Rule-based validation of websites

• US 9,606,971 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2013
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ObservePoint, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ObservePoint, Inc.
• Inventors: Seolas, Robert K., Pestana, John, Broadbent, James Tyler, Feuerlein, Alan Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): Dyer, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US14/080,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20140082482A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,230 Days
• Field of Search: 715/234, 715/237
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3608 using formal methods, e.g. model checking, abstract interpretation theorem proving G06N5/013
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/362 Software debugging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

An automated website analysis system includes mechanisms for automatically auditing a website to validate that the scanned web page information conforms to validation rules. In one implementation, an auditing system requests web pages of an identified website pursuant to validating at least a portion of each requested web page. Embodiments include scanning page code of at least one of the web pages to identify scanned web page information, including a page tag. The scanned web page information is validated to determine whether is conforms to at least one validation rule by validating variables of the page tag against validation rules, including a vendor validation rule. Results of the validation are reported.

Claims

1. In a computerized environment comprising an auditing system and a website having one or more web pages that have one or more parent and child relationships, a method of the auditing system automatically identifying at least one page tag from scanned web page information for at least one web page and validating that the page tag conforms to at least one vendor validation rule, the method comprising the acts of:

requesting one or more web pages of an identified website pursuant to validating at least a portion of each of the one or more web pages;

scanning page code of at least one of the web pages to identify scanned web page information;

accessing one or more vendor validation rules, wherein the vendor validation rules are configured to verify that the web page information conforms to vendor requirements;

accessing one or more user-created validation rules, wherein the user-created validation rules specify user-specific policies for validating web page information, the user-created validation rules being created by selecting a particular tag vendor type against which the one or more user-created validation rules are to be run, wherein the particular tag vendor type corresponds to the vendor type of the page tag, and further specifying one or more requirements to be met for the at least one user-created validation rule to pass validation;

validating the web page information against the one or more vendor validation rules and the one or more user-created validation rules, including at least one of applying the vendor validation rules in a set of one or more domains specific to the vendor validation rules, and applying the user-created validation rules in a set of one or more domains specific to the user-created validation rules; and

reporting results of the validation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page information comprises at least one page tag that further comprises one or more variables.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the acts of:

identifying that the at least one page tag includes the one or more variables; and

determining the vendor type of the page tag.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of validating comprises at least one of:

validating that a character length of at least one variable value is within a valid range;

validating that at least one variable value comprises a string when a string is expected;

or

validating that at least one variable value comprises an integer when an integer is expected.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of validating comprises at least one of:

executing at least one regular expression that is on the at least one page tag;

or

executing at least one regular expression that is on a rendering of the at least one page tag.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

verifying that at least one precondition of at least one user-created validation rule has been met; and

validating whether the at least one page tag conforms to at least one requirement of the at least one user-created validation rule.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

rendering the page code to generate a string that includes one or more variables; and

executing at least one regular expression that is on the string to identify the one or more variables.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of reporting comprises identifying information that is to be displayed in a summary report, generating the summary report, and displaying the summary report of one or more web pages having a corresponding page tag that failed validation, the summary report including identification of at least one corresponding page tag that failed validation and at least one variable of the corresponding page tag that failed validation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the summary report includes a percentage of web pages that passed validation and a percentage of web pages that failed validation.

10. In a computerized environment comprising an auditing system and a website having one or more web pages that have one or more parent and child relationships, a method of the auditing system automatically identifying at least one page tag from scanned web page information for at least one web page and validating that the page tag conforms to at least one vendor validation rule and at least one user validation rule, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving at least one web page of a website pursuant to validating at least a portion of the at least one web page;

parsing page code of the least one of the web page to identify web page information, including at least one page tag and one or more variables of the at least one page tag;

verifying whether the one or more variables conforms to at least one vendor validation rule for the at least one page tag, the at least one vendor validation rule corresponding to a vendor type of the page tag, including applying the vendor validation rules in a set of one or more domains specific to the vendor validation rules;

verifying whether the one or more variables conform to at least one user-created validation rule, the at least one user-created validation rule specifying user-specific policies for validating the one or more variables, the user-created validation rule being created by selecting a particular tag vendor type against which the at least one user-created validation rule is to be run, the particular tag vendor type corresponding to the vendor type of the page tag, and further specifying one or more requirements to be met for the at least one user-created validation rule to pass validation, including applying the user-created validation rules in a set of one or more domains specific to the user-created validation rules; and

sending a report of the verification to a user.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising an act of determining the vendor type of the page tag by executing at least one regular expression that is on the page tag, or that is on a rendering of the page tag.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of verifying conformity to the user-created validation rule comprises:

verifying that at least one precondition of the at least one user-created validation rule has been met; and

validating that the one or more variables conform to at least one requirement of the at least one user-created validation rule.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the page tag comprises a tracking pixel.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of sending the report comprises:

reporting that validation of the page tag failed; and

identifying at least one of the one or more variables that failed verification.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the web page information includes page data, the act of verifying conformity to the user-created validation rule comprising:

verifying that at least one precondition of at least one user-created validation rule has been met; and

validating that the page data conforms to at least one requirement of the at least one user-created validation rule.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein validating that the page data conforms to at least one requirement of the at least one user-created validation rule comprises validating that a web page rendering of the page data conforms to the at least one requirement.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the act of sending the report comprises reporting that validation that the page data conforms to the at least one requirement of the at least one user-created validation rule has failed.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising a step for creating the at least one user-created validation rule, where the step of creating comprises the acts of:

selecting a particular tag vendor type against which the at least one user-created validation rule should be run, wherein the particular tag vendor type corresponds to the vendor type of the page tag;

specifying names of one or more tag vendor accounts established with the tag vendor;

specifying one or more preconditions to be met before the at least one user-created validation rule is run against page tags;

specifying one or more requirements to be met for the at least one user-created validation rule to pass validation; and

specifying one or more domains on which the at least one user-created validation rule be run.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one user validation rule is created by an operator of the website.

20. In a computerized environment, at least one computer-readable hardware storage device having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed cause one or more processors in a computer system to perform a perform a method of automatically identifying scanned web page information for at least one web page and validating that the scanned web page information conforms to at least one validation rule, the method comprising the acts of:

requesting one or more web pages of an identified website pursuant to validating at least a portion of each of the one or more web pages;

scanning page code of at least one of the web pages to identify scanned web page information;

accessing one or more vendor validation rules, wherein the vendor validation rules are configured to verify that the web page information conforms to vendor requirements;

accessing one or more user-created validation rules, wherein the user-created validation rules specify user-specific policies for validating web page information, the user-created validation rules being created by selecting a particular tag vendor type against which the one or more user-created validation rules are to be run, wherein the particular tag vendor type corresponds to the vendor type of the page tag, and further specifying one or more requirements to be met for the at least one user-created validation rule to pass validation;

validating the web page information against the one or more vendor validation rules and the one or more user-created validation rules, including at least one of applying the vendor validation rules in a set of one or more domains specific to the vendor validation rules, and applying the user-created validation rules in a set of one or more domains specific to the user-created validation rules; and

reporting results of the validation.