APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR GENERATING AND USING A CUSTOMIZED UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR

• US 20090210807A1
• Filed: 01/30/2009
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Min, Yang, Fu, Rong Yao, Xiao, Wen Peng, Chi, Chang Yan
• Granted Patent: US 8,037,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links

Abstract

An apparatus is provided for generating a Customized Uniform Resource Locator (CURL). The apparatus includes a request receiver, an information obtainer, and a CURL register. The request receiver is adapted to receive a request for assigning a CURL applied by a user to selected content in a network resource accessed through a normal URL. The information obtainer is adapted to obtain the normal URL, the CURL, and a set of description information of the selected content. The CURL register is adapted to obtain a browser context, an application context, and a system context related to the selected content, and is further adapted to store the browser context, the application context, and the system context which have been obtained with the normal URL, the CURL, and the set of description information of the selected content into a CURL repository as a whole.

Claims

1. An apparatus for generating a Customized Uniform Resource Locator (CURL), the apparatus comprising:

a request receiver adapted to receive a request for assigning a CURL applied by a user to selected content in a network resource accessed through a normal URL;

an information obtainer adapted to obtain the normal URL, the CURL, and a set of description information of the selected content; and

a CURL register adapted to obtain a browser context, an application context, and a system context related to the selected content, and is further adapted to store the browser context, the application context, and the system context which have been obtained with the normal URL, the CURL, and the set of description information of the selected content into a CURL repository as a whole.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selected content is a part of one of the network resource accessed through the normal URL and the network resource itself.

3. The apparatus of claim 2,

wherein the information obtainer determines whether the CURL is acceptable after obtaining the CURL, and informs a determination result to the CURL register, and

when the CURL is acceptable, the CURL register obtains the browser context via a client browser plug-in and obtains the system context and the application context via a context extractor in response to the determination result.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the CURL register displays to the client browser the context information which has been obtained after obtaining the browser context, the system context and the application context, and saves only context information that a user selects and wishes to save, a corresponding normal URL, the CURL, and the description information of the selected content into the CURL repository.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the browser context refers to values of corresponding variables saved in Cookie and JavaScript by website when the user accesses the network resource through an original normal URL, the application context refers to Session information formed in a server when the user accesses the network resource through the original normal URL, and the system context refers to system environment condition values when an operating system runs.

6. An apparatus for providing a network resource corresponding to a Customized Uniform Resource Locator (CURL) in response to an access request from a user, the apparatus comprising:

an access request processor, which in response to a CURL access address from a user, fetches contexts, a set of description information of selected content, and an original normal URL corresponding to the CURL access address from a CURL repository and transmits them to a context restorer and a content reproducer;

a context restorer adapted to restore a browser context, an application context, and a system context specific condition according to a set of contexts received from the access request processor and transmits them to the content reproducer; and

a content reproducer adapted to reconstruct the network resource requested for access in the browser context, an application context, and a system context, which have been restored according to the normal URL and the description information of the selected content received from the access request processor, the content reproducer being adapted to transmit the network resource that has been reconstructed to a client browser.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising a CURL filter adapted to receive an access address entered in the client browser by the user, compare the access address with CURLs saved in the CURL repository to determine whether the entered access address is a CURL access address, and when it is, the CURL filter being further adapted to accept the CURL access address entered by the user transmit the CURL address to the access request processor.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the content reproducer further comprises:

a complete resource reproducer adapted to reconstruct a complete network resource corresponding to the CURL entered by the user in the specific context condition that has been restored according to the normal URL received from the access request processor; and

a request resource provider adapted to determine whether the content selected by the user when requesting for assigning the CURL is a complete resource or fragment(s) of the resource according to the description information of the selected content received from the access request processor, wherein when a complete network resource is selected and reconstructed, the reconstructed complete network resource is transmitted to the client, and when the fragments of the network resource are selected, corresponding fragments are extracted from the reconstructed complete network resource according to the description information of the selected content, and transmitted to the client.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the browser context refers to values of corresponding variables saved in Cookie and JavaScript by website when the user accesses the network resource through the original normal URL, the application context refers to Session information formed in the server when the user accesses the network resource through the original normal URL, and the system context refers to system environment condition values when an operating system runs.

10. A method for generating a Customized Uniform Resource Locator (CURL), the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for assigning a CURL applied by a user to a selected content in a network resource accessed through a normal URL;

obtaining the normal URL, the applied CURL, and a set of description information of the selected content;

obtaining a browser context, an application context, and a system context related to the selected content; and

storing the browser context, the application context, and the system context that have been obtained with the normal URL, the applied CURL, and the description information of the selected content into a CURL repository as a whole.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the receiving step comprises providing a client browser of the user with a browser plug-in such that the user can select a desired content in the network resource accessed through the normal URL using the plug-in.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the selected content is a part of one of the network resource accessed through the normal URL and the network resource itself.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the browser context refers to values of corresponding variables saved in Cookie and JavaScript by website when the user accesses the network resource through the original normal URL, the application context refers to Session information formed in the server when the user accesses the network resource through the original normal URL, and the system context refers to system environment condition values when an operating system runs.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of obtaining a browser context, an application context, and a system context related to the selected content comprises obtaining all of the browser context, the system context, and the application context related to the accessed network resource are obtained.

15. The method of claim 10,

wherein the step of obtaining the browser context, the application context, and the system context comprises saving the browser context, the application context, and the system context that have been obtained into the CURL repository, and

the browser context, the system context, and the application context are obtained based on a configuration file, in which the context information that is to be obtained upon requesting for assigning the CURL is specified.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of obtaining the browser context, the application context, and the system context comprises:

saving the browser context, the application context, and the system context that have been obtained into the CURL repository;

displaying to the client browser context information associated with the browser context, the application context, and the system context that have been obtained, and prompting the user to select context information that he wishes to save; and

saving the selected context information with the original normal URL, the applied CURL, and the description information of the selected content into the CURL repository in response to the user'"'"'s selection.

17. A method for providing a network resource corresponding to a Customized Uniform Resource Locator (CURL) in response to an access request from a user, the method comprising the steps of:

accepting a CURL access address from the user;

fetching a context, a set of description information of selected content, and an normal URL corresponding to the CURL from a CURL repository;

restoring a browser context, an application context, and a system context using the fetched context creating a restored context condition; and

reconstructing the requested network resource in the restored context condition and transmitting the requested resource that has been restored to client.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the accepting step comprises:

receiving an access address entered in a client browser by the user;

comparing the received access address with CURLs saved in the CURL repository to determine whether the entered access address is a CURL access address; and

when the entered address is a CURL access address, the CURL access address entered by the user is accepted.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the reconstructing step comprises:

reconstructing a complete network resource in the restored context condition;

determining whether the content selected by the user when requesting for assigning CURL is one of a complete resource and one or more fragments of the resource according to the description information of the selected content;

when the complete network resource is selected, the reconstructed complete network resource is transmitted to the client; and

when the fragments of the network resource are selected, corresponding fragments are extracted from the complete network resource according to the description information of the selected content, and transmitted to the client browser.