Visualization of web sites and hierarchical data structures
First Claim
1. A computer program for facilitating the visualization of a web site, the computer program comprising, on a computer readable medium:
- executable scanning code which scans the web site and generates a representation of the web site within a memory of a computer, the web site representation including representations of content objects and links of the web site;
executable hierarchy identification code which reduces the web site representation generated by the scanning code to a hierarchical tree representation in which each content object corresponds to a respective node of the tree; and
executable mapping code which generates and displays a graphical map of the web site on a display screen of the computer based on the tree representation, the mapping code configured to graphically represent the content objects of the web site as respective content object icons, the mapping code comprising a layout routine which positions and interconnects the content object icons within the map based upon parent-child relationships of the content objects within the tree, the layout routine positioning the icons such that icons of parent content objects ("parents") are spatially grouped together with icons of the respective immediate children content objects ("children") of said parents to form a hierarchical arrangement of parent-child icon clusters in which the children generally surround their respective immediate parents over multiple parent-child levels.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A visual Web site analysis program, implemented as a collection of software components, provides a variety of features for facilitating the analysis and management of Web sites and Web site content. A mapping component scans a Web site over a network connection and builds a site map which graphically depicts the URLs and links of the site. Site maps are generated using a unique layout and display methodology which allows the user to visualize the overall architecture of the Web site. Various map navigation and URL filtering features are provided to facilitate the task of identifying and repairing common Web site problems, such as links to missing URLs. A dynamic page scan feature enables the user to include dynamically-generated Web pages within the site map by capturing the output of a standard Web browser when a form is submitted by the user, and then automatically resubmitting this output during subsequent mappings of the site. The Web site analysis program is implemented using an extensible architecture which includes an API that allows plug-in applications to manipulate the display of the site map. Various plug-ins are provided which utilize the API to extend the functionality of the analysis program, including an action tracking plug-in which detects user activity and behavioral data (link activity levels, common site entry and exit points, etc.) from server log files and then superimposes such data onto the site map.
-
Citations
67 Claims
-
1. A computer program for facilitating the visualization of a web site, the computer program comprising, on a computer readable medium:
-
executable scanning code which scans the web site and generates a representation of the web site within a memory of a computer, the web site representation including representations of content objects and links of the web site; executable hierarchy identification code which reduces the web site representation generated by the scanning code to a hierarchical tree representation in which each content object corresponds to a respective node of the tree; and executable mapping code which generates and displays a graphical map of the web site on a display screen of the computer based on the tree representation, the mapping code configured to graphically represent the content objects of the web site as respective content object icons, the mapping code comprising a layout routine which positions and interconnects the content object icons within the map based upon parent-child relationships of the content objects within the tree, the layout routine positioning the icons such that icons of parent content objects ("parents") are spatially grouped together with icons of the respective immediate children content objects ("children") of said parents to form a hierarchical arrangement of parent-child icon clusters in which the children generally surround their respective immediate parents over multiple parent-child levels. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A method of facilitating the visualization of a web site by a user, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:
-
(a) scanning the web site to generate a representation of the web site; (b) generating a graphical site map of the web site on a display screen of a computer using the representation generated in step (a) to enable the user to view a structural representation of the web site, the site map comprising a plurality of interconnected icons which represent content objects of the web site; and (c) providing a navigation interface which allows the user to interactively navigate the site map, the navigation interface including a zoom control which allows the user to interactively zoom in and out on user-selected portions of the map. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. A method of facilitating the visualization of a web site, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:
-
identifying a hierarchy of content objects of the web site; and generating a graphical map of the hierarchy on a display screen, the graphical map comprising interconnected content object icons that represent respective content objects, the step of generating comprising; (a) identifying a parent content object ("parent") of the hierarchy that has multiple immediate children content objects ("children"); (b) identifying the multiple immediate children of the parent identified in step (a); (c) positioning respective icons of the immediate children identified in step (b) around an icon of the parent identified in step (a) such that the icons of the children generally surround the icon of the parent within the map; and (d) repeating steps (a), (b) and (c) for each of a plurality of additional parents of the hierarchy that have multiple immediate children. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
-
-
44. A method of generating a graphical map of a tree data structure on a display screen, the tree structure comprising a plurality of objects, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:
-
(a) representing the objects as respective icons within the map; (b) identifying, within the tree structure, a parent object ("parent") that has multiple immediate children objects ("children"); (c) identifying the multiple immediate children of the parent identified in step (b); (d) positioning the respective icons of the immediate children identified in step (c) around the icon of the parent identified in step (b) on the display screen such that the icons of the children surround the icon of the parent within the map; (e) displaying a respective parent-child connection within the map between each child icon and the parent icon positioned in step (d); and (f) repeating steps (b), (c), (d) and (e) for each of a plurality of additional parents of the tree structure that have multiple immediate children. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
-
-
56. A method of representing a hierarchical node-link structure on a display screen, comprising:
-
(a) identifying a plurality of parent nodes of the structure that have multiple children nodes, including parent nodes at multiple different levels of the hierarchical structure; (b) positioning a parent node identified in step (a) on the display screen, and positioning the children nodes of the parent node around the parent node over an angular range which exceeds 180 degrees; and (c) repeating step (b) recursively for multiple additional parent nodes identified in step (a), including parent nodes at multiple different levels of the hierarchical structure; wherein the method produces a map which comprises a hierarchical arrangement of parent-child node clusters. - View Dependent Claims (57)
-
-
58. A method of graphically representing a web document on a display screen, the web document comprising a main document portion which comprises a plurality of links to a plurality of respective document components, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:
-
representing the main document portion as a first icon on the display screen; representing the plurality of document components as a plurality of respective additional icons that are positioned on the display screen generally around the first icons the step of representing comprising spacing each of the additional icons away from the first icon by substantially the same distance, and calculating said distance based at least in-plant on a total number of said document components; and representing each of the plurality of links as a respective interconnection between the first icon and a respective one of the additional icons. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67)
-
Specification