Method and system for using vectors of data structures for extracting information from web pages of remotely monitored devices

• US 20040128365A1
• Filed: 12/26/2002
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro, Fong, Avery
• Granted Patent: US 7,500,003 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3347 using vector based model
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

In a communication system having one or more monitored devices communicatively coupled to a monitoring system, a method of obtaining status information of a monitored device is described. The method includes creating a communication session using HTTP protocol with the monitored device, ii) accessing a web page of the monitored device in order, to obtain information displayed on the web page, iii) parsing the displayed information using a first and second data structure vectors in order to obtain the status information of the monitored device, and iv) closing the communication session upon parsing all the information displayed on the web page or upon obtaining desired status information.

Claims

1. In a communication system having one or more monitored devices communicatively coupled to a monitoring system, a method of obtaining status information of a monitored device comprising:

i) creating a communication session using HTTP protocol with the monitored device;

ii) accessing a web page of the monitored device in order to obtain information displayed on the web page;

iii) parsing the displayed information using a first and second data structure vectors in order to obtain the status information of the monitored device; and

iv) closing the communication session upon parsing all the information displayed on the web page or upon obtaining desired status information.

2. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

iterating steps i)-iv) for multiple web pages of the monitored device.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein:

the parsing step is performed, using first and second data structure vectors to locate and obtain information from the web page of the monitored device, for one line of displayed information at a time.

4. The method as in claim 1, further comprises:

identifying a key from information displayed on the web page; and

identifying a value corresponding to the key.

5. The method as in claim 4, wherein the step of identifying the value is performed using a plurality of fields of an element of said first and second data structure vectors.

6. The method as in claim 5, wherein:

the plurality of fields of the element of said first data structure vector include nPosition, sDelimiter, and nInLinePosition fields; and

the plurality of fields of the element of said second data structure vector include nCounter and bValueObtained fields.

7. The method as in claim 4, wherein:

the step of identifying the key is performed using data from a first field of said first data structure vector; and

the step of identifying the corresponding value is performed by using data from a plurality of fields of an element of said first and second data structure vectors.

8. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

providing a one-to-one correspondence between elements of said first and second data structure vectors.

9. The method as in claim 8, further comprising:

adding information corresponding to a key and a value to a map having information about the monitored device, if the value corresponding to the key is obtained from a parsed line of information from the web page.

10. A method of obtaining information from a monitored device comprising:

i) accessing the monitored device using an HTTP protocol;

ii) retrieving information displayed on a web page of the monitored device;

iii) parsing the displayed information using a first and second data structure vectors in order to locate an identifier from the retrieved information; and

iv) searching for a value corresponding to the identifier from the retrieved information.

11. The method as in claim 10, further comprising:

iterating steps iii) and iv) for each line of information displayed on the web page or until desired information is obtained from the web page.

12. The method as in claim 10, wherein

the step of parsing is performed for each line of displayed information and for each element of said first and second data structure vectors.

13. The method as in claim 10, wherein

the step of searching for a value is performed using information located in a plurality of fields of an element of said first and second data structure vectors.

14. The method as in claim 13, wherein:

the plurality of fields of the element of said first data structure vector include nPosition, sDelimiter, and nInLinePosition fields; and

the plurality of fields of the element of said second data structure vector include nCounter and bValueObtained fields.

15. The method as in claim 10, wherein

the step of parsing the displayed information to locate the identifier is performed using data from a first field of said first data structure vector;

and

the step of identifying the value corresponding to the first identifier is performed using data from a plurality of fields of an element of said first and second data structure vectors.

16. The method as in claim 10, further comprising:

providing a one-to-one correspondence between elements of said first and second data structure vectors.

17. The method as in claim 16, further comprising:

adding information corresponding to the identifier and the value corresponding to the identifier to a map having information about the monitored device, if the value corresponding to the identifier is obtained from parsed information from the web page.

