System, method, and medium for retrieving, organizing, and utilizing networked data

• US 6,292,894 B1
• Filed: 11/23/1999
• Issued: 09/18/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Leidos, Inc. (Leidos Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Science Applications International Corporation
• Inventors: Warren, Gary, Karandikar, Harshavardhan M., Mankofsky, Alan, Chipman, Richard R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Peeso, Thomas R.
• Application Number:
  US09/441,646
• Time in Patent Office: 665 Days
• Field of Search: 713/168, 713/193, 713/201, 713/182
• US Class Current: 713/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

A networked catalog search, retrieval, and information correlation and matching system is disclosed. The system allows suppliers to publish information in electronic catalogs, structure the information in an object oriented representation distributed across a network of computers, for example, the Internet. The system also enables customers to search and retrieve information on products and suppliers which match dynamically specified customer requirements. Through retrieving compliant HTML pages, a search engine forwards retrieved pages to an object oriented database which sorts received information by the information'"'"'s internal organization structure. By searching the information as stored in the knowledge base, a user may quickly retrieve the stored information as highly tailored to the user'"'"'s search strategy. Also, additional tools operate on the stored information so as to, inter alia, organize design trades between selected elements where additional design and selection options are provided to each user. Further, the system supports product creation as formed of constituent parts. These products may then be used as parts to be formed into higher level products.

Claims

1. A system for retrieving information from a supplier comprising:

a portal receiving information from a supplier, said information arranged in a predefined protocol, said portal having a storage, said storage storing said information in catalogs,

wherein said portal receives requests from a user for said information and outputs said information as stored in said catalogs.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said portal is connected to said supplier through the Internet.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said portal receives additional information from said user and stores said additional information in said storage, and

wherein said additional information being items created from said information from said catalogs.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein said portal receives a second request from another user for said additional information.

5. The system according to claim 1, said portal further comprising:

a search engine retrieving said information from said supplier.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein said search engine periodically scans said supplier for said information.

7. The system according to claim 5, wherein said search engine scans said supplier for said information based on prompting by said user.

8. The system according to claim 5, said storage further comprising:

an ontology tracking component connected to said search engine;

a reverse index database; and

an object oriented database.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the protocol of said information includes organizational terms.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein said user queries said portal through at least one of a Boolean query, a hierarchical query, or a parametric query.

11. A method of acquiring information from a supplier comprising the steps of:

receiving at a portal information from said supplier, said supplier storing said information in a protocol;

storing at said portal said information in a catalog in a storage according to said protocol.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

parsing said information based on said protocol and

storing parsed information from said parsing step in an object oriented database.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

receiving at said portal additional information from a player, said additional information comprising information previously stored at said portal.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

searching said supplier for data satisfying said protocol and retrieving said data as said information.

15. The method according to claim 11, wherein said protocol comprises an ontology,

said method further comprising the steps of:

monitoring said information from said supplier for changes in said protocol from said ontology;

modifying said ontology to include the changes in said protocol as used by said supplier.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of:

retrieving said ontology from a sector portal storing an approved ontology for an industry sector.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein said ontology includes class definitions with attributes and methods.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein said protocol includes organizational terms.

19. A system for retrieving information from a supplier, said supplier providing information arranged in a predefined protocol to a portal, said portal having a storage that stores said information in catalogs, said system comprising:

a desktop framework that receives a request from a user,

wherein said desktop framework retrieves information from said portal as stored in said catalogs.

20. A method of acquiring information from a supplier said supplier providing information arranged in a predefined protocol to a portal, said portal having a storage that stores said information in catalogs, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a user,

retrieving information from said portal as stored in said catalogs.