GB2326746A

GB2326746A - Displaying a subset of a list of titles

Info

Publication number: GB2326746A
Application number: GB9713625A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Martin James Ronan Healey
Original assignee: International Business Machines Corp
Current assignee: International Business Machines Corp
Priority date: 1997-06-28
Filing date: 1997-06-28
Publication date: 1998-12-30
Also published as: GB9713625D0; KR19990006459A

Description

APPARATUS, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR DISPLAYING A LIST OF TITLES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB Field of the Invention This invention relates to data processing and more specifically to presenting data on one or more computers connected via a computer network such as the Internet.

Background of the Invention In the past few years there has been an explosive growth in the use of the globally-linked network of computers known as the Internet, and in particular of the Worldwide Web (wWW), which is one of the facilities provided on top of the Internet. The WwW comprises many pages or files of information, distributed across many different server computer systems. Information stored on such pages can be, for example, details of a company's organization, contact data, product data and company news.

This information can be presented to the user's computer system ("client computer system") using a combination of text, graphics, audio data and video data. Each page is identified by a Universal Resource Locator (URL) . The URL denotes both the server machine, and the particular file or page on that machine. There may be many pages or URLs resident on a single server.

In order to use the WWw, a client computer system runs a piece of software known as a graphical web browser, such as WebExplorer (provided as part of the ops/2 operating system from IBM Corporation), or the Navigator program available from Netscape Communications Corporation.

WebExplorer", "OS/2" and "ISM" are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation, while "Navigator" and nNetscape are trademarks of the Netscape Communications Corporation. The client computer system interacts with the browser to select a particular URL, which in turn causes the browser to send a request for that URL or page to the server identified in the URL. Typically the server responds to the request by retrieving the requested page, and transmitting the data for that page back to the requesting client computer system (the client/server interaction is performed in accordance with the hypertext transport protocol ("HTTP")). This page is then displayed to the user on the client screen. The client may also cause the server to launch an application, for example to search for www pages relating to particular topics.

Most WWW pages are formatted in accordance with a computer program written in a language known as HTML (hypertext mark-up language). This program contains the data to be displayed via the client's graphical browser as well as formatting commands which tell the browser how to display the data. Thus a typical Web page includes text together with embedded formatting commands, referred to as tags, which can be used to control the font size, the font style (for example, whether italic or bold), how to lay-out the text, and so on. A Web browser "parses" the HTML script in order to display the text in accordance with the specified format. HTML tags are also used to indicate how graphics, audio and video are manifested to the user via the client's browser.

Most Web pages also contain one or more references to other Web pages, which need not be on the same server as the original page. Such references may generally be activated by the user selecting particular locations on the screen, typically by (double) clicking a mouse control button. These references or locations are known as hyperlinks, and are typically flagged by the browser in a particular manner (for example, any text associated with a hyperlink may be in a different colour). If a user selects the hyperlink, then the referenced page is retrieved and replaces the currently displayed page.

Further information about HTML and the wwW can be found in "World Wide Web and HTML" by Douglas McArthur, pl8-26 in Dr Dobbs Journal, December 1994, and in "The HTML SourceBook" by Ian Graham, (John Wiley, New York, 1995).

Oftentimes, a list of titles of related records, such as news items, is presented in a web site, so that clients can select to view the entire contents (text) of a particular record by clicking on the hypertext link associated with the title of the new item. For example, a company may want to make a list of its press releases available to the public via the web. The company would prepare a web site containing a list of titles of the press releases, each title in the list being a hypertext link to the entire text of the corresponding press release.

When a user clicks on one title in the list, the entire text of the corresponding press release is displayed on the user's computer screen.

The user can then go back to the title list and choose another title, click on it, and the text of this other title will then be displayed.

While this has been a very useful way to make a group of related records available to the public, it has some severe drawbacks. For example, usually the list will be organized chronologically so that the most recent press releases (irrespective of its contents) are listed at the top of the list. If a user wishes to quickly determine which members of the list deal with a particular topic, he must scroll down through the entire list examining each of the titles. This is very time consuming.

Also, oftentimes the title alone will not provide enough information for the user to decide whether the item is related to the particular topic, and it will thus be necessary for the user to read the full text of each article.

Alternatively, the web site could provide some type of a search engine that allows the user to type in a word (or a few words) describing the particular topic and the search engine (which is located at the server end) would go through all of the entries on the list and separate out the titles which are involved with the particular topic.

This latter search engine technique is disadvantageous for many reasons. Firstly, the user must be able to correctly spell the words he is entering into the search engine and this is particularly a problem when names of people, places or companies are being used in the search.

If the user does not spell the search terms correctly, the titles will not be found by the search engine.

Secondly, each time a user wishes to use the search engine, the server computer hosting the web site must dynamically do some work to form the subset list of titles that correspond to the search term. This can be a burden on the server machine, especially if many clients are trying to access the same server. It is also a burden on the various clients as they have to wait for the server to do the dynamic work associated with creating the subset list of titles. As a client's "online" time can be very expensive, this can be a major problem which might dissuade clients from accessing a web site which does not respond very quickly.

Summarv of the Invention According to a first aspect, the present invention provides in a server computer, an apparatus for providing a subset list of a complete list of items for display on a client computer, the apparatus has a means for receiving a client request for a particular subset list including an identifier of the particular subset list which the client is requesting; a means for using the identifier to access a stored subset list corresponding to the particular subset list requested by the client request; and a means for sending the stored subset list to the client.

Preferably, the identifier of the particular subset list which the client is requesting is provided by the client as a Uniform Resource Locator name. Further preferably, the stored subset list is an HTML file associated with the Uniform Resource Locator name. Preferably, the stored subset list is created independently of receiving a client request. Preferably, the apparatus further includes: a means for collecting a plurality of the identifiers into a stored index list which the client can request using an index identifier; a means for using the index identifier to access the stored index list in response to receipt of a client request which contains the index identifer; and a means for sending the index list to the client. Further preferably, the index identifier is provided by the client as a Uniform Resource Locator name.

Further preferably, the stored index list is an HTML file associated with the Uniform Resource Locator name. Further preferably, the stored index list is created independently of receiving a client request.

According to a second aspect, the invention provides in a client computer having a display output device and a pointing input device, an apparatus for requesting from a server computer a subset list of a complete list of items, the apparatus having: a means for displaying on the display the complete list of items, with each item in the list including a title of the item and at least one keyword associated with that item; and a means for, in response to a user of the client computer pointing the pointing input device on a keyword in the complete list, forming an identifier of a particular subset list for transmission to the server computer as a request for the particular subset list.

Preferably, the keyword which is pointed to by the pointing input device is a hypertext link and the identifier is a Uniform Resource Locator associated with the hypertext link, the Uniform Resource Locator identifying an HTML file stored within the server computer.

According to a third aspect, the invention provides a data format stored on a computer readable medium, the data format including a main list of items with each item in the main list including a title of the item and at least one keyword associated with the item, the keyword being a hypertext link associated with a Uniform Resource Locator identifying an HTML file stored within a server computer device the HTML file storing a subset list of the main list of items.

According to a fourth aspect, the invention provides a computer program product stored on a computer readable storage medium for, when run on a server computer, providing a subset list of a complete list of items for display on a client computer, the computer program product having computer program code portions to perform the functions of the means recited above in the first aspect of the invention.

According to a fifth aspect, the invention provides a computer program product stored on a computer readable storage medium for running on a client computer having a display output device and a pointing input device, the program product provided for requesting from a server computer a subset list of a complete list of items, the computer program product having computer program code portions to perform the functions of the means recited above in the second aspect of the invention.

According to a sixth aspect, the invention provides in a server computer, a method for providing a subset list of a complete list of items for display on a client computer, the method having steps corresponding to the means described above in the first aspect of the invention.

According to a seventh aspect, the invention provides in a client computer having a display output device and a pointing input device, a method for requesting from a server computer a subset list of a complete list of items, the method having steps corresponding to the means described above in the second aspect of the invention.

