Method for promoting contextual information to display pages containing hyperlinks

• US 6,763,496 B1
• Filed: 03/31/1999
• Issued: 07/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Smith, Michael D., Angiulo, Michael A., Hennings, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, MaiKhanh
• Application Number:
  US09/283,780
• Time in Patent Office: 1,931 Days
• Field of Search: 707/501.1, 707/530, 707/513, 707/514, 707/526, 715/513, 715/514, 715/526, 715/531, 715/501.1, 709/224, 709/207
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Contextual information concerning linked documents is promoted to display pages that contain hyperlinks to those documents. The contextual information can be immediately displayed, or it can be selectively displayed in response to a user selecting a text hyperlink anchor or a picture icon hyperlink anchor. Furthermore, the contextual information can include a variety of information about the linked document, including whether it has been modified within a predefined time period, such as the last 24 hours, a comment by the author concerning recent changes, and the size of the document. Preferably, the contextual information is automatically generated by a data promotion engine based on meta-data that is associated with the document and stored on a web site for the document. The contextual information may be either added to the document that corresponds to a display page at the time the document page is saved, or it may be dynamically uploaded to a browser when the display page is rendered by a browser. One of the types of contextual information stored in the meta-data is a manually defined category for a hyperlink in the display page.

Claims

1. A method for promoting contextual information pertaining to a linked document to a display page containing a hyperlink to the linked document, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink contained in the display page and the display page being viewable on a browser, which is capable of displaying the contextual information, comprising the steps of:

(a) editing the linked document so that at least one parameter of the linked document has been changed, producing an edited linked document;

(b) storing the edited linked document on a server;

(c) generating meta-data that references said at least one changed parameter of the linked document;

(d) storing the meta-data on the server;

(e) determining the contextual information from the stored meta-data, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink contained in the display page; and

(f) automatically generating instructions for displaying in the display page the contextual information pertaining to the linked document, the instructions thus generated defining a part of the display page and being uploaded from the server to the browser so as to enable display of the contextual information pertaining to the linked document on the display page when the display page is viewed on the browser.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the contextual information indicates that the linked document has been changed within a predefined time interval prior to the display page being viewed on the browser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the hyperlink has an anchor, further comprising the step of selectively displaying at least a portion of the contextual information in response to a user interaction with the anchor.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying an icon on the browser when the display page is viewed, said icon representing a portion of the contextual information; and

(b) selectively displaying another portion of the contextual information on the browser while the display page is being viewed, in response to a user interaction with the icon.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the meta-data are stored in a file that is separate from the linked document.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the browser stores a history indicating a most recent time a user of the browser has viewed the linked document, further comprising the step of indicating on the display page whether the linked document has been changed since the most recent time the linked document was viewed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the contextual information includes a date and a time that the linked document was last edited.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the linked document contains a hyperlink to a nested document that has been edited and stored on the server, the nested document being associated with additional meta-data stored on the server concerning parameters of the nested document, further comprising the step of adding a reference to the additional meta-data in the contextual information that is available to be viewed when the display page is viewed on the browser.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the instructions is written in Hyper Text Markup Language.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the instructions is written in JAVA script.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the meta-data include a comment made by an author of the linked document, and wherein the contextual information includes the comment by the author.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the meta-data include a size of the linked document, and wherein the contextual information viewable on the display page includes the size of the linked document.

13. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for promoting contextual information pertaining to a linked document to a display page containing a hyperlink to the linked document, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink contained in the display page and the display page being viewable on a browser, which is capable of displaying the contextual information by carrying out a plurality of functions, including:

(a) editing the linked document so that at least one parameter of the linked document has been changed, producing an edited linked document;

(b) storing the edited linked document on a server;

(c) generating meta-data that references said at least one changed parameter of the linked document;

(d) storing the meta-data on the server;

(e) determining the contextual information associated with the linked document from the stored meta-data, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink contained in the display page; and

(f) automatically generating instructions for displaying in the display page the contextual information pertaining to the linked document, the instructions thus generated defining a part of the display page and being uploaded from the server to the browser so as to enable display of the contextual information pertaining to the linked document on the display page when the display page is viewed on the browser.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of functions further include:

(a) displaying an icon on the browser when the display page is viewed, said icon representing a portion of the contextual information; and

(b) selectively displaying another portion of the contextual information on the browser while the display page is being viewed, in response to a user interaction with the icon.

