Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
MANAGING NETWORK-ACCESSIBLE RESOURCES
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to the following U.S. Applications:
[0002] Serial Number 60/699631, filed on July 15, 2005, and entitled OPML
SEARCH ENGINES AND SUPERSERVICES.
[0003] Serial Number 60/700122, filed on July 18, 2005, and entitled WEB
SUPERSERVICES.
[0004] Serial Number 60/719073, filed on September 21, 2005, and entitled WEB
SUPERSERVICES.
[0005] Serial Number 60/721803, filed on Septeinber 28, 2005, and entitled WEB
SUPERSERVICES.
[0006] Serial Number 60/735712, filed on November 11, 2005, and entitled OPML
PROCESSING MODULES AND SYSTEMS.
[0007] Serial Number 60/741770, filed on December 1, 2005, and entitled
NAVIGATION AND MANIPULATION OF DISTRIBUTED CONTENT.
[0008] Serial Number 60/756774, filed on January 6, 2006, and entitled
COMPOSITE SERVICE VISUALIZATION TOOLS.
BACKGROUND
[0009] The radical proliferation of syndicated content on the World Wide Web,
followed more recently by the emergence of so-called Web 2.0 services,
evidences a strong
desire within the Internet user community for a self-defined environment. In
one sense, the use
of syndicated content and services such as mashups is highly personalized.
Each use can define
a very specific, individual view of a universe of syndicated content, and
offer customized
services built upon third-party programming interfaces. In another sense, the
syndication
environment is highly collaborative and participatory, with communities of
interest arising
quickly and assembling around topics or points of view, and sometimes
dissipating just as
quickly. In either case, content and services change rapidly according to
social activity.
[0010] Numerous approaches to dynamically deploying services across a network
have been devised such as Microsoft's NET tecluiology, or web services using,
e.g., the Web
1
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
Services Description Language ("WSDL"). While these technology infrastructures
support
discovery and use of services across a network and can accommodate an evolving
set of
network-accessible services, would-be users are constrained by the
corresponding conceptual
and syntactic frameworks. A current trend in Internet services appears to be
sharply diverging
from this canned approach. Instead, various web-accessible programming
interfaces are being
published for general use, and these interfaces are discovered and combined on
an ad hoc basis
by end users. As new programming interfaces and services appear, additional
uses and
combinations are recognized and deployed in "mashups" that can in turn be
republished as web
sites or new programming interfaces.
[0011] There remains a need for generalized tools to support creation and use
of ad
hoc networked services, as well as a single point of contact for coinputing
across the domain of
content and services available on the Internet.
SUMMARY
[0012] The systems, methods, means, and computer program products disclosed
herein provide a framework and tools for creating composite services from the
array of services
available as distributed, loosely structured, ad hoc, remote programming
interfaces on the
Internet. The framework includes metaservices for coordinating the execution
of multiple
services in a composite service, and also provides core services such as
database management,
security, financial transactions, media conversion, and so forth, to provide
greater design
latitude in the creation of new composite services from existing Internet
content and services.
The framework may be deployed to create new services and programming
interfaces, or to
deploy independent web applications constructed from available services.
[0013] In one aspect, a server for network computing may include an HTTP
get/post
programming interface for accessing a plurality of core services and at least
one metaservice,
the plurality of core services including one or more of a syndication
function, a search function,
a conditional access function, an authentication function, a security
function, and a database
management function, and the at least one metaservice including at least one
service for creating
a composite service from a plurality of otlier services, the plurality of
other services including at
least one remote service with a networlc-accessible programining interface.
2
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[0014] The syndication function may include one or more of publish, subscribe,
and
read. The search function may include one or more of a keyword search, a time-
based search,
an author search, and a metadata search. The database management function may
include one
or more of a read, a write, a delete, a replace, and a query. The metaservice
may include at least
one service for validating the composite service. The metaservice may include
at least one
service for validating the at least one remote service. The metaservice may
include at least one
service for discovering available remote programming interfaces. The
metaservice may provide
a searchable database of available remote programming interfaces. The server
may include a
web server providing a graphical user interface for creating the composite
service. The
graphical user interface may employ a spreadsheet paradigm. The graphical user
interface may
include a drag-and-drop tool for manipulating services and data sources within
the composite
service.
[0015] In another aspect, a method of semantic computed disclosed herein
includes
providing an HTTP get/post programming interface to a network-accessible
server, the interface
including at least one syndication function, at least one search function, and
at least one
processing function; associating a first URL with an input to the interface;
associating a second
URL with an output from the interface; and providing an interface description
at a third URL,
the interface description including a description of the HTTP get/post
programriming interface
and an identification of the first URL and the second URL.
[0016] The method may include publishing an RSS feed to the input. The method
may include publishing an RSS feed to the output. The method may include
associating a third
URL with an Application Interaction Interface for the programming interface.
The Application
Interaction Interface may employs HTML.
[0017] In another aspect, a system described herein includes a network; and a
database couple in a communicating relationship with the network, the database
storing one or
more characteristics of a plurality of remote services, each remote service
hosted at a remote
location on the networlc, and each remote service accessible through an
application
programming interface, the one or more characteristics including at least a
network location and
a programming interface specification for each one of the plurality of remote
services, the
database including a web interface for structured searching of the one or more
characteristics.
3
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[0018] The system may include a server associated with the database that
provides at
least one metaservice. The system may include a server associated with the
database that
provides at least one core service for creating a composite service.
[0019] In another aspect, a programming interface disclosed herein includes an
input
adapted to receive program data from a first RSS feed; a service that
processes the program
data; and an output that publishes results of the service to a second RSS
feed.
[0020] The service may access at least one remote service. The first RSS feed
may
be published by a second service. A second service may subscribe to the second
RSS feed. The
programming interface may be employed in a composite service coordinated by a
metaservices
server.
[0021] In another aspect, a method for executing a composite service disclosed
herein includes: transmitting data to a first remote programming interface on
a network;
publishing a result from the first remote programming interface to an RS S
feed including at
least one element; and submitting the at least one element to a second remote
programming
interface on a network.
[0022] Transmitting data to the first remote first remote programming
interface may
include publishirig an RSS feed. Transmitting data to the first remote
programming interface
may include transmitting an OPML object.
[0023] In another aspect, a method disclosed herein includes exposing a
service for
access by a user through an HTTP get-post programming interface; and
publishing an RSS feed
to a URL associated with the service, the RSS feed containing an element that
provides a
specification for the service.
[0024] In another aspect, a method disclosed herein includes exposing a
service for
access by a user through an HTTP get-post programming interface; and
publishing an OPML
document to a URL associated with the service, the OPML document providing a
specification
for the service.
[0025] In another aspect, a programming method disclosed herein includes
receiving
an object that specifies a composite service employing two or more remote
programming
interfaces; coordinating the invocation of each of the two or more remote
programming
interfaces; and passing data between at least two of the two or more remote
programming
interfaces using an RSS feed.
