Distributed-client change-detection tool with change-detection augmented by multiple clients
First Claim
1. A change-detection server for coordinating detection of changes in web pages by a plurality of clients, the change-detection server comprising:
- a network connection for transmitting and receiving packets from a plurality of remote clients and a remote web-page server;
a responder, coupled to the network connection, for communicating with the plurality of remote clients, the responder registering a web page for change detection by receiving from a remote client in the plurality of remote clients a uniform-resource-locator (URL) identifying the web page;
an application downloader, responsive to the responder, for downloading a change-detection application to the remote client when the web page is registered by the remote client, the change-detection application periodically re-fetching the web page from the remote web-page server by transmitting the URL from the remote client directly to the remote web-page server;
a scheduler, responsive to the responder, for generating an assigned time for the remote client to re-fetch the web page, the assigned time downloaded to the remote client during registration;
a server database, coupled to the responder-scheduler, for receiving the URL from the responder-scheduler and for receiving the assigned time from the scheduler after the web page is registered by the remote client, the server database for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL and a plurality of assigned times;
a client keeper on the change-detection server, coupled to the server database and the network connection, for receiving change notices from the plurality of remote clients, a detection notice generated by the change-detection application on the remote client when the web page re-fetched from the web-page server does not match an archived web page; and
a notifier on the change-detection server, coupled to the client keeper and the server database, for generating change notices to all remote clients having registered the web page that generated the detection notice,whereby all remote clients are notified of a change when change-detection applications in the plurality of remote clients detects a change, and whereby the change-detection server assigns times for change detection by the plurality of remote clients.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A distributed-client change-detection tool detects changes in Internet web-page documents on the world-wide-web. To register a web page for change detection with a change-detection server, a user specifies the web page'"'"'s URL. A client-side change-detection application is downloaded to the user'"'"'s client from the change-detection server. The server assigns a date and time for the client to perform change detection. At the assigned time and date, the client fetches a new copy of the web page and compares it to an archived copy to detect changes. When the client detects a change, it sends a notification with the URL to the server. The server verifies that the change has not already been reported by another user'"'"'s client and then notifies all users of the registered web page. As more users are registered for a web page, change detection is performed more frequently. The most popular pages with tens of thousands of registered users are checked every few minutes. Each user is notified within minutes of any changes in the registered web page, even though any one user only performs change-detection once a month. Checksums rather than entire web pages can be stored and compared to reduce storage requirements at the server. The change-detection server performs its own change-detection for less popular web pages. More popular web pages are checked more frequently using the additional client resources of the users.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A change-detection server for coordinating detection of changes in web pages by a plurality of clients, the change-detection server comprising:
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a network connection for transmitting and receiving packets from a plurality of remote clients and a remote web-page server; a responder, coupled to the network connection, for communicating with the plurality of remote clients, the responder registering a web page for change detection by receiving from a remote client in the plurality of remote clients a uniform-resource-locator (URL) identifying the web page; an application downloader, responsive to the responder, for downloading a change-detection application to the remote client when the web page is registered by the remote client, the change-detection application periodically re-fetching the web page from the remote web-page server by transmitting the URL from the remote client directly to the remote web-page server;
a scheduler, responsive to the responder, for generating an assigned time for the remote client to re-fetch the web page, the assigned time downloaded to the remote client during registration;a server database, coupled to the responder-scheduler, for receiving the URL from the responder-scheduler and for receiving the assigned time from the scheduler after the web page is registered by the remote client, the server database for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL and a plurality of assigned times; a client keeper on the change-detection server, coupled to the server database and the network connection, for receiving change notices from the plurality of remote clients, a detection notice generated by the change-detection application on the remote client when the web page re-fetched from the web-page server does not match an archived web page; and a notifier on the change-detection server, coupled to the client keeper and the server database, for generating change notices to all remote clients having registered the web page that generated the detection notice, whereby all remote clients are notified of a change when change-detection applications in the plurality of remote clients detects a change, and whereby the change-detection server assigns times for change detection by the plurality of remote clients. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computer-implemented method for change detection of a web page by distributed clients coordinated by a server that notifies users of change, the method comprising the steps of:
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registering the web page by; receiving an address of a remote client operated by a user and a locator for the web page; fetching the web page from a remote server by transmitting the locator to a network server; downloading a change-detection application from the server to the remote client; transmitting an assigned time for the remote client to perform change detection of the web page using the change-detection application; storing the web page, the locator, the assigned time, and the address of the user in a server database; at the assigned time, the remote client checks to determine if a change has occurred by; reading the locator from a client database in the change-detection application and transmitting the locator to remote server to fetch a recent copy of the web page; comparing the recent copy of the web page to an archived copy of the web page in the client database; generating a detection notice to the server when the recent copy differs substantially from the archived copy; signaling that a change is detected to other users with addresses stored in the server database associated with the locator for the web page when the detection notice is received by the server, whereby the remote clients perform change detection at times assigned by the server. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer-program product comprising:
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a computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code means embodied therein for detecting changes in a web page, the computer-readable program code means in the computer-program product comprising; network connection means for transmitting and receiving packets from a remote client and a remote web page server; responder-scheduler means, coupled to the network connection means, for communicating with the remote client, the responder-scheduler means registering web pages for change detection by receiving from the remote client a uniform-resource-locator (URL) identifying the web page and an identifier for the remote client, the responder-scheduler means downloading a client-side change-detection application to the remote client; server-database means, coupled to the responder-scheduler means, for receiving the URL from the responder-scheduler means when the web page is registered by the remote client, the server-database means for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL and the identifier for each remote client registered for the URL; the client-side change-detection application comprises a periodic minder means for periodically re-fetching the web page from the remote web page server by transmitting the URL from the remote client to a network, the periodic minder means receiving a fresh copy of the web page from the remote web page server, the periodic minder means comparing the fresh copy to an archived web page stored on the remote client;
the periodic minder means generating a detection notice when the fresh copy does not match the archived web page; anda minders'"'"' keeper for receiving the detection notice from the remote client from the network connection means, the minders'"'"' keeper reading the server-database means for identifiers of remote clients and generating change notices to each remote client registered for the URL of the detection notice, whereby each remote client performs change detection for the benefit of all remote clients registered for the URL in the server-database means. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification