Abstract:
A method and apparatus for automatically accessing a WWW page is provided for realizing a function of automatically jumping to a desired page to automatically download desired data in spite of intervening pages which require a user to enter information, and a function of dealing with a change in configuration of an accessed page. In a web browser, a list structure is created for each displayed window, and all nodes under HTML displayed in a window corresponding to the list structure are copied and stored as node information. Further, when an event occurs with respect to an arbitrary node within a window, an address and event type of the node are recorded in the stored node information corresponding to the node. The record is comprised of a sequence of records of an event occurrence address and event type by using URL and window identifier as keys.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to a function of a web browser, and more particularly, to an extension of a function for accessing WWW (World Wide Web) using a web browser. 
   Using a web browser, the WWW can be accessed by entering URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of desired WWW to display a page of the WWW; clicking on a link on the displayed page to jump to a next page linked to the displayed page; or recording URL of a desired page using a function called “bookmark” so as to jump directly to the bookmarked page for display at a later time. 
   When a user wishes to directly access a desired page, the aforementioned bookmark function is convenient and effective. However, when any page intervening between a home page of certain WWW and a desired page requires the user to enter user information (for example, a password) before the desired page is reached, the user cannot directly jump to the desired page even if the desired page itself is already bookmarked. 
   Accordingly, when the user wishes to jump to a certain page to periodically download certain data by means of batch processing, the user is required to repeat the similar operation to access the page every time. 
   Thus, there has been a need for a function of not only automatically jumping to a desired page to automatically download desired data even if there is an intervening page requiring for the user to enter user information but also, even if the configuration of the page is changed, perceiving the change to avoid trouble, inform the user of the change, etc. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for implementing a function of recording accesses to pages by means of a web browser, mouse manipulation on a page and manipulations on a keyboard for entering data; a function of managing such records such that a user can reference the records; and a function of invoking such records to execute reproduction processing based on the invoked records. 
   The method and apparatus according to the present invention further provide a function of comparing the configuration of the recorded page with the configuration of the actually accessed page while reproducing records to determine if there has been any change in the configuration and, if it transpires that there has been a change, avoid downloading the page or issue a warning about the change in the configuration. 
   A technique for recording details of manipulations on a web browser to reproduce the records is expected to be suitably applied to information routinely accessed by an individual, which however is not commonly accessed by many and unspecified persons. Since information required by a large number of people is often placed on a top page or on pages close to the top page, there are not many merits in invoking recorded manipulations and reproducing them to automatically access such a page. However, when 1) users wish to periodically access information which changes daily or with time and (2) different users desire different contents of information, it often requires burdensome manipulations to actually access such information. 
   Examples of such information are the balance on one&#39;s account, the latest stock price of some stock in which an individual invested and so on. Although an individual can browse WWW for such information these days, it still involves such a procedure as entering a user number or password if not multiple times to check the balance on his (her) account. Likewise, in checking a stock price, it is required to enter a name of its brand every time. 
   For such information, it would be really convenient and advantageous if a user could access a desired page instantaneously and display on the screen not only the page but also the contents of an object to be searched in the page simply by applying records of his (her) manipulations kept track of by the user. Further, if the user could instantaneously access a desired page as mentioned above, (s)he could avoid miscellaneous advertisements usually appearing on web pages before (s)he actually gets to the desired information. 
   However, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the aforementioned type of information or the configuration of WWW and can be applied to a variety of information provided on the web and/or configurations of WWW. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a flow chart showing the steps of recording manipulations for accessing WWW in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a conceptual diagram of a user interface displayed on a manipulation screen in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating entry items which may be displayed in the middle of an access; 
       FIG. 4  is a conceptual diagram showing a display layout immediately after a certain page has been displayed; 
       FIG. 5  is a conceptual diagram showing a display layout when logical windows have been completed on a certain page; 
       FIG. 6  is a conceptual diagram showing that one list structure is created for each window in the present invention; 
       FIG. 7  is a conceptual diagram showing a list when all nodes of HTML have been loaded; 
       FIGS. 8A and 8B  are conceptual diagrams showing how all nodes are copied in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 9  is a conceptual diagram showing how a list is deleted when an UnLoad event occurs; 
       FIG. 10  is a conceptual diagram showing how a list and a node are generated when a new window is loaded; 
       FIGS. 11A and 11B  are conceptual diagram of a record associated with issuance of a Submit event; 
       FIG. 12  is a conceptual diagram of a record associated with issuance of a Selected event; 
       FIG. 13  is a conceptual diagram showing a format of records created in a recording mode of the present invention; 
       FIG. 14  is a flow chart showing the steps of reproducing manipulations for accessing WWW in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 15  is a diagram illustrating a warning to be displayed in the present invention; 
       FIG. 16  is a flow chart showing the steps of reproducing manipulations for accessing WWW and of dealing with a change in page configuration in accordance with the present invention; and 
       FIG. 17  is a diagram illustrating a format for a reproduction log which is recorded in accordance with the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
   Referring first to  FIGS. 1 through 3 , an operation for recording manipulation for accessing desired WWW to display a desired page and indicating information of contents in the page that a user is especially interested in. 
