Locating a portion of data on a computer network

• US 8,195,762 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2006
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Riggs, Brian, Brown, Darrick, Cooley, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Kenny
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nooristany, Sulaiman
• Application Number:
  US11/441,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20070276921A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,203 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

A method for locating a portion of data is provided. In this method, a request for a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with data is transmitted. The request comprises a labeling tag that is associated with the data. As a result of the request, an URL that comprises an anchor identifier is received and the data located at the URL are retrieved. An anchor within the data is located based on the anchor identifier and a portion of data is located based on the location of the anchor.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting a request to obtain a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with a plurality of data, the request comprising a labeling tag;

in response to said transmitting the request, receiving the URL, wherein the URL comprises an anchor identifier that is separated from a remainder of the URL by a delimiter, and wherein the anchor identifier is usable to point to an anchor definition that is located in the plurality of data, the pointed to anchor definition having a name that matches the anchor identifier; and

in response to said receiving the URL;

retrieving the plurality of data located at the URL;

determining the anchor identifier from the URL based on the delimiter; and

using the determined anchor identifier to locate the anchor definition embedded at a position within the plurality of data, wherein the name of the anchor definition matches the anchor identifier;

using the position of the anchor definition to locate a portion of the plurality of data associated with the labeling tag, wherein the portion is separate from the anchor definition and enclosed in a microformat that identifies boundaries of the portion of data as having a beginning and end within the plurality of data and excludes some of the plurality of data;

displaying the plurality of data such that the portion of the plurality of data associated with the labeling tag is highlighted.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising parsing the portion of the plurality of data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving the portion of the plurality of data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a boundary defining a start and end of the portion of the plurality of data within the plurality of data is embedded into the portion of the plurality of data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is transmitted to a labeling tag server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the URL is received from a labeling tag server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the plurality of data is encapsulated in a microformat.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the plurality of data is enclosed between a start tag and an end tag.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the plurality of data is located immediately after the position of the anchor definition.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer instructions executable for:

transmitting a request to obtain a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with a plurality of data, the request comprising a labeling tag associated with the plurality of data;

in response to said request, receiving the URL, wherein the URL comprises an anchor identifier that is separated from a remainder of the URL by a delimiter, and wherein the anchor identifier is usable to point to an anchor definition that is located in the plurality of data, the pointed to anchor definition having a name that matches the anchor identifier;

retrieving the plurality of data located at the URL, the plurality of data comprising an anchor definition embedded at a position within the plurality of data and wherein the name of the anchor definition matches the anchor identifier;

locating the anchor definition within the plurality of data based on the anchor identifier;

locating a portion of the plurality of data based on the position of the anchor definition, the portion of the plurality of data being separate from the anchor definition and encapsulated in a microformat and associated with the labeling tag, wherein the portion of the plurality of data excludes some of the plurality of data;

parsing the portion of the plurality of data to search for an element of the plurality of data;

retrieving the element from the portion of the plurality of data; and

displaying the element such that it is highlighted.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the computer instructions for parsing the portion of the plurality of data comprises computer instructions for parsing from a start of the portion of the plurality of data to an end of the portion of the plurality of data.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the request is transmitted to a labeling tag server.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the microformat identifies a start and an end of the portion of the plurality of data.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the portion of the plurality of data is enclosed between a start tag and an end tag.

15. A system, comprising:

a labeling tag server;

a Web server configured to store a Web page; and

a computing device in communication with the labeling tag server and the Web server, the computing device being configured to execute an application, the application comprising computer instructions for;

transmitting a request to the labeling tag server the request comprising a labeling tag,

in response to said request, receiving a URL from the labeling tag server, the URL identifying the Web page comprising an anchor identifier that is separated from a remainder of the URL by a delimiter, and wherein the anchor identifier is usable to point to an anchor definition that is located in the Web page, the pointed to anchor definition having a name that matches the anchor identifier,

retrieving the Web page from the Web server located at the URL, the Web page being embedded with an anchor definition at a given position, wherein the name of the anchor definition matches the anchor identifier,

locating the anchor definition within the Web page based on the anchor identifier, and

determining a region of the Web page, wherein said determining is based on the position of the anchor definition, wherein the region of the Web page is separate from the anchor definition, is encapsulated in a microformat and is associated with the labeling tag, wherein the region of the Web page excludes some of the Web page including the anchor;

displaying the Web page, including the region of the Web page, and highlighting the region of the web page.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the application further comprises computer instructions for, parsing the region to search for an element of the region, and retrieving the element from the region.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the application further comprises computer instructions for retrieving the region of the Web page.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the microformat identifies a start and an end of the region of the Web page.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the region of the Web page is enclosed between a start tag and an end tag.

20. A system, comprising:

a labeling tag server;

a Web server configured to store a plurality of data;

a client computing device that is configured to execute a client application, the client application comprising computer instructions for transmitting a first request to an application server to obtain an element of the plurality of data; and

the application server in communication with the labeling tag server, the Web server, and the client computing device, the application server being configured to execute a server application, the server application comprising computer instructions for,

receiving from the client computing device, the first request to obtain the element;

in response to said receiving, transmitting a second request to the labeling tag server to obtain a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies a location of the plurality of data, the second request comprising a labeling tag associated with the plurality of data, the element of data being included within a portion of the plurality of data, wherein the portion of the plurality of data is enclosed in a microformat;

in response to the second request, receiving the URL from the labeling tag server, the URL, comprising an anchor identifier that is separated from a remainder of the URL by a delimiter, and wherein the anchor identifier is usable to point to an anchor definition that is located in the plurality of data, the pointed to anchor definition having a name that matches the anchor identifier,

retrieving the plurality of data located at the URL, the plurality of data comprising an anchor definition embedded at a position within the plurality of data, wherein the name of the anchor definition matches the anchor identifier,

locating the anchor definition within the plurality of data based on the anchor identifier,

parsing the portion of the plurality of data located immediately after the anchor definition to search for the element,

retrieving the element from the portion of the plurality of data, wherein the element is associated with the labeling tag, wherein the portion of the plurality of data is separate from the anchor definition and excludes some of the plurality of data; and

sending the element of the plurality of data to the client computing device.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the portion of the plurality of data is encapsulated in a microformat.

22. A method, comprising:

transmitting a request to obtain a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifying a location of a plurality of data, the request comprising a labeling tag associated with the plurality of data;

in response to said request, receiving the URL, the URL comprising an anchor identifier that is separated from a remainder of the URL by a delimiter, and wherein the anchor identifier is usable to point to an anchor definition that is located in the plurality of data, the pointed to anchor definition having a name that matches the anchor identifier;

retrieving the plurality of data located at the URL, the plurality of data comprising an anchor definition embedded at a position in the plurality of data, wherein the name of the anchor definition matches the anchor identifier;

locating the anchor definition within the plurality of data based on the anchor identifier;

locating a portion of the plurality of data based on the position of the anchor definition, wherein the portion is separate from the anchor definition and the portion of the plurality of data is associated with the labeling tag and is enclosed by a microformat that identifies boundaries of the portion of data having a beginning and end within the plurality of data and excluding some of the plurality of data;

parsing the portion of the plurality of data to search for an element of the portion of the plurality of data; and

retrieving the element from the portion of the plurality of data.