Method and system for verifying hyperlinks

• US 6,601,066 B1
• Filed: 12/17/1999
• Issued: 07/29/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sabic Innovative Plastics IP BV (Government of Saudi Arabia)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Davis-Hall, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEUNG, MARY DA ZHI WANG
• Application Number:
  US09/465,915
• Time in Patent Office: 1,320 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-6, 707/10
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

An exemplary embodiment of the invention is a method for verifying hyperlinks on a web site. The method includes generating a hyperlink database including a plurality of hyperlinks and a uniform resource locator associated with each hyperlink. An Internet browser application is initiated and the Internet browser application attempts to retrieve content in response to the uniform resource locator. A presence or absence of an error is detected in retrieving the content. A web site administrator is notified of the results.

Claims

1. A method for verifying hyperlinks on a web site, the method comprising:

generating a hyperlink database including a plurality of hyperlinks and a uniform resource locator associated with each hyperlink;

said hyperlink database including expected content for at least one of said hyperlinks;

initiating an internet browser application and attempting to retrieve content in response to said uniform resource locator;

retrieving returned content; and

,

detecting a presence or absence of an error in retrieving said content, said error being determined based on a comparison of said expected content and said returned content;

wherein said comparison of said expected contents and said returned content determines a percentage of matching content between said expected content and said returned content, said error being determined when said percentage of matching content is below a level.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

adding said hyperink to an error list upon detecting said presence of said error.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

adding said hyperlink to a confirmed list upon detecting said absence of said error.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

transmitting said confirmed list to a web site administrator.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

notifying a web site administrator of said error by transmitting said error list to said web site administrator.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

said hyperlink database includes a link location field containing a storage location for each hyperlink.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein:

said hyperlink database includes a status field indicating said presence or absence of said error with respect to each hyperlink.

9. The storage medium of claim 1 further comprising instruction is for causing the computer to implement:

adding said hyperlink to an error list upon detecting said presence of said error.

10. The storage medium of claim 1 further comprising instructions for causing the computer to implement:

adding said hyperlink to a confirmed list upon detecting said absence of said error.

11. The storage medium of claim 10 further comprising instructions for causing the computer to implement:

transmitting said confirmed list to a web site administrator.

12. The storage medium of claim 1 further comprising instructions for causing the computer to implement:

notifying a web site administrator of said error by transmitting said error list to said web site administrator.

13. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein:

said hyperlink database includes a link location field containing a storage location for each hyperlink.

14. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein:

said hyperlink database includes a status field indicating said presence or absence of said error with respect to each hyperlink.

8. A storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer program code for verifying hyperlinks on a web site, the storage medium including instructions for causing a computer to implement:

generating a hyperlink database including a plurality of hyperlinks and a uniform resource locator associated with each hyperlink;

said hyperlink database including expected content for at least one of said hyperlinks;

initiating an internet browser application and attempting to retrieve content in response to said uniform resource locator;

retrieving returned content; and

,

detecting a presence or absence of an error in retrieving said content, said error being determined based on a comparison of said expected content and said returned content;

wherein said comparison of said expected content and said returned content determines a percentage of matching content between said expected content and said returned content, said error being determined when said percentage of matching content is below a level.