Methods and systems for assigning human-readable and unique uniform resource locators to objects

• US 6,804,700 B1
• Filed: 10/04/2000
• Issued: 10/12/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Avner, Jon B., Terek, Soner
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BARQADLE, YASIN M
• Application Number:
  US09/680,047
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/204, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 715/501, 715/513
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/30 Types of network names
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3005 Mechanisms for avoiding name conflicts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3025 Domain name generation or assignment

Abstract

A method and system for generating unique and human-readable URLs for objects included in a network system. When an object is created in a network system it may be that the application creating the object is unaware of URLs. However, it may also be that other applications included on the network system access object using URLs. When it is determined that an object needs a URL, one or more human-readable properties of the object are used to generate a URL. One or more storage locations associated with previously generated URLs are searched to determine if the human-readable properties of the object will generate a unique URL. If it is determined that the human-readable properties of the object will generate a unique URL, then a URL using the human-readable properties of the object is generated. However, if it is determined that the human-readable properties of the object will not create a unique URL, then the URL created using the human-readable properties is modified so that it is unique. Modification of the URL does not effect the human-readability of the URL. The method is configured so that modifications to future URLs generated from identical human-readable properties will still be unique.

Claims

1. In a system with objects having one or more associated human-readable properties, a method for generating a unique human-readable URL for an object, the method comprising:

an act of automatically and without user intervention accessing a human-readable property associated with an object that was created by an application which lacked functionality to assign human-readable URLs;

an act of automatically and without user intervention determining whether or not using at least a descriptive portion of the accessed human-readable property results in a unique human-readable URL when the human-readable property is incorporated into the URL according to a first predetermined set of rules; and

if the human-readable URL is not unique, an act of automatically and without user intervention incorporating the descriptive portion of the human readable property into the human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules, the second predetermined set of rules guarantying that the generated URL is unique yet still human-readable.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the an act of determining whether or not using at least a descriptive portion of the accessed human-readable property would result in a unique human-readable URL when the human-readable property is incorporated into the URL according to a first predetermined set of rules comprises:

an act of a hash function associating a hash value with the accessed human-readable property; and

an act of searching a hash index to determine if the associated hash value is included in the hash index, wherein the hash index includes a plurality of hash values.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein a separately stored postfix is associated with each of the plurality of hash values included in the hash index and wherein the separately stored postfixes are maintained independent of the hash values.

4. The method as recited claim 3, wherein the act of incorporating the descriptive portion of the human-readable property into a human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules comprises a specific act of appending a postfix that corresponds to the associated hash value to the descriptive portion of the human-readable property.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the accessed human-readable property is parsed and wherein the hash function uses only a portion of the accessed human-readable property to associate a hash value with the accessed human-readable property.

6. The method as recited claim 1, wherein the act of incorporating the descriptive portion of the human-readable property into a human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules comprises a specific act of appending a postfix to the descriptive portion of the human-readable property.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of incorporating the descriptive portion of the human-readable property into a human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules comprises an act of comparing the human-readable URL to a list of the previously generated URLs to determine if the human-readable URL is included the list.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the act of incorporating the descriptive portion of the human-readable property into a human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules further comprises modifying the human-readable URL in a manner that does not effect the human-readable nature of the URL, if the human-readable URL is included in the list of previously generated URLs.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of incorporating the descriptive portion of the human-readable property into a human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules further comprises:

an act of modifying the human-readable URL by combining the human-readable URL with a postfix; and

an act of modifying the associated postfix to guarantee that future human-readable URLs that are identical to the human-readable URL do not receive the same postfix.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the associated postfix is associated with a hash value and wherein the hash value is included in a hash index.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the associated postfix is a number and modifying the associated postfix comprises incrementing the number.

12. A computer program product for implementing, in a system with objects having one or more associated human-readable properties, a method for generating a unique human-readable URL for an object object, the computer product comprising:

a computer-readable medium carrying computer-readable instructions, that when executed at the server system, cause the server system to perform the method, including the following;

an act of automatically and without user intervention causing a human-readable property associated with an object to be accessed, the object having been created by an application that lacked functionality of assign human-readable URLS;

an act of automatically and without user intervention determining whether or not using at least a descriptive portion of the accessed human-readable property results in a unique human-readable URL when the human-readable property is incorporated into the URL according to a first predetermined set of rules; and

if the human-readable URL is not unique, an act of automatically and without user intervention incorporating the descriptive portion of the human readable property into the human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules, the second set of rules guarantying that the generated URL is unique yet still human-readable.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions for performing the act of determining whether or not using at least a descriptive portion of the accessed human-readable property would result in a unique human-readable URL when the human-readable property is incorporated into the URL according to a first predetermined set of rules comprise computer-executable instructions for performing the following:

an act of a hash function associating a hash value with the accessed human-readable property; and

an act of searching a hash index to determine if the associated hash value is included in the hash index, wherein the hash index includes a plurality of hash values.

14. The computer program product as recited claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions for performing the act of incorporating the descriptive portion of the human-readable property into a human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules comprise computer executable instructions for performing a specific act of appending a postfix to the descriptive portion of the human-readable property.

15. The computer program product as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions for performing the act of incorporating the descriptive portion of the human-readable property into a human-readable URL using a second predetermined set of rules comprises an act of comparing the human-readable URL to a list of the previously generated URLs to determine if the human-readable URL is included the list.

16. In a network system having stored therein a plurality of objects that are not previously identified by human-readable URLs, but by other unique identifiers, one or more of the properties associated with the plurality of stored objects being human-readable, the network system including a plurality of client applications that access objects using URL addressing, a method for efficiently assigning a URL to an object so as to allow the plurality of client applications to access the plurality of objects using URLs and so as to allow a human reader to be able to intuitively identify the object by reading the URL and without having to open the object, the method comprising:

an act of automatically and without user intervention accessing a human-readable property for each of the plurality of objects which have not been identified previously by human-readable URLs;

an act of automatically and without user intervention accessing a unique identifier for each of the plurality of objects; and

an act of automatically and without user intervention generating a unique human-readable URL for each of the plurality of objects using a combination of the human-readable property and the unique identifier for each object.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the at least a plurality of objects is associated with an upgrade of one of the plurality of client applications.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the at least a plurality of objects are replicated from other objects included on the network system.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the other objects included on the network system were created by an application that does not support URLs.

20. A computer program product for implementing, in a network system having stored therein a plurality of objects that are not previously identified by human-readable URLs, but by other unique identifiers, one or more of the properties associated with the plurality of stored objects being human-readable, the network system including a plurality of client applications that access objects using URL addressing, a method for efficiently assigning a URL to an object so as to allow the plurality of client applications to access the plurality of objects using URLs and so as to allow a human reader to be able to intuitively identify the object by reading the URL and without having to open the object, the computer product comprising:

a computer-readable medium carrying computer-readable instructions, that when executed at the first server system, cause the first server system to perform the method, including the following;

an act of automatically and without user intervention accessing a human-readable property for each of the plurality of objects with have not been identified previously by human-readable URLs;

an act of automatically and without user intervention accessing a unique identifier for each of the plurality of objects; and

an act of automatically and without user intervention generating a unique human-readable URL for each of the plurality of objects using a combination of the human-readable property and the unique identifier for each object.