Protocol to fix broken links on the world wide web
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorAmrish K. Lal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A protocol for automatically fixing broken hypertext links is described that can save countless hours wasted by World-Wide Web surfers trying to navigate using a broken link or web authors trying to fix broken links to their web pages. A link correction service checks hypertext links in a document by sending messages according to a hyperlink verification protocol (HLVP) to a remote web server indicated by the link. A link checking service at the remote web server, in response to receiving an HLVP message for a link, consults a mapping table to determine if the link is valid, has changed, has been removed, or is unknown. A response code indicating the status of the link is returned to the link correction service to modify the page accordingly.
Claims29
A system for correcting links to resources in a network, comprising:
- a link checking service unit associated with a first group of resources and configured for determining if a location of a resource among the first group of resources has changed;
- and
- a link correction service unit configured for sending a request to the link checking service to determine validity of a link, receiving a response indicating a status of the link, and modifying a document containing the link based on the received response.
A method of correcting a link in a document, comprising:
- sending a request to a link checking service unit to check a status of a resource corresponding to the link;
- receiving a response to said request, the response containing an indication of a changed location of the resource;
- and
- changing the document based on the indication of the changed location of the resource.
An apparatus for correcting a link in a document, comprising:
- a document repository having stored therein one or more documents;
- a corrected document repository having stored therein one or more corrected documents;
- a link correction service unit connected to the document repository and the corrected document repository, and configured to parse a link from one of the documents in the document repository, generate a request for checking the validity of the link, correct the link in response to receipt of a response message containing a corrected link, and store a corrected document having the corrected link in the corrected document repository.
An apparatus for correcting a link in a document, comprising:
- means for sending a request to a link checking service unit to check a status of a resource corresponding to the link;
- means for receiving a response to said request, the response containing an indication of a changed location of the resource;
- and
- means for changing the document based on the indication of the changed location of the resource.
A computer readable medium of instructions suitable for execution by a computer, comprising:
- program instructions for sending a request to a link checking service to check a status of a resource corresponding to the link;
- program instructions for receiving a response to said request, the response containing an indication of a changed location of the resource;
- and
- program instructions for changing the document based on the indication of the changed location of the resource.
A method for determining a status of a link in a document, comprising:
- receiving a request to determine the status of the link in the document, wherein the link includes a location indicator of a resource;
- detecting if the resource is present within a storage unit at a location indicated by the location indicator;
- determining if the resource is present at an alternate location if the resource is not detected in the location indicated by the location indicator;
- and
- returning an alternate location identifier indicating the alternate location of the resource if the resource is determined to be present at the alternate location.
An apparatus for correcting a link in a document, comprising:
- a document repository having stored therein one or more documents;
- a mapping table unit having stored therein mapping table information associating a first prior resource-locator with a first present resource-locator, the first prior resource-locator indicating a prior location of a first resource within the document repository and the first present resource-locator indicating a present location of the first resource;
- and
- a link checking service unit connected to the document repository and the mapping table unit, and configured to locate an entry in the mapping table information based on a requested resource-locator contained in a request for information concerning location of the first resource, to identify the first present resource-locator stored in association with the first prior resource-locator, and to send a response message containing the first present resource-locator.
An apparatus for determining a status of a link in a document, comprising:
- means for storing one or more resources;
- means for receiving a request to determine the status of the link in the document, wherein the link includes a location indicator of a resource;
- means for detecting if the resource is present within said means for storing at a location indicated by the location indicator;
- means for determining if the resource is present at an alternate location if the resource is not detected in the location indicated by the location indicator;
- and
- means for returning an alternate location identifier indicating the alternate location of the resource if the resource is determined to be present at the alternate location.
A computer readable medium of instructions suitable for execution on a computer for determining a status of a link in a document, comprising:
- program instructions for receiving a request to determine the status of the link in the document, wherein the link includes a location indicator of a resource;
- program instructions for detecting if the resource is present within a storage unit at a location indicated by the location indicator;
- program instructions for determining if the resource is present at an alternate location if the resource is not detected in the location indicated by the location indicator;
- and
- program instructions for returning an alternate location identifier indicating the alternate location of the resource if the resource is determined to be present at the alternate location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.