Web Clip Using Anchoring

• US 20080307301A1
• Filed: 06/08/2007
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Sullivan, John, Harrison, David, Decker, Kevin
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,846 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/241
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

Methods, computer program products, systems and data structures for generating a signature for a portion or portions of a content source are described. The signature can be generated by identifying a portion or portions of a content source, and determining a signature that defines the portion or portions. If the source is updated, the signature can be retrieved and compared to elements in the updated source. If an element in the updated source matches information included in the signature, content corresponding to the matching element is displayed.

Claims

1. A method comprising

identifying a portion of a structure of a document;

determining a signature associated with the portion; and

storing the signature.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining one or more key elements in the portion and where determining a signature includes determining a signature that defines the key elements.

3. The method of claim 1, where identifying a portion of a structure of a document includes identifying one or more structural elements in the structure;

and

where determining a signature associated with the portion includes determining a signature that defines one or more of the identified elements.

4. The method of claim 3, where identifying one or more structural elements in the structure includes determining a boundary associated with each structural element and selecting a structural element that meets a predetermined boundary criteria,

where determining a signature includes determining a signature that defines the structural element.

5. The method of claim 3, where identifying one or more structural elements in the structure includes:

determining a spatial extent of a boundary associated with each structural element and selecting a structural element that meets a predetermined spatial extent criteria; and

determining a signature includes determining a signature that defines the structural element.

6. The method of claim 3, where identifying one or more structural elements in the structure includes:

determining a visible region associated with each structural element and selecting a structural element that meets a predetermined visibility criteria; and

determining a signature includes determining a signature that defines the structural element.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to display the portion of the document;

retrieving the signature;

retrieving an updated version of the document;

determining a portion of the updated version of the document that corresponds to the signature; and

presenting the portion from the updated version of the document in a user interface.

8. The method of claim 7, where retrieving an updated version of the document includes accessing a document object model associated with the updated version of the document, the document object model having one or more nodes and subtrees, and

where determining a portion of the updated version of the document that corresponds to the signature includes:

comparing the nodes and subtrees with the signature; and

identifying the portion based on the comparison.

9. The method of claim 10, where displaying the corresponding key element in the portion includes:

determining an offset between the key element in the document and the corresponding key element in the updated version of the document; and

displaying the corresponding key element with the offset.

10. The method of claim 7, where retrieving the signature includes identifying a key element in the signature,

where determining a portion of the updated version of the document includes comparing the key element to elements in the updated version of the document to locate a corresponding key element in the updated version of the document, and

where presenting the portion from the updated version of the document includes displaying the corresponding key element in the portion.

11. The method of claim 1, where identifying a portion of a structure of a document includes identifying one or more structural elements in the structure and selecting at least one identified element as a matching element;

and

where determining a signature associated with the portion includes determining a signature that defines the matching element.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a request to display the portion of the document;

retrieving the signature;

retrieving an updated version of the document;

identifying one or more structural elements in the updated version of the document;

comparing the matching element to the one or more structural elements in the updated version of the document to locate a corresponding matching element in the updated version of the document; and

presenting the matching element includes displaying the corresponding matching element in a user interface.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the signature includes physical information associated with the portion.

14. The method of claim 1, where identifying a portion of a structure of a document includes identifying one or more elements that indicate the presence of a structure.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the structure includes one of a document section, table, graph, chart or image.

16. The method of claim 3, where identifying one or more structural elements in the structure includes retrieving structural information from a document object model associated with the document.

17. The method of claim 3, where identifying one or more structural elements in the structure includes:

assigning one or more weighted values to each structural element based on one or more conditions, the weighted values indicating a rank relative to other structural elements;

generating a score for each structural element based on the assigned weighted values;

selecting a structural element with a predetermined score as a matching element, and

where determining a signature that defines one or more of the identified elements includes determining a signature for the matching element.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the conditions include one of a boundary size, a spatial extent, and a visible region of a structure element.

19. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

identify a portion of a structure of a document;

determine a signature associated with the portion; and

store the signature.

20. A system comprising:

means for identifying a portion of a structure of a document;

means for determining a signature associated with the portion; and

means for storing the signature.