System and method for non-invasive collection of data

• US 20040215715A1
• Filed: 04/28/2003
• Published: 10/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Leah, Robert C., Joshi, Niraj P., Ehrich, Nathanael F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,480,716 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A system and method for non-invasive collection of data is presented. A server segments a web page into regions and sends the segmented web page along with a data collector program to a client in response to receiving a client request. The client displays the web page and loads the data collector program which initiates particular event handlers to monitor user event activity corresponding to the displayed web page. When the user performs a user event, such as moving his mouse into a particular web page region, the data collector program collects user event data and associates the user event data with the particular web page region. When the user event is complete, the data collector program sends the collected user event data to the server.

Claims

1. A method of collecting user event data occurring on a client computer system, said method comprising:

dividing a page of data into a plurality of regions, the page of data adaptable to be displayed by an application running on the client computer system;

sending the page of data to the client computer system over a computer network;

transmitting a data collection program to the client computer system, the data collection program adapted to identify events corresponding to user actions performed on the client computer system and also adapted to identify a region, selected from the plurality of regions, in which the user actions were performed; and

receiving, from the client computer system, the event and the identified region.

2. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the dividing further includes:

inserting in the page of data one or more region identifiers for each of the regions.

3. The method as described in claim 2 further comprising:

identifying the event on the client computer system, the event corresponding to the user action;

retrieving at least one of the region identifiers, the retrieved region identifiers corresponding to a position on the page of data where the user action was performed; and

packaging the identified event and the retrieved region identifiers in a message, wherein the receiving includes receiving the message from the client computer system.

4. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the page of data corresponds to a page format, the page format selected from the group consisting of an HTML format, an XHTML format, a WML format, and an XML format.

5. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the data collection program is adapted to determine whether the user events correspond to selecting a web page and wherein the receiving is performed based upon the determination of the data collector program.

6. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the user actions are selected from the group consisting of a mouse click, a keyboard stroke, a mouse over command, and a mouse out command.

7. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the dividing further comprises:

for each region included in the page of data;

identifying a region starting point in the page of data;

inserting a start tag at the region starting point;

identifying a region ending point in the page of data; and

inserting an end tag at the region ending point.

8. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the data collection program is sent with the page of data.

9. The method as described in claim 1 wherein the user event identification is non-invasive to the user.

10. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory accessible by the processors;

one or more nonvolatile storage devices accessible by the processors; and

a data collection tool to collect user event data occurring on a client computer system, the data collection tool including;

divisional logic for dividing a page of data into a plurality of regions, the page of data adaptable to be displayed by an application running on the client computer system;

transmission logic for sending the page of data to the client computer system over a computer network;

transmission logic for transmitting a data collection program to the client computer system over the computer network, the data collection program adapted to identify events corresponding to user actions performed on the client computer system and also adapted to identify a region, selected from the plurality of regions, in which the user actions were performed; and

reception logic for receiving, from the client computer system, the event and the identified region.

11. The information handling system as described in claim 10 wherein the dividing further includes:

insertion logic for inserting in the page of data one or more region identifiers for each of the regions.

12. The information handling system as described in claim 11 further comprising:

identification logic for identifying the event on the client computer system, the event corresponding to the user action;

retrieval logic for retrieving at least one of the region identifiers, the retrieved region identifiers corresponding to a position on the page of data where the user action was performed; and

packaging logic for packaging the identified event and the retrieved region identifiers in a message, wherein the receiving includes receiving the message from the client computer system.

13. The information handling system as described in claim 10 wherein the data collection program is adapted to determine whether the user events correspond to selecting a web page and wherein the receiving is performed based upon the determination of the data collector program.

14. The information handling system as described in claim 10 wherein the dividing further comprises:

for each region included in the page of data;

identification logic for identifying a region starting point in the page of data;

insertion logic for inserting a start tag at the region starting point;

identification logic for identifying a region ending point in the page of data; and

insertion logic for inserting an end tag at the region ending point.

15. A computer program product stored on a computer operable media for collecting user event data, said computer program product comprising:

means for dividing a page of data into a plurality of regions, the page of data adaptable to be displayed by an application running on the client computer system;

means for sending the page of data to the client computer system over a computer network;

means for transmitting a data collection program to the client computer system, the data collection program adapted to identify events corresponding to user actions performed on the client computer system and also adapted to identify a region, selected from the plurality of regions, in which the user actions were performed; and

means for receiving, from the client computer system, the event and the identified region.

16. The computer program product as described in claim 15 wherein the dividing further includes:

means for inserting in the page of data one or more region identifiers for each of the regions.

17. The computer program product as described in claim 16 further comprising:

means for identifying the event on the client computer system, the event corresponding to the user action;

means for retrieving at least one of the region identifiers, the retrieved region identifiers corresponding to a position on the page of data where the user action was performed; and

means for packaging the identified event and the retrieved region identifiers in a message, wherein the receiving includes receiving the message from the client computer system.

18. The computer program product as described in claim 15 wherein the page of data corresponds to a page format, the page format selected from the group consisting of an HTML format, an XHTML format, a WML format, and an XML format.

19. The computer program product as described in claim 15 wherein the data collection program is adapted to determine whether the user events correspond to selecting a web page and wherein the receiving is performed based upon the determination of the data collector program.

20. The computer program product as described in claim 15 wherein the user actions are selected from the group consisting of a mouse click, a keyboard stroke, a mouse over command, and a mouse out command.

21. The computer program product as described in claim 15 wherein the dividing further comprises:

for each region included in the page of data;

means for identifying a region starting point in the page of data;

means for inserting a start tag at the region starting point;

means for identifying a region ending point in the page of data; and

means for inserting an end tag at the region ending point.

22. The computer program product as described in claim 15 wherein the data collection program is sent with the page of data.

23. The computer program product as described in claim 15 wherein the user event identification is non-invasive to the user.

24. A method of collecting user event data occurring on a client computer system, said method comprising:

dividing a page of data into a plurality of regions, the page of data adaptable to be displayed by an application running on the client computer system, the dividing further comprising;

inserting in the page of data one or more region identifiers for each region, the region identifier identifying a boundary of each region;

sending the page of data to the client computer system over a computer network;

transmitting a data collection program to the client computer system, the data collection program adapted to identify events corresponding to user actions performed by a user of the client computer system that do not correspond to selecting a web page and also adapted to identify the region identifiers corresponding to the region, selected from the plurality of regions, in which the user actions were performed; and

receiving, from the client computer system, the event and the region identifiers.

25. A computer program/product stored on a computer operable media for collecting user event data, said computer program product comprising:

means for dividing a page of data into a plurality of regions, the page of data adaptable to be displayed by an application running on the client computer system, the dividing further comprising;

means for inserting in the page of data one or more region identifiers for each region, the region identifier identifying a boundary of each region;

means for sending the page of data to the client computer system over a computer network;

means for transmitting a data collection program to the client computer system, the data collection program adapted to identify events corresponding to user actions performed by a user of the client computer system that do not correspond to selecting a web page and also adapted to identify the region identifiers corresponding to the region, selected from the plurality of regions, in which the user actions were performed; and

means for receiving, from the client computer system, the event and the region identifiers.