15. A method for promoting contextual information pertaining to a linked document to a referring document having a hyperlink to the linked document, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hynerlink contained in the referring document, and the referring document comprising instructions that are stored on a server and interpreted by a browser to render a display page on a client, comprising the steps of:

(a) changing at least one parameter of the linked document to produce an edited linked document;

(b) storing the edited linked document on the server;

(c) generating meta-data referencing said at least one parameter of the edited linked document that was changed;

(d) storing the meta-data on the server;

(e) automatically generating display code that causes contextual information corresponding to the meta-data to be viewable on the display page rendered by the browser, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink displayed in the display page; and

(f) adding the display code to the instructions comprising the referring document and saving the referring document, the display code being interpreted by the browser when the display page is rendered to enable at least a portion of the contextual information pertaining to the linked document to be viewed on the display page.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the contextual information indicates that the linked document has been changed within a predefined time interval prior to the browser rendering the display page.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the hyperlink has an anchor, further comprising the step of selectively displaying at least a portion of the contextual information in response to a user interaction with the anchor of the hyperlink.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying an icon representing a portion of the contextual information when the browser renders the display page; and

(b) selectively displaying another portion of the contextual information in response to a user interaction with the icon.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the meta-data are stored in a file that is separate from the linked document.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the browser stores a history indicating a most recent time a user of the browser has viewed the linked document, further comprising the step of indicating on the display page whether the linked document has been changed since the most recent time the linked document was last viewed on the browser.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the contextual information includes a date and a time that the linked document was last edited.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the linked document contains a hyperlink to a nested document that has been edited and stored on the server, the nested document being associated with additional meta-data stored on the server referencing parameters of the nested document, further comprising the step of adding display code to the referring document so that the display page includes contextual information referring to the additional meta-data.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein a portion of the instructions is written in Hyper Text Markup Language.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein a portion of the instructions is written in JAVA script.

25. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for promoting contextual information pertaining to a linked document to a referring document having a hyperlink to the linked document, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink contained in the referring document and the referring document comprising instructions that are stored on a server and interpreted by a browser to render a display page on a client, said computer executable instructions causing a plurality of functions to be carried out, including:

(a) changing at least one parameter of the linked document to produce an edited linked document;

(b) storing the edited linked document on the server;

(c) generating meta-data referencing said at least one parameter of the edited linked document that was changed;

(d) storing the meta-data on the server;

(e) automatically generating display code that causes contextual information corresponding to the meta-data to be viewable on the display page rendered by the browser, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink displayed in the display page; and

(f) adding the display code to the instructions comprising the referring document and saving the referring document, the display code being interpreted by the browser when the display page is rendered to enable at least a portion of the contextual information pertaining to the linked document to be viewed on the display page.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 25, wherein the plurality of functions further includes:

(a) displaying an icon representing a portion of the contextual information when the browser renders the display page; and

(b) selectively displaying another portion of the contextual information in response to a user interaction with the icon.

27. A method for promoting contextual information pertaining to a nested document to a display page document, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the nested document than the hyperlink contained in the display page, and the display page document having a hyperlink to an intermediate document, the intermediate document having a hyperlink to the nested document, the display page document comprising instructions that are stored on a server and are executed by a browser render a display page, comprising the steps of:

(a) changing at least one parameter of the linked document, producing an edited nested document;

(b) storing the edited nested document on the server;

(c) generating meta-data referencing said at least one parameter of the nested document that was changed;

(d) storing the meta-data on the server in a location associated with the edited linked document so as to be accessible by reference to the edited linked document, without reference to a centralized database;

(e) automatically generating code enabling contextual information referring to the meta-data to be viewable when the browser renders the display page, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink displayed in the display page; and

(f) adding the display code to the instructions for rendering the display page document, the added contextual information code being employed by the browser to enable the contextual information concerning said at least one changed parameter of the nested document to be viewed when rendering the display page.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein meta-data associated with the linked document are generated and stored on the server, said meta-data including back link information identifying the display page that contains the hyperlink to the intermediate document.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the display page includes both contextual information concerning the nested document and contextual information concerning the intermediate document.

30. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for promoting contextual information pertaining to a nested document to a display page document, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the nested document than the hyperlink contained in the display page and the display page document having a hyperlink to an intermediate document, the intermediate document having a hyperlink to the nested document, the display page document comprising instructions that are stored on a server and are executed by a browser to render a display page, said computer executable instructions causing a plurality of functions to be carried out, including:

(a) changing at least one parameter of the linked document, producing an edited nested document;

(b) storing the edited nested document on the server;

(c) generating meta-data referencing said at least one parameter of the nested document that was changed;

(d) storing the meta-data on the server in a location associated with the edited linked document so as to be accessible by reference to the edited linked document, without reference to a centralized database;

(e) automatically generating code enabling contextual information referring to the meta-data to be viewable when the browser renders the display page, wherein the contextual information comprises more information pertaining to the linked document than the hyperlink displayed in the display page; and

(f) adding the display code to the instructions for rendering the display page document, the added contextual information code being employed by the browser to enable the contextual information concerning said at least one changed parameter of the nested document to be viewed when rendering the display page.