Driving a user experience of a web application using rules that establish or change requests based on user behavior

• US 9,483,570 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2010
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Connan, Matthieu, Ghaith, Shadi, Ghoorbin, Kiransingh, Manning, David, McGloin, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Khan, Aftab N.
• Application Number:
  US12/981,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20120173607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,133 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-203, 709217-219, 709/231, 709/232
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A set of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests for Web application content can be routed from a client computing device to a Web server. The routed HTTP requests can be analyzed for patterns indicative of user interest in a business offering available via the Web application. An unrequested HTTP request can be conveyed to the Web server for Web application content that was not explicitly requested from the client computing device. The Web server can convey a response to the unrequested HTTP request that provides content from the Web application related specifically to the user interest. The response can cause a user interface of a Web browser of the client computing device to display the content that is related to the user interest.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a set of three or more RESTful requests from a client computing device, wherein a third request of the RESTful requests are received after a first two of the RESTful requests have been fulfilled, wherein at least the third request includes a resource identifier for a Web server running a Web application, wherein the RESTful requests include RESTful commands that are stateless, wherein the Web application itself does not persist state information and is implemented in a stateless fashion;

determining at least one user behavior pattern from analyzing the first two RESTful requests;

in responding to the third request, comparing the user behavior pattern against a plurality of previously established patterns mapped to Web application functions, wherein said plurality of previously established patterns are each indexed against a resource identifier for the Web server which is mapped to a corresponding function of the Web application;

in response to the comparing, matching the user behavior pattern to a corresponding previously established pattern; and

in response to the third request and in response to the matching, conveying a pattern RESTful request to the Web server for a Web resource identified by the matched resource identifier, wherein said matched resource identifier is the resource identifier that is indexed against the previously established pattern and that is mapped to the corresponding function of the Web application, wherein the pattern RESTful request causes the Web server to serve the Web resource identified by the matched resource identifier to the client computing device such that the Web application in responding to the third request has been dynamically adjusted for user behavior as determined from the user behavior pattern from analyzing the first two RESTful requests, wherein the pattern RESTful request was not directly issued by a user of the client computing device, and wherein the matched resource identifier is for a resource not explicitly requested by the user of the client computing device, wherein the adjustments by the Web application for the user behavior are not dependent on code logic of the Web application itself.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the Web resource served by the Web server responsive to receipt of the pattern RESTful request causes a change to layout elements of a user interface that is displayed in a Web browser of the client computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined at least one user behavior pattern indicates a user interest that is inferred from the set of RESTful requests and timing between the set of RESTful requests, wherein the pattern RESTful request is a request to the Web server for additional information specific to the user interest.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the pattern RESTful request is a modification of the third request from the client computing device, which is provided to the Web server instead of providing the RESTful request from the client computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving, determining, comparing, matching, and conveying are performed by a network element, which executes within a network to which the client computing device and the Web server are communicatively linked, wherein the network element receives the set of RESTful requests from the client computing device and selectively routes the RESTful requests of the set to the Web server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving, determining, comparing, matching, and conveying are performed by a request pre-processing software component executing on the Web server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving, determining, comparing, matching, and conveying are performed by a client-side program executing on the client-computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the RESTful requests is a HTTP request.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

routing each of the received set of one or more RESTful requests from the client computing device to the Web server, wherein each of the RESTful requests is a request for Web application content from the Web application, which is hosted by the Web server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user behavior pattern is indicative of user interest in a business offering available via the Web application that is hosted by the Web server, wherein the resource corresponding to the matched resource identifier comprises content related specifically to the user interest, wherein the Web resource served by the Web server in response to the pattern RESTful request causes a user interface of a Web browser of the client computing device to display the content that is related to the user interest.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the RESTful requests is for a Web page of the Web application, which is hosted on the Web server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the user behavior pattern is indicative of a user'"'"'s interest in a business offering available through the Web application, wherein the matched resource identifier is an identifier for the business offering.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising:

computer usable program code stored on a non-transitory storage medium that upon being executed by a processor is operable to receive a set of three or more RESTful requests from a client computing device, wherein a third request of the RESTful requests are received after a first two of the RESTful requests have been fulfilled, wherein at least the third request includes a resource identifier for a Web server running a Web application, wherein the RESTful requests include RESTful commands that are stateless, wherein the Web application itself does not persist state information and is implemented in a stateless fashion;

computer usable program code stored on a non-transitory storage medium that upon being executed by a processor is operable to determine at least one user behavior pattern from analyzing the first two RESTful requests;

computer usable program code stored on a non-transitory storage medium that upon being executed by a processor is operable to, in response to the third request, compare the user behavior pattern against a plurality of previously established patterns mapped to Web application functions, wherein said plurality of previously established patterns are each indexed against a resource identifier for the Web server which is mapped to a corresponding function of the Web application;

computer usable program code stored on a non-transitory storage medium that upon being executed by a processor is operable to, in response to the comparing, match the pattern to a corresponding previously established pattern; and

computer usable program code stored on a non-transitory storage medium that upon being executed by a processor is operable to, in response to the third request and in response to the matching, convey a pattern RESTful request to the Web server for a Web resource identified by the matched resource identifier, wherein said matched resource identifier is the resource identifier that is indexed against the previously established pattern and that is mapped to the corresponding function of the Web application, wherein the pattern RESTful request causes the Web server to serve the Web resource identified by the matched resource identifier to the client computing device such that the Web application in responding to the third request has been dynamically adjusted for user behavior as determined from the user behavior pattern from analyzing the first two RESTful requests, wherein the pattern RESTful request was not directly issued by a user of the client computing device, and wherein the matched resource identifier is for a resource not explicitly requested by the user of the client computing device, wherein the adjustments by the Web application for the user behavior are not dependent on code logic of the Web application itself.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the determined at least one user behavior pattern indicates a user interest that is inferred from the set of RESTful requests and timing between the set of RESTful requests, wherein the user behavior pattern RESTful request is a request to receive additional information specific to the user interest from the Web server, wherein said set of RESTful requests comprise a plurality of RESTful requests, wherein each of the RESTful requests is for a Web page of a Web application hosted on the Web server.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the receiving, determining, comparing, matching, and conveying are performed by a network element, which executes within a network to which the client computing device and the Web server are communicatively linked, wherein the network element receives the set of RESTful requests from the client computing device and selectively routes the RESTful requests of the set to the Web server.

16. A method comprising:

routing a plurality of HTTP requests for Web application content from a client computing device to a Web server, wherein a third request of the HTTP requests is received after a first two of the HTTP requests have been fulfilled, wherein the HTTP requests include commands that are stateless, wherein the Web application itself does not persist state information and is implemented in a stateless fashion, wherein the third request is directed to the Web server upon which the Web application runs;

analyzing the first two requests for user behavior patterns indicative of user interest in a business offering available via the Web application; and

in response to the third request and in response to results of the analyzing, conveying an unrequested HTTP request different from the third request to the Web server for Web application content that was not explicitly requested from the client computing device, where per the unrequested HTTP request, the Web server is to convey a response that provides content from the Web application related specifically to the user interest, which causes a user interface of a Web browser of the client computing device to display the content that is related to the user interest, wherein the unrequested HTTP request represents a modification of the third request adjusted for user interest determined by analyzing the first two requests, wherein content related to the user interest content is displayed to the user by the Web application which has made a dynamic adjustment of content provided, wherein the dynamic adjustment is not dependent on code logic of the Web application itself but results from execution of statelessly implemented Web application functions triggered by the unrequested HTTP request.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

at the end of each application session involving the Web application, storing user interest information gleaned from the HTTP requests in a user specific profile; and

consulting the user specific profile for each session between a user and the Web application to improve an ability to determine the user interest and to responsively modify HTTP requests to the Web server in accordance with this determined user interest.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

organizing the Web application so that a plurality of different business functions are associated with different resource identifiers; and

parsing the HTTP requests to determine business functions of interest to a user of the client computing device during the analyzing of the routed HTTP requests.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

modifying at least one parameter of a HTTP request from the client computing device based on the user interest; and

routing the modified HTTP request to the Web server.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the analyzing of the routed HTTP requests further comprises:

determining at least one user behavior pattern from analyzing the routed HTTP requests;

comparing the at least one user behavior pattern against a plurality of previously established patterns, wherein said plurality of previously established patterns are each indexed against a resource identifier of for the Web server; and

in response to the comparing, matching the at least one pattern to a corresponding previously established pattern, wherein the unrequested HTTP request is for a Web resource identified by a matched resource identifier, wherein the matched resource identifier is the resource identifier that is indexed against the at least one previously established pattern that was matched.