Method and computer system for enabling a user to construct a web-site navigation

A computer system for generating web page navigations. A user interacts with an input form for creating a web page and accepting input that specifies inclusion of the page in a navigation and the hierarchical level of the inclusion. The specifications of the input form are recorded in a view that provides an index into a database. A Java agent reads the view and a set of documents such as Lotus Notes documents indexed by the view and associated with a plurality of web pages to be included in the navigation. Based upon static HTML information contained in the documents, the agent generates the navigation, and inserts links associated with the navigation into the plurality of web pages.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns the web pages of an Internet web site, and more particularly the construction of a navigation among the web pages of an Internet web site.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the success and rapid growth of the Internet-based World Wide Web, the commercial importance of having an up-to-date, easy-to-use web site has become paramount for many businesses, both large and small. One aspect of providing an effective web site is providing customers with a way of finding their way through the pages of the site in a logical, satisfying way. This is accomplished by providing a navigation, or a hierarchical way of linking from one page to another, so that a customer may understand clearly how to progress from general to specific and from specific to general.

Special skills are now required to construct navigations. The need for special skills constrains the responsiveness with which a business can address a need for change in its site's navigation. Someone who is skilled in providing web-site content is not necessarily also skilled in the important task of constructing an effective navigation to guide customers through the content. This often means that unwanted expense and delay is incurred in providing and adapting an effective web site, as at least two experts are required—a content expert and a navigation expert.

Consequently, there is a need for a simple, economical, and effective way to enable a content expert to construct a navigation without reliance upon a second party such as a navigation expert.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a simple, economical, and effective method and computer system to enable a content expert to generate a navigation without reliance upon a second party such as a navigation expert.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is a computer system for generating web page navigations. An input form is provided so that a user may specify the inclusion of a web page in a navigation and the hierarchical level at which the web page is to be included. The specifications of the input farm arc stored in a view, which is an index into a database, such as a LOTUS NOTES® view. An agent such as a Java agent is provided to rend both the view and also a set of documents such as LOTUS NOTES® documents that are indexed by the view. These documents are associated with the set of web pages to be included in the navigation. Based upon static HTML information contained in the documents, the agent generates the navigation, and inserts links associated with the navigation into the set of web pages.

Another aspect of the present invention is a method for generating navigations. According to this method, the user edits an input form to specify inclusion of the web page in the navigation and to specify the hierarchical level of inclusion. In response, a view is written to store the users choices. The view is then read to identify documents associated with a set of web pages that are to be included in the navigation. The navigation is then generated in response to the documents and the hierarchical level of the web page specified by the user via the input form. The documents upon which this is based contain static HTML. Links associated with the navigation are then inserted into the set of web pages.

Thus the present invention provides a quick, economical way of generating navigations, which may be employed by content experts to generate navigations that enable customers to partake of a web site's offerings in a logical and pleasing way. These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following descriptions of embodiments of the invention when considered together with the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention will now be described more fully, making reference to the accompanying drawings, which show exemplary embodiments of the invention. In the drawings and in the description that follows, like numbers refer to like elements throughout. The invention may also be embodied in many different forms; consequently, the invention should not be construed to be limited to the embodiments set forth here. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the invention may be embodied as methods or devices. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an embodiment entirely in hardware, an embodiment entirely in software, or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects.

In this description and the appended claims, terms have the following meanings:Database—a collection of documents indexed by a view; for example, a LOTUS NOTES® database is a collection of LOTUS NOTES® documents indexed by a LOTUS NOTES® view.Document—an entity in a database such as a field of data or an object, for example a LOTUS NOTES® document.View—an index into a database that selects a subset of the entities in the database, for example a LOTUS NOTES® view.Input Form—a form that enables a user to create a document, for example a form that enables a user to edit a web page and to specify whether the web page is to be included in a navigation.Navigation—a set of links among members of a set of related web pages.Navigation hierarchy—the structure of the navigation of a web site, organized for example from general to specific as a hierarchy of channels, sub-channels, sections, and sub-sections.Publish—to generate HTML for a web page.Static HTML document—an HTML code snippet contained in a document.

FIG. 1shows a computer system that enables a user to generate a navigation. A user100who desires to construct a navigation interacts with an input form110, which would typically be presented to the user on a computer display (not shown). The input form110enables the user100to specify whether or not a particular web page is to be included in the navigation through a yes-or-no selection, and may also enable the user to edit and create web pages140.

Responsive to the users choice of yes or no, the input form accordingly writes a view120. The view is an index into a database130, which is a collection of documents135that are indexed by the view120. In one embodiment of the invention, the database is LOTUS NOTES® database comprising a collection of LOTUS NOTES® documents that are indexed by way of a LOTUS NOTES® view; the LOTUS NOTES® documents are entities in the LOTUS NOTES® database such as objects and fields of data. Note that “LN” stands for LOTUS NOTES®.

An agent150has access to the view120and the database130, in particular to the documents135and web pages140within the database130. In one embodiment of the invention, the agent is a Java agent, whose operation is explained below.

FIG. 2shows a method of operation of the computer system shown inFIG. 1. As shown inFIG. 2, the user100edits the input form110to specify a web page and whether or not the web page specified by the input form110is to be included in the navigation (step200). Upon completion of the editing, the web page is published (step205). The indication of the user100concerning the inclusion of the web page into the navigation is then examined (step210).

If the web page is not to be included in the navigation, the view120is written accordingly (step215), and the user progresses to the next web page. Otherwise (i.e., the web page is to be included in the navigation), the view120is written accordingly (step225), and the agent150is launched (step230).

Upon its launch, the agent150reads the view120to determine which web pages140from the database130are to be included in the navigation; and in particular, the agent150determines which documents135are identified by the view120(step235). The agent120then reads these documents135including static HTML documents identified by the view120(step240). From the contents of the static HTML documents, the agent150generates the navigation (step250), and inserts links describing the navigation into the web pages140(step260). When this has been accomplished, control is transferred back to the user, who proceeds to the next web page (step220).

FIG. 3shows other aspects of the operation of the agent150. The agent150reads (step300) the hierarchical position of the published page (step205). If channels are to be included in the navigation, the agent150reads the channels (step310). If sub-channels are to be included in the navigation, the agent150reads the sub-channels (step320). If sections are to be included in the navigation, the agent150reads the sections (step330). If sub-sections are to be included in the navigation, the agent150reads the sub-sections (step340). Upon completion of the reading and based thereupon, the agent generates HTML for the navigation (step350), and writes the HTML to the published page (step360).

From the foregoing description, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention efficiently and economically enables users to build navigations with minimal involvement, in fact with only a single mouse click that specifies the inclusion or not of a web page presented by the input form110. This results in a considerable savings of time for the user, and enables users who have skills that are less specialized than those traditionally required to build navigations effortlessly. The foregoing description, however, is illustrative rather than limiting, and the scope of present invention is limited only by the following claims.