Predictive branching and caching method and apparatus for applications

• US 20040098486A1
• Filed: 10/31/2002
• Published: 05/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Kerr, John, Gu, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 7,548,982 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching

Abstract

A method and system of identifying usage patterns for web pages in a website, includes receiving a website map identifying one or more web pages in the website, tracking the web pages accessed by a user during a session, determining a branch of one or more web pages accessible by the user and corresponding to the website map, and updating a database that associates the branch with the user and indicates usage of the branch and the web pages by the user.

Claims

1. A method of identifying usage patterns for web pages in a website, comprising:

receiving a website map identifying the organization of one or more web pages in the website;

determining a branch of one or more web pages in the website accessible by a user and organized according to the website map;

tracking one or more web pages and the underlying branch accessed by a user during a session; and

updating a database that associates the branch with the user and indicates usage of the branch and the one or more web pages accessed by the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining all possible branches of one or more web pages accessible by the user at each web page corresponding to the site map.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the website map is organized into a directed graph.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving is performed within an application that processes web pages and communicates results with a server.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving is performed on a server that processes the web pages and communicates with an application.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the tracking comprises:

identifying a user when the web pages are accessed; and

gathering at least one or more of the following set of characteristics;

a frequency each page is accessed by the user, a sequence of web pages processed by the user, and identifying paths between web pages accessed by the user.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining a branch, further comprises:

gathering web pages together corresponding to an operation on the website.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining a branch, further comprises:

combining web pages together previously accessed by a user in a sequence.

9. A method of predicting the selection of web pages in a website, comprising:

organizing a sitemap of the website that ranks the web pages according to a historical usage pattern for a user;

loading a predicted branch of the web pages into a cache selected according to the ranking of the web pages;

receiving a request for a web page from the website; and

providing the requested web page from the website when the request for the web page is at least one of the web pages in the predicted branch.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein organizing the sitemap further comprises:

retrieving a usage pattern associated with a user from a usage pattern database; and

associating values with individual web pages in the sitemap according to the usage pattern for the user.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein loading the predicted branch further comprises:

determining a metric for each of the one or more branches in the sitemap using the ranking of the web pages;

comparing the metrics associated with each of the one or more branches; and

selecting the predicted branch based on the comparison of the metrics associated with each of the one or more branches.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein a metric is computed by summing the weighted values of the web pages associated with a branch.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

swapping the predicted branch in the cache with the branch containing the requested web page when the requested web page is not in the predicted branch of the website; and

retrieving the requested web page from the branch swapped into the cache.

14. A system for improved access to web pages in an application, comprising:

a web access profile database indicating a frequency that a user selects web pages in the application; and

a web server having a sitemap of the web pages associated with the application identifying branches of web pages in the sitemap ranked according to the web access profile database information wherein the ranking determines the branch of web pages the web server loads into cache.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

a client requesting web pages over a network from the web server associated with the application.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the web server is integrated into the application.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein at least one entry in the web access profile database is a compilation of the usage patterns from other entries in the web access profile database and represents the access pattern of web pages for a typical user of the application.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the compilation is a weighted average of the frequencies users access the web pages in the application.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein a branch is determined by gathering web pages together corresponding to an operation on the website.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein the step of determining a branch, further comprises:

combining web pages together previously accessed by a user in a sequence.

21. An apparatus for accessing web pages, comprising:

a processor that executes instructions to access the web pages;

a memory having an application that receives requests for one or more web pages, a profiler component that tracks user access to web pages and stores the information in a web access profile database, and a predictive branch component that selects a branch having one or more web pages according to the web access profile database and loads the web pages into cache.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising:

a network communication port that transmits the web pages in response to the requests.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising:

a presentation device driver that presents the requested one or more web pages on a presentation device.

24. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

receive a website map identifying the organization of one or more web pages in the website;

determine a branch of one or more web pages in the website accessible by a user and organized according to the website map;

track one or more web pages and the underlying branch accessed by a user during a session; and

update a database that associates the branch with the user and indicates usage of the branch and the one or more web pages accessed by the user.

24-1. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

organizing a sitemap of the website that ranks the web pages according to a historical usage pattern for a user;

loading a predicted branch of the web pages into a cache selected according to the ranking of the web pages;

receiving a request for a web page from the website; and

providing the requested web page from the website when the request for the web page is at least one of the web pages in the predicted branch.

25. An apparatus for identifying usage patterns for web pages in a website, comprising

means for receiving a website map identifying the organization of one or more web pages in the website;

means for determining a branch of one or more web pages in the website accessible by a user and organized according to the website map;

means for tracking one or more web pages and the underlying branch accessed by a user during a session; and

means for updating a database that associates the branch with the user and indicates usage of the branch and the one or more web pages accessed by the user.