Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for setting a bookmark for a resource accessed by a user, and for using the bookmark. 
     The World Wide Web (WWW) or Internet is a system of servers that support documents formatted in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). HTML supports links to documents as well as to graphics, audio and video files. Links are references to documents from within other documents. Links allow a user to easily jump from one document or Web page to another with just a click of a mouse. Thus, a link can be a very useful Internet navigational tool. Note that Web page and document will henceforth be used interchangeably. 
     Another useful Internet navigational tool is a bookmark. A bookmark is available in most Web browsers. A Web browser is a software application that is used to locate Web sites and display Web pages. In the Web browser, the bookmark allows a user to store Web addresses or URLs (Uniform Resource locators) of Web pages into a folder, for example, a bookmark folder, so as to designate the protocol such as HTTP or FTP and the positions of objects, documents, Web pages or other targets in the Internet or Intranet, which will be helpful for later re-visiting. 
     When a user accesses a Web page that may later be re-visited, the user may bookmark the Web page. But, when the Web page is re-visited subsequently, the Web page is always displayed from its beginning. If the user wanted to return to a passage that is in the middle or near the end of the page, the user has to scroll down the page looking for the passage. This can be a non-trivial endeavor, especially if the document being revisited is a large one. 
     Therefore, what is needed is a bookmark having a function of displaying a specific section of the accessed object. In the prior art, a function of setting a bookmark utilizing the cursor position is provided for editable documents like Office documents. Specifically, when locating the bookmark, the editor needs to move the cursor to a position in the editable document where a bookmark is desired to be set, so as to perform bookmarking. Thereby, when the bookmark is referenced by UNC (Universal Naming Conversion) path in another editable document, a specific section of bookmarked document can be displayed. 
     However, the setting of the bookmark capable of directing to a specific section of an object depends on the cursor position, and the bookmark systems always require indicating the cursor position where the bookmark is located. For an editable document, this is natural, but this is impossible for a web page and an un-editable document like read-only PDF. Today, with the spread of e-books and soft materials provided by web sites, a new bookmark solution to bookmark these un-editable documents is desired. 
     Various solutions for web pages have been proposed. For example, US2004/0205543A1 discloses that, when the users are allowed to bookmark a Web page, the user may store, in conjunction with the URL of the page, the size of the window within which the page is displayed, the location of both the horizontal and vertical scroll boxes in the window and the font attributes used to display the page. This allows only the specific section of the page to be displayed when the bookmarked Web page is re-visited. U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,679 B1 teaches a solution which uses the coordinate pair of the top left corner and the bottom right corner of the display area as a part of the bookmark locator to define the section of the page displayed while being re-visited. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention addresses the defects in setting bookmarks with cursors, coordinates and so on in the prior art, and proposes a technical solution which can bookmark not only an un-editable document but also an editable document. 
     According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of bookmarking a specific section of a resource in a data processing system is provided, the method including collecting screen context information for the real text in the current screen of the resource in response to a request to bookmark the current screen of the resource; and storing address information and the screen context information of the resource as a bookmark to be used to return to the specific section of the resource. 
     The present invention proposes to reflect the content and the structure of the document in the display screen by collecting screen context information and taking the screen context information as a part of the bookmark. Thus, when the bookmarked resource content is re-visited, it can be compared with the re-visited resource content by using the recorded screen context information, so as to select the specific section of the downloaded resource. The screen context information may be collected for the current screen of the resource at a certain collection rate input by the user or obtained from a storage unit. 
     The screen context information may include a text locator element. For example, the text locator element may be the first word, a certain word or the first paragraph in the current screen. The screen context information may further include text locating auxiliary information for assisting the text locator element to locate the document. For example, the text locating auxiliary information may be at least one of line number, paragraph number, screen resolution and/or the way how the text is arranged and displayed. 
     The method of bookmarking a resource according to the present invention further may include making abstract information for the real text of the resource and storing the abstract information as a part of the bookmark. Making an abstract for the current screen may include making an abstract for the current screen at a predetermined collection rate. 
     According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of providing a specific section of a resource based on a preset bookmark is provided, the bookmark including address information and screen context information obtained by collecting the specific section of the resource. The method may include downloading the resource content identified by the address information to a memory in response to a user&#39;s request to reopen the resource; collecting screen context information for the downloaded resource content; and comparing the screen context information of the downloaded resource content with the screen context information indicated by the bookmark, selecting the specific section of the downloaded resource according to the rule of fuzzy matching, and displaying the selected specific section of the resource in the display window. 
