Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-05
2001-06-19
Hong, Stephen S. (Department: 2176)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06249795
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Information which is stored in computerized systems, databases or repositories can change frequently. These changes are typically made without notice being given to those with access to that information. For example, software development frequently involve s access by many persons to code stored in a central location. The various programmers can change the central code without notifying the other programmers working on that code. Another example is the Internet, where the content of a resource (“home page” or “page”) can be changed and all the users with access to that resource are not notified of the changes.
Persons with access to such systems, therefore, do not know on a daily basis whether and how the information has changed since a previous examination of the information. Instead the person must spend valuable time examining the information, such as the code or resource content from the examples above, to determine if there were any modifications and what the modifications were.
Many of these systems indicate that changes have been made but do not identify the actual changes. Other systems, generically known as “diff” systems, identify the changes but only in response to the user's decision to compare two specific stored versions.
Versioning control systems exist to facilitate this examination process. These systems store multiple versions of a document from different time periods. These multiple versions can be stored in full or be partially stored so that a selected version can be generated from a previous version plus incremental information concerning the intervening versions. These version control systems serve to identify differences between versions of a document stored in a local repository. Revision Control System (RCS) format is a specific example of these generic versioning systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The current AT&T Internet Difference Engine (AIDE) allows a user to track a set of resources, referred to by Universal Resource Locators (URLs). The system notifies the user when the tracked resources change, either by electronic mail or in a list which is generated upon request. The list is generated based on the URLs tracked by that individual user. The list informs the user of which resources have recently changed and enables the user to view those recent changes. Once the user has viewed the page, the modified resource drops off that user's “what's new” list.
Another implementation of AIDE provides for a shared list of resources which is tracked. The user can then access the list and view the documents which have changed recently. Once the user views a document on the list, it remains on the list for the other users of the shared list. Only the most recent changes will be displayed for documents on this list, so if the document has changed several times since the user last viewed the document, some of the intervening changes will not be identified to the user unless the user specifically requests the comparison of a different pair of document versions.
The present invention uses “cookies” or any other form of personalized user information and state information stored by a server or an external service, such as AIDE, to customize user's “what's new” list and the differencing of documents, even for those users who do not register their preferences. A cookie is arbitrary data that a server provides to a browser in order to uniquely identify that user upon subsequent access to that server. This invention enables the shared list to be personalized for each user. When a user views the changes to a document, the changes displayed are the changes from the time the user last viewed the document (the changes are specific to that user's viewing habits), rather than only the most recent changes based on the external service's polling interval. Thus, the shared resource list is personalized for each user and the lines between public and private tracking of resources are blurred.
Another implementation of the invention provides information to AIDE concerning documents which the user has viewed outside of the system. Information concerning documents or pages that the user has viewed directly through a repository, such as the Internet, are stored by the server and accessed via the unique identifier stored as a cookie file or other form of personalized information. That information can be used to generate a more accurate list of which documents or pages of interest have changed and what the changes to those documents were since the user's last viewed them.
One advantage of this approach is to permit any host site on the Internet to have a “What's New to this Site” link which is customizable for each visiting user based on that user's cookie file or such other personalized data record. The “What's New” link can even be omitted from a site dynamically if there is nothing new for a given user. These advantages also apply to other types of database scenarios wherein multiple users have access to a central repository.
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Douglis, Fred et al., “The AT&T Internet Difference Engine: Tracking and Viewing Changes on the Web,” AT&T Labs—Research and Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories, 1997, pp. 1-33.
AT&T Corp.
Hong Stephen S.
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