A network publishing authorization protocol, for use in a network connected to a printer, a server and a publisher of network publications. The protocol authorizes the printing of a publication at the printer. It includes the steps of: addressing the publication to a user; signing the publication using a private key; sending the publication to the printer; and confirming that the publication may be printed at the printer, by verifying the private key signature. Confirmation may take place at the printer or at the server.

Systems and methods for translating document files to a common input format can then parse the elements of such documents into an object oriented document model with linking tags associated with each of the objects, element properties and element property values. The system and method also provide a capability to efficiently compare, reconcile, store, distribute and edit such object oriented components, elements, properties and/or values. Archived documents or graphical items can be recompiled and output in a predetermined, standard format.

A method and apparatus for web caching is disclosed. The method and apparatus may be implemented in hardware, software or firmware. Complementary cache management modules, a coherency module and a cache module(s) are installed complementary gateways for data and for clients respectively. The coherency management module monitors data access requests and or response and determines for each: the uniform resource locator (URL) of the requested web page, the URL of the requestor and a signature. The signature is computed using cryptographic techniques and in particular a hash function for which the input is the corresponding web page for which a signature is to be generated. The coherency management module caches these signatures and the corresponding URL and uses the signatures to determine when a page has been updated. When, on the basis of signature comparisons it is determined that a page has been updated the coherency management module sends a notification to all complementary cache modules. Each cache module caches web pages requested by the associated client(s) to which it is coupled. The notification from the cache management module results in the cache module(s) which are the recipient of a given notice updating their tag table with a stale bit for the associated web page. The cache module(s) use this information in the associated tag tables to determine which pages they need to update. The cache modules initiate this update during intervals of reduced activity in the servers, gateways, routers, or switches of which they are a part. All clients requesting data through the system of which each cache module is a part are provided by the associated cache module with cached copies of requested web pages.

A system and method for creating customized publications. Publication content is selected based on rules that associate particular content with customer profiles of individual recipients. In an exemplary embodiment, the customized publication is a product catalogue, the particular content is product information, and the recipients are customers. A rules engine associates the customer profile with a set of products comprising an offering. The rules engine determines which customers are to receive a custom customized catalogue, the size of the customized catalogue a customer is to receive, and the content of the customized catalogue for each recipient.

Techniques for grouping hyperlinked documents are provided. Links near or in the neighborhood of the hyperlinked documents are analyzed in order to group the hyperlinked documents by topic. For example, links that are search results can be grouped by identifying other hyperlinked documents that have multiple forward links to the search results. The search results can then be grouped according to the forward links of the other hyperlinked documents.