Information collecting apparatus

• US 6,408,297 B1
• Filed: 07/08/1999
• Issued: 06/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Ohashi, Tadashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Sanjiv
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US09/349,117
• Time in Patent Office: 1,076 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/4, 707/8, 707/202, 707/3, 707/10, 707/104, 707/104.1, 713/200, 713/201, 345/733, 345/745, 345/744, 705/26, 705/27, 709/229, 709/217, 709/218
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A client terminal in the information collecting apparatus collects a Web information described in hyper text language form a Web server terminal via the Internet. This client terminal starts up a browser and previously sets a flag at a target data cell in the collected Web information. The client terminal first automatically collects the latest Web information when the time in the timer reaches a prespecified time by utilizing a program for data transfer without starting up the browser, and then collects a latest data cell corresponding to the data cell for which a flag has been set.

Claims

1. An information collecting apparatus for collecting information provided by a server via a network;

said apparatus comprising;

a display unit for collecting the information by starting up a browser and displaying the collected information;

a flag setting unit setting a flag at a target data cell that has been selected with a drag operation or has been interactively selected from the displayed information;

an information collecting unit for collecting a latest information via the network from said server without starting up the browser after setting the flag by said flag setting unit; and

a data cell collecting unit for collecting a latest data cell corresponding to the data cell for which a flag has been set according to the information collected by said information collecting unit.

2. An information collecting apparatus according to claim 1 further comprises a timer for counting the time;

wherein

when the time in said timer reaches a prespecified value, said information collecting unit collects the latest information from said server terminal via said network without starting up the browser.

3. An information collecting apparatus according to claim 1;

wherein said flag setting unit comprises;

a browser information collecting section for collecting said information by starting up the browser;

a display section for displaying screen information according to the collected information;

a data cell selecting section for selecting a target data cell on the screen information; and

a flag setting unit for setting a flag to a data cell in the collected information corresponding to the data cell selected by said data cell selecting section.

4. An information collecting apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a reporting unit for reporting, when the latest data cell is collected by said data cell collecting unit, to a user the fact that the latest data cell has been collected.

5. An information collecting apparatus according to claim 4;

wherein said reporting unit further reports contents of the latest data cell to a user.

6. An information collecting apparatus for collecting information provided by a server via a network;

said apparatus comprising;

a display unit for collecting the information by starting up-a browser and displaying the collected information;

a flag setting unit setting a flag at a target data cell that has been selected with a drag operation or interactively selected from the displayed information;

a trigger-information collecting unit for collecting a bigger information closely related to fluctuations in the target data cell;

a determining unit for determining whether Me trigger information satisfies a prespecified condition or not;

an information collecting unit for collecting, when it is determined by said determining unit that the trigger information has satisfied the prespecified condition, the latest information from said server via said network without starting up the browser; and

a data cell collecting unit for collecting a latest data cell corresponding to the data cell for which a flag has been set according to the information collected by said information collecting unit.

7. An information collecting apparatus according to claim 6;

wherein said flag setting unit comprises;

a browser information collecting section for collecting said information by starting up the browser;

a display section for displaying screen information according to the collected information;

a data cell selecting section for selecting a target data cell on the screen information; and

a flag setting unit for setting a flag to a data cell in the collected information corresponding to the data cell selected by said data cell selecting section.

8. An information collecting apparatus according to claim 6 further comprising a reporting unit for reporting, when the latest data cell is collected by said data cell collecting unit, to a user the fact that the latest data cell has been collected.

9. An information collecting apparatus according to claim 8;

wherein said reporting unit further reports contents of the latest data cell to a user.

10. An inflation collecting apparatus for collecting information provided by a web server via a network, said apparatus running on a client computer and comprising:

a display unit for displaying in a browser information to be collected;

a flag setting unit for setting at the client a flag stored at the client that identifies a target data cell in the displayed information to be collected, by dragging or interactively selecting the displayed target data cell;

an information collecting unit for collecting in the background a latest version of the information to be collected, via the network from said server after setting the flag by said flag setting unit; and

a data cell collecting unit pulling from the server, in response to a trigger event originating at the client, a latest data cell corresponding to the data cell for which a flag has been set according to the information collected by said information collecting unit.

11. A method of automatically obtaining at a client computer information at a web server, comprising:

storing information describing a sequence of browser inter-actions that lead to the browser displaying a web page made available by the web server, wherein the web page is a last of a plurality of web pages displayed according to the sequence of browser interactions;

storing, at the client computer, a flag identifying a target field and set by dragging or interactively selecting the target field in the web page displayed by the browser, where field identifying information identifies the selected field;

accessing, from the server to the client, a later available version of the web page, by automatically accessing the web server according to the information describing the sequence of browser interactions, wherein said accessing is initiated at the client; and

locating, responsive to said accessing, a later content of the field, by referring to the field identifying information and the later version of the web page.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the selecting comprises dragging over an area of the displayed web page that contains the field.