Apparatus and method for supporting visualization of connection relationship

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9990444-B2
Application number	US-201514679288-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 6, 2015
Priority date	Feb 26, 2014
Publication date	Jun 5, 2018
Grant date	Jun 5, 2018

Abstract

In a search server, a page collection unit collects Internet pages. An index generation unit generates an index of the pages. An index-tree generation unit generates an index tree representing the connection relationship among the pages in a tree structure, and in which a page linked from multiple pages is represented by different nodes in a duplicated manner. When a search word input unit inputs a search word in a client, a search-result generation unit of the search server generates a search result on the basis of the index. For the index tree, a search-result-tree generation unit, for example, highlights nodes containing the search word, and deletes nodes, each of which does not contain the search word and is not a branch point into multiple branches which contain the search word. The search-result-tree generation unit outputs the resulting search result to a search result display unit of the client.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for performing a search request and for supporting visualization of a link relationship among a plurality of web pages of a website, the system comprising:
a processing unit; and
a memory connected to the processing unit, wherein
the processing unit is configured to perform:
collecting the plurality of web pages of the website;
extracting link information representing a link relationship among the plurality of web pages;
generating a tree structure based on the extracted link information, the tree structure including a plurality of nodes, each of which corresponds to a respective web page of the plurality of web pages, each of the nodes being associated with a respective uniform resource locator and at least one word associated with the respective uniform resource locator;
when two different nodes of the plurality of nodes of the generated tree structure have a same child node corresponding to a same one of the plurality of web pages, representing the same child node in the generated tree structure as a separate first duplicate child node of a first node of the two different nodes and a separate second duplicate child node of a second node of the two different nodes;
receiving a search request including a search word;
producing a search result tree based on the web pages, the generated tree structure and a search result of the search request; and
providing a representation of the search result tree to a display unit for displaying the search result tree, the displayed search result tree indicating which ones of the plurality of nodes correspond to ones of the plurality of web pages satisfying the search request, wherein:
the displayed search tree result provides information regarding an overall structure of the website, thereby facilitating a search for information related to the search result, and
representation of the same child node in the generated tree structure as the separate first duplicate child node and the separate second duplicate child node avoids overlapping flows in the presentation of the search result tree to facilitate comprehension of the overall structure of the website.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to perform:
deleting, from the search tree result, leaf nodes that do not satisfy the search request;
deleting, from the search tree result, intermediate nodes that do not satisfy the search request; and
providing information for updating the displayed search tree result.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the deleting the leaf nodes that do not satisfy the search request further comprises:
adding leaf nodes from the search tree result to a list;
obtaining a node from the list;
determining whether the obtained node satisfies the search request;
deleting the obtained node from the search tree result when the obtained node does not satisfy the search result;
determining whether a parent node of the obtained node has become a leaf node in the search tree result;
adding the parent node to the list when the parent node has become the leaf node;
determining whether a node which has not been processed is included in the list; and
repeating the step of obtaining a node from the list through the step of repeating when the node which has not been processed is determined to be in the list.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the deleting the intermediate nodes that do not satisfy the search request further comprises:
after performing the deleting, from the search tree result, the leaf nodes that do not satisfy the search request, performing:
adding remaining leaf nodes from the search tree result to a second list;
obtaining a node from the second list as a new current node;
determining whether the new current node satisfies the search request;
determining whether the new current node has only one child when the new current node does not satisfy the search request;
when the new current node is determined not to satisfy the search request and the new current node has only one child node, deleting the new current node from the search tree result;
determining whether a parent node of the new current node is a root node of the search tree result;
adding the parent node to the second list when the parent node is determined not to be the root node of the search tree result; and
when the second list includes a node that has not been processed, repeating the step of obtaining the new current node from the second list through a present step of the repeating.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to perform:
receiving a selection of multiple nodes of the plurality of nodes of the search tree result and an instruction indicating that a common ancestor node of the selected multiple nodes is to be highlighted;
preparing a new tree with no nodes;
performing, for each of the selected multiple nodes:
adding a respective node of the selected multiple nodes to the new tree,
setting a current node to the respective node,
determining whether the current node is a root node of the search tree result, and
repeating, while the current node is determined not to be the root node and a parent node of the current node is not present in the new tree:
setting the parent node as the current node, and
adding the current node to the new tree;

setting the root node of the new tree as the current node;
determining whether the current node has multiple child nodes;
repeating, while the current node does not have multiple child nodes:
setting the child node as the current node, and
determining whether the current node has multiple child nodes;

setting the current node as the common ancestor node; and
providing a representation of the new tree and information for highlighting the common ancestor node to a display for displaying.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to perform:
receiving a command for selecting a node group from the search result tree, the command including selection of a node from the search result tree corresponding to a web page of the plurality of web pages; and
in response to the receiving the command, narrowing a scope of the search request to ones of the web pages corresponding to the selected node and all descendent nodes of the selected node.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to perform:
receiving a new search request; and
producing a new search tree result having the narrowed scope with respect to the search request.

8. A computer-implemented method for performing a search and supporting visualization of a link relationship among a plurality of web pages of a website, the computer-implemented method comprising:
collecting the plurality of web pages of the website;
extracting link information representing a link relationship among the plurality of web pages;
generating a tree structure based on the extracted link information, the tree structure including a plurality of nodes, each of which corresponds to a respective web page of the plurality of web pages, each of the nodes being associated with a respective uniform resource locator and at least one word associated with the respective uniform resource locator;
when two different nodes of the plurality of nodes of the generated tree structure have a same child node corresponding to a same one of the plurality of web pages, representing the same child node in the generated tree structure as a separate first duplicate child node of a first node of the two different nodes and a separate second duplicate child node of a second node of the two different nodes;
receiving a search request including a search word;
producing a search resu

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Kurokawa Hiroshi
• Mizuno Takahisa
• Shioya Tomohiro
• Tamai Sayaka

Classifications

• G06F16/9038 Primary

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06F17/30991 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic