WO2002007004A1

WO2002007004A1 - A method and system for accessing network locations

Info

Publication number: WO2002007004A1
Application number: PCT/AU2001/000857
Authority: WO
Inventors: Philip Raeburn Copeland; Bruce James Mcdonald
Original assignee: Spoton, Inc.
Priority date: 2000-07-14
Filing date: 2001-07-13
Publication date: 2002-01-24
Also published as: AUPQ878700A0

Abstract

A method for use in accessing network locations, including receiving a request from an access device for a selected tour, the tour including a set of network location addresses, accessing at least one definition document referring to the addresses, extracting the addresses from at least one definition document to form the tour, and transmitting the tour to the access device to allow the tour to be played on the access device.

Description

A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ACCESSING NETWORK LOCATIONS

The present invention relates to a method and system for use in accessing network locations of a communications network, and in particular a method and system for use in accessing pages on the Internet as a tour.

The applicant has developed an architecture which allows storage, on a remote server, of addresses of network locations, such as web sites on the Internet, and other details for users in folders to control access to the locations for users. The architecture is described in detail in the specification of International Patent Application PCT/AUOO/00548 filed on

25 May 2000 ("the international specification"), which is incorporated herein by reference.

For instance, bookmarks or URLs for web pages are stored in a route or tour folder that can be loaded into a player on a user's machine in order to play or sequentially access the pages of the tour. The player provides a navigation interface, as a part of a user's browser, with controls to allow the user to selectively access and move through the pages of a tour. It is desired however to provide a useful alternative or a variant of the architecture that allows a tour to be dynamically created and played without a user having to store location details on a server or download and install a player.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a method for use in accessing network locations, including: receiving a request from an access device for a selected tour, said tour including a set of network location addresses; accessing at least one definition document referring to said addresses; extracting said addresses from said at least one definition document to form said tour; and transmitting said tour to said access device to allow the tour to be played on the access device. The present invention also provides a server system having: an interface for receiving a request from an access device for a selected tour, said tour including a set of network location addresses; access means, responsive to said request, for accessing at least one definition document referring to said addresses and extracting said addresses to form said tour; and response means for transmitting said tour to said access device to allow the tour to be played on the access device.

Advantageously the server may store definition data representing said tour that identifies said at least one definition document or may receive said definition data with said request.

Advantageously the response means may transmit player components with said addresses to allow the tour to be played.

The addresses may be URLs for web pages.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are hereinafter described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of a system for delivering WebTours; Figure 2 is a flow diagram of a tour creation process of the system; Figure 3 is a flow diagram of a tour generation process of the system; Figure 4 is a diagram of a tour delivery process of the system; and Figure 5 is a flow diagram of a tour play process of the system.

A system for creating and playing tours of network locations of a communications network is described below with reference to creating tours of web pages on the Internet. For this implementation, a user has a client computer system 2 which executes a web browser 4, such as Microsoft Explorer, and the browser is used to access a web server 6, hereinafter referred to as the Live WebTour server, as shown in Figure 1. A tour is hereinafter referred to as a WebTour. The Live WebTour server creates Live WebTours and provides a method for web browsers to view them. A WebTour is a list of web pages that are retrieved in sequence. A Live

WebTour is a WebTour where the list of web pages is created dynamically or automatically. As shown in Figure 1, the Live WebTour server 6 retrieves information form a defining document 8, and uses this information to create the WebTour, and then lets the web browser view the WebTour. The user can use the web browser to view each web page in the WebTour.

The server sends a WebTour player and the WebTour to the web browser. Alternatively, the web browser already has attached thereto a WebTour player, as described in the international specification, that overrides the one sent by the Live WebTour server.

The Live WebTour server creates WebTours from stored definitions. These definitions contain the location of a defining document 8, such as a HTML or XML web page, that may be located on another server 10. As the web pages of the WebTour are found when the WebTour is played, the defining document can be dynamically generated. For example, it could be the results of a search. This means the WebTour sites can always be current, making it worthwhile to play the WebTour regularly.

