Method for data gathering around forms and search barriers
First Claim
1. A method for gathering data around forms in a wrapper program for accessing semistructured information, each form having zero or more fields, each field having one or more possible field values, comprising the steps of:
- computing a plurality of combinations for all field values in a particular form;
for a particular combination in said plurality of combinations, submitting said particular form with said particular combination of field values;
providing the results returned from the submitting step for further processing.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
According to the invention, methods for gathering data around forms having one or more fields, enabling a wrapper program to extract semistructured information by determining combinations of values for fields associated with particular forms; submitting the particular forms repeatedly for all combinations of interest and providing the results returned for further processing. In select embodiments, the combinations of values for fields is a Cartesian product of the possible values for the fields. Values to be submitted in the form fields may be specified by using a programming language such as Site Description Language (SDL) or Java.
-
Citations
38 Claims
-
1. A method for gathering data around forms in a wrapper program for accessing semistructured information, each form having zero or more fields, each field having one or more possible field values, comprising the steps of:
-
computing a plurality of combinations for all field values in a particular form; for a particular combination in said plurality of combinations, submitting said particular form with said particular combination of field values; providing the results returned from the submitting step for further processing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method for indexing data around forms in a wrapper program for accessing semistructured information, each form having zero or more fields, each field having one or more possible field values, comprising the steps of:
-
computing a plurality of combinations for all field values in a particular form; for a particular combination in said plurality of combinations, submitting said particular form with said particular combination of field values; providing the results returned from the submitting step for further processing. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. A method for specifying a wrapper program for accessing semistructured information from a plurality of forms, each form having one or more fields, each field having one or more possible field values, comprising the steps of:
-
specifying an identity of a particular form in said plurality of forms; specifying a plurality of input values for said one or more fields of said particular form; specifying a variable for storing a plurality of data returned from submission of said particular form with said plurality of input values for said one or more fields. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
-
Specification