Non-Invasive Collection of Data

• US 20080307050A1
• Filed: 08/12/2008
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Leah, Robert C., Joshi, Niraj P., Ehrich, Nathanael F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,690 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Non-invasive collection of data is presented. A server segments a web page into regions and sends the segmented web page along with a data collector program to a client in response to receiving a client request. The client displays the web page and loads the data collector program which initiates particular event handlers to monitor user event activity corresponding to the displayed web page. When the user performs a user event, such as moving his mouse into a particular web page region, the data collector program collects user event data and associates the user event data with the particular web page region. When the user event is complete, the data collector program sends the collected user event data to the server.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory accessible by the processors;

one or more nonvolatile storage devices accessible by the processors; and

a data collection tool to collect user event data occurring on a client computer system, the data collection tool including a set of instructions which are loaded into the memory and executed by at least one of the processors to perform actions of;

dividing a page of data into a plurality of regions, the page of data adaptable to be displayed by an application running on the client computer system;

inserting in the page of data one or more region identifiers for each of the regions;

sending the page of data from a server to the client computer system over a computer network;

transmitting a data collection program to the client computer system, the data collection program adapted to identify events corresponding to user actions performed on the client computer system and also adapted to identify a region, selected from the plurality of regions, in which the user actions were performed;

identifying a first event on the client computer system, the first event corresponding to a first user action in a first region;

retrieving a first region identifier, the first region identifier corresponding to the first region;

packaging the first event and the first region identifier in a first message;

sending the first message to the server;

detecting that the first event has ended at a first time;

identifying a second event on the client computer system, the second event corresponding to a second user action in the first region, wherein the second event occurs at a second time, the second time being after the first time;

retrieving an out of region threshold setting corresponding to the first region, wherein the out of region threshold setting indicates an amount of time;

determining the difference between the first time and the second time, wherein the difference is an elapsed time between the first event ending and the second event being detected;

comparing the elapsed time to the out of region threshold setting;

in response to the comparing, determining whether the elapsed time is greater than or equal to the out of region threshold setting;

in response to determining that the elapsed time is greater than or equal to the out of region threshold setting, performing the following;

packaging the second event and the first region identifier in a second message; and

sending the second message from the client computer system to the server;

in response to determining that the elapsed time is less than the out of region threshold setting, ignoring the second event;

retrieving user event data history corresponding to the first region;

in response to retrieving the user event data history, deciding to adjust the out of region threshold setting corresponding to the first region; and

in response to the deciding, adjusting the out of region threshold setting corresponding to the first region, wherein the adjusting comprises increasing the amount of time.

2. The information handling system as described in claim 1 wherein the page of data corresponds to a page format, the page format selected from the group consisting of an HTML format, an XHTML format, a WML format, and an XML format.

3. The information handling system as described in claim 1 wherein the data collection program is adapted to determine whether the first user action and the second user action correspond to selecting a web page and wherein the sending the first message and sending the second message are performed based upon the determination of the data collector program.

4. The information handling system as described in claim 1 wherein the user actions are selected from the group consisting of a mouse click, a keyboard stroke, a mouse over command, and a mouse out command.

5. The information handling system as described in claim 1 wherein the dividing further comprises:

for each region included in the page of data;

identifying a region starting point in the page of data;

inserting a start tag at the region starting point;

identifying a region ending point in the page of data; and

inserting an end tag at the region ending point.

6. The information handling system as described in claim 1 wherein the data collection program is sent with the page of data.

7. The information handling system as described in claim 1 wherein identifying the first event and identifying the second event are non-invasive to the user.

8. A computer program product stored on a computer storage media, the computer storage media containing instructions for execution by a computer, which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to implement a method for collecting user event data, said method comprising:

dividing a page of data into a plurality of regions, the page of data adaptable to be displayed by an application running on the client computer system;

inserting in the page of data one or more region identifiers for each of the regions;

sending the page of data from a server to the client computer system over a computer network;

transmitting a data collection program to the client computer system, the data collection program adapted to identify events corresponding to user actions performed on the client computer system and also adapted to identify a region, selected from the plurality of regions, in which the user actions were performed;

identifying a first event on the client computer system, the first event corresponding to a first user action in a first region;

retrieving a first region identifier, the first region identifier corresponding to the first region;

packaging the first event and the first region identifier in a first message;

sending the first message to the server;

detecting that the first event has ended at a first time;

identifying a second event on the client computer system, the second event corresponding to a second user action in the first region, wherein the second event occurs at a second time, the second time being after the first time;

retrieving an out of region threshold setting corresponding to the first region, wherein the out of region threshold setting indicates an amount of time;

determining the difference between the first time and the second time, wherein the difference is an elapsed time between the first event ending and the second event being detected;

comparing the elapsed time to the out of region threshold setting;

in response to the comparing, determining whether the elapsed time is greater than or equal to the out of region threshold setting;

in response to determining that the elapsed time is greater than or equal to the out of region threshold setting, performing the following;

packaging the second event and the first region identifier in a second message; and

sending the second message from the client computer system to the server;

in response to determining that the elapsed time is less than the out of region threshold setting, ignoring the second event;

retrieving user event data history corresponding to the first region;

in response to retrieving the user event data history, deciding to adjust the out of region threshold setting corresponding to the first region; and

in response to the deciding, adjusting the out of region threshold setting corresponding to the first region, wherein the adjusting comprises increasing the amount of time.

9. The computer program product as described in claim 8 wherein the page of data corresponds to a page format, the page format selected from the group consisting of an HTML format, an XHTML format, a WML format, and an XML format.

10. The computer program product as described in claim 8 wherein the data collection program is adapted to determine whether the first user action and the second user action correspond to selecting a web page and wherein the sending the first message and sending the second message are performed based upon the determination of the data collector program.

11. The computer program product as described in claim 8 wherein the user actions are selected from the group consisting of a mouse click, a keyboard stroke, a mouse over command, and a mouse out command.

12. The computer program product as described in claim 8 wherein the dividing further comprises:

for each region included in the page of data;

identifying a region starting point in the page of data;

inserting a start tag at the region starting point;

identifying a region ending point in the page of data; and

inserting an end tag at the region ending point.

13. The computer program product as described in claim 8 wherein the data collection program is sent with the page of data.

14. The computer program product as described in claim 8 wherein identifying the first event and identifying the second event are non-invasive to the user.