Personalizing the display of changes to records in an on-line repository

• US 6,249,795 B1
• Filed: 11/05/1997
• Issued: 06/19/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hanger Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Douglis, Frederick
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S.
• Application Number:
  US08/965,060
• Time in Patent Office: 1,322 Days
• Field of Search: 707/500, 707/501, 707/502, 707/503, 707/504, 707/505, 707/506, 707/507, 707/508, 707/511, 707/530, 707/103
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

The invention provides for customized “what'"'"'s new” lists for users of shared lists of tracked resources. Identifying information, such as cookies, and state information are used to personalize a shared “what'"'"'s new” list, so that changes to a document which a particular user has viewed are indicated automatically based on the last time that user viewed the document. Thus, the user is notified of the set of changes that have taken place since the user last viewed a particular set of documents. For any particular document, only the changes which have occurred since the user last viewed that document are used to form the “what'"'"'s new” list and to view the changes if the user so chooses. Additionally, a user can select multiple collections of documents into a single notification system and exclude particular documents or augment the collection to personalize the resources tracked for that user.

Claims

1. A method of determining and displaying personalized changes to documents retrieved from an external repository, comprising the steps of:

storing various versions of a document in a second repository to which one or more users have access,

storing information regarding each user'"'"'s access to the second repository, including which document versions the user has viewed, and

generating a list of modified documents and using the stored information to personalize the list, the list thus displaying modification data for the documents which the user has viewed based on the version last viewed by the user.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the personalized list contains information regarding the documents which the user has not viewed and the documents which the user has viewed.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the information includes user identifying information and state information containing data on which document version a user has viewed.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the state information is stored in the second repository.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the user identifying information is stored by the user and transmitted to the external repository upon request.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of generating the list includes communicating code from the second repository to the user;

executing the code in the user'"'"'s environment to form the personalized list, thus allowing the stored information to be maintained by the user rather than by the second repository.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of storing various versions of a document, includes

generating a list to be initially stored in the second repository,

using an external service to poll the documents on the list by accessing the external repository at an interval, and

storing those document versions containing changes in the second repository.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the documents are stored in the second repository in a versioning control format.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the stored information contains data on which documents the user viewed through the second repository and the external repository.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the personalized list displays modification data for the documents that the user has viewed, whether the user viewed the document through the second repository or the external repository.

11. A method of personalizing the display of changes to a common list of documents maintained in an external service, comprising the steps of:

designating a resource set of pages for the external service to track,

the external service retrieving various versions of those documents at selected intervals from an external repository and storing the versions which contain changes,

multiple users having access to the external service and the external repository to view documents stored therein,

storing information concerning the version of the document that the user views; and

generating a list of modified documents and using the stored information to personalize the list, the list thus displaying modification data for the documents which the user has viewed based on the information.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the information is stored when the user views a document through the external service or the external repository.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the selected interval at which the external service retrieves documents is set based on the likelihood that the document will change and the relative importance of changes to the document.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein the list is sorted based on the user'"'"'s selected preference.

15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the set of modifying the resource set, so that the modified set of resources is utilized to generate the list of modified documents for the user modifying that resource set without affecting the lists generated for other users of the system.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of modifying the resource set includes adding at least one resource to the set.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein adding to the resource sets includes forming a union of one or more designated resource sets.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising the step of modifying the union set by adding or deleting at least one resource from the union set, so that by the modified union set is utilized to generate the list of modified documents for the user modifying that union set without affecting the lists generated for other users of the system.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the step of modifying the resource set includes deleting at least one resource from the set.

20. A method of determining and displaying personalized changes to documents retrieved from an external repository, comprising the steps of:

storing various versions of a document in a second repository to which several users have access,

storing information regarding each user'"'"'s access to the second repository, including the document version viewed by the user,

determining whether a page has changed since the user last viewed the page based on the stored information.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the stored information includes identifying data and state data on which document version a user last viewed.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the identifying data corresponds to a set of state data to provide the information needed to personalize the determination of whether a page has changed since the user last viewed the page.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein the identifying data is stored in the user'"'"'s computer and the state data is stored in the second repository.

24. The method according to claim 20, wherein the identifying data is stored by the user and transmitted to the external repository on request.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the identifying information is stored as a cookie file.

26. The method according to claim 20, wherein the user is notified by electronic mail when a document that the user has viewed is determined by the external service to have changed.