Technology for web site crawling, including action sequences for selecting non-hypertext-link parameters

Abstract

A web site page has a reference for providing an address for a next page. The web site is crawled by the crawler program, which parses the reference from one of the web pages and sends the reference to an applet running in the browser. The address for the next page is determined by the browser responsive to the reference and is sent to the crawler.

1 . A method for crawling a web site, the method comprising:
 querying a web site server by a crawler program, wherein at least one page of the web site has a reference, wherein the reference is specified by a script to produce an address for a next page;   parsing such a reference from one of the web pages by the crawler program and sending the reference to an applet running in a browser; and   determining the address for the next page by the browser executing the reference and sending the address to the crawler, wherein the crawler is programmable to perform particular action sequences for selecting non-hypertext-link parameters from the at least one web page in a particular sequence, so that the queries to the web server include the selected parameters and a context arising from the particular sequence.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , the browser being configured to use a certain proxy and refer to a resolver file for hostname-to-IP-address-resolution, wherein the web site server has an IP address and the proxy for the browser has a certain IP address, the certain IP address of the proxy being different than the IP address of the web site server, and wherein the resolver file indicates the certain IP address of the proxy as the IP address for the web site server. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising:
 adding an onload attribute to one of the web pages by the proxy;   defining an event handler for the onload attribute by the proxy, wherein the event handler sets a certain variable; and   polling the certain variable by the applet to determine when the page is loaded.   
     
     
         4 . (canceled) 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , at least one of the web pages being dynamically generated by the server responsive to corresponding ones of the queries, comprising:
 processing the server generated web pages to generate corresponding processed versions of the web pages, so that the processed versions can be served in response to future queries, reducing dynamic generation of web pages by the server.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein at least a first such server generated web page has included in it an operation that would cause the server to dynamically generate a second web page if the first page were used to generate further requests to the server, and wherein processing the server generated web pages comprises:
 removing the operation from the first server generated web page and replacing the operation with a reference to a version of another of the server generated web pages.   
     
     
         7 . (canceled) 
     
     
         8 . (canceled) 
     
     
         9 . A computer program product for crawling a web site, wherein the computer program product resides on a computer readable, recordable-type medium having computer readable program code, the program code comprising:
 first instructions for querying a web site server by a crawler program, wherein at least one page of the web site has a reference, wherein the reference is specified by a script for producing an address for a next page;   second instructions for parsing such a reference from one of the web pages by the crawler program and sending the reference to an applet running in a browser; and   third instructions for determining the address for the next page by the browser executing the reference and sending the address to the crawler, wherein the first instructions comprise instructions for causing the crawler to perform particular action sequences for selecting non-hypertext-link parameters from the at least one web page in a particular sequence, so that the queries to the web server include the selected parameters and a context arising from the particular sequence.   
     
     
         10 . The computer program product of  claim 9 , the browser being configured to use a certain proxy, and refer to a resolver file for hostname-to-IP-address-resolution, wherein the web site server has an IP address and the proxy for the browser has a certain IP address, certain IP address of the proxy being different than the IP address of the web site server, and wherein the resolver file indicates the certain IP address of the proxy as the IP address for the web site server. 
     
     
         11 . The computer program product of  claim 10 , comprising:
 fourth instructions for adding an onload attribute to one of the web pages by the proxy;   fifth instructions for defining an event handler for the onload attribute by the proxy, wherein the event handler sets a certain variable; and   sixth instructions for polling the certain variable by the applet to determine when the page is loaded.   
     
     
         12 . (canceled) 
     
     
         13 . The computer program product of  claim 9 , at least one of the web pages being dynamically generated by the server responsive to corresponding ones of the queries, the computer program product comprising:
 instructions for processing the server generated web pages to generate corresponding processed versions of the web pages, so that the processed versions can be served in response to future queries, reducing dynamic generation of web pages by the server.   
     
     
         14 . The computer program product of  claim 13 , wherein at least a first such server generated web page has included in it an operation that would cause the server to dynamically generate a second web page if the first page were used to generate further requests to the server, and wherein the instructions for processing the server generated web pages to generate corresponding processed versions of the web pages comprise:
 instructions for removing the operation from the first server generated web page and replacing the operation with a reference to a version of another of the server generated web pages.   
     
     
         15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . (canceled) 
     
     
         17 . An apparatus for crawling a web site, the apparatus comprising:
 a processor connected a network,   a storage device connected to the processor and the network, wherein the storage device is for storing a program for controlling the processor, and wherein the processor is operative with the program to execute a crawler program and a browser program for:   querying a web site server by the crawler, wherein at least one page of the web site has a reference, wherein the reference is specified by a script for producing an address for a next page;   parsing such a reference from one of the web pages and sending the reference to an applet running in a browser; and   determining the address for the next page by the browser executing the reference and sending the address to the crawler.   
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , the browser being configured to use a certain proxy and refer to a resolver file for hostname-to-IP-address-resolution, wherein the web site server has an IP address and the proxy for the browser has a certain IP address, the certain IP address of the proxy being different than the IP address of the web site server, and wherein the resolver file indicates the certain IP address of the proxy as the IP address for the web site server. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 18 , wherein an onload attribute is added to one of the web pages by the proxy, and an event handler is defined for the onload attribute to set a certain variable, and wherein the processor is operative with the program for:
 polling the certain variable by the applet to determine when the page is loaded.   
     
     
         20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , at least one of the web pages being dynamically generated by the server responsive to corresponding ones of the queries, wherein the processor is operative with the program for:
 processing the server generated web pages to generate corresponding processed versions of the web pages, so that the processed versions can be served in response to future queries, reducing dynamic generation of web pages by the server.   
     
     
         22 . The apparatus of  claim 21 , wherein at least a first such server generated web page has included in it an operation that would cause the server to dynamically generate a second web page if the first page were used to generate further requests to the server, and wherein processing the server generated web pages comprises:
 removing the operation from the first server generated web page and replacing the operation with a reference to a version of another of the server generated web pages.   
     
     
         23 . (canceled) 
     
     
         24 . (canceled)