System and method for dynamically updating web page displays

• US 20060184869A1
• Filed: 02/17/2005
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twitter Inc (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tiffany, Barbara Q.
• Granted Patent: US 7,698,632 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A system and method for dynamically updating a web page display. Web pages modification is accomplished by receiving a uniform resource locator (URL) message having embedded application parameters, selecting desired portions of the application parameters, modifying the web page with the selected portions, and displaying the modified web page to the user. Application parameters may be search criteria used to find the search results, and the search criteria may be displayed along with the search results. The search results may include a number of entries each having an entry name and corresponding information location. A serial list of entries is received and a web page listing the entry names in an organized fashion is dynamically created. Hyperlinks between each entry name and its corresponding information location are then created, which allows information at the information location to be displayed when the corresponding entry name is selected.

Claims

1. A web page modification system for dynamically creating and displaying lists of entries each having an entry name and corresponding information location, the entries received in a response from a remote computing device, the web page modification system comprising:

an entry extractor adapted to receive the response and identify a plurality of entries in the response from the remote computing device; and

a page modifier coupled to the entry extractor, the page modifier adapted to;

receive the response from the remote computing device;

receive the plurality of identified entries;

create a modified web page from the plurality of identified entries, their entry names, information locations and the remote computing device response; and

add a link to each entry name in the modified web page causing information at an information location corresponding to the entry name to be displayed when the entry name is selected.

2. The web page modification system of claim 1 further comprising a calculation unit coupled to the entry extractor and page modifier, the calculation unit adapted to:

determine a number of entries of the plurality of enties identified by the entry extractor;

determine a number of entry names to be displayed per web page from the number of identified entries;

identify a format in which to display the entry names; and

provide the number of entries to be displayed per web page, and the format in which to display the entry names to the page modifier to be used in creating the modified web page.

3. The web page modification system of claim 1, further comprising:

an input device for interacting with a user to provide input to the web page modification system;

a display device for displaying to a user, information provided to the display device; and

a browser coupled to the input device and the display device, the remote computing device and the page modifier, the browser adapted to;

receive input from the input device indicating application parameters and a uniform resource locator (URL) for the remote computing device;

create a URL message from the application parameters and the URL;

send the URL message to the remote computing device indicated in the URL message; and

display web pages provided to the browser by the page modifier onto the display device.

4. The web page modification system of claim 3, further comprising a parser coupled to the browser and the page modifier, the parser adapted to:

receive the URL message having application parameters therein from the browser;

identify the application parameters in the URL message; and

provide the application parameters to the page modifier, the page modifier adapted to merge the application parameters into the modified web page causing the application parameters to be displayed.

5. A method of creating a modified web page from a web page that was acquired in response to a URL message having a uniform resource locator (URL) indicating a remote computing device, the URL message also having application parameters, the method comprising:

acquiring the URL message;

copying at least a portion of the application parameters from the URL message;

sending the URL message to the remote computing device indicated by the URL;

receiving the web page returned from the remote computing device;

embedding the copied portions of the application parameters into the received web page to create a modified web page; and

displaying the modified web page.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the application parameters are search criteria.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the computing device is a back end.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein said acquiring the URL message comprises:

interacting with a user to identify the URL of the remote computing device;

interacting with a user to define application parameters; and

creating the URL message from the URL and the application parameters.

9. The method of claim 5, the method further comprising before said displaying:

identifying a plurality of entries each having an entry name and a corresponding information location in the acquired web page;

counting the web entries to result in an entry total;

determining from the entry total, a maximum number of entry names per column to be displayed being a column maximum, and a maximum number of entries per page, being a page maximum;

modifying the acquired web page to display up to the page maximum entries in a columnar form, having a defined number of columns, with each column having up to the column maximum number of entry names per column; and

modifying the acquired web page to link the plurality of entry names with their corresponding information locations, such that when an entry name is selected, information at the corresponding information location is displayed.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the defined number of columns is predefined.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the defined number of columns is user-defined.

12. A method of automatically providing a columnar display having a desired number of columns of a list of entries, each having an entry name and a corresponding information location, the method comprising:

receiving the list of entries;

counting the entries to result in an entry total;

determining from the entry total, a maximum number of entries to be displayed on a web page being a page maximum;

determining a maximum number of entry names to be displayed per column from the maximum number of entries to be displayed per page and the desired number of columns to result in a column maximum;

displaying up to the maximum number of entry names to be displayed per web page in a columnar form, with each column having up to the column maximum number of entry names; and

creating links from a plurality of entry names to each of their corresponding information locations, such that when an entry name is selected, the information at its corresponding information location is displayed.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the desired number of columns is predefined.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the desired number of columns is user-defined.

15. A method of remotely providing computer services to a remote user as a columnar display with a desired number of columns of a list of entries, each entry having an entry name and a corresponding information location, the method comprising:

interacting with a remote user to identify search criteria;

acquiring entries matching the search criteria, each entry having an entry name and an information location;

counting the identified entries to result in an entry total;

determining from the entry total, a maximum number of entries per page being a page maximum, and a maximum number of entries per column being a column maximum;

displaying the entry names in a columnar form to a remote user, with each column having up to the column maximum number of entry names per column; and

creating links from a plurality of entry names to their corresponding information locations such that when a remote user selects an entry name, information at the information location is displayed to the remote user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the desired number of columns is predefined.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the desired number of columns is defined through interaction with the remote user.

18. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for creating a modified web page from a web page that was acquired in response to a URL message having a uniform resource locator (URL) indicating a remote computing device, the URL message also having application parameters, said computer readable program code including an algorithm adapted to:

acquire the URL message;

copy portions of the application parameters from the URL message;

send the URL message to the remote computing device indicated by the URL;

receive the web page returned from the remote computing device;

embed the copied portions of the application parameters into the received web page to create a modified web page; and

display the modified web page.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the application parameters are search criteria.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computing device is a back end.

21. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computing device is further adapted to:

interact with a user to identify the URL of the remote computing device;

interact with a user to define application parameters; and

merge the URL and the application parameters into the URL message.

22. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computing device is further adapted to:

identify a plurality of entries each having an entry name and a corresponding information location in the acquired web page;

count the web entries to result in an entry total;

determine from the entry total, a maximum number of entry names per column to be displayed being a column maximum, and a maximum number of entries per page, being a page maximum;

modify the acquired web page to display up to the page maximum entries in a columnar form, having a defined number of columns, with each column having up to the column maximum number of entry names per column; and

modify the acquired web page to link the plurality of entry names with their corresponding information locations, such that when an entry name is selected, information at the corresponding information location is displayed.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the defined number of columns is predefined.

24. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the defined number of columns is user-defined.