JP2006114038A - Hyperlink browser with multilink select capability - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of generating and processing a multilinked operation in a hyperlinked browser of a computer system. <P>SOLUTION: The multilinked operation is an operation representing at least two links. A user is presented with a page in hyperlinked format with at least two links thereon and a browser (or server) records link selections of the user. More than one link (1) selection is recorded if the user selects a link (2) without unselecting all other previously selected link (1) selections. In response to the user selecting the recorded selections as a group, the multilinked operation is generated representing the recorded selections and processed to form a new hyperlinked format page. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

(Cross-reference of related applications)
This invention claims priority to US Provisional Application No. 60 / 120,974, filed February 19, 1999, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes. .

(Background of the Invention)
The present invention relates generally to user interface mechanisms, and more particularly to a browser for navigating through hyperlinked pages.

  A typical web browser presents a hypertext page to the user, requests the page referenced by the selected link from the server, displays the requested page from the server, and displays it to display it. Responds to a selection of user links from the selected page. To select one or more links, the user selects the first link, observes the resulting page, returns to the original hypertext page, selects the next link, and obtains the resulting page. It is necessary to observe. If the browser has multi-window capability, the user can open each resulting page in the window, but if the browser does not have multi-window capability, all groups of links to be selected Each time you select only one, you must move back and forth many times from that hypertext page.

  One way for page designers to allow multiple selections is to have a checkbox that the user can select before entering the selection into the server, as shown in FIG. However, for this multiple selection operation to be applicable, the designer needs to include the function for that particular hypertext page at the top.

(Summary of the Invention)
The above prior art problems are overcome by the present invention. In one embodiment, the present invention relates to a method for generating and processing multilinked operations in a hyperlinked browser of a computer system. A multilinked operation is an operation that represents at least two links. The user is presented with a page in a hyperlinked format having at least two links on the page. The browser (or server) then records the user's link selection. If the user selects a link selection without deselecting all other previously selected link selections, one or more link selections are recorded. In response to the user selecting the recorded selection as a group, a multilinked operation representing the recorded selection is generated and processed to form a new hyperlinked format page.

  In another embodiment, the invention relates to a method for generating and processing a multilinked query in a hyperlinked browser of a computer system. A multilinked query is a query that represents at least two drop links and at least one drop target. The user is presented with a hyperlinked page having at least two drop links on the hyperlinked page. The browser (or server) then records the user's link selection. If the user selects a link selection without deselecting all other previously selected link selections, one or more link selections are recorded. In response to the user dragging the recorded selection onto the drop target and dropping the recorded selection display onto the drop target, a multi-linked query representing the recorded selection and drop target is generated, Processed to form a new hyperlinked format page.

  For a further understanding of the nature and advantages of the invention herein, reference is made to the remaining portions of the specification and the accompanying drawings.

(Description of specific embodiments)
Using multiple selection functions according to one embodiment of the present invention, a browser user can select multiple links at once on a hyperlinked page and take action to cover all of the selected links Can do.

  FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional approach that provides a user with the ability to select multiple links. This shown page provides the user with an opportunity to search a list of cars that meet the criteria defined in three different categories. As shown here, the user performs selection by checking a check box adjacent to the selection label. In this example, the manufacturer is “BMW” or “Mercedes”, the color is “red” or “black”, and the price is “15,000 to 25,000” or “25,000 or more” Searching for a list of cars. Using a check box has the disadvantage that when designing a page, the page designer must implement the check box. Furthermore, in any method that matches multiple pages, expanding performance requires the designer to implement a checkbox for every page.

  FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative example of a checkbox approach according to one embodiment of the present invention. This page provides the user with the ability to perform several types of searches of a list of cars that meet certain criteria as shown in FIG. In this case, a number of links were provided on the hyperlink page and the user selected four links. The order in which the links were selected is shown in the figure. However, typical displays do not explicitly include numbers as in this figure. Thus, the user selects “BMW”, “Mergedes”, “Red”, and “25,000 or more” in this order. These four selections are then activated by the browser when the user “clicks” on the selection (s). Note that “selecting” and “clicking” a link are different actions. Selecting a link records that link in the internal list of the selected link, and clicking on the selection causes an action. In some implementations, clicking on a link makes that link the final selected link. There are various ways in which multiple selections can be recorded. Prior to each multiple selection (as shown in FIG. 2), the user may be required to hold down the CTRL key, or alternatively a key to turn on or off multiple selection functions may be used. The recorded links can be highlighted to the user, for example by displaying them in different colors. Other methods of recording and highlighting multiple selections will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

  When the selection shown in FIG. 2 is entered into a server that maintains a database of available cars, the response from the server can be the page shown in the screenshot of FIG. In some implementations, the order of selection is described and used to order the results. For example, for a user who has selected “BMW” before “Mergedes”, a record of “BMW” is presented before a record of “Mercedes”. Where the order of selection is considered, that order can be used to display the user's relative preference selection. In other implementations, the order of presentation has nothing to do with the order of selection.

  The multiple selection functions of the present invention can also be easily applied to the page shown in FIG. For example, the user may attempt to extract further information about the second car and the third car. By selecting both of these, you can get a page that gives a more detailed explanation of these two selections. It would be more difficult for the designer to provide a checkbox on the page generated “on the fly” as in this case. Implementing such a checkbox on a static page, rather than a page dynamically generated in response to information collected by the browser, is easier for the designer.

