System for generating a custom formatted hypertext document by using a personal profile to retrieve hierarchical documents

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a data retrieval system which automatically traverses hypermedia documents on a computer network and automatically retrieves information from those documents based on a match between the structure of the documents and a personalized data retrieval structure. More particularly, the invention can retrieve articles from a news service, from a magazine service, or from a combination of both services which are located on the World Wide Web, a private computer network that supports hypermedia links, or any other hypermedia-linked computer system.

For example, there exists a Web site for retrieving news articles from the New York Times and a Web site for retrieving articles from People magazine. The retrieval system of the invention can traverse through such Web sites and select articles based on a personalized data retrieval structure. The personalized data retrieval structure may include commands to retrieve a full text of the front page only, headlines of the business section, headlines of the stock section and sports section, etc. In addition, the personalized data retrieval structure may include content-based rules to retrieve articles with certain keywords, to exclude articles with certain keywords, or to include articles based on a rule-based content analysis. The invention also provides a method for synthesizing all retrieved news articles and printing the synthesized news articles into a newspaper-type format in which each of the articles is arranged based on a user's predefined layout.

While the above example is in the context of the Web, hypermedia documents can reside on other types of networks besides the Web, such as an intranet. An intranet is a private computer network that is not connected to outside computer networks. For example, a company's own computer network could be an intranet with hypermedia documents on it. For brevity, the following discussion is made with respect to the World Wide Web. However, it should be understood that the invention applies equally well to any type of computer network that contains hypermedia documents, such as an intranet, different hypermedia-linked computer networks that reside on the Internet other than the Web, etc.

A hypermedia document on the Web can span multiple Web sites. Such documents can be newspapers, news articles, magazines, catalogs, manuals, memoranda, and the like. For brevity, the following discussion is made with respect to sources of news information. However, it should be understood that the invention applies equally well to any other type of hypermedia document.

2. Description of the Related Art

The World Wide Web is an on-line source of hypermedia documents containing hypermedia text and images that act as links to other documents, Web sites, etc. As a result, documents on the Web are not organized sequentially. Rather, a user is automatically linked to other documents or Web sites to complete the viewing of a document by selecting a hypermedia link, such as a text link or an image link, within the document. Accordingly, an entire document cannot be viewed by scrolling through text.

One popular use of the Web is on-line publication and distribution of magazines and newspapers. Currently, many Web news services, such as the New York Times, allow the user to define keywords of interest and to receive news information, daily or hourly, that contains text matching the keywords. The news information can then be delivered to the user's computer via modem or E-mail. However, most Web news site newspapers, like the New York Times, include too much information, most of which has no interest to the user since the information is retrieved based only on a keyword match.

Other sources of news information are provided through information suppliers like "Individual Inc." Individual Inc. supplies users with a brief summary of the top twenty most relevant articles based on a user's predefined keywords. This subscription news service allows the user to specify five to ten areas of interest based on keywords, which are then prioritized by the user. The information service searches the Web for magazines and newspapers which contain any of the keywords. Based on the keyword searches, twenty of the most relevant articles are selected, compiled into a brief one-page summary, and transmitted to the user via facsimile for the user's review. However, in order to review an entire document rather than the summary, the user must log onto a specific Web site containing the document in order to retrieve and review the document.

There are yet other services which permit the user to personalize a newspaper to be displayed at the user's terminal by storing links to various news articles from various news sources on the Web. For example, CRAYON "Create Your Own Newspaper" permits a user to select specific sections from among links to over twenty-five different on-line newspapers, and to compose the selections into a personalized newspaper. Using CRAYON, it is possible to compose a personalized newspaper containing, for example, links to the international section of the New York Times, the business section of the Wall Street Journal, and the sports section of the Chicago Tribune. The HTML (hypertext markup language) source file for this newspaper is then stored to mass media storage for later use.

