Web browser with multilevel functions

• US 6,819,339 B1
• Filed: 02/24/2000
• Issued: 11/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Eric M. Dowling
• Inventors: Dowling, Eric Morgan
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Ba
• Application Number:
  US09/512,046
• Time in Patent Office: 1,727 Days
• Field of Search: 345/738, 345/739, 345/744, 345/745, 345/746, 345/747, 345/749, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/6
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A architecture is provided to enable a client web browser to conduct and manage a multilevel search. The browser includes an application layer interface. The application layer interface is for coupling to network via a protocol stack. The browser also includes a markup language parser. The parser receives information from the application layer interface. The browser also includes a graphical user interface for interacting with a user. The graphical user interface allows a user to specify a set of multilevel search parameters. The browser also includes a markup language processor that receives input from the markup language parser and multilevel search parameters from the graphical user interface. The markup language processor conducts and manages a multilevel search to find specified information on a current web page or a web page referenced by the current web page in accordance with a parameterized search tree. The present invention also enables an automatic processes to print sets of linked web pages and to generate sitemaps, filtered sitemaps, filtered results pages in accordance with user specifications.

Claims

1. A multilevel-search browser module comprising:

an application layer interface coupled to a protocol stack;

a markup language parser coupled to receive information from said application layer interface;

a user interface for interacting with a user;

a multilevel search control interface, said multilevel search control interface including a first input to receive a first parameter that is related to content, and a second input to receive a second parameter that identifies how a set of hyperlinks are to be accessed, so as to define a linked set of documents; and

a markup language processor coupled to receive a first input from said markup language parser and said first and second parameters from said multilevel search control interface;

wherein said markup language processor is operative to sequentially access said linked set of documents using said second parameter, evaluate textual information contained within each sequentially accessed document, compare said textual information with said first parameter, and selectively couple to an output information related to one or more documents in said linked set of documents for which the comparison provides an affirmative result;

wherein the set of information selectively coupled to the output is guaranteed to be limited to a subset of the linked set of documents defined by the second parameter that further include textual content as defined by the first parameter; and

wherein the first parameter is not re-entered into any embedded search engines found in the linked set of documents to extend the search beyond the linked set of documents.

2. The browser of claim 1, wherein said user interface comprises a window display providing an interactive menu to a user.

3. The browser of claim 2, wherein said user interface is a part of a windows based graphical user interface.

4. The browser of claim 1, where said user interface comprises a voice interface.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein the first parameter includes an indication of a tag type so that textual information is only checked within the indicated tag type.

5. A multilevel-search browser plug-in module for coupling to a host browser, whereby the host browser includes an application layer communications interface, a markup language parser, and a user interface for coupling to a user, the plug-in module comprising:

a multilevel search control interface, said multilevel search control interface including a first input to receive a first parameter that is related to content, and a second input to receive a second parameter that identifies how a set of hyperlinks are to be accessed, so as to define a linked set of documents;

a markup language processor coupled to receive a first input from said markup language parser, and said first and second parameters from said multilevel search control interface;

wherein said markup language processor is operative to sequentially access said linked set of documents using said second parameter, evaluate textual information contained within each sequentially accessed document, compare said textual information with said first parameter, and selectively couple to an output information related to one or more documents in said linked set of documents for which the comparison provides an affirmative result;

wherein the set of information selectively coupled to the output is guaranteed to be limited to a subset of the linked set of documents defined by the second parameter that further include textual content as defined by the first parameter; and

wherein the first parameter is not re-entered into any embedded search engines found in the linked set of documents to extend the search beyond the linked set of documents.

6. The plug-in module of claim 5, wherein said plug-in module is embodied as JAVA code.

7. The plug-in module of claim 5, wherein said plug-in module is embodied as executable XML code.

32. The method of claim 5, wherein the first parameter includes an indication of a tag type so that textual information is only checked within the indicated tag type.

8. A computerized device comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to said processor;

a display device;

a network interface;

a multilevel browser module comprising;

an application layer interface, said application layer interface for coupling to a protocol stack;

a markup language parser coupled to receive information from said application layer interface;

a user interface comprising input and output devices for interacting with a user;

a multilevel search control interface, said multilevel search control interface including a first input to receive a first parameter that is related to content, and a second input to receive a second parameter that identifies how a set of hyperlinks are to be accessed, so as to define a linked set of documents;

a markup language processor coupled to receive a first input from said markup language parser, and said first and second parameters from said multilevel search control interface;

wherein said markup language processor is operative to sequentially access said linked set of documents using said second parameter, evaluate textual information contained within each sequentially accessed document, compare said textual information with said first parameter, and selectively couple to an output information related to one or more documents in said linked set of documents for which the comparison provides an affirmative result;

wherein the set of information selectively coupled to the output is guaranteed to be limited to a subset of the linked set of documents defined by the second parameter; and

wherein the first parameter is not re-entered into any embedded search engines found in the linked set of documents to extend the search beyond the linked set of documents.

