Database system and method for data acquisition and perusal

• US 7,836,043 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2004
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Indacon Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Indacon Incorporated
• Inventors: Jensen, Robert Leland, Smith, Daniel Victor
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham; John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khakhar; Nirav K
• Application Number:
  US10/887,670
• Publication Number:
  US 20050027702A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,322 Days
• Field of Search: 707/694, 707/709, 707/741, 707/742, 715/208, 715/230
• US Class Current: 707/709
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• 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 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A data acquisition and perusal system and method which enable: selection of a plurality of files for inclusion into at least one selectable database; generation of a searchable index of the data contained in the selectable database; and searches of the searchable index according to search criteria. This invention allows users to view, acquire, and generate single- or multiple-data sources locally or remotely, and to compile, index, modify, and append the data sources according to default or user defined criteria. This invention can: selectively acquire and display data contained within remote databases; capture automatically indexed HTML data; and automatically “pinpoint,” and highlight specific text or groups of text designated by the user within the resulting database. This invention contains a link module enabling custom links to be defined between selected terms of selected files of the selectable database including the custom links so that the searchable index includes only valid links.

Claims

1. A data acquisition and perusal method, comprising the steps of:

selecting a plurality of files, including HTML type format, for inclusion into at least one selectable database;

generating a searchable index of the plurality of selected files included in the selectable database;

creating custom links to be defined between selected terms of selected files of the selectable database including the custom links so that the searchable index includes only valid links;

wherein the searchable index stores the word locations of words in the database, including starting positions of words in the HTML files that can be used to identify and highlight words in HTML files when those files are displayed in HTML format; and

searching the searchable index according to search criteria;

said data selection, database index generator and search steps allowing users to view and acquire single or multiple data sources locally and remotely, and allowing users to compile, index, modify, and append the data sources locally and remotely according to default or user defined criteria.

2. The data acquisition and perusal method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

acquiring and displaying data contained within remote databases depending upon the user'"'"'s access permissions to such databases.

3. A data indexing and perusal system comprising:

an index module that enables generation of a searchable index of a plurality of selected source files, including HTML files;

wherein the searchable index stores word locations of words in the source files, including the starting positions of words in HTML files that can be used to identify and highlight words in HTML files while those files are displayed in HTML format;

a search module that enables a search to be performed of the index according to a search criterion to locate words and phrases in the plurality of selected source files;

a display utility that displays at least portions of files in the plurality of selected source files that meet the search criterion; and

an annotation module that enables users to generate annotations of the plurality of selected source files, the annotations being displayable by the display utility;

wherein the annotation module enables designation of a link term and designation of one of the plurality of selected source files to be linked to the designated link term.

4. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 3, wherein the searchable index comprises a plurality of complementary index files.

5. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 3, wherein the annotation module is operable to store any generated annotations within the searchable index.

6. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 3, wherein the index module is operable to store any designated link term within the searchable index.

7. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 6, wherein the index module is operable to store links designated through the annotation module only if the links are valid.

8. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 3, wherein the annotation module is operable to automatically generate links between all instances of a designated link term within the plurality of selected source files and the designated file.

9. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 8, wherein the annotation module enables automatic generation of links only if the links are valid.

10. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 3, the system further comprising a browser for displaying the HTML files that meet the search criterion and that utilizes the word locations stored in the searchable index to visually distinguish the searched words and phrases from any surrounding text in the displayed HTML files.

11. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 3, wherein the search module is operable to search a plurality of searchable indexes in a single search.

12. A data indexing and perusal system comprising:

an index module that enables generation of an index of a plurality of selected source files, including HTML files;

a custom link module that enables a user to create links between two of the plurality of selected source files;

a search module that enables a search to be performed according to a search criterion to locate words and phrases in the plurality of selected source files; and

a browser for displaying the HTML files that meet the search criterion and which utilizes word starting positions retrieved from an index of word locations to visually distinguish the searched words and phrases from any surrounding text in the displayed HTML files.

13. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 12, wherein the searchable index comprises a plurality of complementary index files.

14. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 12, wherein the index module is operable to store any custom links within the index.

15. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 12, wherein the link module enables creation of valid custom links only.

16. The data indexing and perusal system of claim 12, wherein the link module enables designation of a link term and designation of one of the plurality of selected source files to be linked to the designated link term;

the link module being operable to automatically link multiple instances of the designated link term in the plurality of selected source files with the designated file.

17. A data indexing and perusal system comprising:

an index module that enables generation of a searchable index of a plurality of HTML files;

a search module that enables a search to be performed of the index according to a search criterion to locate words and phrases in the plurality of HTML files;

an annotation module that enables designation of a link term and designation of one of the plurality of selected source files to be linked to the designated link term; and

a browser for displaying the HTML files that meet the search criterion and which utilizes starting positions of words retrieved from an index of word locations to visually distinguish the searched words and phrases from any surrounding text in the displayed HTML files.