The Live WebTour Server works with HTML and XML web pages over HTTP, and it can also work with other hypertext systems such as WML over WAP.

The Live WebTour server is implemented by a server computer system 6 executing Java servlets 12. This lets it run with any web server that supports Java servlets, such as Apache with JServ. It can also be implemented using other web server technologies that allowing execution of code such as Microsoft Internet Information Server' s IS API DLLs. The primary feature is that the WebTour is created by executing code when the request for the WebTour is received from the web browser.

The web browser starts playing a Live WebTour by following a link to a Live WebTour server. This link normally refers to the server and a specific WebTour. The link can be a simple identifier, which refers to the definition of a Live WebTour known to the Live WebTour server. This definition includes the location of the defining document. Alternatively, the link can contain all the details about the Live WebTour. In this case, the Live WebTour server has no information about the Live WebTour. The link contains the definition, including the location of the defining document. When the Live WebTour server receives the request from the web browser, it retrieves the definition and the defining document, creates the Live WebTour using the definition and the defining document, and sends the Live WebTour player and WebTour to the web browser. The web browser then plays the Live WebTour.

As shown in Figure 2, the Live WebTour server 6 may store definitions of Live WebTours that have been created by a user. Amongst other information, the location of a defining document for the WebTour is stored. This location is a link, typically a URL. Alternatively, as mentioned previously, the WebTour definition can be included as part of the URL used to play the WebTour. This enables Live WebTours to be created by typing in a URL, and no extra permissions are required to create a WebTour compared with viewing a WebTour.

The content of the defining document typically contains all the information describing a WebTour. This includes WebTour title, copyright and branding messages, as well as the web pages in the WebTour. Alternatively, the Live WebTour server can also contain additional information about the WebTour. It can include title, copyright, and other information that replaces any information that was extracted from the defining document.

The defining document 8 for the WebTour is often a HTML or XML web page 20 on the Internet, and, as shown in Figure 3, after the Live WebTour server has retrieved the definition of the WebTour, the server needs to determine the web pages in the WebTour. The Live WebTour server finds the web pages in the WebTour by retrieving the defining document, then searching for links in the defining document. The server can extract WebTour sites from a defining document in a XML Syndication format, such as Netscape's Rich Site Syntax or Userland's Scripting News. XML Syndication formats contain lists of news stories. These news stories are links pointing to web pages on the Internet. The XML can also contain copyright, brief descriptions of the individual stories and other information. XML Syndication formats are normally used for distributing news stories to partners. The standard presentation is a list of links in a small rectangular area of a web page. XML Syndication formats are particularly useful as the files are updated regularly, as new stories are received. The Live WebTour server creates a WebTour 22 from each XML Syndication defining document by parsing the document for its links and extracting the links to form to tour. The stories on web pages become the sites in the WebTour and the XML Syndication story data is presented in popup note-style windows, when the tour is played. The tour is created and navigated dynamically.

The Live WebTour server can also extract WebTour sites from defining documents in the format of a standard HTML web page. Standard HTML web pages are typically contain links that are grouped together in related sections. For example, the front web page of a newspaper's web site may contain all the sports headlines in a small area of the web page. The Live WebTour server parses a page to determine whether the page referred to by a link is suitable to become a web page in the WebTour. It looks at the length of the text in the link, rejecting anything too small and too big, ignoring any tags that are present inside the link. The server can also restrict the range of the web page that it searches for links, by having start and stop locations specified. Start and stop locations are specified as pieces of text, such as "top stories" and "/table". The server searches until it finds the start text in the HTML source code of the web page. It then searches again until it finds the stop text after the start text. The HTML source code between the start text and the stop text is then searched for links, which are then extracted to define and refer to web pages in the WebTour. This can be particularly efficient as many HTML web pages will include a set of links in a single table cell, which starts with a heading that describes the category of links.

As shown in Figure 4, the Live WebTour server sends both a Live WebTour player 24 and the

Live WebTour 22 to the web browser 4, when a Live WebTour is selected using the browser.