4
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[0026] In another aspect, a programming method disclosed herein includes
receiving
an object that specifies a composite service employing two or more remote
programming
interfaces; coordinating the invocation of each of the two or more remote
programming
interfaces; and passing data between at least two of the two or more remote
programming
interfaces using an OPML object.
[0027] At least one of the two or more remote programming interfaces may
employ
an HTTP interface. Receiving the object may include receiving the object as an
HTTP put. The
method may include publishing a result of the composite service. The method
may include
providing an RSS feed that specifies a location and programming interface for
the two or more
remote programming interfaces.
[0028] In another aspect, a programming method disclosed herein includes
providing a bi-directional HTTP-based programming interface; receiving user
data at a first
URL of the interface through a post method; processing the data with at least
one logical
programming task to obtain a result; and storing the result at a second URL of
the interface,
such that the result can be retrieved through a get method.
[0029] The method may include associating the programming interface with an
operational kernel that includes an HTTP server. The method may include
providing an OPML
description of the programining interface and the at least one logical task,
the OPML
description structured to accommodate a hierarchy of programming interfaces
that define a
composite service. The method may include providing an RSS feed that specifies
the
programming interface. The programming interface may encapsulate a service.
The post
method may post data for a financial transaction and the service executes the
financial
transaction. The post method may extract data from a second RSS feed and posts
it to the
service. The service may execute a financial transaction and the get method
publishes a
confirniation of execution of the transaction. The method may include
inserting the
confirmation into a syndicated data feed.
[0030] In another aspect, a programming method disclosed herein includes
providing a programming interface; receiving user data at a first URL of the
interface through a
post method; processing the user data with a plurality of services including
at least one remote,
unstructured service to obtain a result; and storing the result at a second
URL of the interface,
such that the result can be retrieved through a get metlzod.
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[0031] The programming interface may encapsulate a web application. The at
least
one remote, unstructured service may include a URL that links to a
specification of the
unstructured service. Processing the user data includes parsing an OPML
description that
includes a hierarchy of services that form a coiuposite service accessible
through the
programming interface. Processing the user data may include processing a media
object.
Processing the media object may include converting a format of the media
object. Processing
the media object may include embedding a digital watermark in the media
object. Processing
the media object may include adding a unique identifier to metadata for the
media object.
Processsing the media object may include rendering the media object.
Processing the media
object may include editing the media object. Processing the media object may
include
combining the media object with another media object. The plurality of
services may include at
least one social network method. The plurality of services may include an
attention brokering
service. The plurality of services may include a service for at least one of
tracking online
behavior, tracking transactions, ranking popularity of an item, and receiving
user rating of an
item. The plurality of services may include at least one communication service
selected from
the group consisting of telecommunications, video conferencing, VoIP,
electronic mail, instant
messaging, and text messaging. The plurality of services may include at least
one service that
controls presentation of content. The at least one service provides hardware-
specific rendering.
The plurality of services may include at least one service to enable parental
control of access to
content. The plurality of services may include at least one service to support
conditional access
to content. The plurality of services may include at least one service to
support user
personalization of content. The plurality of services may include at least one
service that
executes financial transactions. A second one of the plurality of services may
include a user
identity service. The plurality of services may include a conditional access
method. The
conditional access method may allow a user to post data via a post method to a
service located
at a URL, wherein the service verifies pertnission of the user to access
content, and wherein a
get method allows the user to get an indicator of permission to access the
content. The plurality
of services may include at least one database method supporting user access to
a database. The
database may include a secure database. The database method may include one or
more of a
data quality method and a data transforniation method. The plurality of
services may include at
least one security method. The at least one security method may include one or
more of a
6
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
conditional access method, an authentication method, an encryption method, and
a decryption
method. The at least one security method may include a security audit method.
The plurality of
services may include at least one method for managing payment for at least one
other one of the
plurality of services. The at least one method for managing payment may
include a payment
management system that allocates charges among users and providers of a
composite service.
The plurality of services may include at least one search method. The at least
one search
method may receive a plurality of search services in an OPML description. The
at least one
search method may include a spider method. The plurality of services may
include at least one
filter method. The plurality of services may include at least one semantic
processing method.
The method may include creating semantic metadata for an RSS feed in the
semantic processing
method. The method may include enriching the RSS feed with the semantic
metadata. The
method may include interpreting content of an RSS feed in the semantic
processing method.
The method may include translating content of an RSS feed in the semantic
processing method.
The plurality of services may include at least one syndication method. The
method may include
performing a syndication function with the at least one syndication method.
The syndication
function may include one or more of publish, subscribe, aggregate, and
republish.
[0032] In another aspect, a method disclosed herein may include spidering an
environment to generate one or more resource descriptions that characterize
one or more
resources available in the environment, including a resource type for each of
the one or more
resources; and storing the resource descriptions in a searchable database, the
database indexed
by the resource type. The one or more resources include at least one service
available in the
enviromnent. The at least one service may include an unstructured service. The
at least one
service may include a web service. Spidering may include invoking a spider at
a metaservices
server.
[0033] In another aspect, a semantic process disclosed herein may include a bi-
directional HTTP client-server user interface for allowing get, post, put and
delete methods; and
a plurality of services responsive to the interface, the services including at
least one database
service for accessing data, at least one semantic processing service, and at
least one application
service that present results in a format suitable for presentation on a client
device.
7
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[0034] Each method disclosed herein may also be implemented as computer
executable code that, when executing on one or more computing devices,
performs the steps of
the method.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0035] The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will be
appreciated more fully from the following further description thereof, with
reference to the
accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0036] Fig. 1 shows computing facilities communicating through a network
facility.
[0037] Fig. 2 shows comnuunication among software modules of separate
computing
facilities.
[0038] Fig. 3 illustrates aspects of software modules.
[0039] Fig. 4 depicts an operational kernel interface.
[0040] Figs. 5-10 depict aspects of various processing interfaces that may be
exposed through programming interfaces.
[0041] Fig. 11 depicts a complex processing operation.
[0042] Fig. 12 depicts a high level programming interface.
[0043] Fig. 13 shows an architecture for integrating and manipulating
distributed
data and services.
[0044] Fig. 14 shows a spreadsheet paradigm that may be used as a user
interface for
the navigation, management, and visualization tools described herein.
[0045] Fig. 15 shows a graphical user interface for managing services.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0046] A platform for processing in a wide scale network may be supported
through
a collection of logical software modules exposed to external users through an
interface such as
an HTTP get/post interface. The server supporting these services may access
other services and
provide services to other such services, in an arrangement where services can
also act, for
example, as a client of a remote (or local) service, each communicating
through get, put, post,
a.nd delete methods. This allows the logical software modules to be arranged
in user-defined or
inachine-defined configurations, with the output of one module being provided
as the input to
8
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
another, whose output is the input to yet another, and so on. In addition,
this allows services to
access external services as a client, permitting implementation of any
services that can be
defined using the core services described herein, either alone, or in
combination with exposed
services available on the network. Thus, it will be appreciated that while the
system described
below with reference to Figs. 1-12 is one useful approach to deploying
individual services in a
manner that accommodates use and combination with other services, the
techniques described
herein may more generally be applied to the creation and management of
composite services,
and all such variations that would be clear to one of ordinary skill in the
art are intended to fall
within the scope of this disclosure.
