Automatic creation of hyperlinks

• US 6,256,631 B1
• Filed: 09/30/1997
• Issued: 07/03/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Malcolm, Jerry Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US08/940,459
• Time in Patent Office: 1,372 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/104, 707/501, 707/506, 707/513, 707/1, 707/5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Creating hyperlinks in a document is performed according to structural indicators within a set of documents. The documents are parsed for at least one structural indicator, preferably of a type of structural indicator which is likely to be present in the type of documents being parsed. Each time a structural indicator is found in a document, text proximate to, and possibly including, the structural indicator is converted to a hyperlink. In one preferred embodiment, each structural indicator is associated with its own rule for creating the hyperlink. The invention also resolves the terminus of the hyperlink as a target document, e.g., a web page on the World Wide Web. The web page may be one of the documents newly hyperlinked as the set of hyperlinked documents are stored in a directory in a web server connected to the Internet. The target document may be resolved by retrieving a set of candidate documents related in subject matter to the hyperlinks. Each hyperlink is resolved by matching the text which occurs in the hyperlink to text which occurs in selected fields of a set of candidate target documents, e.g., a title field.

Claims

1. A method for creating hyperlinks in a document, comprising the steps of:

parsing the document for at least one structural indicator; and

responsive to finding a structural indicator in the document, converting text proximate to the found structural indicator to a hyperlink according to a rule for the structural indicator.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of resolving a target document of the hyperlink as a web page on the World Wide Web.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

parsing the document for a structural indicator indicative of a title; and

responsive to finding a title structural indicator in the document, converting text proximate to the structural indicator to a title for the document according to a rule for the structural indicator.

4. A method for creating hyperlinks in a set of documents of a first type, comprising the steps of:

parsing the set of documents for structural indicator which typically occur in the first type of documents; and

responsive to finding a plurality of structural indicators in the set of the documents, converting text proximate to each of the plurality of structural indicators to a respective hyperlink according to rules for each of the structural indicators.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the step of retrieving a predefined template of structural indicators to be used for parsing the first type of document.

6. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the step of resolving a target document of at least one hyperlink as a web page on the World Wide Web by searching for URLs which match the converted text in the at least one hyperlink.

7. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the step of storing the set of hyperlinked documents in a directory in a web server connected to the Internet.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 further comprising the step of creating a home page for the hyperlinked documents containing the URL for at least one of the hyperlinked documents.

9. The method as recited in claim 4 wherein the rules for different structural indicators for creating hyperlinks are different.

10. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein a type of field searched in the set of candidate documents is according to a rule for the first type of documents.

11. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for creating hyperlinks in a document, comprising:

means for parsing the document for at least one structural indicator; and

means responsive to finding a structural indicator in the document for converting text proximate to the structural indicator to a hyperlink.

12. The product as recited in claim 11 further comprising means for resolving a target document of the hyperlink as a web page on the World Wide Web.

13. The product as recited in claim 11 further comprising:

means for parsing the document for a structural indicator indicative of a title; and

means responsive to finding a title structural indicator in the document for converting text proximate to the structural indicator to a title for the document according to a rule for the structural indicator.

14. A system for creating hyperlinks in a set of documents of a first type, including processor, memory, input devices and display comprising:

a parser for parsing the set of documents for structural indicator which typically occur in the first type of documents; and

means responsive to finding a plurality of structural indicators in the set of the documents for converting text proximate to each of the plurality of structural indicator to a respective hyperlink according to rules for the structural indicators.

15. The system as recited in claim 14 further comprising:

a set of predefined templates of structural indicators for parsing different types of documents; and

means for retrieving a predefined template of structural indicators for the first type of document for use by the parser.

16. The system as recited in claim 14 further comprising means for resolving a target document of at least one hyperlink as a web page on the World Wide Web by searching for URLs which match the converted text in at least one hyperlink.

17. The system as recited in claim 14 further comprising means for storing the set of hyperlinked documents in a directory in a web server connected to the Internet.

18. The system as recited in claim 17 further comprising means for creating a home page for the hyperlinked documents containing the URL for at least one of the hyperlinked documents.

19. The system as recited in claim 14 wherein the rules for creating hyperlinks are different for different identified structural indicators.

20. The system as recited in claim 17 wherein a type of field searched in the set of candidate documents is according to a rule for the first type of documents.