While the forgoing news and information services provide convenient ways to keep updated on the news, they do not allow a user to access and view the news in the way that people naturally read a real-world newspaper. Namely, people naturally read a newspaper by scanning the pages of sections that they find interesting and then reading those articles that grab their attention. In other words, people use a structural approach to decide what pages to look at initially (e.g., the first page of the Business and World sections, and the comics page of the Arts section). They then scan the selected pages for articles.

In sum, conventional news and information services do not allow a user to access data from a hypermedia document on the basis of the structure of the document, and then to format that data in a manner that allows the user to scan and read the data in a natural fashion.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention addresses the above deficiencies in the art by accessing at least one hypermedia document, retrieving data from the hypermedia document into an extracted data tree, with the data retrieved based on a structure of the hypermedia document, flattening the extracted data tree into a linear document, and formatting the linear document into a formatted document.

In another aspect, the invention creates a personal-news-profile for retrieving data from a hypermedia-linked computer network. The hypermedia-linked computer network is accessed, a learning mode is started, the hypermedia-linked computer network is traversed with commands, at least one rule is extracted from the commands, and the rule(s) is compiled into the personal-news-profile.

In yet another aspect, the invention creates a personalization profile for a Web site retrieval data retrieval system. Data and commands are input to access the World Wide Web and a connection is made to the World Wide Web. A Web reader is launched, and the Web reader accesses the Web via the connection. In response to user commands, a learning mode is entered into. Commands are sent to traverse the World Wide Web, and at least one rule is extracted from the commands. The rule(s) is compiled into a personalization profile, which is stored.

In yet another aspect, the invention retrieves articles from a hypermedia-linked computer network and formats the articles into a personalized newspaper. A stored personal-news-profile is retrieved. The personal-news-profile includes address data for a site on the hypermedia-linked computer network, command data for accessing data from the site, and newspaper layout commands. The site is accessed based on address data stored in the personal-news-profile, and articles at the site are downloaded based on command data stored in the personal-news-profile. The downloaded articles are flattened into a linear document, and the linear document is formatted into the personalized newspaper according to newspaper layout commands stored in the personal-news-profile.

In yet another aspect, the invention retrieves data from a World Wide Web site and formats the data into a personalized document. A Web site data retrieval driver which includes a Web reader, stored Web site address information, stored Web site commands, and stored format information is accessed. The invention (1) launches the Web reader to connect to the World Wide Web via a connection to the Web, (2) retrieves the Web site address information and Web site commands, (3) instructs the Web reader to access the Web site based on the Web site address information and Web site commands, (4) downloads Web site data from the Web site based on the Web site commands, wherein the data is downloaded with reference to a linked list so as to avoid hypermedia-links that form loops and so as to avoid repetitious downloading of data that has already been downloaded, (5) stores the Web site data in a linear document, (6) repeats steps 2 through 5 until all addresses in the stored Web site address information have been accessed, and (7) formats the linear document into the personalized document based on the format information.

In yet another aspect, the invention accesses and retrieves data at World Wide Web sites and formats the data into a personalized document. The invention connects to the World Wide Web, retrieves user defined Web site address information, user defined Web site commands, and user defined formatting commands, and activates a Web reader so as to access a Web site based on the user defined Web site address information. The Web reader is used to download data from the Web based on the user defined Web site commands, and the data is downloaded into an extracted data tree. The downloading continues until all addresses in the user defined Web site address information have been accessed. The extracted data tree is flattened into a linear document, and the flattened document is formatted into the personalized document based on the user defined formatting commands.

In yet another aspect, the invention retrieves news articles from on-line news services on the World Wide Web and formats the news articles into a personalized newspaper. The invention stores a personal-news-profile which comprises addresses data and command data for accessing data from a Web site and newspaper format commands, retrieves the stored personal-news-profile and accesses the data stored therein, activates a Web reader to contact a Web site based on address data stored in the personal-news-profile, downloads news articles at the contacted Web site based on command data stored in the personal-news-profile, stores the downloaded news articles, and formats the stored news articles into the personalized newspaper based on the newspaper format commands stored in the personal-news-profile.