[0047] Referring to Fig. 1, a system 100 may include a plurality of computing
facilities 102 that are operatively coupled via a network 104. Within the
computing facilities
102 are one or more logical building blocks 108, which themselves may be
operatively coupled.
In embodiments, this coupling may be between at least two logical building
blocks 108 within
the same computing facility 102. Alternatively or additionally, this coupling
may be between at
least two logical building blocks 108 within different computing facilities.
[0048] The network 104 may be an IP-based data network providing data
communications between at least two computing facilities 102. This network may
include the
Internet, a WAN, a MAN, a LAN, a personal-area network, or any other IP-based
data network,
including any IP-based network component, in any arrangement or configuration.
The network
104 may also, or instead, employ non-IP communications such as,Asynchronous
Transmission
Mode communications or any other suitable communications protocol(s).
[0049] The computing facility 102 may be a microprocessor-based computer. This
computer may include a rack-mount server, a workstation, a tower computer, a
laptop computer,
a personal computer, a palmtop computer, a portable computer, a cellular
phone, a set top box, a
router or other network element, a portable communications device such as a
Blaclcberry, an
embedded computer, a computer associated with a sensor (such as may be used in
a distributed
sensor network), and so forth.
[0050] The logical building block 108 may be implemented as a software
program.
This program may be associated with one more processes and/or one or more
threads of
execution. The building block 108 may be composed of a number of software
components,
which are described in great detail hereinafter. It will be understood that,
while a
9
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
microprocessor is one common embodiment of a device executing software such as
the logical
building block 108, the computing facility 102 may also, or instead, include
an ASIC, FPGA,
PLA, PLD, or any other special-purpose hardware device that is fabricated
and/or programmed
to execute the building block 108. Throughout this disclosure, it should be
appreciated that
terms such as "software", "program", and "execution", are to be interpreted
broadly as any
implementation of a logical process, unless a different meaning is explicitly
provided or
otherwise clear from the context.
[0051] Core services 110, which may be for example any of the services
described
below, along with related methods and interfaces, may be available through the
network 104.
The core services 110 may provide any functionality suitable for supporting,
combining, and
publishing new services formed from the services of the computing facilities
102, which may be
ad hoc services, and any services selected from the core services 110. It will
be understood that
the computing facilities 102 as described herein may generally provide any ad
hoc services
along with self-defined programming interfaces. As will be discussed in
greater detail below,
the core services 110 may include services for discovery, indexing,
documentation, and
assessment of such services in order to facilitate end use by clients 112. The
core services 110
may also include any number of services that support creation of new composite
services by
providing, e.g., security, conditional access, transaction processing, data
conversion, and any
other functions that might commonly be employed to build sophisticated
services from ad hoc
functional building blocks available on the Internet. In one aspect, the core
services 110 may
operate generally as a server, or a single point of contact on a network for
various services.
[0052] . Note that in Fig. 1, inetaservices 120 are depicted separately from
core
services 110. This reflects the general concept that metaservices 120, i.e.,
services for
managing services, are distinct from other services that may be employed to
support a robust
metaservices infrastructure, i.e., core services 110. It will be appreciated
that this distinction
may blur with respect to certain services. For example, where a filter is
employed in passing
RSS data from one service to another service, this may be viewed as a
metaservice or a core
service. As such, these terms should be understood to be correspondingly
flexible in the
following discussion, unless a specific meaning is indicated or otherwise
clear from the context.
It will also be understood that, while Fig. 1 depicts the core services 110
and metaservices 120
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
at a single network location, these services may be separate, and/or may be
distributed across a
network at two or more redundant and/or unique locations.
[0053] In one aspect, the core services 110 may be viewed as a coherent
integration
solution stack including a number of discrete layers. Each layer may provide a
well-defined
interface to two adjacent layers; as in a conventional protocol stack. In this
manner, each
functional area may be developed independently by numerous parties each of
wllom may
improve, customize, optimize, or otherwise adapt the layer to specific or
generalized usage.
Alternatively, each layer may operate as a stand-alone collection of services
that may be
invoked independently of other layers. Numerous other configurations are
possible, and will be
clear to one of ordinary skill in the art. All such arrangements are intended
to fall within the
scope of this disclosure. The relevant features may be decomposed in a variety
of manners.
One example is set out in commonly-owned U.S. App. No. 11/223,826. As another
example, an
integration stack may include the following services generally intended to
support integration of
other remote services into composite services or platforms.
[0054] Layer seven: One layer of the stack may contemplate various modes of
human communication and interaction, and enable sharing and usage among
communities and
users in various combinations. This may include, for exainple, communities,
swarms, cross-
functional teams, collaborations, dialogues.
[0055] Layer six: One layer of the stack may relate specifically to media
outputs of
various forms, such as interactive media, communication and information
services.
[00561 Layer five: One layer of the stack may address metaservices, such as
the
discovery, integration, modification, and adaptation of services, along with
searching and
publication thereof. This may include integration of web services,
superservices, scripts,
metatools, superservice libraries, automated testing of end-to-end
integrations of services such
as those described herein, and any other services and/or content, and the
like. As noted above,
metaservices 120 may optionally be deployed as separate and discrete from core
services 110, in
which case this layer of an integration stack may be omitted, or may simply
point to or interface
with a separate metaservices 120 component.
[0057] Layer four: One layer of the stack may address certification of
operability
and interoperability with reference to one or more standards, such as
objective, publicly
available standards for operability of the layer three web superservices.
Generally, this inay
11
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
address performance matters such as usability, relevance of performance
achieved, stability,
reliability, scalability, openness and extensibility, software compatibility,
hardware
compatibility, end-to-end compatibility, and so forth. This may also, or
instead, address
standards compatibility with relevant standards such as XML, HTML, RSS, OPML,
WSDL,
and so forth.
[0058] Layer three: One layer of the stack may address decomposition and reuse
of
services such as web superservices. This may include development of utilities
to compose,
publish, secure, authenticate, gather, archive, search, filter, analyze,
display, email, or otherwise
manipulate services. Alternatively, some or all of this low-level
service/superservice
manipulation may be incorporated into the Layer five metaservices described
above.
[0059] Layer two: One layer of the stack may embrace participation by a
worldwide
community of users, activist, developers, entrepreneurs, or otherwise
contemplate inclusion of
various disparate users and sources of services. This may advantageously
provide a common,
shareable platform for developing superservices and metaservices. It will be
noted that this
layer is distinguished from layer seven, which relates to the manner in which
discrete services
or composite services are presented to end users, while layer two relates to
the manner in which
developers and others participate in creation of new services.