     Similarly, screen context information for the downloaded resource content may be collected at the same predetermined collection rate. 
     In addition, the screen context information of the bookmark may include a text locator element. Accordingly, collecting screen context information for the downloaded resource content at the predetermined collection rate may include: retrieving the section in the downloaded resource content which matches with the text locator element; and collecting the real text for the downloaded resource content at the predetermined collection rate based on the section which matches with the text locator element, so as to obtain respective simulated screen snapshots to be compared with the screen context information of the bookmark. 
     The bookmark further may include abstract information made for the real text of the resource. Accordingly, after downloading resource content, the method of providing a specific section of a resource based on a preset bookmark further may include: making abstract information for the downloaded resource content, and comparing this abstract information with the abstract information indicated by the bookmark, and judging whether the downloaded resource content is effective. 
     The present invention further may provide a bookmarking apparatus for bookmarking a specific section of a resource in a data processing system, including: a collection unit for collecting screen context information for the real text in the current screen of the resource in response to a request to bookmark the current screen of the resource; and a storage unit for storing address information and the screen context information of the resource as a bookmark to be used to return to the specific section of the resource. 
     In addition, the present invention further may provide an apparatus for providing a specific section of a resource based on a preset bookmark, the bookmark including address information and screen context information obtained by collecting the specific section of the resource, the apparatus including: a compare unit for downloading the resource content identified by the address information to a memory in response to a user&#39;s request to reopen the resource, collecting screen context information for the downloaded resource content, and comparing the screen context information of the downloaded resource content with the screen context information indicated by the bookmark; a locator for selecting the specific section of the downloaded resource according to the rule of fuzzy matching, and displaying the selected specific section of the resource in the display window. 
     The present invention can make use of the screen context information to memorize the reading or editing position in the document; thus the document can be bookmarked without the help of the locatable information such as cursors and coordinates. When it is re-visited, the recorded screen context information and the re-visited resource content are compared using a fuzzy matching method, so as to accurately locate the reading or editing position in the document. 
     The present invention may adopt the screen context information reflecting the content and the structure of the document. In contrast to U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,679B1 et al., which located the specific display area with the coordinates of the top left corner and the bottom right corner, the present invention can accurately locate the specific position in the document without being influenced by the actual arrangement manner of the document or the change of information. 
     In addition, the present invention may make abstract information for the resource content. Thus, when the document is revisited, the document&#39;s effectiveness is checked by comparing the recorded abstract information with the abstract information made while re-visiting. 
     With the bookmarking method according to the present invention, we can switch to various files, positions in the files or web pages in the world wide web, or web pages over Intranet through URL address or UNC path. Also, file locating can be performed among different document types on the same computer by using similar UNC (Universal Naming Conversion) paths. For example, file locating can be performed mutually among Microsoft® Office® documents such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft PowerPoint®, and Microsoft Access™, among Adobe®Acrobat® documents, and between Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat documents. 
     The other features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the illustrative embodiments with reference to the drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows an exemplary block diagram illustrating a distributed data processing system according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  shows an exemplary block diagram of a server apparatus according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  shows an exemplary block diagram of a client apparatus according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  shows a schematic view of the components for bookmarking resources according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  shows a flowchart of the method of generating a bookmark according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  shows a flowchart of the method of representing resources in response to the selection of a bookmark according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention can be implemented in various ways, and those skilled in the art can easily understand that the manner and the details of the present invention can be changed into various manners without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the contents described in the embodiments. 
     Some terminologies used in the description are introduced as follows: 
     Screen Context information: Screen Context records the information of the current screen, including at least one of the first word in the screen, the screen resolution, the first paragraph, and the line number. Screen Context information could be different for different documents; for example, it could have “heading” information for an html document. 
     Collection Rate is the rate utilized to collect the document content. For example, if the collection rate is 100%, then the whole document is recorded. 
     Re-display mode: Re-display mode tells the bookmarking apparatus how to re-locate the document position bookmarked. For instance, if the re-display mode is “locate by first word”, then the first word recorded in the screen context is placed as the first word in the screen when relocating. 
     Effective Document: A document is an effective document only when the bookmarking apparatus identifies that it is still the same document since the last time it was bookmarked. 
     With reference now to the figures,  FIG. 1  depicts a pictorial representation of the present invention. Data processing system  100  is a network of computers in which the present invention may be implemented. Data processing system  100  includes a network  102 , which is the medium used to provide communications links between various devices and computers connected together. Network  102  may include connections, such as wire, wireless communication links, or fiber optic cables. 
     In the depicted example, server  104  and storage unit  106  are connected to network  102 . In addition, clients  108 ,  110 , and  112  of server  104  may be personal computers or network computers. In the depicted example, server  104  provides data, such as boot files, operating system images, and applications to clients  108 ,  110  and  112 . In the network data processing system  100 , network  102  represents a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers consisting of thousands of commercial, government, educational and other computer systems that route data information. Of course, network data processing system  100  also may be implemented in an intranet, a local area network (LAN), or a wide area network (WAN). 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , a block diagram of a data processing system that may be implemented as a server, such as server  104  in  FIG. 1 , is depicted in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Data processing system  200  may be a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) system including a plurality of processors  202  and  204  connected to system bus  206 . Alternatively, a single processor system may be employed. Also connected to system bus  206  is memory controller/cache  208 , which provides an interface to local memory  209 . I/O bus bridge  210  is also connected to system bus  206  and provides an interface to I/O bus  212 . Memory controller/cache  208  and I/O bus bridge  210  may be integrated together. 
     Peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus bridge  214  connected to I/O bus  212  provides an interface to PCI local bus  216 . A number of modems may be connected to PCI local bus  216 . Typical PCI bus implementations will support four PCI expansion slots or add-in connectors. Communications links to network computers  108 ,  110  and  112  in  FIG. 1  may be provided through modem  218  and network adapter  220  connected to PCI local bus  216  through add-in boards. 
     Additional PCI bus bridges  222  and  224  provide interfaces for additional PCI local buses  226  and  228 , from which additional modems or network adapters may be supported. In this manner, data processing system  200  allows connections to multiple network computers. A memory-mapped graphics adapter  230  and hard disk  232  may also be connected to I/O bus  212  as depicted, either directly or indirectly. 
     With reference now to  FIG. 3 , a block diagram illustrating a data processing system in which the present invention may be implemented is depicted. Data processing system  300  is an example of a client computer. Data processing system  300  employs a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) local bus architecture. Although the depicted example employs a PCI bus, other bus architectures such as Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) may be used. Processor  302  and main memory  304  are connected to PCI local bus  306  through PCI bridge  308 . PCI bridge  308  also may include an integrated memory controller and cache memory for processor  302 . Additional connections to PCI local bus  306  may be made through direct component interconnection or through add-in boards. In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter  310 , SCSI host bus adapter  312 , and expansion bus interface  314  are connected to PCI local bus  306  by direct component connection. In contrast, audio adapter  316 , graphics adapter  318 , and audio/video adapter  319  are connected to PCI local bus  306  by add-in boards inserted into expansion slots. Expansion bus interface  314  provides a connection for a keyboard and mouse adapter  320 , modem  322 , and additional memory  324 . Small computer system interface (SCSI) host bus adapter  312  provides a connection for hard disk drive  326 , tape drive  328 , and CD-ROM drive  330 . Typical PCI local bus implementations can support three or four PCI expansion slots or add-in connectors. 
     An operating system runs on processor  302  and is used to coordinate and provide control of various components within data processing system  300  in  FIG. 3 . The operating system may be a commercially available operating system, such as Microsoft Windows® 2000. An object oriented programming system such as Java™ may run in conjunction with the operating system and provide calls to the operating system from Java programs or other applications executing on data processing system  300 . Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented operating system, and applications or programs can be located on storage devices, such as hard disk drive  326 , and may be loaded into main memory  304  while being executed by processor  302 . 
     As another example, data processing system  300  may be configured to be bootable without relying on the type of network communication interface. Also, data processing system  300  may be a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, which is configured with ROM and/or flash ROM in order to provide non-volatile memory for storing operating system files and/or user-generated data. 
     The depicted example in  FIG. 3  and above-described examples are merely for illustration. For example, data processing system  300  may also be a notebook computer or hand held computer taking the form of a PDA. Data processing system  300  also may be a kiosk or a Web appliance. 
     The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for setting a bookmark for a resource. The present invention is applicable in the client device  108 ,  110 ,  112  (i.e. personal computers or network computers) or server  104  as shown in  FIG. 1 . The present invention may also embodied in various data storage media (such as soft disc, optical disc, hard disc, ROM, RAM, and so on) used by a computer system. 