By providing the capability to retrieve stored subset lists of items in response to a client's request, the subset lists are provided very quickly to the client from the server. The client user does not need to know how to spell a keyword, as he only need click on the keyword's appearance in a displayed list. Also, from the server's perspective, the server is saved from having to do the work of assembling the subset list each time a client requests the subset list. Instead, the server assembles the subset list once and stores it; then, the server sends it out to a client in response to a client request.

Brief Description of the Drawings The invention will be better understood by the below description of a preferred embodiment thereof with reference to the following drawings: Figure 1 shows a computer-displayed table of chronologically listed titles of news articles along with respective keywords, exemplifying the preferred embodiment of the present invention; Figures 2 and 3 show subset lists of news articles which are subsets of the complete list shown in Fig. 1 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 shows an index list of hyperlinked keywords according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 5 is a flowchart showing the steps involved in creating the subset lists of Figs. 2 and 3 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed DescriDtion of the Preferred Embodiment In Fig. 1, a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a table, as shown, displayed via a client's web browser on the client's computer screen. In this example, the table lists the titles of a plurality of news reports which could be provided by a news provider via a page on the Internet's World Wide Web. The table has three columns: the first 11 listing the date of the news report, the second 12 listing the title of the newsreport and the third 13 listing the "related topics or keywords contained in the newsreport (while the term "keywords" is used herein, this term is also intended to refer to a keyphrase or group of words taken together, such as "Joint Chiefs of Staff").

As shown for the first listing 14, the date of the report is June 5, 1997 and the news report title is "Shalikashvili supports Ralston despite affair". This news report discusses the fact that the top military advisor (Mr. Shalikashvili) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States military still supports Mr. Ralston as his successor despite the fact that Mr. Ralston has had an extra-marital affair. The keywords listed in column 13 are "Shalikashvili", "Joint Chiefs of Staff", "William Cohen" and 'affair". The keywords "Shalikashvili" and "William Cohen" are hyperlinks and are therefore shown in the column 13 with underlines to distinguish them from the other keywords "Joint Chief of Staff" and "affair" which are not hyperlinks. It should be noted tha hyperlinks would more commonly be indicated by displaying the hyperlinkec words in blue colour and the non-hyperlinked words in black colour, but underlines are used here because of the black and white nature of the patent drawings.

When the author of the web page places a new listing 14 onto the table, he chooses a list of keywords to be placed in column 13. He also chooses some of the keywords to be hyperlinks and others to be not hyperlinked. The keywords to be hyperlinked are, for example, keywords which the web page author expects to appear (or knows that they already appear) in a plurality of other entries in the table.

Once a client has displayed the table of column 1 on the client computer screen via the web browser, the client user can click on the title "Shalikashvili Supports Ralston Despite Affair" in column 12 for entry 14 to trigger the display of the full text of the news article dated June 5, 1997. Also, the client can click on the hyperlinked keyword "Shalikashvili" in column 13 for entry 14 which will trigger the display of a smaller table (see Fig. 2) containing a subset list of newsitem entries (a subset of the complete list shown in Fig. 1) which also contain the keyword "Shalikashvili" in column 13 of its respective entry in the table.

That is, the user can simply click on the keyword "Shalikashvili" when he views it in column 13 of the table and he is then presented with a sublist of newsitems related to this term. Importantly, the user does not have to know how to correctly spell a difficult name such as "Shalikashvili". The user would have had to know how to correctly spell this name if the web site used a search engine as is common in the prior art.

As shown in Fig. 2, there are two news articles related to Mr.

Shalikashvili, and these two are displayed in the subset table. The user can then click on either one of the entries (14 and 16) to read the full text of the respective news article.

Returning to Fig. 1, the user could also have clicked on the hyperlinked keyword "Beatles" in column 13 of entry 15. The user would do this if he would like to see a separate list of all news articles related to the musical group, The Beatles. Upon clicking on this hyperlink, the table of Fig. 3 would be displayed. As shown in Fig. 3, there are two news articles related to The Beatles. The user can then click on either one of the entries (15 and 17) to read the full text of the respective news article.