In yet another aspect, the invention formats a hypermedia document into a personalized document. A location of the hypermedia document is specified, a type of the hypermedia document is specified, a scope of data to be retrieved from the hypermedia document is specified, wherein the scope is based on a structure of the hypermedia document, and a format is specified for formatting the data retrieved from the hypermedia document into the personalized document. The hypermedia document found at the specified location is accessed, data is retrieved from the hypermedia document in accordance with the specified hypermedia document type and in accordance with the specified scope, and the data is formatted into the personalized document in accordance with the specified format.

In yet another aspect, the invention is a system for processing a hypermedia document. The system accesses the hypermedia document, extracts addresses from the hypermedia document, and stores the addresses extracted from the hypermedia document in a container. The system activates a processing function to process data stored at the addresses stored in the container, downloads the data stored at the addresses stored in the container into a memory, and extracts predetermined data from downloaded data in accordance with predetermined configuration information. The predetermined data is then formatted in accordance with predefined formatting settings to generate a formatted document, and the formatted document is processed in accordance with the processing function.

In preferred embodiments, the system inputs the formatting settings and configuration information via a graphical user interface. The graphical user interface comprises plural processing icons, one of which activates the processing function. By virtue of the graphical user interface, a user can interactively set a document's format and change that format should a change be desired.

In particularly preferred embodiments, the graphical user interface is displayed in plural modes. The plural modes comprise (1) a fully-functional mode in which the graphical user interface displays formatting fields, processing options, menus and the processing icons, and (2) a minimizing mode in which the graphical user interface displays only the processing icons. Typically, the graphical user interface displayed in the minimizing mode is displayed during browsing the hypermedia document. By displaying the graphical user interface in plural modes, the present invention facilitates operation of the invention during browsing of the hypermedia document.

This summary has been provided so that the nature of the invention may be understood quickly. A more complete understanding of the invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof in connection with the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the outward appearance of the personal news retrieval system according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the personal news retrieval system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3, comprised of FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D, shows representational diagrams illustrating an example of the transformation of information from the Web (FIG. 3A) to an extracted data tree (FIG. 3B), then to a flattened document (FIG. 3C), and finally to a formatted document (FIG. 3D) according to the invention.

FIG. 4 is a representational block diagram of the manner by which a personal-news-profile for retrieving news articles via the Web is created or edited according to the invention.

FIG. 5, comprised of FIGS. 5A and 5B, shows flow diagrams describing how a personal-news-profile is created or edited.

FIG. 6 is a representational block diagram of the manner by which news articles are retrieved from the Web and formatted with reference to a personal-new-profile according to the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram describing how news articles are retrieved from the Web with reference to a personal-news-profile.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing how retrieved news articles are formatted with reference to a personal news profile and sent to a print device interface.

FIGS. 9A to 9E depict a graphical user interface used with the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram describing the operation of the second embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 is a view showing the outward appearance of a representative embodiment of the invention. Shown in FIG. 1 is computing equipment 1, such as a MacIntosh or an IBM PC or a PC-compatible computer, having a windowing environment, such as Microsoft Windows. Provided with computing equipment 1 is display screen 2, such as a color monitor or a monochromatic monitor, keyboard 3 for entering text data and user commands, and a pointing device such as mouse 4 for pointing and for manipulating objects displayed on display 2. Computing equipment 1 also includes a mass storage device such as disk drive 5. Image data can be input into computing equipment 1 from a variety of sources such as a network interface 11a or from external devices via facsimile/modem interface 6. Network interface 11a is used to connect computing equipment 1 to a local area network (LAN) or to a wide area network (WAN) such as the World Wide Web.

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram showing the internal construction of computing equipment 1. As shown in FIG. 2, computing equipment 1 includes central processing unit (CPU) 8 interfaced with computer bus 9. Also interfaced with computer bus 9 is printer interface 10, fax/modem interface 6, display interface 11, network interfa