Friendly URLs

• US 7,293,012 B1
• Filed: 12/19/2003
• Issued: 11/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yu, Jinsong, Solaro, John A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Cam Linh
• Application Number:
  US10/741,976
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• Field of Search: 707 2- 4, 707/10, 709/203, 709/217
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A Web crawler, search engine, browser program, or other client application dynamically accesses data by using “friendly” Uniform Resource Locaters (URLs) that do not require query parameters or other non-intuitive coding. A friendly URL includes a static URL that appears to identify a static resource, such as a Hyper Text Markup Language document. A friendly URL can be a link or entered in a browser program'"'"'s address field. A data type in the friendly URL is mapped to a data source that dynamically accesses data associated with an intuitive data key in the friendly URL. The data key refers to a specific document, and/or is a search term. A query URL is constructed with the data key, and a data source identifier that preferably refers to a database function and is mapped to the data type. The resulting dynamically accessed data are communicated back to the requesting client application.

Claims

1. A method for providing dynamically accessed data stored in a database to a requester that is aware of only a specified uniform resource locator (URL), comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving at least a path portion of a specified URL that originated at a requester, the specified URL having been entered by a user into an address data field of an application, the path portion lacking any database query indicators for querying areas of subject matter in one or more databases accessible to the user;

(b) parsing pre-defined locations within the path portion of the received URL to detect;

(i) a data type that indicates a source of the dynamically accessed data from among a plurality of sources of data stored in the database, and format information for the dynamically accessed data indicating a format type for one or more portions of dynamically accessed data; and

(ii) a data key for the dynamically accessed data indicating an area of subject matter to be searched and accessed from among the information associated with the indicated data type in the database, the subject matter corresponding to the data key portion of the specified URL entered by the user;

(c) using the data type to search a plurality of query indicators corresponding to the data type of the dynamically accessed data, the query indicator having one or more database query strings;

(d) using the data key to identify an appropriate area of subject matter to be searched using an appropriate query indicator identified from among the plurality of query indicators; and

(e) returning the identified query indicator, the query indicator being mergeable into a query URL for submission to the database, such that the query URL can be used to access the dynamically accessed data for return to the requester, notwithstanding that the specified URL was entered by the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein both the specified URL and the query indicator are formatted according to a single designated protocol.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the received URL is received from one of:

(a) a program that operates on a link in a source document, the link including the received URL; and

(b) a browser program that obtains the received URL as a network address entered into the browser program.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified URL ends with a predefined file extension.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data type comprises at least one of a text document, an image, and a media file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data key comprises at least one of:

(a) a reference identifier to a specific data content; and

(b) a keyword employed to search the source for content related to the keyword.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of parsing comprises the steps of:

(a) detecting a first separator after a root URL identifying a network address;

(b) detecting the data type between the first separator and a second separator; and

(c) detecting the data key after the second separator.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the details of the query indicator are not discoverable by the requestor.

9. A system for providing dynamically accessed data stored in a database to a requester that is aware of only a specified uniform resource locator (URL), comprising:

(a) a processor; and

(b) a memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing machine instructions that cause the processor to carry out a plurality of functions, including;

(i) receiving at least a path portion of a specified URL that originated at a requester, the specified URL having been entered by a user into an address data field of an application, the path portion lacking any database query indicators for querying areas of subject matter in one or more databases accessible to the user;

(ii) parsing pre-defined locations within the path portion of the received URL for;

(1) a data type that indicates a source of the dynamically accessed data from among a plurality of sources of data stored in the database, and format information for the dynamically accessed data indicating a format type for one or more portions of dynamically accessed data; and

(2) a data key for the dynamically accessed data indicating an area of subject matter to be searched and accessed from among the information associated with the indicated data type in the database, the subject matter corresponding to the data key portion of the specified URL entered by the user;

(iii) using the data type to search a plurality of query indicators corresponding to the data type of the dynamically accessed data, the query indicator having one or more database query strings;

(iv) using the data key to identify an appropriate area of subject matter to be searched using an appropriate query indicator identified from among the plurality of query indicators; and

(v) returning the identified query indicator, the query indicator capable of being merged into a query URL for submission to the database, such that the query URL can be used to access the dynamically accessed data for return to the requester notwithstanding that the specified URL was entered by the user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the received URL does not indicate an executable function, and does not include the query indicator.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the received URL is received from one of:

(a) a program that operates on a link in a source document, the link including the received URL; and

(b) a browser program that obtains the received URL as a network address entered into the browser program.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the machine instructions further cause the processor to carry out the function of determining that the received URL ends with a predefined file extension.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the data type comprises at least one of a text document, an image, and a media file.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the data key comprises at least one of:

(a) a reference identifier to a specific data content; and

(b) a keyword employed to search the source for content related to the keyword.

15. A method for receiving and sending communications used in accessing dynamic data from a database according to a specified URL, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a specified URL from a requester, the specified URL including a data type and a data key, the specified URL having been entered by a user into an address data field of an application, the data type indicating a source of the dynamically accessed data from among a plurality of sources of data stored in the database and format information for the dynamically accessed data indicating a format type for one or more portions of dynamically accessed data, the data key indicating an area of subject matter to be searched and accessed from among the information associated with the indicated data type in the database, the subject matter corresponding to the data key portion of the specified URL entered by the user;

(b) sending at least a path portion of the specified URL including the data type and data key to a server application for generation of a query indicator, the query indicator having one or more database query strings;

(c) receiving a generated query indicator from the server application;

(d) merging the query indicator with a database identifier identifying the name and location of the database into a query URL;

(e) submitting the query URL to the identified database;

(f) receiving the dynamically accessed data from the identified database in response to submission of the query URL; and

(g) sending the dynamically accessed data to the requester.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein information in the database is periodically updated to include new information corresponding to one or more data types or data keys.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the dynamically accessed data is sent to the requestor in hypertext markup language (HTML) form.