Integrated method for creating a refreshable web query

• US 20060053383A1
• Filed: 10/19/2005
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gauthier, Matthew Charles, Verprauskus, Andy, Jacques, Richard, Chen, Wentao, Inbar, Yaniv, Murray, Tyson
• Granted Patent: US 7,512,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

The present invention allows a user to graphically create a refreshable Web Query by selecting tabular data displayed in a Web page. When the user invokes the refreshable Web Query command, an Internet browser module is launched within a Web Query dialog box open in the spreadsheet program. The user then graphically selects at least one instance of tabular data to import to the spreadsheet program. The invention also makes Web queries more accessible to a user and is embedded in a software utility, known as a Web query Smart Tag (WQST) utility. The WQST utility allows a user to create Web queries directly from an Internet browser module in one of several methods.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for editing a tabular data object displayed in a Web page open in a Web browser program in a spreadsheet program, the method comprising:

receiving a user command to edit the tabular data object displayed in the Web page;

determining whether the Web page was created using the spreadsheet program;

if the determination is made the Web page was created using the spreadsheet program, performing a first sequence comprising;

launching the spreadsheet program; and

pasting the tabular data object to the spreadsheet program so that it may be edited;

if the determination is made the Web page was not created using the spreadsheet program, performing a second sequence comprising;

launching the spreadsheet program; and

opening a Web query dialog box in the spreadsheet program, wherein the Web query dialog box is loaded with the Web page displayed in the Web browser program;

receiving a user command selecting the tabular data to edit in the Web page displayed within the Web Query dialog box; and

pasting the tabular data object selected in the Web Query dialog box to the spreadsheet program so that it may be edited.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the Web browser program is the MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 5.0 browser program and wherein the spreadsheet program is the MICROSOFT EXCEL 2002 spreadsheet program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user command to edit the tabular data object displayed in the Web page is an “

Edit with Microsoft Excel”

command displayed on a drop-down Edit menu associated with the MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 5.0 browser program.

4. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having control logic stored therein for causing a computer to edit a tabular data object displayed in a Web page open in a Web browser program in a spreadsheet program, the control logic comprising computer-readable program code for causing the computer to:

receive a user command to edit the tabular data object displayed in the Web page;

determine whether the Web page was created using the spreadsheet program;

if the determination is made the Web page was created using the spreadsheet program, perform a first sequence causing the computer to;

launch the spreadsheet program; and

paste the tabular data object to the spreadsheet program so that it may be edited;

if the determination is made the Web page was not created using the spreadsheet program, perform a second sequence for causing the computer to;

launch the spreadsheet program; and

open a Web query dialog box in the spreadsheet program, wherein the Web query dialog box is loaded with the Web page displayed in the Web browser program;

receive a user command selecting the tabular data to edit in the Web page displayed within the Web Query dialog box; and

paste the tabular data object selected in the Web Query dialog box to the spreadsheet program so that it may be edited.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the Web browser program is a MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 5.0 browser program and wherein the spreadsheet program is a MICROSOFT EXCEL 2002 spreadsheet program.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the user command to edit the tabular data object displayed in the Web page is an “

Edit with Microsoft Excel”

command displayed on a drop-down Edit menu associated with the MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 5.0 browser program.

7. A computer readable medium accessible to a computing system and on which is encoded a computer program for executing a computer process for creating a Web query in a spreadsheet program directly from a Web browser application program using a context menu, the computer process comprising:

displaying a Web page in the Web browser application program window;

placing a pointing device within the Web browser application program window receiving a user command to activate the context menu in the Web browser application program;

determining whether the pointing device is located over at least one of a predefined set of objects in the first electronic file;

if the pointing device is not located over at least one of the predefined set of objects then do not display the context menu;

if the pointing device is located over at least one of the predefined set of objects then performing a first sequence, comprising;

displaying a command button in the context menu;

determining whether the command button in the context menu was selected;

if the command button in the context menu was selected, determining whether the pointing device is located over the tabular data;

if the pointing device is located over the tabular data, then performing a second sequence comprising;

launching the spreadsheet program;

creating a Web query in the spreadsheet program associated with the tabular data object in the Web page;

if the pointing device is not located over the tabular data object in the Web page, determining whether the pointing device is located over at least one of a predefined set of objects in the Web page;

if the pointing device is not located over at least one of the predefined objects, then performing a third sequence, comprising;

launching the spreadsheet program; and

opening a dialog box in the spreadsheet program, wherein the web browser application program is running within the dialog box so that the user may select a tabular data object to copy to the spreadsheet program.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the predefined objects are selected form the group consisting essentially of an image, a form control, a text selection, and an anchor.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the Web browser application program is the MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER 5.0 browser application program and wherein in the spreadsheet application program is the MICROSOFT EXCEL 2002 spreadsheet application program.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the command button on the context menu is the Export to Microsoft Excel command button.