18. In a communication system having one or more monitored devices communicatively coupled to a monitoring system, a method of obtaining information from a web page of a monitored device comprising:

retrieving information displayed on the web page;

parsing the displayed information using a first and second data structure vectors, wherein the parsing step is performed in order to locate a key and a corresponding value from the retrieved information; and

setting vector iterators corresponding to said first and second data structure vectors to the beginning of said first and second data structure vectors.

19. The method as in claim 18, further comprising:

performing the parsing step until the vector iterator is at the end of respective first and second data structure vectors; and

incrementing the vector iterators to point to a next element of said first and second data structure vectors.

20. The method as in claim 19, further comprising:

obtaining a value, corresponding to the key, using information located in a plurality of fields of an element of said first and second data structure vectors.

21. The method as in claim 20, further comprising:

updating a counter and incrementing vector iterators to point to a next element of said first and second data structure vectors if a value corresponding to the key cannot be obtained from a line of displayed information from the web page.

22. The method as in claim 21, further comprising:

adding information related to the key and a corresponding value to a map having information about the monitored device if the corresponding value is obtained from a line of displayed information from the web page.

23. A method of obtaining information from a web page of a monitored device, comprising:

i) reading information displayed on the web page;

ii) parsing the read information;

iii) determining a key and corresponding value information, using each element of a first and second data structure vectors, for each line of information displayed on the web page; and

iv) removing an element from each of said first and second data structure vectors if a key and a corresponding value information are found for the element.

24. The method as in claim 23, further comprising:

iterating steps ii) to iv) for each line of information displayed on the web page until all values of information corresponding to the key are obtained.

25. The method as in claim 24, further comprising:

determining key and value information for all elements of said first and second data structure vectors.

26. The method as in claim 24, further comprising:

providing a one-to-one correspondence between said first and second data structure vectors.

27. The method as in claim 26, further comprising:

adding information corresponding to the key and a corresponding value to a map having information about the monitored device if the corresponding value is obtained from the parsed information.

28. In a communication system having one or more monitored devices communicatively coupled to a monitoring system, an apparatus for obtaining status information of a monitored device comprises:

means for creating a communication session using HTTP protocol with the monitored device;

means for accessing a web page of the monitored device in order to obtain information displayed on the web page;

means for parsing the displayed information using a first and second data structure vectors in order to obtain the status information of the monitored device; and

means for closing the communication session upon parsing all the information displayed on the web page or upon obtaining desired status information.

29. In a communication system having one or more monitored devices communicatively coupled to a monitoring system, an apparatus for obtaining information from a monitored device comprises:

means for accessing the monitored device using an HTTP protocol;

means for retrieving information displayed on a web page of the monitored device;

means for parsing the displayed information using a first and second data structure vectors in order to locate an identifier from the retrieved information; and

means for searching for a value corresponding to the identifier from the retrieved information.

30. An apparatus for obtaining information from a web page of a monitored device, comprising:

means for reading information displayed on a web page of the monitored device;

means for parsing the read information;

means for determining a key and corresponding value information, using each element of a first and second data structure vectors, for each line of information displayed on the web page; and

means for removing an element from each of said first and second data structure vectors if a key and a corresponding value information are found for the element.

31. A computer program product having a computer readable medium for obtaining information from a monitored device, comprising:

logic for reading information displayed on a web page of the monitored device;

logic for parsing the read information;

logic for determining a key and corresponding value information, using each element of a first and second data structure vectors, for each line of information displayed on the web page; and

logic for removing an element from each of said first and second data structure vectors if a key and a corresponding value information are found for the element.

32. A method of obtaining status information of a device, comprising:

i) creating a communication session using HTTP protocol with the device;

ii) accessing a web page of the device in order to obtain information displayed on a web page of the device;

iii) parsing information obtained from the web page using a first and second data structure vectors; and

iv) closing the communication session upon parsing all the information displayed on the web page or upon obtaining desired status information.