[0060] Layer one: One layer of the stack may provide low-level physical
connectivity for the variety of simple, stable, ubiquitous standards (URL,
SOAP, RSS, OPML,
XML, HTML, etc.). This layer ensures that inputs to and outputs from other
layers can
communicate with external resources and users.
[0061] It will be appreciated that integration of services may be accomplished
in a
number of different ways, and may include different allocations of components
in the
integration stack. In one embodiment, significant advantages may be realized
from a
standardized, end-to-end model to interconnect communities of users with low-
level physical
protocols and services deployed thereon. In general, this conceptual
architecture provides a
platfoim for customizing and integrating the functionality of arbitrary
combinations of ad hoc
services deployed as remote, third-party programming interfaces. Using the
platform described
herein, application programming interfaces such as those available from
Google, Google Maps,
MSN Search, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, and myriad lesser-lcnown providers of network-
accessible
programming interfaces, can be integrated into a new, coinposite service which
may be used
12
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
privately or released as a new programmirig interface or as a self-contained
Application
Interaction Interface ("AII") - a web application adapted for direct human use
through a
browser or other client.
[0062] A database 111 may support the core services 111 both by storing
procedures
and code for the core services 110, and by providing a data repository or
database for users of
the core services 110. In addition, the core services 111 may provide a data
store for external
services, such as ad hoc services running on the computing facilities 102. As
will be
appreciated from the description below, this may advantageously expand the
functionality of ad
hoc services by providing a buffer for inputs to or outputs from these
services when sequencing
of a chain of operations from different ad hoc service locations. More
generally, those of
ordinary skill in the art will appreciate many advantageous uses of persistent
memory. Further,
the core services 110 may provide differential levels of database services.
For certain users,
such as authenticated users, the database 111 may be available for general
usage in connection
with core services 110 or otherwise. For other users, the database 111 may not
be available. In
this latter environment, the core services 110 may provide a service that
permits a user to
incorporate the user's local storage, such as storage on the client 112, as a
database or short
term memory store. While the database 111 is depicted as a conventional
database 111 behind
the core services 110 and/or metaservices 120, it will be understood that
other techniques may
be employed to provide an actual or effective database in connection with
composite services
and metaservices.
[0063] In one aspect, RSS or a similar syndication technology may be employed
for
data persistence between stages of a composite service. Thus, a metaservice
120 or other
program coordinating execution of a composite service may direct a first
service to output an
RSS feed. The URL of the RSS output may then be used as an input to a second
service, and so
forth. As a significant advantage, this approach provides a simple,
convenient, ubiquitous, and
readily accessible resource as a buffer for composite service processing.
Using techniques
described, for example, in U.S. App. No. 11/223,826, entitled "Enhanced
Syndication" these
RSS streams may, in turn, be secured to provide for conditional access based
on user identity
(which may be encoded by the metaservice or composite service that is using
the RSS buffer).
Access to these process-oriented RSS feeds may be permissions based, or
otherwise restricted.
In one aspect, intermediate or final RSS feeds may be useful in inultiple
ways, and it may be
13
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
desirable to have intermediate data streams available for general, public use.
In another aspect,
intermediate or final RSS feeds may be highly proprietary, and it may be
desirable to have some
level of security associated with content therein.
[0064] As an additional component, it may be useful to monitor pools of data
associated with processing of composite services. That is, a large amount of
data may be
generated and distributed among numerous RSS sources on a network. An audit
tool may be
provided for reviewing and analyzing levels of security on such sources. This
may include an
analysis of the content and vulnerability of such sources, with respect to
either each source as a
network resource or the underlying data, or both. While this tool may provide
for useful
security audits of an RSS-based data store for composite service processing,
it will be
understood that a tool for security audits of RSS data may have significant
value independent of
the composite services discussed herein. That is, an enterprise, publisher, or
other entity may
periodically audit RSS sources for vulnerabilities, with respect to, for
example, whether data is
secured in the manner intended. Where security flaws are identified, the audit
tool may employ
remedial measures such as securing the source of RSS data, e.g., by requiring
suitable
encryption on RSS output, or by securing or quarantining the offending RSS
feeds. The audit
tool may also, or instead, evaluate security risks based upon the data sources
available to an
RSS feed. In such cases, suitable responses may include filtering output from
the feed to
remove any secured source data, along with hardening the source itself against
filter
circumvention. Thus, there is disclosed herein a general tool for evaluating
security exposures
associated with syndicated data, and more generally, any pools of unstructured
or structured
data. The tool may provide a security profile characterizing data exposure.
The tool may also
or instead, actively secure sources according to a security policy, or make
recommendations
concerning exposure and risk mitigation.
[0065] The client 112 may be any device communicating with the network 104. In
general, the client 112 may access various combinations of the core services
110 and the ad hoc
services from the computing facilities 102 to provide a composite service,
described in greater
detail below. The composite service may in turn be published as a new ad hoc
service through a
user-defined programming interface, either tlirough the core services 110 and
related
infrastructure, or on a user-selected server available through the network
104.
14
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[0066] Thus, in general there is disclosed herein a technique for supporting
use and
combination of ad hoc remote services through one or more core services and/or
that are
available on a network.
[0067] Referring now to Fig. 2, a system 200 including two computing
facilities 102
may support communication among services. Each of the computing facilities 102
in this
depiction contains one logical building block 108. Within each of the logical
building blocks
108 are a number of software components. These may include, for example, a
link protocol
layer 202; a network protocol layer 204; a transport protocol layer 208; an
application protocol
layer 201; an operational kernel 212 with a kernel interface 214; a plurality
of aspects 216, each
of which has an aspect interface 218; and a plurality of service software
modules 220 that are
operatively coupled to the operational kernel 212 and the aspects 216 via the
interfaces 218. The
link protocol layer 202 may be implemented to provide a logical coupling to
the network 104,
such as via Ethernet, WiFi, ATM, and so forth; the network protocol 204 layer
may implement
IP (v4 and/or v6); the transport protocol layer 208 may implement TCP; and the
application
protocol layer 210 may implement HTTP. The operational kernel 212 implements
methods of
the kernel interface 214, which are described in detail hereinafter. The
aspects 216 of the
operational kernel iinpleinent methods of the aspect interfaces 218, which are
also described in
detail hereinafter. The server software modules may implement arbitrary
services 220 by
utilizing any native functionality of the computing facility 102 combined with
the
implementations provided by the operational kernel 212 and its aspects 21=6.
The native
functionality of the computing facility 102 may be any of the functions or
features of a
computer and a resident operating system on the computer. It will be
appreciated that the
resident operating system may be any operating system, including a proprietary
operating
system (such as Windows XP), an open-source operating system (such as
OpenBSD), a real-
time operating system, an embedded operating system, and so forth. Likewise,
it will be
appreciated that the functions and features of the colnputing facility 102 may
vary from
implementation to implementation and that the present invention is not limited
to any particular
type of computing facility 102 or operating system. Moreover, it will be
appreciated that there is
not an intrinsic need for an operating system, and in some embodiments the
logical building
block 108 may run directly on hardware of the computing facility 102.