18. A data indexing and perusal system comprising:

a display module operable to display a web page comprising a plurality of links to displayable web elements from the group consisting of web pages, text, images, and graphics, wherein the web page and web elements have original source internet addresses;

a selection module that enables saving of the web page and selective saving of the linked elements to a local computer data storage device, thereby providing the selectively saved linked elements with local addresses;

the selection module being configured to automatically modify the web page'"'"'s links to the selectively saved linked elements so that they point to the selectively saved linked elements'"'"' local addresses;

wherein the selection module is also operable to save the original source internet addresses of the selectively saved linked elements when modifying the saved web page'"'"'s links to point to the selectively saved linked elements'"'"' local addresses;

an index module that enables generation of a searchable index of the saved web page and the selectively saved linked elements; and

a search module that enables a search to be performed of the index according to a search criterion.

19. A method of annotating, indexing, searching, and displaying a plurality of selected source files, the method comprising:

enabling users to generate custom annotations of the plurality of selected source files;

wherein the enablement step also enables a user to designate a link term and designate one of the plurality of selected source files to be linked to the designated link term;

generating a searchable index of the plurality of selected source files;

incorporating any user-generated custom annotations into the index;

searching the searchable index according to a search criterion to locate words and phrases in the plurality of selected source files; and

displaying at least portions of files in the plurality of selected source files that meet the search criterion.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of generating a searchable index creates a searchable index comprising a plurality of complementary index files.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of verifying the validity of any designated links, wherein the incorporating step incorporates links only if the links are valid.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of automatically generating links between all instances of a designated link term within the plurality of selected source files and the designated file.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the automatic link generation step generates only valid links.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the index generating step generates an index operable to be searched according to negative searching principles using conflation logic.

25. An internet browser application residing on a computer-readable medium that acts as a client to a remote web server and displays HTML files having formatting control tags in a graphical user interface in accordance with the formatting control tags of the HTML files, the internet browser application comprising:

a database selection module that enables a plurality of HTML files to be downloaded and saved into at least one selectable database;

a database index generation module that enables generation of a common searchable index of all files downloaded and saved into a selected database;

the index including an index of word locations of words in the HTML files; and

a search module that enables a search to be performed of an index generated by the database index generation module according to a search criterion to locate words and phrases in the files of the selected database;

the internet browser application causing the graphical user interface to display at least portions of the HTML files that meet the search criterion in accordance with the formatting control tags of the HTML files;

the internet browser application using starting positions retrieved from the word location index of words in the HTML files that meet the search criterion in order to highlight the words in the HTML files that meet the search criterion while displaying the HTML file in accordance with the formatting control tags of the HTML files.

26. The internet browser application of claim 25, wherein the database index generation module enables generation of a common searchable index that is separate from the downloaded and saved files.

27. The internet browser application of claim 25, wherein the internet browser application enables users to annotate a downloaded html file.

28. The internet browser application of claim 25, wherein the database index generation module is actuated by saving a file and exiting a browser mode.

29. In an internet browser application residing on a computer-readable medium that acts as a client to a remote web server and displays HTML files having formatting control tags in a graphical user interface in accordance with the formatting control tags of the HTML files, and which includes a search module enabling a search to be performed to locate words and phrases in a displayed HTML file according to a search criterion, the improvement comprising:

a module enabling the creation of custom links between selected terms of selected files, the module ensuring that only valid links are created;

an index of word locations of words in the displayed HTML file;

wherein the internet browser application uses starting positions retrieved from the word location index of words in the HTML files that meet the search criterion in order to highlight the words in the HTML files that meet the search criterion while displaying the HTML file in accordance with the formatting control tags of the HTML files.

30. A method of generating an index of word locations of an HTML file having visible characters and control tags, and using said word locations to pinpoint and highlight a word in a HTML browser displaying the HTML file, the method comprising:

identifying the lengths of contiguous blocks of visible characters in the HTML file that are not interrupted by control tags;

for each control tag encountered in the HTML file, determining whether the control tag is an incrementing control tag, wherein an incrementing control tag causes an HTML viewer to advance a file position pointer when the control tag is encountered;

for a word in the HTML file, generating a number identifying the location of the word in the HTML file by adding an amount by which any incrementing control tags preceding the word advance the file position pointer to the lengths of contiguous blocks of visible characters preceding the word; and

storing the number in an index of word locations on a computer-readable medium; and

displaying the HTML file in an HTML browser in accordance with the formatting control tags of the HTML files while using starting positions retrieved from index in order to highlight words in the HTML files that meet a search criterion.