Method for data gathering around forms and search barriers
AssigneeAmazon.com, Inc.
InventorsAshish Gupta, Peter Norvig, Anand Rajaraman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
According to the invention, methods for gathering data around forms having one or more fields, enabling a wrapper program to extract semistructured information by determining combinations of values for fields associated with particular forms; submitting the particular forms repeatedly for all combinations of interest and providing the results returned for further processing. In select embodiments, the combinations of values for fields is a Cartesian product of the possible values for the fields. Values to be submitted in the form fields may be specified by using a programming language such as Site Description Language (SDL) or Java.
Claims38
A method for gathering data around forms in a wrapper program for accessing semistructured information, each form having zero or more fields, each field having one or more possible field values, comprising the steps of:
- computing a plurality of combinations for all field values in a particular form;
- for a particular combination in said plurality of combinations, submitting said particular form with said particular combination of field values;
- providing the results returned from the submitting step for further processing.
A method for indexing data around forms in a wrapper program for accessing semistructured information, each form having zero or more fields, each field having one or more possible field values, comprising the steps of:
- computing a plurality of combinations for all field values in a particular form;
- for a particular combination in said plurality of combinations, submitting said particular form with said particular combination of field values;
- providing the results returned from the submitting step for further processing.
A method for specifying a wrapper program for accessing semistructured information from a plurality of forms, each form having one or more fields, each field having one or more possible field values, comprising the steps of:
- specifying an identity of a particular form in said plurality of forms;
- specifying a plurality of input values for said one or more fields of said particular form;
- specifying a variable for storing a plurality of data returned from submission of said particular form with said plurality of input values for said one or more fields.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.