     FIG. 1  is a flow chart showing the steps of recording the manipulations. 
   First, the user displays on the screen a top page which provides information of desired WWW (step  100 ), by entering, for example, a normal URL address to open the page. In this event, three buttons “RECORD”  200 , “STOP”  201  and “REPLAY”  202 , and a window  203  for entering a “RECORD NAME” are displayed as illustrated in  FIG. 2  at appropriate locations on a web browser. 
   Next, the user depresses the “RECORD” button  200  (step  101 ). Once the “RECORD” button  200  has been depressed, all manipulations such as a mouse operation for jumping by clicking on a link, entering data through a keyboard, etc. are all recorded (step  102 ) until the user depresses the “STOP” button  201 . 
   Details on the above-mentioned recording will be described later. 
   If the displayed page has an item to be entered by the user (step  103 ), the user enters the item (step  104 ), and manipulations involved therein are recorded. While there could be a variety of items to be entered, such dialog boxes in which a user name and passwords are entered as indicated in  FIG. 3  may be the most typical. 
   If there is a character string on the current page which a user is particularly interested in (step  105 ), the user selects the character string using a mouse (step  106 ). 
   Then, the user clicks a link anywhere on the page to open another page (step  107 ). 
   If a final target page is displayed (step  108 ), the process goes to step  109  and, if not, returns to step  103 , from where the user continues manipulations. 
   The user depresses the STOP button  201  (step  109 ), as a result of which the recording of manipulations is stopped, and the user names a reproduction log (recorded contents) and saves the same under the name (step  110 ). The name is entered in the “RECORD NAME” entry window  203 . 
   Thus, the recording is completed. 
   Next, referring to  FIGS. 4 through 13 , an embodiment of a recording format according to the present invention will be more specifically described, using as an example of a web browser, Internet Explorer (Registered Trademark: hereafter referred to as ‘IE’) of Microsoft Corporation. 
     FIG. 4  generally shows frames displayed on the browser when the user depresses the button  200  in  FIG. 2  to select a recording mode. The drawing shows an abstract illustration of a page display layout having frame structures. 
   The moment a recording mode is selected, the recording mode is started. 
     FIG. 4  shows the state immediately after the user has entered an URL of a top page to be recorded, or clicked on a link on a certain page. 
   An event labeled “BeforeNavigator” occurs when certain URL is about to be displayed from one IE to one HTML. When displaying a page having three frames as shown in  FIG. 4 , there are actually four HTMLs including a base page, and the event “BeforeNavigator” occurs in each of the four HTMLS. 
   Next, when a display of certain URL from one IE to one HTML is completed, an event labeled “DocumentComplete” occurs. 
   As shown in  FIG. 5 , upon completion of display, the event “DocumentComplete” occurs in each of the four HTMLs shown in  FIG. 4 . When the event “DocumentComplete” occurs, it means a window has been established. It should be noted that this window is a logical window which is not physically visible on the screen. Thus, when the event occurs, it means that the associated HTML document can be viewed and that a logical profile of a fully loaded object, i.e., an invisible window has been established. 
   For the sake of argument, the windows are labeled WINDOW 1 , WINDOW 2 , WINDOW 3  and WINDOW 4  respectively (see  FIG. 6 ). The windows are numbered in the order that they are established. When windows are simultaneously established in a web browser, a window whose origin is located at the most upper left on a web browser is numbered first and a window whose origin is located at the second most upper left on the web browser is numbered second and so on. Then, a list structure is created window by window at the time at which the window is established, and node lists of all the nodes under the displayed HTMLs are created. The nodes constitute a tree structure. 
   When an OnLoad event indicative of completion of loading of all the nodes in each WINDOW occurs, it means that display of HTML to be displayed in the window has been completed ( FIG. 7 ). In other words, at this time, all nodes on an HTML page loaded into a window associated with the page are stored in each list. 