     The apparatus for setting a bookmark for a resource according to the present invention can be implemented by the data processing system  200  shown in  FIG. 2  or the data processing system  300  shown in  FIG. 3 . Specifically, as shown in  FIG. 4 , the apparatus providing a specific section of a resource according to a previously set bookmark includes 5 units: User Configuration Center  401 , Storage Unit  402 , Collection Unit  403 , Compare Unit  404  and Locator  405 . 
     The User Configuration Center  401  is used to set the collection rate of the whole document and to select the re-display mode of the document according to the bookmark mode. For example, it may be set by the end-user via a mouse or a keyboard through various editing tools (e.g., Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat Reader tools) or graphical user interfaces of the browser. Thus the end-user is able to define the accuracy in comparing the documents by setting the collection rate of the whole document. 
     The collection rate set by the end-user can be stored in the Storage Unit  402 . The Storage Unit  402  may be the main memory  304  as shown in  FIG. 3 . 
     The Collection Unit  403 , the Compare Unit  404  and the Locator  405  may be, for example, functional modules in the processors  202 ,  204  or the processor  302  shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 . 
     The Collection Unit  403  is connected to the User Configuration Center  401  and the Storage Unit  402 . It collects the points according to the setting provided by User Configuration Center  401 , gets the context of current screen, and then transmits the points and screen context information to Storage Unit  402 . 
     The Compare Unit  404  is used to judge whether the bookmarked document representation is still effective. Specifically, the Compare Unit  404  retrieves bookmarked points in the document from Storage Unit  402  and judges whether the bookmark is effective by comparing the same with the contents extracted from the actual document. 
     The Locator  405  selects the specific section of the downloaded resource according to the compared result of the Compare Unit  404  and displays the selected specific section of the resource. 
       FIG. 5  shows a flowchart of the method of generating bookmark according to an embodiment of the present invention. This method can be realized by the apparatus for setting a bookmark for a resource as shown in  FIG. 4 . 
     In step  501 , a user&#39;s request for bookmarking a resource is received. The user may input an expected collection rate for collection while requesting that the resource be bookmarked. The collection rate provided by the user through the User Configuration Center  401  may be stored in the Storage Unit  402  or directly sent to the Collection Unit  403  for collection in order to customize different collection rates for different documents. 
     In step  502 , in response to the bookmarking request, the Collection Unit  403  begins to collect the whole document information. Here, Internet or Intranet web pages are taken as examples of resource objects; resource objects also may be other types of documents over the network or in the same computer, including Microsoft Office documents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Adobe Acrobat documents. The Collection Unit  403  may extract the real text from a web page without extracting HTML tags, pictures and multimedia data. 
     The Collection Unit  403  gets the collection rate from the Storage Unit  402  or the User Configuration Center  401  and collects the respective points according to the collection rate to form an abstract of the document. Alternatively, the present invention can make an abstract using the abstract maker tool inside the text editor. In this case, Collection Unit  403  analyzes the document and designates a rank for each sentence to determine the outline in the document. Those text contents (e.g. sentences) containing words which are often used in the document are designated the highest rank. Then the user selects some sentences with the highest rank according to a percentage. The selected sentence is displayed in the abstract. Here, the “percentage” used in the abstract maker has the same meaning as the collection rate, i.e., the percentage with respect to the original length. 
     The object of making an abstract is to identify, by fuzzy matching, whether a re-visited document is the same as the document that was booked. If so, the re-visited document is an effective document. Step  502  is optional, and the method of the present invention can get the screen context information by analyzing the resource object directly using the text locator element without making an abstract. 
     In step  503 , the Collection Unit  403  describes the current screen context using the text locator element. Screen context records the information of the current screen, including at least one text locator element in the first word in the screen, some certain word, or the first paragraph and so on. In this example, the first word in the screen is used as a text locator element. The first word is recorded. For example, the first word may be “&lt;complexType.” Other words may be randomly picked up from the current screen context beginning with the first word at a pick-up rate that is the collection rate defined by the end-user in the User Configuration Center  401 . 
     Screen context information could be different for different documents. For example, it could have “heading” information for an html document. 
     Line number, paragraph number and screen resolution may also be used as a part of screen context information to facilitate the above retrievable text locator element associated with the actual contents in order to describe the context of the current screen. Screen context information may include, in addition to plain text information, information about the way text is arranged and displayed. For example, if pictures in the screen might cover the whole screen, screen context information may include picture information, like its source. 