  4-7 will now be described with reference to multiple selection functions in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. Using this approach, the browser user can associate multiple links with a single element of operation. By letting the user select two or more links together and drag them all into a single element of the operation, the server can consolidate the various queries and produce a combined result presented in one window. it can. Query consolidation saves a lot of resources. The reason is that it generates the desired complex request, reduces the time required for multiple separately generated queries, and provides the user with one simple way to integrate them together. Since multiple queries are combined into a single query, server effort is also reduced. Furthermore, the assignee of this application, TopTier Software, Inc. Developed by and described in part of US Pat. No. 5,848,424 (issued to the assignee of the present application on Dec. 8, 1998 and incorporated herein for all purposes). When used with a template mechanism, the template can be processed in less time, and if an HTTP web server is used, less effort is required by the HTTP web server.

With multiple link selections, the user's navigation options increase significantly, especially when the link selection order is taken into account. For example, assume that a page has L links. If this page is a normal HTML web page that is observed in a normal browser, the user has only L navigation options. If this page is viewed in a browser using the template mechanism and the element toolbar has C elements on it, the user can change any one of the L links to any one of the C elements. Can be dragged to one, so the user has L × C navigation options. However, with the multilink selection feature described herein, the user can drag any combination of links onto any element. The number of navigation options in this case is (2 ^L −1) × C. When the order of selection is taken into account, Σ _{k = 1} L! / (LK)! There are × C navigation options. For illustration purposes, if the page has 15 links with a toolbar with 8 elements, a regular HTML web page will provide 15 navigation options, which is 120 choices using the template mechanism. The multilink selection function increases this to 262,136 choices, and the ordered multilink selection function increases the number of choices to 2.844 × 10 ¹³ .

  With multiple link selections, users of hyperlinked purchasing systems can select two or more links associated with a selected customer and obtain a list of invoices for all selected customers. This selected link can be dragged to the invoice element. Another option is to click on the selected links (without dragging them) and get all the selected customers (and only the selected customers) on the same result page. With multiple link selections, do a "select within result" query by selecting a link that shows the results of the previous query and another link that shows the new restrictions to be applied in succession It is also possible. Examples of these types of selection are described below with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 4 is a screenshot of a list of database records, which shows an HTML page with a side toolbar generated by a server (eg, the server shown in US Pat. No. 5,848,424). As described in the above patent, the drag and drop browser determines a result (in this case a query) based on the dragged element and the drop target. Thus, if the user selects elements 20 and 22 from the screen shown in FIG. 4 and drops multiple selected elements of the “authors” element in the left element bar, the browser will combine these elements. Process. As shown, the user drags the last selected element, followed by other selected elements.

  For example, in FIG. 4, the element 20 is a link to the value “IN” of the state column, and the element 22 is a link to the value “MD” of the state column. When these elements are dragged to the authors element and dropped, the browser (or server) translates its behavior from a state that matches "IN" or "MD" to a query that requires a list of authors. FIG. 5 shows the resulting page resulting from a query that lists database records that meet certain criteria. It should be noted that in an iterative search for the desired data, another query can be started from the page shown in FIG.

  6-7 illustrate the process of selecting which of the selected links are descriptions of previously generated queries. Assume that the user is observing the display shown in FIG. This display is a display of records that match the query “contact = 1”. If the user selects a hyperlink that points to the query term and other elements 30 (city field with the value “Oakland”) and drops the selection into the author element, the result is that Contact = 1 and City = This is a list of authors with Oakland. An example of such a result is shown in FIG. Again, in an iterative search, another query can be started from the page shown in FIG.

  Web page designers can use the above features to extend a web page in various ways. In some pages, the response to a selection of multiple links is to treat each link as a separate selection. On the other hand, on other pages, multiple links are processed as parsable strings, either as a list or an ordered list. The operator applied to these multiple links can be any operator available to the web page designer. When a drag-and-drop browser is used, the method that governs the decision to do (the basic operator) receives a list of selected links as they are entered, in the order selected.

  The above description is illustrative and not limiting. Many modifications of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description, but instead should be determined with reference to the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.

FIG. 1 is a screen shot of multiple selection pages in a prior art browser. FIG. 2 is a screen shot of a multiple selection page according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a screen shot of the page returned by the hyperlink server in response to the page input shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a screen shot of a page listing records from a database, illustrating a selection of multiple drag elements from the page. FIG. 5 is a screen shot of a page showing the results returned by the hyperlink server in response to the page input shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a screen shot of a page listing records from a database, illustrating a selection of multiple drag elements from a page containing a header item and a record item. FIG. 7 is a screen shot of a page showing the results returned by the hyperlink server in response to the page input shown in FIG.

Claims (1)

A method for generating and processing a multi-linked query using a browser computer system including a hyperlinked browser and a web page computer system including a web page and searchable text comprising:
The web page includes at least one drop link and at least one drop target, each of the at least one drop link and the at least one drop target includes query text, and the multilinked query includes: Searching the searchable text for the query text, wherein the hyperlinked browser is used by the browser computer system to access the web page;
The method
Allowing the web page computer system to be accessed by the hyperlinked browser by presenting the web page in a hyperlinked format;
The browser computer system using the hyperlinked browser to select respective query text for the at least two drop links and the at least one drop target;
The web page computer system storing the selected query text for each of the at least two drop links;
In response to selection of the query text for each of the at least two drop links and the at least one drop target, the web page computer system includes the at least two drop links and the at least one drop target. Generating a multilinked query based on each said query text;
The web page computer system searches the searchable text using the stored query text of each of the at least two drop links and the at least one drop target, thereby providing the drop link and the drop target. Finding at least a portion of the searchable text identical to at least one of the query texts;
Said web page computer system generating and displaying a new hyperlinked format web page to be viewed using said hyperlinked browser, said new hyperlinked format web page being Including a result of searching the searchable text using the stored query text of each of the at least two drop links and the at least one drop target.

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