   At the time the nodes have been created, all the nodes are copied inside, because nodes associated with a displayed page are all discarded if the page is changed, which will be more specifically described later. An internal structure at the time of copying corresponds to a unique address in the HTML page ( FIG. 8   a ). 
   Next, if a mouse event occurs on a node in the window, an address and an event type describing a context in which the node is reached are recorded ( FIG. 8   b ). In this event, only a base page as of when the recording was started, that is, the URL of the HTML in the WINDOW 1  in this example, is recorded at the head as recording information. A screen loaded in response to entry of this URL is WINDOW 1 . Normally, screens WINDOW 2 , WINDOW 3 , WINDOW 4  are invoked from WINDOW  1 . The URLs other than the first one of WINDOW  1  are not recorded for the following reason. Generally, a page created by a program such as CGI (Common Gateway Interface) differs in URL every time the program is executed. Also, it is difficult to automatically detect variable URL returned by some program. Therefore, in the present invention, address and event type are managed by a window displaying the page instead of URL information of that page. In other words, they are managed under a window number given to each window. 
   For example, it is assumed here that a user clicks on a link tag in a certain paragraph within WINDOW  2 . In response, WINDOW 2  and the clicked-on location within the HTML page are recorded as relative addresses in an address record. Then, an event type corresponding to the node is recorded. Since a link element is clicked on in this example, an event type called “Click” is recorded. A format for this recording will be described later. 
   When display of a window is changed next time, an UnLoad event is issued once while the window is discarded. At this time, the list corresponding to the discarded window is also discarded once. 
   For example, it is assumed that a page in WINDOW 3  is updated by clicking on a certain link within WINDOW 2  as described above. The moment the link is clicked on, WINDOW 3  issues an UnLoad event. In response, a portion corresponding to WINDOW 3  is deleted from the list once ( FIG. 9 ). 
   Next, as WINDOW 5  is newly loaded in place of the deleted WINDOW 3 , an event OnLoad is issued. In this event, WINDOW 5  is again created in the list, and nodes below WINDOW 5  are copied inside ( FIG. 10 ). 
   It is assumed here that a user moves a mouse onto the newly loaded WINDOW 5 , and clicks, for example, on a login button which is located in a certain paragraph within the window displaying WINDOW 5  ( FIG. 11A ). 
   In response, a WINDOW identifier and the clicked-on location within the HTML page are recorded as relative addresses in the address record. Then, an event type corresponding to the node is recorded. Since a form element was clicked on in this example, event information called “Submit” is recorded ( FIG. 11B ). 
   Since Submit sends several pieces of information to a target site, information entered for submission at this stage is also recorded. Since a range to be submitted is described in the page, its elements are also recorded in the address format. The contents to be submitted are parenthesized when recorded. 
   A mouse selection operation on a page can also be recorded as recorded contents ( FIG. 12 ). Thereby, ultimately desired information can be accessed not only page by page but also character string by character string, so that a localized portion of information can be directly accessed. This event is recorded as Selected. Recording is made in the form of an address of an element in which a character string in question is directly held or in the form of the lowest level element of parent elements having a selected character string as descendant. 
   According to the method of the present invention, the foregoing recording operations are repeated. Specifically, a mouse event is hooked with respect to nodes on each HTML page. Different nodes have different events to be hooked. 
   Thus, a sequence of records ( FIG. 13 ) of a node address within an HTML page loaded and displayed in each WINDOW, and a mouse event type corresponding to the address is successively created, wherein URL is used as a key for the first sequence and a WINDOW identifier is used as a key for infra second sequence. 
   Lastly, the sequence is given a name, under which it is managed such that the information can be reproduced when necessary. 
   Referring next to  FIGS. 14 through 16 , description will be made on an embodiment of a reproducing operation for automatically accessing the same WWW site, displaying a desired page and obtaining information of contents in which a user is especially interested by using the reproduction log (recording information) recorded as described above. 
   At the time of reproduction, at least the user interface illustrated in  FIG. 2  may be displayed although it is not limited thereto. 
   For reproducing previously recorded contents, a user enters a name given to the contents when they were saved last time in the “RECORD NAME” entry window  203  for invocation (step  1400 ). 
   The user depresses the REPLAY button (step  1401 ). 
   In the reproduction, recorded web pages are sequentially accessed to issue a variety of recorded events (step  1402 ). 
