GENERIC XML SCREEN SCRAPING

• US 20090089742A1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Data Services Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: NAGULU, Sreeramamurthy, Kuriakose, Sijo
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,626 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A method may include creating an Extensible Markup Language (XML) instruction file based on screen shots of a host system, providing the XML instruction file to a screen scraper program, executing screen scraping operations based on the XML instruction file, and outputting a user interface file based on the screen scraping operations that corresponds to extracted data output from the host system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating an Extensible Markup Language (XML) instruction file based on screen shots of a host system;

providing the XML instruction file to a screen scraper program;

executing screen scraping operations, provided by the screen scraper program, based on the XML instruction file; and

outputting a user interface file based on the screen scraping operations that corresponds to extracted data output by the host system.

2. The method of claim 1, where the providing comprises:

storing the XML instruction file on a client device.

3. The method of claim 1, where the executing comprises:

parsing the XML instruction file into XML document objects.

4. The method of claim 1, where the executing comprises:

utilizing XML tags to generate the screen scraping operations.

5. The method of claim 1, where the executing comprises:

executing screen scraping operations corresponding to XML conditional and XML loop statements contained in the XML instruction file.

6. The method of claim 1, where the executing comprises:

reading data from a screen of the host system and utilizing that data as input to scrape another screen.

7. The method of claim 1, where the executing comprises:

executing screen scraping operations based on at least one of an IF statement, a WHILE loop, a DO-WHILE loop, a FOR loop, or a SWITCH statement contained in the XML instruction file.

8. The method of claim 1, where the outputting comprises:

converting the extracted data to an XML format; and

utilizing an XML Output file as a user interface on the host device.

9. A computer-readable memory device containing instructions executable by at least one processor, the computer-readable memory device comprising:

one or more instructions to establish a connection with a host device;

one or more instructions to access an Extensible Markup Language (XML) instruction file;

one or more instructions to screen scrape the host device based on the XML instruction file; and

one or more instructions to convert extracted data from the host device to an XML format.

10. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, where the one or more instructions to establish comprise:

one or more instructions to provide emulation for accessing a host application of the host device.

11. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, where the one or more instructions to screen scrape comprise:

one or more instructions to parse the XML instruction file.

12. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, where the one or more instructions to screen scrape comprise:

one or more instructions to interpret XML tags as a screen scraping operation.

13. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, where the one or more instructions to screen scrape comprise:

one or more instructions to interpret at least one of an XML IF statement, an XML WHILE loop statement, an XML DO-WHILE loop statement, an XML FOR loop, or an XML SWITCH statement; and

one or more instructions to perform a screen scraping operation corresponding to the at least one of the XML IF statement, the XML WHILE loop statement, the XML DO-WHILE loop statement, the XML FOR loop, or the XML SWITCH statement.

14. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, where the one or more instructions to screen scrape comprise:

one or more instructions to screen scrape based on conditional and loop statements contained in the XML instruction file.

15. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, where the one or more instructions to screen scrape comprise:

one or more instructions to verify that a screen scraping operation is accurate based on an XML tag contained in the XML instruction file.

16. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, where the one or more instructions to screen scrape comprise:

one or more instructions to read from and write to the host device based on an XML read tag and an XML write tag.

17. The computer-readable memory device of claim 9, where the one or more instructions to convert comprise:

one or more instructions to generate an XML file that provides a user interface to the host device based on the extracted data.

18. A device comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to;

establish a screen scraping session with a host device;

interpret an Extensible Markup Language (XML) instruction file stored in the memory;

execute a screen scraping dialog with the host device based on the interpreted XML instruction file; and

generate an output file that provides a user interface to the host device based on the screen scraping dialog.

19. The device of claim 18, where the processor further executes instructions to:

emulate a keystroke based on an XML command tag.

20. The device of claim 18, where the processor further executes instructions to:

execute a debugging procedure based on an XML status tag.

21. The device of claim 18, where the processor further executes instructions to:

execute a read and a write based on an XML read tag and an XML write tag.

22. The device of claim 18, where the processor further executes instructions to:

execute at least one of a loop or a condition based on an XML loop tag or an XML conditional tag.

23. The device of claim 18, where the processor further executes instructions to:

convert extracted data to XML; and

assemble the XML to form an XML output file.

24. A system, comprising:

one or more devices to;

receive screen scraping operation based on an Extensible Markup Language (XML) instruction file provided in a screen scraping program;

output extracted data based on the screen scraping operations for generating a user interface file.

25. The system of claim 24, where the screen scraping program interprets XML tags to perform a corresponding screen scrape operation.