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[0068] As depicted, the boundaries between the software modules are logical
boundaries. According to software engineering practices, these software
modules may be
implemented as individual software modules. However, the software modules may
also be
implemented in a more monolithic fashion, with logical boundaries omitted or
loosely defined
in the implementing source code. For example and without limitation, a network
protocol stack
of several layers may be implemented in a single, monolithic tract of source
code. It shoiuld be
appreciated that various levels of integration or modularity may be reflected
in a particular
implementation of the software modules. All such implementations are within
the scope of the
present invention. In an embodiment, the operational kernel 212, its aspects
216, and the service
software modules 220 are written in a modular fashion, with the aspects 216
coupled to the
operational kernel 212 via a well-defined interface (depicted simply as a
boundary between the
aspect 216 and the operational kernel 212) and with the service software
modules 220 accessing
the services provided by the operational kernel 212 and its methods solely via
the methods of
their interfaces 214.
[0069] The methods of the interfaces 214, 218 that are implemented by the
operational kernel 212 and its aspects 216 provide an abstraction of the
underlying software
modules and computing facility 102. Some of these services may be implemented
and provided
by the operational kernel 212 itself, some may be implemented and provided by
the aspects 216
of the operational kernel, and others may be implemented and provided by the
service software
modules 220. As a general guideline, certain core services 110 may be provided
by the
operational kernel where those services that are commonly used or required,
while services that
are application-specific may be implemented by the service software modules
220. It will be
appreciated that which services should be implemented in which modules may
vary, or may
change over time.
[0070] Generally, as referred to here, a service provides a useful, concrete,
and
tangible result, such as by executing a logical process of a logical building
block 108. This
logical process can include an implementation of an interface 214 and/or 218,
an
implementation of a service software module 220, an iinplementation of an
operational kernel
212, an implementation of software provided to the logical building block 108,
an
implementation of a software module of the logical building block 108, or the
implementation
of any other software associated with the logical building block 108. Certain
services, such as
16
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
superservices, web services, composite services, and metaservices are
discussed in greater detail
below. In general, services provided through non-standard application
programming interfaces
from remote network resources - interfaces such as Google Maps - are referred
to herein as ad
hoc or unstructured services, and are also intended to fall within the scope
of services as that
term is used herein.
[0071] The system-described herein may employ message-passing to cominunicate
an object representation 222 among logical building blocks 108. When building
blocks 108
exist in different computing facilities 102, the network 104 provides the
communication of the
object representation 222 between the logical building blocks 108. In this
case, the object
representation 222 is transmitted and received by the link protocol layers 202
of the logical
building blocks 108. The communication of the object representation 222 may be
performed in
a one-to-one fashion, with a single building block 108 communicating the
object representation
222 to another single building block 108. In alternate embodiments, the
communication may be
performed in a one-to-many or many-to-many fashion. In these alternate
embodiments, the
communication may utilize a multicast or broadcast technique or protocol.
[0072] The object that is represented by the object representation 222 can be
any
data including an element of a file-stream; a file-stream; a pool of file-
streams; a relation or
configuration; a tag; a service; an external reference such as a URI or URL, a
description,
specification, or outline of any of the foregoing; or any other data. For
convenience, all of these
things that are herein referred to as the object. The data may include an RSS
feed; an OPML file
or object; an XML file; an HTML file; asl HTTP stream; an RTP stream; an image
file; an audio
file; an audiovisual file; a text file; a Word document; a Javascript file;
and so forth.
[0073] Thus there is described herein a generalized technique for sharing
instructions and data among ad hoc services in a networked computing
environment. As noted
above, where a composite service employs a number of services in sequence (or
in parallel), an
RSS-based buffer or other database 111 may be employed to cache interim and/or
final results.
[0074] Fig. 3 shows aspects of an operational kernel. The aspects may be
arranged
around a canonical organization of core or atomic functions desirable for
facilitating generalized
use of loosely structured or ad hoc network services - the core services 110
described in
reference to Fig. 1. The aspects of the operational kernel may without
limitation include an
application aspect 602, a data aspect 604, a syndication aspect 608, and other
or liybrid aspect
17
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
610 (referred to hereinafter as the other aspect), a semantic aspect 612, and
an infrastructure
aspect 614. Other aspects may be useful in various processing contexts, and
may be included in
the operational kernel or as services associated therewith, such as
transactions (i.e., events
involving exchange of funds), security, encryption, and authentication.
Numerous arrangements
and hierarchies are possible for these core services. Figure 3 suggests one
canonical
arrangement of services by way of example and not by way of limitation. Figure
3 provides
high-level descriptors for data processing, semantic processing, syndication
process,
infrastructure processing, and so forth. Each of these aspects is discussed in
greater detail
below.
[0075] Fig. 4 shows a high level depiction of an HTTP-based programming
interface
for accessing services. Referring to Fig. 4, the operational kernel interface
212 for accessing
aspects of the operational kernel such as those described above may include a
Get method 702
and a Post method 704. The Get method 702 provides a way of getting an object
from a URL or
providing the object at the URL. The Post method 704 provides a way of posting
an object to a
service at a URL or accepting an object posted to a service at a URL. The
operational kernel
interface may also include a Put method and a Delete method. The Put provides
a way of
putting an object to a URL or accepting an object that is put to a URL. The
Delete method
provides a way of deleting an object at a URL, including requesting that the
object be deleted or
accepting the request and deleting the object in response to the request.
These methods may
collectively provide a bi-directional HTTP-based progranming interface where
the Get 702,
Put, Post 704, and Delete methods are implemented according to HTTP, while the
operational
kernel 212 operates as an HTTP client and an HTTP server. In other
embodiments, the Get 702,
Put, Post 704, and Delete methods may be implemented via SMTP or any other
protocol that
allows bi-directional communication.
[0076] The system may present a variety of services or functions to external
users
through a programming interface accessed using the methods of the operation
kernel. A
number of such functions and services that might be usefully provided in a
processing
environment are described below. In general, these seivices may provide a
functional platform
for integrating disparate services. This can accommodate ad hoc combinations
of unstructured
services, each of which may be available as a programming interface on a
network, by
providing a set of core services to augment functionality. Thus, for exainple,
ad hoc
18
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
combinations of services can further incorporate security measures such as
conditional access or
authentication with reference to a trusted third party, or incorporate
semantic processing, search,
data processing, and so forth.