   At the time of reproduction, the present invention counts the number of siblings of all elements and the number of siblings of a particular element with respect to information of all recorded levels, while comparing nodes which had been read page by page at the time of execution, and determines, when discrepancy occurs in either of the numbers of siblings, that the page configuration at the time of recording differs from the page configuration at the time of reproducing and that the page was changed between the time of recording and the time of reproducing (step  1403 ), and issues a warning as shown in  FIG. 15 , together with URL detected during reproduction (step  1404 ). 
   When an event is Submit, URL returned from the server after the Submit operation is often a dynamic page address generated by CGI. Therefore, in some cases, URL at the time of recording may differ from URL at the time of reproducing. For example, a date of access is often added behind URL, in which case an inconvenience arises if URLs are required to exactly match. 
   To address the problem, the present invention employs a method of managing recording information under numbers assigned to WINDOWs opened within the browser rather than according to URL. Thereby, the present method provides tolerance to dynamic URL. 
   The foregoing processing is illustrated in  FIG. 16 . For example, when a page of referenced URL is loaded after a Submit event occurred (step  1600 ), a record managed in WINDOW into which the page has previously been loaded can be referenced because the record is not managed according to URL even if this URL includes a CGI format. Then, nodes on the loaded page are read into a memory (step  1601 ), and any change in page configuration is detected (steps  1602 ,  1603 ). If no change is detected, the event is executed (step  1604 ). If there is a next recorder line, the process goes back to the step  1600 . If not, the process is terminated. If a change in page configuration is detected, a flag indicative of detection of page update is set as described above (step  1606 ) to issue a warning. 
   Turning back to  FIG. 14 , when a Selected event occurs (step  1405 ), a selected character string is displayed in the form of a dialog (step  1406 ). If an instruction is given to save the displayed contents (step  1407 ), the contents are saved in a file or a memory (step  1408 ) and the process is concluded. If no Selected event occurs, a final target page is displayed (step  1409 ) and the process is concluded. 
   Lastly, a format for the reproduction log recorded in accordance with the present invention is illustrated below.
     URL   WINDOW_ID DOCUMENT[1]/N1-Name[N2]/N1-Name[N2]/N1-Name[N2]/N1-Name[N2]/ . . .  . . . /event   WINDOW_ID DOCUMENT[1]/ . . .  
       In the above list, each symbol has the following meaning.   URL: Description of URL of an intended page. A page on which recording is started.   WINDOW_ID: An identifier for a window generated at the time at which a page changes.   DOCUMENT[1]: Description of a top node, i.e., a document root.   /: Movement of dept 1. Specifically, the left side of “/” indicates a parent node, and the right side indicates a child node   N1: Indicates the position of an intended node at the same depth.   -: A delimiter.   Name[N2]: Indicates the position in the same element as the intended node   event: Describes a type of a mouse event such as Click, Submit and Selected.   (): Contents to be submitted to the server are described in the parenthesis in an address format when a mouse event occurs on a node for Submit.   
       

   For example, a record of a mouse operation log shown on the left side of  FIG. 17  means that an associated node on an HTML page of a structure shown in the right side, that is, an anchor in  FIG. 17  is clicked on. 
   It should be understood that the foregoing description on the embodiment is a mere illustration for implementing the present invention and the present invention is in no way limited to this particular embodiment. It should be obvious to those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, while the foregoing embodiment has been described using as recorded event types Click, Submit, and Selected (selection of information by means of a mouse), the present invention is not limited to these event types and it should be apparent that other event types associated with a keyboard and a mouse can be recorded without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
   As described above, the present invention records in detail mouse manipulations on a web browser by a user to allow reproduction of the recorded manipulations, thereby providing an environment in which the user can acquire desired information by means of batch processing. Particularly, since Selected events can be recorded, it is possible to record not only page by page but also localized information such as a character string on a page. 
   Thus, according to the present invention, information that changes in real time can be repeatedly obtained without performing the same operation over and over again. 
   Further, according to the present invention, if a page configuration of a site has been changed, a user is notified that the page cannot be accessed and recording information is re-created by accessing a desired page again in an interactive manner and reproducing the manipulations, thereby dealing with a change in configuration of a page of a site. Also, the records are not managed by URLs including URLs generated by a program, for example URLs by CGI but by windows on which pages are displayed at the time of recording, thereby making it possible to correspond a recorded page to a page at the time of reproduction to perform reproduction processing on a read node. Thus, the present invention provides tolerance to a large number of dynamic pages that actually exist.