Method for improving accessibility to rich internet applications through collaborative crawling and computer program for the same

• US 9,104,777 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Borodin, Yevgen, Kawanaka, Shinya, Takagi, Hironobu
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Dhairya A
• Application Number:
  US13/262,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20120054272A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,960 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

A method and article of manufacture of making dynamic content more accessible to screen readers and web spiders. The method applies to a server connected to a client via a network. The method includes receiving from the client an action event indicative of an action performed by a user on content displayed on the client and a change event indicative of a change in the content. The method further includes generating metadata for improving accessibility to the content based on the action event and the change event.

Claims

1. A method involving a server connected with a client via a network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving from the client an action event indicative of an action performed by a user on content displayed on the client and a change event indicative of a change in the content; and

generating metadata for improving accessibility to the content based on the action event and the change event;

wherein the action performed by the user on the content is placing a pointer on the content, and the change in the content is that new content is displayed in addition to the content;

wherein the content is an element of a hierarchical menu, and the new content is a submenu included in the element; and

wherein the generating metadata comprises;

determining a difference in time between occurrence of the action event and occurrence of the change event; and

associating the action event and the change event together in the metadata only if the determined difference in time is smaller than a threshold;

wherein the threshold equals one of;

(a) first time, T1; and

(b) a second time T2;

wherein T1 is longer than T2;

wherein T1 is used as the threshold if the change event requires communication and;

wherein T2 is used as the threshold if the change event does not require communication.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the change event occurs in response to the action event.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of generating the metadata generates metadata that represents a relationship between the action event and the change event.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of generating the metadata generates the metadata based on a sequence of the action event and the change event.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of generating the metadata generates the metadata based on a sequence that has occurred more or most frequently among a plurality of sequences.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of generating the metadata generates metadata that indicates a type of the content.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the action performed by the user on the content is clicking on the content,

the change in the content is a change in an attribute of the content, and

the step of generating the metadata generates metadata which indicates that the content is a checkbox provided that the clicking and the change in the attribute have been repeated multiple times.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein information identifying the content as a target is included in the metadata.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the information identifying the content includes a wildcard URL or a wildcard Xpath.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein a separate computer is connected to the network, and the method further comprises the steps of:

transmitting the metadata to the computer; and

receiving the metadata from the computer in response to the client requesting the server to transmit the content.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata improves accessibility to the content for a screen reader.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata improves accessibility to the content for a web spider.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the client comprises a display device, a pointing device, and a communication device, and the method further comprises the steps of:

displaying content transmitted from the server via the network on the display device through the communication device; and

operating on the content displayed on the display device in response to the user manipulating the pointing device.

14. A method involving a client connected with a server via a network, the method comprising the steps of:

tracking an action event indicative of an action performed by a user on content displayed on the client and a change event indicative of a change in the content; and

generating metadata for improving accessibility to the content based on the action event and the change event;

wherein the action performed by the user on the content is placing a pointer on the content, and the change in the content is that new content is displayed in addition to the content;

wherein the content is an element of a hierarchical menu, and the new content is a submenu included in the element; and

wherein the generating metadata comprises;

determining a difference in time between occurrence of the action event and occurrence of the change event; and

associating the action event and the change event together in the metadata only if the determined difference in time is smaller than a threshold;

wherein the threshold equals one of;

(a) first time, T1; and

(b) a second time T2;

wherein T1 is longer than T2;

wherein T1 is used as the threshold if the change event requires communication and;

wherein T2 is used as the threshold if the change event does not require communication.

15. An article of manufacture tangibly embodying computer readable non-transitory instructions which, when implemented, cause a server connected with a client via a network, to carry out the steps of a method comprising:

receiving from the client an action event indicative of an action performed by a user on content displayed on the client and a change event indicative of a change in the content; and

generating metadata for improving accessibility to the content based on the action event and the change event;

wherein the action performed by the user on the content is placing a pointer on the content, and the change in the content is that new content is displayed in addition to the content;

wherein the content is an element of a hierarchical menu, and the new content is a submenu included in the element; and

wherein the generating metadata comprises;

determining a difference in time between occurrence of the action event and occurrence of the change event; and

associating the action event and the change event together in the metadata only if the determined difference in time is smaller than a threshold;

wherein the threshold equals one of;

(a) first time, T1; and

(b) a second time T2;

wherein T1 is longer than T2;

wherein T1 is used as the threshold if the change event requires communication and;

wherein T2 is used as the threshold if the change event does not require communication.