These subset tables of Figs. 2 and 3 are prepared "off-line" by the web page author. That is, the subset tables are prepared before the client requests that a subset table be displayed. To form the subset table of Fig. 3, for example, the web page author looks at the Fig. 1 full table and for each occurrence of the hyperlinked word "Beatles" in column 13, the respective entries 15 and 17 are copied into a smaller table (Fig. 3). This subset table of Fig. 3 is prepared as a separate HTML file and given a different URL from that of the table of Fig. 1, so that when the client clicks on the hypertext link "Beatles" in column 13 of Fig. 1 the URL of the subset table of Fig. 3 is called up.

This copying discussed above could be either a manual operation done by a person or an automatic (programmed) operation carried out by a computer. If it is done automatically, a further improvement involves writing the program so that keywords are chosen for hyperlinks only if they appear in more than one news article. This avoids having subset lists created with only one news article contained therein.

An index list of all hyperlinked keywords is also created "off line" and given its own URL. Thus, a client can click on a hypertext link 18 near the top of Fig. 1 to access a complete list of all keywords, in alphabetical order, for which there is a separate subset table prepared. As shown in Fig. 4, the index table provides a list 44 of each of the keywords ("Shalikashvili" and "Beatles", for example) that has its own subset list (Figs. 2 and 3, respectively). By clicking on the hypertext link "Beatles" in list 44, the subset list of Fig. 3 would then be displayed. By clicking on the hypertext link "Shalikashvili" in list 44, the subset list of Fig. 2 would be displayed. Each letter of the alphabet is listed (42) near the top of the index, with each letter being a separate hypertext link, so that the alphabetical listing of keywords can be easily manipulated. For example, by clicking on the hypertext link "B" at 42 the client's computer pointer (cursor) would move to the keyword "Beatles" in list 44. In Fig. 4, the client can also click on a hypertext link 41 to return to the complete list of news articles of Fig.

1. This latter hypertext link 41 could also be provided on each of the subset lists of Figs. 2 and 3.

The steps involved in creating the subset lists (of Figs. 2 and 3) from the complete list (of Fig. 1) will now be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 5.

At step 501, for each news article title entry (14-17) in the complete list (of Fig. 1) scan each keyword in the keyword column 13. At step 502, for each keyword in the keyword column 13, determine whether this keyword appears in column 13 for any other news article title entry on the complete list. If it does not, then the keyword only appears once, so there is no need to make a subset list and control flows to the end of the flowchart. On the other hand, if this keyword does appear in the keyword column 13 for at least one other news article title entry, control flows to step 503. At step 503, the news article title entry is added to an HTML file set up for storing a sublist of news article title entries for this keyword. Then, at step 504, in the complete list and in the subset list, replace the keyword in keyword column 13 with a URL hyperlink pointing to the HTML file mentioned above with respect to step 503. In this way, subset lists are created, for each keyword which appears more than once in column 13 of the complete list.

The index table (Fig. 4) can also be created by forming (step 505) another HTML file containing an alphabetical listing of each of the URL hyperlinks pointing to the HTML subset list files from step 504.

As the subset table of Figs. 2 and 3 are static (prepared beforehand and independently of receiving a client request) the client does not have to wait after clicking the hyperlink for the server to assemble the subset table. A wait would be required in the prior art if the client entered a search term via a search engine, as in that case, the table would have to be dynamically created "on the fly" by the server running the search engine. The statically created subset table also greatly reduces the server workload, as it is not necessary for the server to do the work associated with assembling the subset table each time a client requests the subset table. The subset table is already created and need only be sent out to the requesting client.

By displaying in the "Related Topics" column 13 keywords that are hyperlinked as well as those that are not hyperlinked, the "Related Topics" column can be made to serve two purposes. First, it informs the client of which keywords are hyperlinked (using, for example, blue lettering instead of the normal black, or using underlining or boldface type) to a subset list. Second, it gives the client some idea of what the major topics of the article are, and these topics do not necessarily have to be hyperlinked to a subset list, thus providing a larger group of possible keywords for use in this column to serve this latter function of listing major topics associated with each article.

