Snippet selection

• US 20020005867A1
• Filed: 05/22/2001
• Published: 01/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sap Portals, Inc. (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Sap Portals, Inc. (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Gvily, Yaniv
• Granted Patent: US 7,085,994 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

According to the invention, a process for selecting hierarchical information with a computer system user interface is disclosed. In one step, selection of an element in a hierarchy is recognized. A plurality of ancestor elements is determined for the element. A selection control allows selecting at least one of the plurality of ancestor elements hierarchically-related to the element. Manipulation of the selection control is recognized to select a unit that includes at least two of the plurality of ancestor elements and the element.

Claims

1. A method for selecting hierarchical information with a computer system user interface, the method comprising steps of:

recognizing selection of an element in a hierarchy;

determining a plurality of ancestor elements for the element;

providing a selection control with the computer system user interface, wherein the selection control allows selecting at least one of the plurality of ancestor elements hierarchically-related to the element;

recognizing manipulation of the selection control; and

selecting a unit that comprises at least one of the plurality of ancestor elements and the element in response to the second-listed recognizing step.

2. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, further comprising steps of:

associating a trigger with the unit; and

notifying a user when unit changes and the trigger occurs.

3. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the selecting step comprises a step of selecting all descendent elements for any of the plurality of ancestor elements in the unit.

4. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the selection control allows selecting a plurality of sibling elements related to one of the element and the plurality of ancestor elements.

5. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the providing step comprises steps of:

providing a plurality of sibling elements related to at least one of the element and the plurality of ancestor elements; and

providing a user-manipulatable control that allows selecting a path through the plurality of sibling elements and plurality of ancestor elements wherein crossed elements and their respective descendent elements comprise the unit.

6. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the hierarchy is derived from an hypertext markup language (HTML) page.

7. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, further comprising a step of building a document object model from an HTML page.

8. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the providing step comprises steps of:

providing a range of ancestor elements of the element along a sliding scale; and

providing a user-manipulatable slider that indicates a selected ancestor element in the range of ancestor elements.

9. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the hierarchy represents one of:

a software program with nesting;

a HTML file;

an extensible markup language (XML) document; and

an organization chart.

10. The method for selecting hierarchical information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the second-listed recognizing step comprises steps of at least one of:

recognizing selection of one of the plurality of ancestor elements in the hierarchy; and

recognizing selection of a sibling element in the hierarchy.

11. A method for selecting hypertext markup language (HTML) information with a computer system user interface, the method comprising steps of:

receiving an HTML file from a server wherein the HTML file has a hierarchy;

rendering an HTML web page corresponding to the HTML file;

recognizing selection of an element in the hierarchy;

recognizing manipulation of a selection control; and

selecting a unit in response to the second-listed recognizing step wherein the unit comprises at least one of a plurality of ancestor elements and the element.

12. The method for selecting HTML information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 11, further comprising a step of determining the hierarchy for the HTML file.

13. The method for selecting HTML information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 11, wherein the rendering step comprises a step of rendering the HTML web page corresponding to the HTML file without visible modification.

14. The method for selecting HTML information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 11, wherein the unit comprises at least two items chosen from the element, the plurality of ancestor elements and a sibling element.

15. The method for selecting HTML information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 11, receiving a triggering condition that triggers an alert if the unit changes to satisfy the triggering condition.

16. The method for selecting HTML information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 11, further comprising a step of receiving a triggering condition from a user related to the element.

17. The method for selecting HTML information with the computer system user interface as recited in claim 11, further comprising steps of:

producing a processed web page related to the HTML web page, wherein the producing step comprising steps of;

deactivating active elements within the HTML web page, and

embedding a selection script into the HTML web page, wherein the selection script provides the selection control;

18. A method for allowing selection of snippets from a web page, the method comprising steps of:

producing a processed web page related to the web page, wherein the producing step comprising steps of;

deactivating active elements within the web page, and

embedding a selection script into the web page, wherein the selection script provides a selection control;

recognizing selection of an element in a hierarchy that is related to the processed web page;

determining a plurality of ancestor elements hierarchically-related to the element;

recognizing manipulation of the selection control, wherein the selection control allows selecting at least one of the plurality of ancestor elements; and

selecting a unit that comprises at least one of the plurality of ancestor elements and the element in response to the second-listed recognizing step.

19. The method for allowing selection of snippets from the web page as recited in claim 18, further comprising steps of:

determining a plurality of probable snippets for the web page;

adding functionality to the web page to allow selection of the plurality of probable snippets; and

receiving input selecting one of the plurality of probable snippets.

20. The method for allowing selection of snippets from the web page as recited in claim 18, receiving an address for the web page by a semi-proxy.

21. The method for allowing selection of snippets from the web page as recited in claim 18, further comprising steps of:

associating a trigger with the unit; and

notifying a user when unit changes and the trigger occurs.

22. The method for allowing selection of snippets from the web page as recited in claim 18, wherein the processed web page has no visual differences from the web page.

23. The method for allowing selection of snippets from the web page as recited in claim 18, wherein the determining step comprises a step of analyzing a document object model related to the processed web page.

24. A software product embodied on a computer-readable medium for selecting hierarchical information with a computer system user interface, the software product comprising code for:

recognizing selection of an element in a hierarchy;

determining a plurality of ancestor elements for the element;

providing a selection control with the computer system user interface, wherein the selection control allows selecting at least one of the plurality of ancestor elements hierarchically-related to the element;

recognizing manipulation of the selection control; and

selecting a unit that comprises at least one of the plurality of ancestor elements and the element in response to the second-listed recognizing step.