33. The method of claim 8, wherein the first parameter includes an indication of a tag type so that textual information is only checked within the indicated tag type.

9. For use in a client browser device, a method comprising:

accepting a first parameter that is related to content;

accepting a second parameter that identifies how a set of hyperlinks are to be accessed, so as to define a linked set of documents;

accessing a first markup language document and scanning said document to determine a hyperlink contained therein;

based on said second parameter, selectively activating said hyperlink found in said step of accessing;

retrieving at least a portion of a second markup document associated with said hyperlink; and

comparing the contents of said at least a portion of said second markup document to at least a portion of said first parameter; and

when the comparing provides an affirmative result, selectively coupling to an output information related to said second markup document;

wherein the set of information selectively coupled to the output is guaranteed to be limited to a subset of the linked set of documents defined by the second parameter; and

wherein the first parameter is not reentered into any embedded search engines found in the linked set of documents to extend the search beyond the linked set of documents.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said second parameter comprises a set of subparameters.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said first parameter includes a character string and said second parameter includes an indication of the number of levels to search.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said first parameter includes a Boolean keyword expression and said second parameter includes an indication of the number of levels to search.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

checking to see if the search is complete, and if it is not, accessing a next hyperlink and repeating the steps of activating, retrieving, and comparing, and checking.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein said output corresponds to a user interface output device, and the method further comprises:

when said information has been selectively coupled to said output, awaiting a find-next signal, and when said find-next signal is received, checking to see if the search is complete, and if it is not, accessing a next hyperlink and repeating the steps of activating, retrieving, comparing, selective coupling, and checking.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the checking to see if the search is complete further comprises:

comparing remaining words in the retrieved mark-up language page to at least one subparameter of said first parameter.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein said accessing a next hyperlink is performed in the background while a current result is being made available at said output.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein said first parameter includes a Boolean keyword expression, and said second parameter includes an indication of the number of levels to search, and an indication to continue the search on a designated-next-linked page.

34. The method of claim 9, wherein the first parameter includes an indication of a tag type so that textual information is only checked within the indicated tag type.

18. For use in a client side browser, a method of gathering a set of filtered information from an information network, comprising:

providing a user interface;

accepting from said user interface a first parameter that is related to content;

accepting from said user interface a second parameter that identifies a hyperlink accessing rule, so as to define a linked set of documents;

performing a sequence of client-server interactions to access at least a subset of said linked set of documents using said hyperlink accessing rule;

for each document in said subset, extracting information related to said document and comparing said information with said first parameter; and

for each document in said subset for which the comparing identifies an affirmative correlation, coupling at least a portion of said document to an output;

wherein a set of information selectively coupled to the output is guaranteed to be limited to a subset of the linked set of documents defined by the second parameter; and

wherein the first parameter is not re-entered into any embedded search engines found in the linked set of documents, to extend the search beyond the linked set of documents.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said output is a display associated with said user interface.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said output is a markup document.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said markup document conforms with at least a dialect of XML.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein said output is coupled to a printer and directs the subset of documents associated with the output to be printed.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein said output is coupled to a storage device and directs the subset of documents associated with the output to be written to local storage.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein said hyperlink accessing rule involves at least a sub rule that causes hyperlink accesses outside of a given domain to be excluded from the set of linked documents.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein said hyperlink accessing rule involves least a sub rule that causes the hyperlink corresponding to the next page in a set of results pages to be accessed.

26. The method of claim 18, wherein said hyperlink accessing rule involves at least a sub rule that causes a sequence of hyperlinks corresponding to a sequence of next-page links in a set of results pages to be accessed.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein said hyperlink accessing rule involves at least a sub rule that causes a sequence of hyperlinks corresponding to a sequence of next-page links in a set of results pages to be accessed, and the output is written to a markup document.

28. The method of claim 18, wherein said hyperlink accessing rule involves at least a sub rule that causes a sequence of hyperlinks corresponding to a sequence of next-page links in a set of results pages to be accessed, and the output is displayed to the user via said user interface.

29. The method of claim 18, wherein said second parameter includes at least two subparameters.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said two subparameters include at least two of a number of link levels to search, a local limit indication, and a number of next-page links to follow.

35. The method of claim 18, wherein the first parameter includes an indication of a tag type so that textual information is only checked within the indicated tag type.