[0077] Referring now to Fig. 5, the application-aspect interface 802 may
provide a
variety of methods related to interaction with client-side applications. This
may, for example,
include a program method 804, a media viewer method 808, a social network
method 810, a
user interface method 812, and an e-commerce method 814. The program method
804 may
provide accessing to an application executed or interpreted by a logical
building block 108. The
media viewer method 808 inay provide a service that processes a media object,
such as by
preparing for display or converting between media formats. The social network
metliod 810
may provide a service that relates to social networking such as attention
brokering, popularity
measurement, rankings, and so forth, and may support social networking among
participants by
supporting groups, buddy lists, affiliations, preferences, and so forth. The
user interface method
812 may control presentation of content to an end user according to, e.g.,
display hardware,
screen layout preferences, substantive preferences, and so forth. The e-
commerce 814 method
may provide services specific to a market, industry, or user group including
without limitation
formatting of data or performing transactions according to industry customs or
standards. This
may also include forms of electronic payment, credit evaluations,'and e-
commerce techniques
such as shopping carts, catalogs, and so forth.
[0078] Referring now to Fig. 6, the client-aspect interface 902 may include a
variety
of methods specific to client interactions with a service. For example, this
may include a
format-display method 904, a transaction method 908, an identity method 910,
and a conditional
access method 812. The format-display method 904 provides a way of formatting
or specifying
a format of an object for rendering on a target display.
[0079] The transaction method 908 may provide a way of conducting a
transaction.
It will appreciated that a wide array of transactions and payments may be
usefully employed
with the systems described herein. Transactions may include, for example,
receiving and/or
executing financial transactions using a variety of payment infrastructures
including ACH,
credit card, wire transfer, PayPal and similar commercial payment services,
and so fortli. As
another example, and not by way of limitation, transactions may include
financial transactions
related to use of the core services 110, metaservices 120, and other, tliird
party services as
19
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
described generally herein. For example, the core services 110 may support pay-
per-use or
subscription models for internal services and remote services. Where remote
services are
employed, the system may track usage and provide periodic reporting. The
system may further
support automated or manual payment for such services through the core
services 110
transaction method 908.
[0080] More generally, the transaction method 908 may support tracking of
usage
charges for complex composite services. That is, a user may create and publish
a composite
service through the system that employs other ad hoc services, one or more of
which require
payment (e.g., a subscription, a database access charge, a time charge, a
processor time charge,
or the like). At the same time, the composite service publisher may specify
fees for the
composite service, which may be fixed or variable, and may depend on third
party usage costs.
The transaction method 908 may bill charges to, or collect charges from, a
user of the composite
service, and may further manage payment among the publisher and any of the ad
hoc services.
When coupled with security features provided by other core services 110
described herein, this
may support, for example, an enterprise computer platform that outsources
certain services such
as payroll processing or access to digital libraries on a pay-as-you-go or per-
user basis. More
generally, this platform supports integration of disparate, commercial
services for individual or
enterprise use, which may also be seamlessly combined with any related non-
commercial ad
hoc services.
[0081] In another aspect, the transaction method 908 may cooperate with e.g.,
methods of the infrastructure-aspect interface 1302 or the data-aspect
interface 1002 to manage
payment for enhanced service. Thus, for example, a publisher or user of a
composite service
that includes cominercial, third-party, ad hoc services may pay for guarantees
or service levels
related to QoS, bandwidth, processing throughput, and the like. Similarly, a
user (or publisher)
of a composite service may coordinate cost-effective usage of services, such
as by scheduling
use of certain commercial services at lower-cost, off-peak times. In one
embodiment, the
composite service may simply be a scheduler for scheduling work to a
commercial service
provider in a cost-effective manner. In various embodiments, a composite
service may provide
a single login access point for combined authentication, service usage, and
payment.
[0082] The identity method 910 may provide a way of accessing, establishing,
verifying, evaluating or otherwise processing an identity or identity
attribute. The conditional
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
access method 921 may provide a way of specifying or enforcing a conditional
access rule, or
otherwise controlling access to data on a conditional basis. As illustrated by
some of these
examples, one or more aspects may reside in multiple interfaces, or reasonably
be incorporated
into different interfaces. For example, the identity and conditional access
methods may be
associated with a security interface or infrastructure interface. All such
variations are intended
to fall within the scope of this disclosure.
[0083] Referring now to Fig. 7, the data-aspect or search-aspect interface
1002 may
include methods generally related to data manipulation. This may include a
database method
1004, a data quality method 1008, a data transformation method 1010, a
search/filter/cluster
method 1012, a search engine method 1014, a spider method 1016, and an
information
relationship/hierarchy/categorization method 1018. The database method 1004
may provide a
way of accessing or providing a database or database management system. The
data quality
method 1008 may provide a way of accessing or providing a quality metric
associated with the
object. The data transformation method 1010 may provide a way of accessing or
providing a
service that transforms an object from one representation to another. The
search/filter/cluster
method 1012 may provide a way of accessing or providing a service that
searches, filters, and/or
clusters objects. The search engine method 1014 may provide a way of accessing
or providing a
search engine. The spider method 1016 may provide a way of accessing or
providing a spider.
The information relationship/hierarchy/categorization method 1018 may provide
a way of
accessing or providing service that relates to an information relationship,
hierarchy, or
categorization. Uses of these and other atomic services are described in
greater detail below.
[0084] Referring now to Fig. 8, the semantic-aspect interface 1102 may include
methods that generally support semantic processing. This may include, for
example, a metadata
creation method 1104, an interpretation method 1108, a metadata enrichment
method 1110, a
knowledge structure creation method 1112, and a dictionary or thesaurus method
1114. The
metadata creation method 1110 may provide a way of accessing or providing a
service that
creates metadata. The interpretation 1108 method may provide a way of
accessing or providing
a service that interprets or translates an object using natural language
processing. The metadata
enriclunent method 1110 may provide a way of accessing or providing a service
that enriches
metadata. The knowledge structure creation method 1112 may provide a way of
accessing or
providing a service that creates a knowledge structure. The dictionary or
thesaurus method 1114
21
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
may provide a way of accessing or providing a dictionary or thesaurus. In
general, these
methods may support semantic processing and manipulation of data. Other
supporting
functions may be similarly provided, such as an identification method that can
provide a
globally unique identifier upon request, and/or add such a globally unique
identifier to metadata
for a media object or other content. In one embodiment, the core services 110
may include this
service. In another embodiment, the identifier service may be provided by a
trusted third party
that can certify identification numbers and usage thereof.
[0085] Referring now to Fig. 9, the syndication-aspect interface 1202 may
support
syndication functions. This may include a publish method 1204, a subscribe
method 1208, an
aggregate method 1210, a republish method 1212, and a manage syndication
information
method 1214. The publish method 1204 may provide a way of accessing or
providing a service
that publishes an object. The subscribe method 1208 may provide a way of
accessing or
providing a service that subscribes to an object. The aggregate method 1210
may provide a way
of accessing or providing a service that aggregates objects. The republish
method 1212 may
provide a way of accessing or providing a service that republishes objects.
The manage
syndication information method 1214 may provide a way of accessing or
providing a service
that manages syndication information. In general, these methods may support
syndication
functions. In general, these methods may support fundamental syndication
functions that enable
subscription-based distribution and re-distribution of data.
