Data structure for analyzing user sessions

• US 20040107243A1
• Filed: 12/02/2002
• Published: 06/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Tsyganskiy, Igor
• Granted Patent: US 7,949,765 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for providing a data structure for analyzing user sessions. A computer-implemented method, for processing information exchanged between a client and server, includes receiving information characterizing requests and responses exchanged between a client and a server. The method includes extracting field names and field values from the information. The method includes, for each hit, creating a name-value element for each field of the display page of the hit. Each name-value element includes a field name of the corresponding field and all the field values of the field found in the request and the one or more responses of the hit. The method includes creating, for each hit, a vector of the name-value elements created for the hit. The method includes, if the requests and responses include multiple hits, specifying an order of the vectors of the respective hits to define a sequence of vectors.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing information exchanged between a client and a server, the method comprising:

receiving information characterizing requests and responses exchanged between a client and a server, the requests and responses including at least one hit, wherein each hit includes one or more responses that collectively specify a display page presented to a user, the responses including all fields of the display page, and wherein each hit further includes a request sent to the server that corresponds to the responses of the hit, the request optionally including fields, the fields of the request all being fields of the display page;

extracting field names and field values from the information characterizing the requests and responses;

for each hit, creating a name-value element for each field of the display page of the hit, each name-value element including a field name of the corresponding field and all the field values of the field found in the request and the one or more responses of the hit, and creating for each hit a vector of the name-value elements created for the hit; and

,

if the requests and responses include multiple hits, specifying an order of the vectors of the respective hits to define a sequence of vectors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the display page is a Web page.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each vector, identifying which fields have been used, changed, or used and changed.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

adding information to each vector to indicate whether a field has been used, changed, or used and changed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving information characterizing requests and responses includes receiving information characterizing requests and responses sent during a first user session.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

comparing the first sequence of vectors with a second sequence of vectors that includes information from a second user session.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

assigning an alias to a field having different field names at different times.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first sequence of vectors is stored as a two-dimensional array, the method further comprising:

performing a database operation on the array.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

analyzing information in the array.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

extracting a page name of a display page from the information characterizing the requests and responses; and

including the page name in a vector that includes field information from the display page.

11. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, for processing information, the product comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

receive information characterizing requests and responses exchanged between a client and a server, the requests and responses including at least one hit, wherein each hit includes one or more responses that collectively specify a display page presented to a user, the responses including all fields of the display page, and wherein each hit further includes a request sent to the server that corresponds to the responses of the hit, the request optionally including fields, the fields of the request all being fields of the display page;

extract field names and field values from the information characterizing the requests and responses;

for each hit, create a name-value element for each field of the display page of the hit, each name-value element including a field name of the corresponding field and all the field values of the field found in the request and the one or more responses of the hit, and creating for each hit a vector of the name-value elements created for the hit; and

,

if the requests and responses include multiple hits, specify an order of the vectors of the respective hits to define a sequence of vectors.

12. The product of claim 11, further comprising instructions to:

determine whether a field has been changed.

13. The product of claim 12, further comprising instructions to:

compare field values of a name-value element to determine whether a field has been changed.

14. The product of claim 11, further comprising instructions to:

determine whether a field has been used.

15. The product of claim 14, further comprising instructions to:

compare field values of a name-value element to determine whether a field has been used.

16. The product of claim 11, further comprising instructions to:

store the vectors as a multi-dimensional array.

17. The product of claim 16, further comprising instructions to:

perform a database operation on the multi-dimensional array.

18. The product of claim 16, further comprising instructions to:

analyze information in the multi-dimensional array.

19. The product of claim 18, wherein:

analyzing includes comparing the information in the multi-dimensional array with information in a second multi-dimensional array that was created from a second user session.

20. The product of claim 11, further comprising instructions to:

assign an alias to a field having different field names at different times.

21. The product of claim 11, further comprising instructions to:

capture requests and responses during the user session.

22. The product of claim 11, further comprising instructions to:

retrieve requests and responses from memory.

23. The product of claim 11, further comprising instructions to:

extract a page name of a display page from the information characterizing the requests and responses; and

include the page name in a vector that includes field information from the display page.