WEB DATA USAGE PLATFORM

• US 20110173636A1
• Filed: 03/25/2011
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lyndersay, Sean O., Pavlicic, Miladin, Kim, Jane T., VonKoch, Walter, Stevens, Warren
• Granted Patent: US 8,595,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/00 Arrangements for software engineering testing or debugging G06F11/36; administrative, planning or organisation aspects of software project management G06Q10/06

Abstract

An application programming interface (API) layer is implemented on a computing device. The API layer allows a local application(s) executing on the computing device to access web data in a data store layer, and further allows a remote application(s) that is executing on some other computing device to access the web data in the data store layer. Additionally, this web data can include web pages, some of which may include structured data and some of which may not include structured data. A web browser is permitted to access the web data store via the object model, and generate a user interface based at least in part on these web pages.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions, that when executed via the one or more processors, implement a web data platform including;

an engine layer configured to identify as collectable and collect web data contained within one or more web pages accessed by a client;

a data store layer to store the collected web data according to an object model that is arranged to represent items, collections, and properties of the collected web data as different objects; and

an application programming interface (API) layer to;

enable interactions of a plurality of applications with the collected web data in the data store layer; and

provide notifications to one or more of the plurality of applications that subscribe to particular web data responsive to identifying a change to the particular web data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the engine layer is further configured to present a visual indication to indicate when collectable web data is contained within the one or more pages.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the engine layer is further configured to detect the collectable web data within page descriptions of the one or more pages.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the data store layer is further configured to store at least some of the web data automatically responsive to identification of the web data by the engine layer.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data store layer is further configured to store at least some of the web data responsive to a selection by a user to cause the web data to be stored.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data store layer is further configured to store web data collected from the one or more web pages as a plurality of collections.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the data store layer is further configured to automatically group web data collected from the one or more web pages into different collections based upon data types of structured data associated with the one or more web pages.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a behavior store layer configured to maintain one or more behaviors that can be invoked via the API layer to interact with the web data, each behavior associated with one or more structured data types and configured to use web data corresponding to the associated structured data types with particular applications for which the behavior is programmed

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the API layer is further configured to enable access to and use of the web data stored in the data layer store by both local applications and remote applications.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the API layer is further configured to enable applications to subscribe to particular web data encountered in the one or more pages.

11. A method, implemented by a computing device having a web data platform including an engine layer, a data store layer, and an API layer, comprising:

identifying via the engine layer web data that is collectable within one or more web pages accessed via the computing device;

collecting via the engine layer the web data from the one or more web pages;

storing the web data in the data store layer, at least some of the web data being configured in a structured data format;

exposing an application programming interface (API) via the API layer configured to enable interactions of a plurality of applications with the web data stored in the data store layer including;

enabling the plurality of applications to subscribe to receive notifications regarding changes to the web data; and

performing actions on the web data responsive to requests from the plurality of application.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating an object model to describe the collected web data, the object model having a plurality of objects that represent and enable access to the web data that is stored in the data store layer of the computing device, the plurality of objects of the object model arranged to represent items, collections, and properties of the collected web data.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising maintaining one or more behaviors in a behavior store layer that can be invoked via the API layer to cause the actions on the web data, each behavior associated with one or more structured data types and configured to use web data corresponding to the associated structured data types with particular applications for which the behavior is programmed

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

ascertaining one or more different data types associated with structured data included with the collected web data;

automatically forming multiple different collections of the web data corresponding to the different data types that are ascertained.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

registering one or more subscribing applications to receive notifications regarding changes to particular web data;

detecting a change to the particular web data;

providing notifications to the one or more subscribing applications responsive to detecting the change to the particular web data.

16. One or more computer readable storage media having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the one or more processors to implement a web browser configured to:

interact with a web data platform including an engine layer, a data store layer, and an API layer;

display a visual indicator that identifies collectable web data detected through operation of the engine layer within a page and is selectable to cause storage of the web data in a web data store of the data layer store;

store, responsive to a selection of the visual indicator, the web data in the web data store of the data store layer; and

enable, via the API layer, applications to access the web data store and invoke one or more behaviors to retrieve and utilize the web data, each behavior associated with one or more structured data types and configured to use web data corresponding to the associated structured data types with particular applications for which the behavior is programmed

17. One or more computer readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the web browser is further configured to display a preview of the collectable web data that is identified within a user interface output to display the page.

18. One or more computer readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein at least some of the collectable web data comprises structured data upon which the one or more behaviors are configured to operate.

19. One or more computer readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the web browser is further configured to:

enable via the API layer one or more subscribing applications to subscribe to particular web data;

detect changes to the particular web data; and

provide notifications to the one or more subscribing applications responsive to detecting the changes to the particular web data.

20. One or more computer readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the web browser is further configured to automatically group web data that is collected in the web data store in different collections, the collections arranged to represent different data types of structured data with the collected web data.