[0086] Referring now to Fig. 10, the infrastructure-aspect interface 1302 may
provide methods related to network or service management infrastructure. In
general, these
methods may support an infrastructure for using ad hoc services by providing
fundamental
network and data functions. This may include a security method 1304, a logging
method 1308,
an authentication method 1310, a communications method 1312, a traffic
management method
1314, and a pinging method 1316. The security method 1304 may provide a way of
accessing or
providing a service that may provide network or data security. The logging
metliod 1308 may
provide a way of accessing or providing a logging service. The authentication
method 1310
may provide a way of accessing or providing an authentication service.
[0087] The communications method 1312 may provide a way of accessing or
providing a communications service. This may include, for example, access to
low-level
f-unctions such as network and pliysical layer protocols. This may also, or
instead, include
22
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
various protocols for conventional communications types such as e-mail (e.g.,
SMTP, POP,
Microsoft Exchange Server), collaborative platforms (e.g., Lotus Notes), VoIP,
instant
messaging, video conferencing, text messaging, telecommunications, and so
forth. In an
alternative embodiment, the communications method 1312 may support network
communications protocols while, for example, the social network method 810 of
the
application-aspect interface supports higher-level communications protocols.
[0088] The traffic management method 1314 may provide a way of accessing or
providing a traffic management service. In one aspect, this method may provide
reporting on
current or historical traffic and usage, which may be provided by
corresponding services, or
may be independently monitored and reported within the core services 110, or
both. These
metrics may be reported on a per user basis, on a per service basis, or in any
other combination
useful to a recipient. It will be understood that, as with many of the other
methods described
herein, the method may be adapted to receive highly parameterized requests for
data, such as
traffic request for a specific service as used by a specific group of users
over a specific time
period, or the method may provide very simple, low-level functions, with other
core services
110 or metaservices 120 providing functionality to extract desired reports
from raw data
extracted by the method. When used in combination with other core services 110
or other
services, this method may be configured to generate and forward periodic
reports. In another
aspect, this method may, provide tools for proactively managing usage of
services. This may
include, for example, scheduling and prioritization of usage, and reports on
status of currently
executing composite services.
[0089] The pinging method 1316 may provide a way of accessing or providing a
pinging service.
[0090] A validation method 1318 may support evaluation and validation of
remote
services. This may generate user-specified or automated test calls to remote
services to ensure
proper functioning, such as by reference to a published specification of a
corresponding
programming interface. More generally, this method may support a host of
inetrics for remote,
ad hoc services including reliability, mean time between failure, performance,
bandwidth,
latency, quality of service, availability, and the like. Related services may
include audits for
security, reliability, and so forth. This method may also be used in
combination with the traffic
management method 1310 described above to more efficiently schedule processes,
or to
23
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
optimize system usage based upon variations in current and anticipated usage
of various
services underlying a composite service.
[0091] Fig. 11 shows a composite service 1100 formed from other services.
Referring to Fig. 11, a system 100 may include a plurality of sources 1404, a
spider 1402, an
aggregator 1602, a group filter 1802, a representation converter 1902, a
membership control
2002, and a plurality of clients 2008. Functionally, this arrangement may
search (through the
spider 1402) and aggregate content from the sources 1404, filter the results,
and convert the
filtered results into a suitable representation, which may include media
conversion and/or
arrangeinent into an HTML or other format. The results may be restricted to
specific clients
2008 using access control 2002. It will be understood that some or all of the
services described
above may be core services 110. At the same time, some or all of the services
described above
may be ad hoc services accessed through programming interfaces at third-party
network
locations. However at least one core service 110 or metaservice 120 will be
employed to
reconstitute the underlying services as a composite service 1100.
[0092] The clients 2008 may be computer programs under the control of a human,
such as a feed reader in a browser that is being interactively operated by the
human. The clients
2008 may be automatic computer programs, such as the service software modules
220 or any
other software modules of the logical building block 108. The lines between
the elements
depict operative couplings between services. The arrowheads generally depict
the flow of data
and instructions, and imply a corresponding client-server coupling. Although
this suggests a
pull-based methodology (i.e. clients request then servers respond), it will be
appreciated that
other embodiments exist. For example, the elements may be configured as a
collection of peers
in a peer-to-peer configuration and/or may employ a push-based methodology
(i.e., where
servers transmit to clients without receiving explicit requests). All of these
arrangements, and
other configurations of the logical elements described herein, may fall within
the scope of the
present disclosure. More general, Figure 11 serves as an example only, and in
no way limits the
scope of this disclosure. Further examples are provided below in narrative
form.
[0093] As a more concrete and detailed example of how the core services 110
may
be adapted to special purpose use, the elements described above may be
deployed to provide an
OPML seiver and database, with the core services 110 server, or another remote
server, acting
as a centralized access point. The OPML server may be configured for user
manipulation of
24
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
OPML content. The OPML server may provide services ,and content to clients 112
using, for
example, a Web interface, an API, an XML processing interface, an RSS feed, an
OPML
renderer, and the like.
[0094] The OPML server may, for example, provide a search engine service to
visitors. Output from the OPML server may be an OPML file. The file may, for
example, be
provided a name that explicitly contains the search query from which it was
created, to facilitate
redistribution, modification, recreation, synchronization, updating, and
storage of the OPML
file. A user may also manipulate the file, such as by adding or removing
outline elements
representing individual search results, or by reprioritizing or othei-wise
reorganizing the results,
and the user may optionally store the revised search as a new OPML file. Thus
in one aspect
the OPML server creates new, original OPML content based upon user queries
submitted
thereto. In a sense, this function is analogous to the function of aggregators
in an RSS
syndication system, where new content may be dynamically created from a
variety of different
sources and republished in a structured form.
[0095] The OPML server may, more generally provide a front-end for an OPML
database, which may operate from the database 111 of the core services 110 as
described above,
that stores OPML content. The OPML database may store OPML data in a number of
forms,
such as by casting the OPML structure into a corresponding relational database
where each
OPML file is encapsulated as one or more records. The OPML database may also
store linlcs to
external OPML content, or may traverse OPML content through any number of
layers and store
data, files, and the like externally referenced in OPML documents. Thus for
example, where an
OPML file references an external OPML file, the external OPML file may be
retrieved by the
database 111 and parsed and stored. The external OPML file may, in turn,
reference other
external OPML files that may be similarly processed to construct,, within the
database 111, an
entire OPML tree. The OPML database 111 may also, or instead, store OPML files
as simple
text, or in any number of formats optimized for searching (such as a number of
well-known
techniques used by large scale search engines Google, AltaVista, and the
like), or for OPML
processing, or for any other purpose(s). In a sense, the OPML database may
provide the
coherency for formation of an OPML network aniong an array of clients 112 and
computing
facilities 102, where content witllin the network is structured according to
user-created OPML
outlines.