Further, the keywords listed in the "Related topics" column 13 of Fig. 1 can be easily modified, thus permitting updating of which keywords are associated with which news articles. For example, if one news article originally had one set of keywords but, at a later time, the web page author decided that a few new keywords should now be added, it is a simple matter to add more keywords in column 13 of the screen of Fig. 1.

Alternatively, if originally selected keywords are no longer considered important, they can be deleted from column 13. If the programmed method of creating subset lists is used (as discussed above) new subset lists would then be automatically created upon a change in the complete list of Fig. 1.

The invention thus provides ready access to related, grouped topics using a simple, recognizable and easy-to-navigate user interface.

Claims

1. In a server computer, an apparatus for providing a subset list of a complete list of items for display on a client computer, said apparatus comprising: means for receiving a client request for a particular subset list including an identifier of the particular subset list which the client is requesting; means for using the identifier to access a stored subset list corresponding to the particular subset list requested by the client request; and means for sending the stored subset list to the client.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the identifier of the particular subset list which the client is requesting is provided by the client as a Uniform Resource Locator name.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the stored subset list is an HTML file associated with said Uniform Resource Locator name.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said stored subset list is created independently of receiving a client request.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further including: means for collecting a plurality of said identifiers into a stored index list which the client can request using an index identifier; and means for using the index identifier to access the stored index list in response to receipt of a client request which contains the index identifer; and means for sending the index list to the client.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the index identifier is provided by the client as a Uniform Resource Locator name.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the stored index list is an HTML file associated with said Uniform Resource Locator name.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said stored index list is created independently of receiving a client request.

9. In a client computer having a display output device and a pointing input device, an apparatus for requesting from a server computer a subset list of a complete list of items, said apparatus comprising: means for displaying on said display the complete list of items, with each item in the list including a title of the item and at least one keyword associated with that item; and means for, in response to a user of said client computer pointing said pointing input device on a keyword in said complete list, forming an identifier of a particular subset list for transmission to said server computer as a request for the particular subset list.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said keyword which is pointed to by said pointing input device is a hypertext link and said identifier is a Uniform Resource Locator associated with the hypertext link, said Uniform Resource Locator identifying an HTML file stored within said server computer.

11. A data format stored on a computer readable medium, said data format including a main list of items with each item in said main list including a title of the item and at least one keyword associated with the item, the keyword being a hypertext link associated with a Uniform Resource Locator identifying an HTML file stored within a server computer device said HTML file storing a subset list of said main list of items.

12. A computer program product stored on a computer readable storage medium for, when run on a server computer, providing a subset list of a complete list of items for display on a client computer, said computer program product comprising computer program code portions to perform the following functions: receiving a client request for a particular subset list including an identifier of the particular subset list which the client is requesting; using the identifier to access a stored subset list corresponding to the particular subset list requested by the client request; and sending the stored subset list to the client.

13. A computer program product stored on a computer readable storage medium for running on a client computer having a display output device and a pointing input device, the program product provided for requesting from a server computer a subset list of a complete list of items, said computer program product comprising computer program code portions to perform the following functions: displaying on said display the complete list of items, with each item in the list including a title of the item and at least one keyword associated with that item; and in response to a user of said client computer pointing said pointing input device on a keyword in said complete list, forming an identifier of a particular subset list for transmission to said server computer as a request for the particular subset list.

14. In a server computer, a method for providing a subset list of a complete list of items for display on a client computer, said method comprising steps of: receiving a client request for a particular subset list including an identifier of the particular subset list which the client is requesting; using the identifier to access a stored subset list corresponding to the particular subset list requested by the client request; and sending the stored subset list to the client.

15. In a client computer having a display output device and a pointing input device, a method for requesting from a server computer a subset list of a complete list of items, said method comprising steps of: displaying on said display the complete list of items, with each item in the list including a title of the item and at least one keyword associated with that item; and in response to a user of said client computer pointing said pointing input device on a keyword in said complete list, forming an identifier of a particular subset list for transmission to said server computer as a request for the particular subset list.