The server first sends the Live player to the browser. This player is a single web page 26 that remains in the browser for the duration of the WebTour. The player then receives the selected WebTour from the server. The Live player is an HTML frameset. The frameset has two areas: a small top area, being a Navigation Area 28 and a larger lower area being a Page Area 30. The Navigation Area contains navigation controls, and this frame does not change while the user is playing the WebTour. Amongst other navigation controls, such as 'Back', it includes a 'Next' button that navigates to the next site in the WebTour. The Navigation Area also displays the copyright, branding, and other information. Data of pages can be displayed in popup windows, or inside the Navigation Area. The Page Area displays a WebTour page, just as the browser would normally display it if the user had gone directly to the page, rather than through playing a WebTour.

Alternatively, the Navigation Area 28 and Page Area 30 can be separate windows. These two windows are then automatically positioned on screen so that both can be viewed. The original window may be resized to the Page Area and a new window created to hold the Navigation Area positioned in the newly exposed area. The Navigation Area and Page Area may also be combined together in the one HTML web page. The Live WebTour server would then add the navigation controls at the start of each web page in the Live WebTour. This allows a tour to be played on a web browser that only supports a single window.

As shown in Figure 5, after the web browser has received the WebTour player and the Live WebTour from the Live WebTour server, it plays the WebTour. Initially, the web browser displays the player in the Navigation Area, and the first web page in the WebTour in the Page Area. When the user clicks on the 'Next' button in the Navigation Area, the player directs the browser to retrieve from the Internet 32 and display the next web page in the WebTour in the Page Area. The Navigation controls are also updated to show the current position in the WebTour.

Alternatively, the web browser may already contain a downloaded player, as described in the international specification, as an Internet Explorer "Explorer Bar". This is a DLL written in

C++ that can control the way the browser works. This player monitors the links followed by the web browser, and detects an attempt to play a WebTour from the Live WebTour server, based upon the text in the URL. When the player sees the web browser following a link to a Live WebTour server it stops the web browser from following this link. The player examines the link that it detected, determines based upon this link a new link to access the definition data for the Live WebTour, and makes a request to the Live WebTour server for the definition data. The server receives the new request from the player, determines the content of the WebTour as described above and then sends the data defining the WebTour to the player.

Many modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method for use in accessing network locations, including: receiving a request from an access device for a selected tour, said tour including a set of network location addresses; accessing at least one definition document referring to said addresses; extracting said addresses from said at least one definition document to form said tour; and transmitting said tour to said access device to allow the tour to be played on the access device.

2. As claimed in claim 1, wherein the definition document is a web page and a tour includes URLs of said page.

3. As claimed in claim 1 , including transmitting player components to said access device to enable the tour to be played.

4. As claimed in claim 3, wherein the player components comprise a mark up language frameset.

5. As claimed in claim 1, wherein said request includes definition data to identify said at least one definition document.

6. A server system having components for executing the steps of a method as claimed in any one of the proceeding claims.

7. Software stored on a server including code for executing the steps of a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5.

8. A server system having: an interface for receiving a request from an access device for a selected tour, said tour including a set of network location addresses; access means, responsive to said request, for accessing at least one definition document referring to said addresses and extracting said addresses to form said tour; and response means for transmitting said tour to said access device to allow the tour to be played on the access device.

9. A server as claimed in claim 8, including definition data representing a tour and which identifies said at least one definition document.

10. A server system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said request includes definition data representing said tour and which identifies said at least one definition document.

11. As claimed in claim 8, wherein said response means transmits player components to enable said tour to be played.

12. As claimed in claim 8, wherein said addresses are URLs.

13. A method for use in accessing network locations, including: transmitting a request from an access device for a selected tour, said tour including a set of network location addresses, said request causing at least one definition document referring to said addresses to be accessed and said addresses to be extracted to form said tour; and receiving said tour at said access device to allow the tour to be played on the access device.