Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-13
2004-06-08
Mizrahi, Diane D. (Department: 2175)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06748385
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatically providing hypertext anchor codes and destination addresses for a user-readable text file. The destination addresses are intermittently updated under the control of a central server to ensure that the destination addresses remain current. The invention is particularly suitable for use with text files which are stored on a server in a computer network such as the Internet.
2. Discussion
As the volume of information stored on computers continues to dramatically increase, new methods are sought to organize the information in an easy, intuitively retrievable way. Hypertext, which may include Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extended Markup Language (XML), or other forms of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), is a common method of linking related computer files or pages. A file that references other information stored on a computer, whether directly or indirectly, generally displays an icon for the referenced information in some form of distinguished or highlighted text, usually colored or underlined. A computer user viewing the page can access the referenced document simply by selecting the highlighted text in the instant file, e.g., by clicking on the highlighted text with a mouse or other pointing device. A markup language anchor, or markup language hyperlink, is the reference icon on a Web page which links a user's Web browser to relevant information.
An HTML anchor, or HTML hyperlink, is the underlined text on a Web page which links a user's Web browser to another location. An HTML file includes text and HTML tags, and may also include graphics (e.g., hypermedia). Inside an HTML file, a tag is surrounded by angle braces “< . . . >”. Text is displayed on the browser's screen with selected attributes such as font size and style. Tags are used to designate the current font, style, location, or to add images or convey other formatting details about the Web page to the browser.
Stand-alone tags and container tags may be used. Stand-alone tags involve one set of braces. For example, to put an image on the Web browser's screen, one might use:
<IMG SRC=“picture.gif”>
“IMG” refers to “image”. “SRC”, which refers to “source”, is an attribute whose value is the name (i.e., source) of the file containing the image, e.g., “picture.gif”. Container tags involve two sets of braces, namely one set to mark the beginning of a field, and another set of braces to mark the end of the field. HTML anchors are container tags. For example, to link the text “IBM” to the Uniform Ad Resource Locator (URL) “www.ibm.com”, one might use:
<A HREF=“http://www.ibm.net”>IBM</A>
“<A>” is an anchor code in HTML. Note how the “</A>” indicates the end of the container tag that began with the “<A . . . >” tag. “HREF” refers to a hypertext reference attribute.
This form of hypertext, illustrated in
FIG. 1
, was-originally conceived in March of 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at the European Nuclear Council (CERN) as a method to disseminate information to geographically distributed researchers in high energy physics.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram of a static link architecture for linking a primary computer file to one or more destination files. Computer files, such as the primary computer file
100
, are stored locally on individual Web servers, but the hypertext links are capable or referencing documents on distant servers. For example, the primary computer file
100
includes two hypertext words, “A” and “B”. The traversal of “A” (i.e., the user selecting “A”) links the user to a destination file
110
, which contains text related to A. Similarly, the traversal of “B” links the user to a destination file
120
, which contains text related to B. Generally, destination file A (
110
), destination file “B” (
120
) and the primary computer file
100
are each stored on physically separate servers, or computers.
The now familiar World Wide Web was launched publicly in January of 1992 when CERN opened its Web server to allow researchers to access data from the CERN server. Since then, the World Wide Web has seen incredible growth. Its uses now reach well beyond the international physics community.
The unprecedented growth in the World Wide Web has hastened the creation of more advanced methods of linking computer represented information. Graphics objects can now achieve the same linking functionality as traditional hypertext. However, these links are “hard coded”. That is, the developer of a computer file using hypertext links (e.g., a Web developer) establishes connections for the links that remain static. The developer can manually reposition the links, but their static nature remains. One important problem facing the developer, then, is where to point the hard coded hypertext or graphics links. The developer must choose wisely, because the link will have to be manually changed later if the developer's preferences change.
Fortunately, the growth of the World Wide Web has also led to the development of multiple search engines, such as Yahoo™ and Lycos™, that allow a user to find needles of Web documents in the haystack of available information. The Web developer can locate URLs of desired computer files by entering keywords in the search engine and manually filtering the results. These search engines use primarily voluntary site registrations and Web user suggestions to develop and categorize large databases of URLs. These databases allow a user to find a desired Web document, and allow a developer to find a desired URL for static hypertext and graphics links.
However, even the capability of these search engines leaves the Web developer unsatisfied. Practical considerations preclude using static links for all available information because of screen size and storage limits. Information organized in real time when requested or “on the fly” according to a user's preferences overcomes the static hypertext limitation. Therefore, a primary area of development has been interactivity with Java™, ActiveX™, and Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts. Java™ and ActiveX™ enable a personal computer to run applications that help interactively retrieve and format requested information from a local or distant Web server. Similarly, CGI scripts allow the computer to launch an application on the currently accessed Web server that interactively retrieves and formats information. The Web developer can use these methods to give the user who accesses the page some control over which files are retrieved by various links.
For example,
FIG. 2
is a block diagram of a dynamic link architecture for linking a primary computer file to one or more destination files. Here, a CGI script, Java Applet, or ActiveX control “A” (
210
) is responsive to a user input (
200
) for linking the hypertext “A” in the primary computer file
100
to the destination file “A” (
110
). Likewise, a CGI script, Java Applet, or ActiveX control “B” (
220
) is responsive to a user input (
230
) for linking the hypertext “B” in the primary computer file
100
to the destination file “B” (
120
).
Thus, the Web developer has two options for providing hypertext links in a primary computer file. The developer can insert static hypertext or graphics links using the search engines to determine the precise destination of the links. Alternatively, the developer can use an interactive method that allows the current user viewing the computer page to input preferences. These preferences are then used to filter, in real time, available files and retrieve the desired information.
However, these options suffer from two important disadvantages. First, the manual process by which static links are entered is tedious. A Web developer must find the desired destination URLs using available search engines and manually annotate the hypertext file with those URLs. If the developer's preferences later change, or if the URL is changed, the process must be repeated.
FIG. 3
illustrates
Rodkin John J.
Schmidt David E.
Mizrahi Diane D.
National Broadcasting Company, Inc.
Townsend and Townsend / and Crew LLP
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