Unique-change detection of dynamic web pages using history tables of signatures
First Claim
1. A change-detection web server for detecting unique 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;
a database, coupled to the responder, for receiving the URL from the responder when the web page is registered by the remote client, the database for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL;
a history table in each of the records in the database, the history table for storing a most-recent signature and a plurality of older-version signatures for a registered web page identified by the URL, the older-version signatures being condensed checksums for earlier versions of the registered web page previously fetched by the change-detection web server, whereas the most-recent signature is a condensed checksum for a most-recently-fetched copy of the 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 generating a new signature from the fresh copy of the web page, the periodic minder notifying the remote client of a unique change when the new signature does not match the most-recent signature and does not match any of the older-version signatures in the record,wherein the unique change in the web page is detected by comparing the new signature to the most-recent signature and to older-version signatures for the web page, wherein changes in the web page which are not unique but match an earlier version of the web page do not notify the remote client.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An improved change-detection tool detects only relevant changes within Internet web pages on the world-wide-web. Changes back to an earlier version of a web page are not relevant and do not cause the user to be notified. Only changes to a new, unique version of the web page generate a user notification. After the user finishes registering the web page by specifying the URL and the user'"'"'s e-mail address, the change-detection tool periodically retrieves the web-page at the specified URL and generates a checksum or signature to determine when to send a notification to the user. Signatures from several older versions of the web page are stored in a history table. When a new signature for a re-fetched page matches the most-recent signature at the top of the stack in the history table, no change has occurred. When the new signature matched any of the older signatures in the history table, the detected change is not unique and notification is not made even though a change has occurred. When the new signature matches one of the older, not-most-recent signatures in the history table, the signature is moved into a permanent history table. Signatures in the permanent history table are for recurring versions of the web page and are likely to appear again. Error pages displayed when a web server is down for routine maintenance can be screened out using the history table. The frequency of notifications is tracked. When too many notifications are being sent for a web page, the last-modified header is used rather than signature-matching to reduce the frequency of notifications.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A change-detection web server for detecting unique 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; a database, coupled to the responder, for receiving the URL from the responder when the web page is registered by the remote client, the database for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL; a history table in each of the records in the database, the history table for storing a most-recent signature and a plurality of older-version signatures for a registered web page identified by the URL, the older-version signatures being condensed checksums for earlier versions of the registered web page previously fetched by the change-detection web server, whereas the most-recent signature is a condensed checksum for a most-recently-fetched copy of the 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 generating a new signature from the fresh copy of the web page, the periodic minder notifying the remote client of a unique change when the new signature does not match the most-recent signature and does not match any of the older-version signatures in the record, wherein the unique change in the web page is detected by comparing the new signature to the most-recent signature and to older-version signatures for the web page, wherein changes in the web page which are not unique but match an earlier version of the web page do not notify the remote client. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer-implemented method for detecting a unique change in a web page and notifying a user of the unique 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; generating a signature for the web page; storing the signature in a history table for storing signatures for older versions of the web page, and storing the locator, the address of the user in a database; after a period of time, periodically checking to determine if a unique 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; generating a new signature for the recent copy of the web page; signaling that a unique change is detected when the new signature does not match any of the signatures in the history table including signatures for the older versions of the web page; wherein the web page is not stored in the database which stores the history table of signatures for the web page. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. A computer-program product comprising:
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a computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code means embodied therein for detecting unique 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; history-table means for storing a most-recent signature and a plurality of older-version signatures for a registered web page identified by the URL, the older-version signatures being condensed checksums for earlier versions of the registered web page previously fetched for change detection, whereas the most-recent signature is a condensed checksum for a most-recently-fetched copy of the registered web page; database means, coupled to the responder means, for receiving the URL from the responder means when the web page is registered by the remote client, the database means coupled to the history-table means, the database means for storing a plurality of records each containing a URL and a history table for a registered web page, the database means not storing the web page or the registered web pages, the database means storing condensed signatures 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 generating a new signature from the fresh copy of the web page, the periodic minder means notifying the remote client of a unique change when the new signature does not match the most-recent signature and does not match any of the older-version signatures in the record, wherein the unique change in the web page is automatically detected by periodically re-fetching the web page, generating the new signature, and comparing to signatures in the history table. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification