Abstract:
A computer program product is provided as a system and associated method for use with an operating system, a web browser and the Internet, to save the location and other context information along with the content of a web page or document when the document is saved to a computer hard disk or another storage medium. The system saves the location of the source document, query parameter, and other relevant input information as attributes of the saved document. The system also provides a mechanism whereby the user may synchronize stored documents with web document. In addition, the system allows the user to return to the source document if a target or intermediary document is deleted.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to the field of data processing, and particularly to a software system and associated method for use with computers and documents on the Internet. More specifically, this invention relates to a system for saving the content of a target document bundled with contextual metadata, such as the location of a source document, as attributes of the target document.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The World Wide Web (WWW) is comprised of an expansive network of interconnected computers upon which businesses, governments, groups, and individuals throughout the world maintain inter-linked computer files known as web pages. Users navigate these pages by means of computer software programs commonly known as Internet browsers. Due to the vast number of WWW sites, many web pages have a redundancy of information or share a strong likeness in either function or title. The vastness of the unstructured WWW causes users to rely primarily on Internet search engines to retrieve information or to locate businesses. These search engines use various means to determine the relevance of a user-defined search to the information retrieved.  
           [0003]    The authors of web pages provide information known as Metadata within the body of the hypertext markup language (HTML) document that defines the web pages. A computer software product known as a web crawler systematically accesses web pages by sequentially following hypertext links from page to page. The crawler indexes the pages for use by the search engines using information about a web page as provided by its address or Universal Resource Locator (URL), Metadata, and other criteria found within the page. The crawler is run periodically to update previously stored data and to append information about newly created web pages. The information compiled by the crawler is stored in a Metadata repository or database. The search engines search this repository to identify matches for the user-defined search rather than attempt to find matches in real time.  
           [0004]    A typical search engine has an interface with a search window where the user enters an alphanumeric search expression or keywords. The search engine sifts through available web sites for the user&#39;s search terms, and returns the search of results in the form of HTML pages. Each search result includes a list of individual entries that have been identified by the search engine as satisfying the user&#39;s search expression. Each entry or “hit” may include a hyperlink that points to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) location or web page.  
           [0005]    In this web browsing environment, users are able to save documents embedded in web based documents represented through the URL to a user specified location such as a computer hard drive. Web pages typically contain hyperlinks in the form of underlined or highlighted text linking to various other documents on the Internet. With currently available web browsers, users are able to save the target document of such hyperlinks to either the local file system of their personal computer or to a different network location.  
           [0006]    This is accomplished by using a pointing device such as a mouse to select the hyperlink (typically using the right mouse button) then choosing the “save target as” entry to copy and save the document target to a different location. However, once the document is saved, the Internet (or hyperlink) context is lost. Consequently, the user will not be able to return from the saved document to the original referral page from which the document was saved, nor would it be possible for the user to return to the download location of the document, since this information is also lost during the save process.  
           [0007]    Currently, technology exists which allows the user to scan and map dynamically generated Web documents by capturing the data entered by the user into a web-based form and storing this data and form in association with the Web document. The Web document may then be displayed by presenting the current version of the dynamically generated document to the user with the browser program to create the impression of normal browsing during the capture session. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,008 to Pobrebisky, et. al. However, this technology primarily addresses the mapping of web site links and does not address the needs that are inherent in document storage, such as the ability to save and store a web document as a separate document file while also storing location references and other Internet context information.  
           [0008]    Thus, there is need for a system capable of saving Web documents locations and other Internet context information in addition to the content of Web documents. The need for such a system and associated method has heretofore remained unsatisfied.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    The document association system and method of the present invention satisfy this need by bundling or associating a target document (i.e., a web page) and the context of a source document as metadata to the target document during a save process. Accordingly, users will be able to return to the source document, and optionally to use applications for automatically synchronizing a destination document to the target document.  
           [0010]    The context of the source document may include, for example, one or more of the following parameters:  
           [0011]    The location or address, such as the URL, of the source document;  
           [0012]    the path, such as pages examined to navigate from the source document to the target document; and  
           [0013]    the input parameters required to generate the target document, such as the search query inputted by the user.  
           [0014]    The document association system of the present invention can function on the level of the operating system (e.g. Windows®, Linux®, etc.) in conjunction with a web browser environment. When a user wishes to access the source document, the system uses the saved context metadata to link the user to the source document. Optionally, the system is capable to synchronizing the target document to the destination document.  
           [0015]    In one embodiment, the user selects a destination document using the right button on a mouse, displaying the URLs of the source document location, path, and input parameters displayed in a pop up menu. The user then selects the desired URL for the web browser to execute the hyperlink of the associated source document.  
           [0016]    When coupled with a synchronization application, the system of the invention allows the user to update the destination document to reflect changes in the target document, allowing a convenient mechanism for updating saved documents. The synchronization application performs a comparison of the destination document with the target document to detect changes and to automatically update the destination document. If the target document were deleted from its original location or relocated, the destination document is marked as orphaned. However, the user is still able to return to the source document.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]    The various features of the present invention and the manner of attaining them will be described in greater detail with reference to the following description, claims, and drawings, wherein reference numerals are reused, where appropriate, to indicate a correspondence between the referenced items, and wherein:  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary operating environment in which a document association system of the present invention can be used;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 2 is a high level system architecture of the document association system of FIG. 1;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 3 is a flow chart representative of an exemplary method of operation of the document association system of FIGS. 1 and 2;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 4 shows an exemplary web page with embedded document URLs using the document association system of FIGS. 1 and 2;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 5 shows a web page with the right mouse click to activate a “save target as” pop-up menu for a desired destination document created by means of the document association system of FIGS. 1 and 2;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 6 shows the file attributes for the destination document of FIG. 6; and  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 7 shows extended metadata information for the destination document of FIG. 6.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0025]    The following definitions and explanations provide background information pertaining to the technical field of the present invention, and are intended to facilitate the understanding of the present invention without limiting its scope:  
         [0026]    Crawler: A program that automatically explores the World Wide Web by retrieving a document and recursively retrieving some or all the documents that are linked to it.  
         [0027]    Destination document: A final document or web page which is comprised of a target document that is bundled with contextual data about the source document.  
         [0028]    HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): A standard language for attaching presentation and linking attributes to informational content within documents. During a document authoring stage, HTML “tags” are embedded within the informational content of the document. When the web document (or “HTML document”) is subsequently transmitted by a web server to a web browser, the tags are interpreted by the browser and used to parse and display the document. In addition to specifying how the web browser is to display the document, HTML tags can be used to create hyperlinks to other web documents.  
         [0029]    Intermediate document: An intermediate document or web page to which a source document points, whether directly or indirectly, and which, in turn, points to a target document, whether directly or indirectly.  
         [0030]    Internet: A collection of interconnected public and private computer networks that are linked together with routers by a set of standards protocols to form a global, distributed network.  
         [0031]    Search engine: A remotely accessible World Wide Web tool that allows users to conduct keyword searches for information on the Internet.  
         [0032]    Server: A software program or a computer that responds to requests from a web browser by returning (“serving”) web documents.  
         [0033]    Source document: An initial document or web page that points, whether directly or indirectly, to a target document and/or to a destination document.  
         [0034]    Target document: A special intermediate document or web page that points directly to a destination document.  
         [0035]    URL (Uniform Resource Locator): A unique address that fully specifies the location of a content object on the Internet. The general format of a URL is protocol://server-address/path/filename.  
         [0036]    Web browser: A software program that allows users to request and read hypertext documents. The browser gives some means of viewing the contents of web documents and of navigating from one document to another.  
         [0037]    Web document or page: A collection of data available on the World Wide Web and identified by a URL. In the simplest, most common case, a web page is a file written in HTML and stored on a web server. It is possible for the server to generate pages dynamically in response to a request from the user. A web page can be in any format that the browser or a helper application can display. The format is transmitted as part of the headers of the response as a MIME type, e.g. “text/html”, “image/gif”. An HTML web page will typically refer to other web pages and Internet resources by including hypertext links. A web page or document can be dynamic or static. A dynamic page is dependent on input parameters such as query parameters, while a static page is not dependent on input parameters.  
         [0038]    Web Site: A database or other collection of inter-linked hypertext documents (“web documents” or “web pages”) and associated data entities, which is accessible via a computer network, and which forms part of a larger, distributed informational system such as the WWW. In general, a web site corresponds to a particular Internet domain name, and includes the content of a particular organization. Other types of web sites may include, for example, a hypertext database of a corporate “intranet” (i.e., an internal network which uses standard Internet protocols), or a site of a hypertext system that uses document retrieval protocols other than those of the WWW.  
         [0039]    World Wide Web (WWW): An Internet client—server hypertext distributed information retrieval system.  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 1 portrays an exemplary overall environment in which a document association system  10  of the present invention may be used. The system  10  includes a software or computer program product that is typically embedded within, or installed, at least in part, on a host server  15 . Alternatively, the system  10  can be saved on a suitable storage medium such as a diskette, a CD, a hard drive, or like devices. While the system  10  will be described in connection with the WWW, the system  10  can be used with a stand-alone database of documents that may have been derived from the WWW and/or other sources.  
         [0041]    The cloud-like communication network  20  is comprised of communication lines and switches connecting servers such as servers  25 ,  27 , to gateways such as gateway  30 . The servers  25 ,  27  and the gateway  30  provide the communication access to the WWW Internet. Users, such as remote Internet users are represented by a variety of computers such as computers  37 ,  39 , and can query the host server  15  for the desired information.  
         [0042]    The host server  15  is connected to the network  20  via a communications link such as a telephone, cable, or satellite link. The servers  25 ,  27  can be connected via high speed Internet network lines  44 ,  46  to other computers and gateways. The servers  25 ,  27  provide access to stored information such as hypertext or web documents indicated generally at  50 ,  55 , and  60 . The hypertext documents  50  (source document),  55  (intermediate document),  60  (target document) most likely include embedded hypertext links to other locally stored pages, and hypertext links  70 ,  72 ,  74 ,  76  to other webs sites or documents  55 ,  60  that are stored by various web servers such as the server  27 .  
         [0043]    [0043]FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary high level architecture showing the document association system  10  of FIG. 1 used in the context of an Internet search. Though the system  10  is illustrated and described herein in the context of an Internet search, it should be amply clear that the system  10  may be used in various other applications, such as in a simple browsing environment.  
         [0044]    The system  10 , transparently to the user, continuously or periodically operates in the background. While the service provider  100  and the system  10  are illustrated herein as being separate, it should be clear that these two components can be functionally combined as part of the service provider  100 . Alternatively, the system  10  can constitute either of the user&#39;s computer and/or the service provider  100 .  
         [0045]    The system  10  includes the following components: a user module also referred to herein as a document storage manager  150 , a server module also referred to herein as dynamic query matcher  160 , and a destination documents repository  170  where destination documents  90  (FIG. 1) are stored. As it will be explained later in greater detail, the documents storage manager  150  receives the following information:  
         [0046]    Input parameters  172 , such as query parameters for a dynamic document, from a query transformer  230 ;  
         [0047]    URL  174  of a source document (i.e.,  50  in FIG. 1) from the dynamic query matcher  160  (or from the service provider  100 );  
         [0048]    destination URL  176 , such as the address of the destination documents repository  170 ; and  
         [0049]    content  178  of target document (i.e.,  60  in FIG. 1).  
         [0050]    The documents storage manager  150  is responsible for bundling the content  178  of the target document  60  and the contextual data related to the source document  50 , and to save the newly bundled document as destination document  90  in the destination documents repository  170 . The contextual data include, for example, the input parameters  172 , the destination URL  176 , and the URL  174  of the source document  50 .  
         [0051]    In use, the client session query, including the input parameters  172 , is forwarded to the service provider  100  for normal query processing, whereupon the service provider  100  forwards the search results to the system  10  for further processing. The query and query results can be stored, for example in the destination documents repository  170  or in any other data storage system, whether on the user&#39;s side, the service provider&#39;s  100 , or an independent network storage repository for later use by the document storage manager  150 .  
         [0052]    According to one embodiment, the service provider  100  is generally comprised of a web crawler  200 , a search engine repository  210 , an abstract/indexing engine  220 , a query transformer  230 , a search engine  240 , and an abstracts/indexed data repository  260 . Optionally, the search service provider  100  includes a search results transformer (not shown). Alternatively, the search results transformer can be combined with the document storage manager  150  of the system  10 .  
         [0053]    In operation, the crawler  150  crawls the WWW  20  and downloads web documents to the search engine repository  210  where they are stored and updated systematically. The abstract/indexing engine  220  indexes the web documents and generates abstracts therefrom. The abstracts and the indexed data are stored in the abstracts/indexed data repository  260  for later use by the search engine  240 , as appropriate.  
         [0054]    The search engine repository  210  is a data store which is maintained by a web information gatherer such as the web crawler  200 . The search engine repository  210  maintains information or metadata from previously encountered web pages, which metadata is used by the abstract/indexing engine  220  to prepare the abstracts. Preferably, the search engine repository  210  is maintained centrally by the service provider  100 . Alternatively, the search engine repository  210  may be located and maintained on an independently provided system to which the service provider  100  has access. In addition, while the system  10  is described as including two repositories  210  and  260 , it should be clear these two repositories  210  and  260  could be functionally combined in a single database.  
         [0055]    The abstract/indexing engine  220  generates an abstract for each web document from the metadata stored in the search engine repository  210 . While the abstract/indexing engine  220  is illustrated in FIG. 2 as being a single component, it should be clear that the abstract/indexing engine  220  could be functionally separated into two distinct engines: an abstract engine and an indexing engine.  
         [0056]    The query transformer  230 , prompted by the user browser  140 , applies an internal query request to the abstracts/indexed data stored in the abstracts/indexed data repository  260 , and generates a search result with matches (or search results) that are specific to the user&#39;s query. The search results  270  are transformed into viewable or browsable form (i.e., HTML) by the query transformer  230 , and the transformed data is subsequently presented to the user at the user interface (UI) or browser  140 .  
         [0057]    The method of operation  300  of the system  10  will now be briefly summarized in connection with FIG. 3. At step  305  of method  300 , the user inputs query parameters  172  (FIG. 2) using the browser  140 . At step  310 , the document storage manager (otherwise referred to as client module)  150  sends the search query to the service provider (also referred to herein as server)  100 .  
         [0058]    Whereupon, at step  320  the service provider  100  returns the search results to the user&#39;s web browser  140  as the source document, and establishes a connection with the system  10 . The user reviews the search results at step  330 , and, at step  335 , the user navigates the Internet using the hyperlinks  70 ,  72 ,  74 ,  76  in the source document  50  and the intermediate document or documents  55  (FIG. 1).  
         [0059]    The user continues his or her navigation until he or she detects the desired target document  60  (FIG. 1). At which point, the user identifies such target document  60 , issues a save command, and enters the destination address (URL)  176  of the destination documents repository  170  where he or she desires to store the destination document  90  (FIG. 1). The destination documents repository  170  can be located on the user&#39;s computer, on the network  20 , and/or within the service provider  100 .  
         [0060]    At step  340 , the save command prompts the system  10  and more specifically the document storage manager  150  to create the destination document  90  by bundling the target document  60  with the context data of the source document  50 , as explained earlier.  
         [0061]    A specific example will assist in further clarifying the operation of the system  10 . FIG. 4 shows an exemplary, partial screen shot of a source document such as an HTML page  400  that contains hyperlinks to various other documents in the form of underlined and highlighted text, i.e.,  405  and  410 . In this example, a target document titled “White Paper” is referenced by an embedded hyperlink  405  pointing to http://time/pdfNVhitePaper.pdf.  
         [0062]    With reference to FIG. 5, the user can save this target document to a hard drive or another storage medium by using a pointing device, such as a mouse, to select the hyperlink (typically using the right mouse button or “click and hold”), then selecting the “save target as” command  510  from a pop up menu  500 . As explained earlier, the target document “White Paper” is bundled with context attributes and saved as a destination document that resides on the selected storage medium as a pdf document.  
         [0063]    [0063]FIG. 6 illustrates the document properties  600  for the destination document. The General attributes tab  610  for the target document displays the file type, document size, etc. In addition, and as further illustrated in FIG. 7, the system  10  of the present invention provides additional attributes in the Summary attribute  165 . The document Description folder  615  remains the same as provided by the operating system and the document application.  
         [0064]    Specific exemplary attributes (or context data) added by the system  10  are shown under the Origin folder  620  as Source, Author, Revision Number, and Target, where the Source refers to the URL  630  of the source document, and Target refers to the URL  640  of the target document. When clicked, the URL  630  of the source document, i.e., http://time/index.html will return the user to the source document, thus making access the source document readily available to the user.  
         [0065]    It is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the present invention that have been described are merely illustrative of certain application of the principle of the present invention. Numerous modifications may be made to the document association system and method without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Moreover, while the present invention is described for illustration purpose only in relation to the WWW, it should be clear that the invention is applicable as well to databases and other tables with indexed entries.