     In Step  504 , the Collection Unit  403  sends the address information, the abstract information, and the screen context information of the bookmarked resource to the Storage Unit  402  for recording. The flow of bookmarking is terminated. 
       FIG. 6  shows a flowchart of the method of representing resources in response to the selection of a bookmark according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     In Step  601 , the user requests to reopen the bookmarked document. In Step  602 , the Compare Unit  404  extracts the real text of the document according to the hyperlink address indicated in the bookmark. The hyperlink address included in the bookmark may be, for example, the path information of Unified Resource Identifier (URI). In this embodiment, URI for a web page may be a Unified Resource Locator (URL) address, which is used to specify the protocol (such as HTTP or FTP) and the positions of objects, documents, Web pages or other targets in the Internet or Intranet. It may be a UNC path (Universal Naming Conversion path) as well, which is used to locate the address of a document. If the other documents in the same client machine are the bookmarked objects, the path information included in the bookmark is UNC path information. 
     In Step  603 , the Compare Unit  404  retrieves the abstract of the bookmarked document from the Storage Unit  402 . Then, in Step  604 , the Compare Unit  404  makes an abstract of the document according to the collection rate retrieved from the Storage Unit  402 , and determines whether the document is an effective document by comparing the abstract of the actual document with the recorded one retrieved from the Storage Unit  402 . As in Step  502  of  FIG. 5 , the Compare Unit  404  can make an abstract directly by using the abstract maker tool inside the text editor. 
     If the document is judged to be ineffective in step  605 , the document is expired and the flow is terminated. 
     Steps  603 ,  604  and  605  are optional in the method of representing resources in response to the selection of a bookmark according to the present invention. They may be omitted if it is not necessary to judge whether the re-visited document is effective or if no abstract information is made while setting bookmark. The method of the present invention can omit steps  603 ,  604 , and  605  and directly perform the process of Step  606 . 
     In step  606 , if the document is still effective, the Compare Unit  404  makes a simulated screen snapshot of the actual document by using the screen context information included in the obtained bookmark. For example, if the first word “&lt;complexType” in the screen context information in the obtained bookmark is used as the retrievable text locator element associated with the actual contents, then the Compare Unit  404  searches “&lt;complexType” in the actual document. Once the word “&lt;complexType” is found, a simulated screen snapshot is formed starting from the word “&lt;complexType”. Then the Compare Unit  404  picks-up words from the simulated screen snapshot in the same way that the Collection Unit  403  does. That is, the Compare Unit  404  picks-up words in the simulated screen snapshot with the same retrievable text locator element associated with the actual contents, such as the first word, some certain word or the first paragraph, and at the same collection rate. The Compare Unit  404  compares these picked words with the respective words collected by the Collection Unit  403  and stored in the Storage Unit  402  as screen context information. If they match, the screen in the display window using the locator is displayed and the bookmark locating is done. The term “match” as used herein depends on the specific fuzzy matching algorithm and does not have to be 100% the same. If they don&#39;t match, Step  606  is repeated to remake a simulate screen snapshot to perform matching until the end of the document is reached. 
     If the screen context information of the bookmark further includes line number, paragraph number, screen resolution and/or the way the text is arranged and displayed, the Compare Unit  403  matches the simulated screen snapshot and the stored screen context information in combination with such auxiliary information. 
     If there are pictures in the screen, the Compared Unit may decide the size and shape of the picture according to the picture information in the screen context information without downloading the picture while downloading the actual document or while forming the simulated screen snapshot. If the finally selected simulated screen snapshot includes pictures, the contents can be downloaded continuously. The user can be allowed or not allowed to scroll up and down to see the remaining sections of the page according to specific requirements, or the pictures outside the selected screen can be displayed on the screen after continuous downloading when the user scrolls up and down to see the remaining sections of the page. 
     Although the present invention is specifically described in combination with the embodiments, the present invention is not limited by such embodiments. Various changes can be made without departing from the present invention. For example, in embodiments of the present invention, the screen context information is described as the first word in the display window. That is, the text contents are collected to get the screen context information by starting from the first word in the current screen. Other information, such as the second word, the last word or the first paragraph can also be used as the text locator element. In the scope of the disclosure of the present invention, those skilled in the art can conceive other technical solutions for reflecting the contents and the structure of the document on the display screen.

Technology Category: 3