System and method for using dynamic web components to automatically customize web pages

• US 6,973,483 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2001
• Issued: 12/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hewett, Delane Robert, Sundstrom, Johan A. F., Beiter, Christopher J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Knight, Anthony
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHAM, THOMAS K
• Application Number:
  US09/773,725
• Publication Number:
  US 20020103856A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,770 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213, 709/203, 709/228, 715/513, 715/530, 715/531, 717/114, 717/115
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

The present invention involves a new system and process for automatically customizing an Internet web page displayed via an Internet browser or other application for displaying Internet web pages. Specifically, the present invention uses a dynamic “Web Component” to automatically customize web pages. Further, a Web Component according to the present invention uses the same script and HTML for all implementations or instantiations of the Web Component regardless of which, or how many, unique local clients make use of the Web Component. This code reuse is accomplished by using entry web pages, or “entry points,” as described in further detail below, to set the value of function properties or parameters of the Web Component for dynamically and automatically generating a web page. The script and/or HTML source code of the Web Component pages does not change based on each new implementation or instantiation. Consequently, little setup work is required for each implementation, and only a basic verification test pass is needed for each unique automatically customized Internet web page.

Claims

1. A system for automatically generating at least one web page comprising:

running at least one web page generation script on a remote server computer;

wherein each web page generation script includes at least one encapsulated web-based function for defining at least one characteristic of each automatically generated web page, and wherein each web-based function further includes at least one variable function parameter;

wherein each web page generation script includes a plurality of unique entry points addressable by each local client computer;

automatically generating the at least one unique web page by setting at least one of the variable function parameters of at least one of the web page generation scripts depending upon which entry point is addressed by a communication from at least one local client computer to the remote server; and

automatically transmitting each automatically generated web page from the remote server to the local client.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein setting at least one the variable function parameters serves to define the appearance of at least one of page color, page style, page layout, page border, page background, font size, font type, font style, font color, font characteristics, included images, and scripts, for each automatically generated web page.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one image is automatically included in each automatically generated web page, and wherein each image is stored in at least one computer readable storage medium addressable by at least one of the web page generation scripts.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein alternate images are automatically chosen by providing alternate file paths for at least one function parameter.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one text file is automatically included in each automatically generated web page, and wherein each text file is stored in at least one computer readable storage medium addressable by at least one of the web page generation scripts.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein alternate text files are automatically chosen by providing alternate file paths for at least one function parameter.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one web page generation script further comprises at least one predefined script that is automatically included in at least one automatically generated web page.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the at least one predefined script is automatically retrieved by at least one web page generation script from at least one computer readable storage medium.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the communication from at least one local client computer to the remote server includes transmitting values from at least one intermediate web page to at least one of the web page generation scripts.

10. At least one web page automatically generated in accordance with the following acts:

providing a remote server computer in communication with the Internet, the remote server hosting a dynamic web page generation script having two or more pre-defined entry points addressable by at least one local client computer;

receiving an input at the remote server from one of the local client computers via the Internet;

automatically passing the input to one of the web page generation script entry points;

automatically generating at least one web page in response to the input passed to one of the web page generation script entry points; and

wherein the at least one web page automatically generated in response to the input passed to one of the web page generation script entry points is unique from web pages automatically generated in response an input passed to any other of the web page generation script entry points.

11. The web page generation script of claim 10 wherein the input received from one of the local client computers is provided via a pre-defined intermediate page called by the local client computer.

12. The web page generation script of claim 10 wherein the script is represented by at least one of HTML, ASP, CGI, and PERL scripts.

13. The web page generation script of claim 10 wherein the script is reusable by a plurality of unique local client computers for automatically generating a plurality of uniquely customized web pages.

14. The web page generation script of claim 10 wherein the script further comprises the capability to automatically determine whether a local client computer is authorized to access the web page generation script.

15. The at least one automatically generated web page of claim 10 wherein each web page is automatically transmitted via the Internet from the remote host computer to at least one of the local client computers.

16. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for dynamically generating at least one web page, said computer executable instructions comprising:

a dynamic web page generation script capable of accepting parameters passed from an intermediate page used to call the dynamic web page generation script;

wherein the dynamic web page generation script further comprises at least one encapsulated web-based function which is automatically configured in response to the parameters passed from the intermediate page, and wherein the dynamic web page generation script also includes a plurality of addressable entry points;

dynamically generating at least one customized web page in response to the automatic configuration of each encapsulated web-based function, wherein the appearance and content of each dynamically generated customized web page is dependant upon which entry point is addressed by the intermediate page; and

transmitting each customized web page from a remote host computer to at least one local client computer via a network.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the dynamic web page generation script automatically includes at least one applet in each customized web page.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein at least one of the applets is retrieved by the web page generation script from at least one computer readable storage medium.