Method and apparatus for managing recent activity navigation in web applications

• US 8,402,359 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pogodin, Andrey, Raynaud-Richard, Pierre, Simpson, Irina
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Blackwell, James H
• Application Number:
  US12/828,167
• Time in Patent Office: 993 Days
• Field of Search: 715205-208, 715/234, 715/273, 715/738, 715/760, 715/777, 715/810, 715854-855, 709/202, 709/203, 709/206, 709223-224, 709227-228, 707/E17.111, 707/E17.119, 707/999.003, 707/999.102, 707/999.104
• US Class Current: 715/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for maintaining the navigation history of a web application that includes techniques for maintaining those pages that are considered valuable. The method and apparatus further include techniques for registering a visited page into the application navigation history, displaying a particular history menu of a web page, and, to pass stateful information, using a redirecting technique that includes redirecting a user to a history page to obtain the stateful information once the user has chosen a menu item.

Claims

1. A method for managing recent activity navigation in a web application, comprising the steps of:

providing one or more processors;

providing a non-transitory computer readable storage medium coupled to one of said one or more processors;

maintaining an application navigation history;

registering a visited web page in said application navigation history and storing said registered visited web page in said non-transitory computer readable storage medium;

linking the visited web page in the application navigation history to an intermediate resource page, wherein the intermediate resource page includes an intermediate redirect resource that performs one or more activities and, based on the one or more activities, redirects the browser to a final destination web page that is associated with the visited web page;

displaying a menu on a web page, the menu including the application navigation history; and

in response to a user selecting a menu item associated with the visited web page from said displayed menu, navigating a browser to the intermediate resource page associated with said registered visited web page, including passing information data to the intermediate resource page for use by the intermediate resource page to redirect the browser to a final destination web page;

updating, by the intermediate redirect resource included in the intermediate resource page, server-side session data including overwriting an already-populated session variable with a previously-saved value prior to redirecting the browser to a stateful final destination web page associated with the visited web page; and

redirecting, the browser to the stateful final destination web page that is associated with the visited web page based at least in part on the overwritten session variable.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores the information data comprising any of:

a title;

a navigation event type;

context parameters that are later resolved into a uniform resource locator (URL) that is associated with said registered visited web page and a context that said page is supposed to display; and

a timestamp.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said maintaining application navigation history further comprises distinguishing navigation entries belonging to different users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said maintaining application navigation history further comprises any of the steps of:

maintaining a fixed number of navigation entries; and

filtering most recent navigation entries to display said most recent navigation entries in said menu.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said registering said visited web page further comprises providing code that causes one or more records associated with said visited web page to be created and stored in said storage.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said code further ensures that there are no duplication of records.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said displaying said menu further comprises any of:

displaying contextual entries in a hierarchical form; and

displaying one or more hyperlinks next to each displayed entry.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said displaying said menu further comprises assembling said menu by looking up records in said non-transitory computer readable storage medium and resolving particular stored information into associated URLs.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said displaying said menu further comprises displaying two or more links to web pages, wherein each of the web pages is associated with a same object.

10. An apparatus for managing recent activity navigation in a web application, comprising:

one or more processors;

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium coupled to one of said one or more processors;

a maintaining agent configured to maintain an application navigation history;

a registering agent configured to register a visited web page in said application navigation history and store said registered visited web page in said non-transitory computer readable storage medium;

a display agent configured to display a menu on a web page, the menu including the application navigation history; and

a navigating agent configured to link the visited web page in the application navigation history to an intermediate resource page, wherein the intermediate resource page includes an intermediate redirect resource that performs one or more activities and, based on the one or more activities, redirects the browser to a final destination web page that is associated with the visited web page;

wherein the navigation agent is further configured to, in response to a user selecting a menu item associated with the visited web page from the displayed menu, navigate a browser to the intermediate resource page associated with said registered visited web page, including passing information data to the intermediate resource page for use by the intermediate resource page to redirect the browser to a final destination web page;

wherein the navigation agent is further configured to update, by the intermediate redirect resource included in the intermediate resource page, server-side session data including overwriting an already-populated session variable with a previously-saved value prior to redirecting the browser to a stateful final destination web page associated with the visited web page; and

wherein the navigation agent is further configured to redirect the browser to the stateful final destination web page that is associated with the visited web page based at least in part on the overwritten session variable.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said non-transitory computer readable storage medium stores informational the information data comprising any of:

a title;

a navigation event type;

context parameters that are later resolved into a uniform resource locator (URL) that is associated with said registered visited web page and a context that said page is supposed to display; and

a timestamp.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said maintaining agent is further configured to distinguish navigation entries belonging to different users.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said display agent is further configured to assemble said menu by looking up records in said non-transitory computer readable storage medium and resolving particular stored information into associated URLs.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said maintaining agent is further configured to:

maintain a fixed number of navigation entries; and

filter most recent navigation entries to display said most recent navigation entries in said menu.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said registering agent is further configured to provide code that causes one or more records associated with said visited web page to be created and stored in said non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said code further ensures that there are no duplication of records.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said display agent is further configured to:

cause the display to display contextual entries in a hierarchical form; and

cause the display to display one or more hyperlinks next to each displayed entry.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein said display agent is further configured to cause the display to display two or more links to web pages, wherein each of the web pages is associated with a same object.

19. A computer readable storage medium for storing program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to implement a method for managing recent activity navigation in a web application, comprising the steps of:

providing one or more processors;

providing a computer readable storage medium coupled to one of said one or more processors;

maintaining application navigation history;

registering a visited web page in said application navigation history and storing said registered visited web page in said computer readable storage medium;

linking the visited web page in the application navigation history to an intermediate resource page, wherein the intermediate resource page includes an intermediate redirect resource that performs one or more activities and, based on the one or more activities, redirects the browser to a final destination web page that is associated with the visited web page;

displaying a menu on a web page, the menu including at least a portion of the application navigation history;

in response to a user selecting a menu item associated with the visited web page from the displayed menu, navigating a browser to the intermediate resource page associated with said registered visited web page, including passing information data to the intermediate resource page for use by the intermediate resource page;

updating, by the intermediate redirect resource included in the intermediate resource page, server-side session data including overwriting an already-populated session variable with previously-saved value prior to redirecting the browser to a stateful final destination web page associated with the visited web page; and

redirecting, the browser to the stateful final destination web page that is associated with the visited web page based at least in part on the overwritten session variable.