Spreadsheet user-interface for an internet-document change-detection tool
First Claim
1. A change-detection web server for detecting numerically-significant changes in web pages comprising:
- a network connection for transmitting and receiving packets from a remote client and a remote web-page server;
a responder, coupled to the network connection, for communicating with the remote client, the responder registering a web page for change detection by receiving from the remote client a uniform-resource-locator (URL) identifying the web page, the responder fetching the web page from the remote web-page server and generating markers for identifying locations of numeric data fields within the web page;
a spreadsheet user-interface, coupled to the responder, for displaying a spreadsheet on the remote client, the spreadsheet having rows and columns of cells, each cell for receiving a formula from a user, the formula specifying calculations performed on the numeric data fields from the web page;
a database, coupled to the responder, for receiving the URL and the markers from the responder and for receiving the formula from the spreadsheet user-interface when the web page is registered by the remote client, the database for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL, markers, and the formula for a registered web page; and
a periodic minder, coupled to the database and the network connection, for periodically re-fetching the web page from the remote web-page server by transmitting the URL from the database to the network connection, the periodic minder receiving a fresh copy of the web page from the remote web-page server, the periodic minder extracting fresh numeric values from the fresh copy of the web page from locations identified by the markers and recalculating a result of the formula using the fresh numeric values, the periodic minder signaling a detected change to the remote client when the result exceeds a predetermined notification condition,whereby a numerically-significant change in the web page is detected by re-calculating a user-entered formula which operates on numeric data from the web page, wherein changes in the web page which do not cause a re-calculated result to exceed the predetermined notification condition do not signal the remote client.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A change-detection tool detects significant changes in numerical fields within internet web pages on the world-wide-web. A user identifies web-page web pages by specifying the web page'"'"'s URL. The user then highlights one or more numeric fields on the web-page web page. The numeric fields'"'"' values are extracted to cells on a spreadsheet displayed to the user. The user enters parameters and formulas into unused spreadsheet cells. The formulas operate on the numeric values extracted from the web page to the spreadsheet'"'"'s cells. The user also enters notification limits or conditions that are based on the results of the formulas. The notification conditions indicate when a change notification is to be e-mailed to the user. After the user finishes registering the web-page web page, the change-detection tool periodically retrieves the web-page web page at the specified URL and re-calculates the formulas and determines if the notification conditions have been met. The change-detection tool automatically retrieves web pages and re-calculates the formulas and conditions specified by the user in the spreadsheet. Arbitrary formulas can be used to perform arbitrary calculations on the web data and specify arbitrary conditions for user notification. Numeric data from multiple web pages can be extracted to the same spreadsheet, allowing numeric data from different, unrelated web pages to be combined in the calculations of the spreadsheet.
355 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A change-detection web server for detecting numerically-significant changes in web pages comprising:
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a network connection for transmitting and receiving packets from a remote client and a remote web-page server; a responder, coupled to the network connection, for communicating with the remote client, the responder registering a web page for change detection by receiving from the remote client a uniform-resource-locator (URL) identifying the web page, the responder fetching the web page from the remote web-page server and generating markers for identifying locations of numeric data fields within the web page; a spreadsheet user-interface, coupled to the responder, for displaying a spreadsheet on the remote client, the spreadsheet having rows and columns of cells, each cell for receiving a formula from a user, the formula specifying calculations performed on the numeric data fields from the web page; a database, coupled to the responder, for receiving the URL and the markers from the responder and for receiving the formula from the spreadsheet user-interface when the web page is registered by the remote client, the database for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL, markers, and the formula for a registered web page; and a periodic minder, coupled to the database and the network connection, for periodically re-fetching the web page from the remote web-page server by transmitting the URL from the database to the network connection, the periodic minder receiving a fresh copy of the web page from the remote web-page server, the periodic minder extracting fresh numeric values from the fresh copy of the web page from locations identified by the markers and recalculating a result of the formula using the fresh numeric values, the periodic minder signaling a detected change to the remote client when the result exceeds a predetermined notification condition, whereby a numerically-significant change in the web page is detected by re-calculating a user-entered formula which operates on numeric data from the web page, wherein changes in the web page which do not cause a re-calculated result to exceed the predetermined notification condition do not signal the remote client. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computer-implemented method for detecting a significant change in numeric fields on a web page and notifying a user of the significant change, the method comprising the steps of:
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registering the web page by; receiving an address of the user and a locator for the web page; fetching the web page from a remote server by transmitting the locator to a network server; extracting numeric values from selected numeric fields on the web page, the selected numeric fields selected by the user; displaying a spreadsheet to the user, the spreadsheet having rows and columns of cells forming a grid; displaying the numeric values in extracted-data cells of the spreadsheet; accepting formulas input by the user in unused cells of the spreadsheet, the formulas operating on the numeric values by specifying in the formulas a row and a column of the extracted-data cells; storing the formulas, the locator, the address of the user, and field locations on the web page of the numeric fields in a database; after a period of time, periodically checking to determine if a significant change has occurred by; reading the locator from the database and transmitting the locator to remote server to fetch a recent copy of the web page; reading the field locations from the database and extracting new values of the numeric fields from the recent copy of the web page; reading the formulas from the database and recalculating results of the formulas using the new values extracted from the recent copy of the web page; signaling that a significant change is detected when the results from recalculation meet a notification condition; whereby neither the web page nor the numeric values from the web page are stored in the database which stores the formulas. - 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 numerically-significant 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 means, coupled to the network connection means, for communicating with the remote client, the responder means registering web pages for change detection by receiving from the remote client a uniform-resource-locator (URL) identifying the web page, the responder means fetching the web page from the remote web page server and generating markers identifying locations of numeric values in the web page; spreadsheet user-interface means, coupled to the responder means, for displaying a spreadsheet of cells on the remote client, the spreadsheet including cells displaying the numeric values from the web page, the spreadsheet user-interface means including means for entering formulas into cells from the remote client, the formulas referencing the cells containing the numeric values from the web page; database means, coupled to the responder means, for receiving the URL and the markers from the responder means when the web page is registered by the remote client, the database means further for receiving the formulas from the spreadsheet user-interface means, the database means for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL, markers, and formulas for a registered web page, the database means not storing the web page or the registered web pages, the database means storing markers and formulas for the web page; and periodic minder means, coupled to the database means and the network connection means, for periodically re-fetching the web page from the remote web page server by transmitting the URL from the database means to the network connection means, the periodic minder means receiving a fresh copy of the web page from the remote web page server, the periodic minder means extracting fresh numeric values from the fresh copy of the web page and re-calculating a fresh result of the formulas using the fresh numeric values, the periodic minder means signaling a numerically-significant detected change to the remote client when the fresh result meets a notification condition, whereby the numerically-significant change in the web page is automatically detected by periodically re-fetching the web page and extracting the fresh numerical values and recalculating the fresh result of the formulas entered into the spreadsheet during registration. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification