

locating a second web object of the second web object type from the second source page;

sending the second web object to the web client via the second content server for display on the composite web page.

53. The method of

claim 52

, wherein the first source web page and the second source web page are at least partially encoded in one or more markup languages.

54. The method of

claim 53

, wherein the one or more markup languages includes HTML.

55. The method of

claim 53

, wherein the one or more markup languages include XML.

56. The method of

claim 53

, wherein the first and second web object type are at least one of a headline, a table, a form, and a graphic.

57. A computer network system for retrieving a plurality of web objects from a plurality of web-based source pages in a single composite web page, the plurality of web sources at least partially encoded in one or more markup languages, wherein each of the plurality of web objects corresponds to a distinct web object type from a plurality of web object types, the computer network system comprising:

a web client in communication with the computer network system via the Internet, wherein the composite web page is resident on the web client, the web page including a plurality of string identifiers on the composite web page, each of the plurality of string identifiers further including a single character indicating a type of web object to be retrieved;

a plurality of web servers on the Internet, such that the plurality of source pages are distributed amongst the plurality of web servers;

a collection of content servers in communication with the web client via the Internet, each content server in the collection of content servers dedicated to retrieve a distinct web object type from the plurality of web object types.

58. The computer network system of

claim 57

, wherein the plurality of web object types includes at least one of headline objects, graphic objects, form objects, table objects.

59. The computer network system of

claim 57

, wherein the collection of content servers are in communication via a local area network.

60. The computer network system of

claim 57

, wherein the plurality of web servers are geographically dispersed.

61. The computer network system of

claim 57

, wherein the web client is a browser on a personal computer coupled to the Internet.

62. The computer network system of

claim 57

, wherein the web client comprises a personal digital assistant.

63. The computer network system of

claim 62

, wherein the personal digital assistant is wirelessly coupled to the Internet.