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[0096] The OPML database may, for example, operate through the OPML server to
generate, monitor, and/or control spiders (deployed using, e.g., core services
or ad hoc services)
that locate OPML content. A spider may, upon identification of a valid OPML
file, retrieve the
file and process it into the database 111. A spider may also process an OPML
file to identify
external references, systematically traversing an entire OPML tree. A spider
may be
coordinated using known techniques to identify redundant references within a
hierarchy. A
spider may also differentiate processing according to, e.g., structure,
content, location, file
types, metadata, and the like. The user interface described below may also
include one or more
tools for configuring spiders, including a front end for generating initial
queries, displaying
results, and tagging results with any suitable metadata.
[0097] By way of example, and not of limitation, medical records may be stored
as
OPML files, either within the database 111, or in a distributed fashion ainong
numerous
locations across a network. Thus, for example, assorted X-ray data may be
maintained in one
location, MRI data in another location, patient biographical data in another
location, and clinical
notes in another location. This data may be entirely decoupled from individual
patients (thus
offering a degree of security and privacy), and may optionally include
references to other
content, such as directories of other types of data, directories of readers or
interpretive inetadata
for understanding or viewing records, and the like. Separately, OPML files may
be created to
provide structure to the distributed data. For example, a CT scan OPML master
record may
index the locations of all CT scan records, which may be useful, for example,
for studies or
research relating to aggregated CT scan data. This type of horizontal
structure may be captured
in one or more OPML records which may, themselves be hierarchical. Thus, for
example, one
OPML file may identify participating hospitals by external reference to OPML
records for those
hospitals. Each hospital may provide a top-level OPML file that identifies
OPML records that
are available, which may in turn identify all CT scan records maintained at
that hospital. The
CT scan master record may traverse the individual hospital OPML records to
provide a flattened
list of CT scan records available in the system. As another example, an OPML
file may identify
medical data for a particular patient. This OPML file may traverse records of
any number of
different hospitals or other medical institutions, or may directly identify
particular records
where, for example, concerns about confidentiality cause institutions to strip
any personally
identifying data from records. For certain applications, it may be desirable
to have a central
26
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
registry of data so that records such as patient data are not inadvertently
lost due to, for
example, data migration within a particular hospital.
[0098] Thus in one embodiment there is generally disclosed herein a pull-based
data
management system in which atomic units of data are passively maintained at
any number of
network-accessible locations, while structure is imposed on the data through
atomic units of
relationship that may be arbitrarily defined through OPML or other grammars.
The source data
may be selectively pulled and organized according to user-defined OPML
definitions. The
OPML server and OPML database may enable such a system by providing a
repository for
organization and search of source data in the network 100. Operations (such as
traversing
OPML trees to fully scope an outline composed of a number of nested OPML
outlines) may be
performed by a client 112, or may be performed by the OPML server, either upon
request from
a client 112 for a particular outline, or continually in a manner that insures
integrity of external
reference links.
[0099] In another aspect, there is disclosed herein a link maintenance system
for use
in an OPML network. In general, a link maintenance system may function to
insure integrity of
external references contained within OPML files. Broken links, which may
result for example
from deletion or migration of source content, may be identified and addressed
in a number of
ways. For example, a search can be performed using the OPML server and OPML
database for
all OPML files including a reference to the missing target. Additionally, the
OPML server
and/or OPML database may include a registry of content sources including an e-
mail contact for
managers or administrators of outside sources. Notification of the broken link
may be sent to
all owners of content including a reference to the content. Optionally, the
OPML server may
automatically modify content to delete or replace the reference, assuming the
OPML server has
authorization to access such content. The OPML server may contact the owner of
the missing
content. The message to the owner may include a request to provide an
alternative link, which
may be forwarded to owners of all content that references the missing content.
If the referenced
subject matter has been fully indexed by the OPML seiver and/or OPML database,
the content
may be reconstructed, and a replacement link to the location of the
reconstructed content
provided. Various combinations of reconstruction and notification, such as
those above, may be
applied to maintain the integrity of links in OPML source files indexed in the
database 111. In
various einbodiments the links may be continuously verified and updated, or
the linlcs may be
27
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
updated only when an OPML document with a broken link is requested by a client
112 and
processed or traversed by the client 112 or the OPML server in response.
[00100] The functionality of this OPML network, or more specifically, the
medical
OPML network, may be implemented using a combination of core services and
metaservices.
Thus as disclosed herein, the core services may be configured as a special
purpose server, such
as an OPML server and database, using pre-defined core services 110 and ad hoc
services
available as programming interfaces on a network. ,
[00101] Referring now to Fig. 12, an interface 2202 between logical building
blocks
108 (alternatively referred to herein as functional elements, or simply
elements) may include a
Web URL 2204, a description URL 2208, a feed URL 2210, and a kernel URL 2212.
This
general format may be used for core services 110 and/or ad hoc services. As a
significant
advantage, ad hoc services conforming to this architecture by providing a
description URL 2208
may be more readily discovered and exploited within the metaservices framework
described
herein.
[00102] The Web URL 2204 may provide an interface to a functional element
using
an HTTP server, which employs HTML-based representations of the services
provided by the
element. This optional interface may be employed to provide access to services
of the element
for a web-only client such as a traditional Web browser.
[00103] The description URL 2208 may refer to a location where a client puts
or gets
a description or configuration file for the interface to the element,
including aspects such as
formats or syntax for accessing functionality of the element, alternative
locations for accessing
the element, parameters that may be passed to the element, and interpretation
of any result from
the service, such as format, structure, return codes, and so forth. The
configuration file may be
represented as an OPML file, or using any other suitable format.
[00104] The feed URL 2210 may provide a location where a client can retrieve a
feed-based representation of the objects provided by the functional element.
Effectively, this
provides an output or response from the service that is accessible using an
HTTP Get to, for
example, an RSS feed of results. In an embodiment, the feed-based
representation is provided
according to the RSS 2.0 format, but any suitable format, such as a variety of
syndication or
outlining formats, XML, plain text, or the like may be used.
28
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[00105] The kernel URL 2212 provides a location where a client may access the
services of the kernel, its aspects, and the service software components built
thereon. In the
preferred embodiment, the services are accessed via HTTP Get and HTTP Post,
however any
suitable protocol may be used. Through this URL, a client may access the
services of a
functional element, or other functional elements associated with that
functional element. More
generally, the kernel URL provides a general and adaptable interface through
which a client can
access any service that the logical block iinplements, or that that the
logical block has access to.
Conversely, the other URLs of the interface may provide static pathways to
corresponding
content.
[00106] While HTTP is one useful protocol for use with the systems described
herein,
other embodiments may be usefully employed. For example, a client may access
the services at
the kernel URL via the SMTP protocol. In this case, the services at the kernel
URL may accept
inputs and provide outputs in the form of SMTP e-mail messages. In
embodiments, the logical
building block may include a plurality of kernel URLs, each of which
implements a different
protocol. Thus, the logical building block may have an HTTP kernel URL and an
SMTP kernel
URL. Numerous other examples will be appreciated and are intended to fall
within the scope of
the present invention.
[00107] In embodiments, one element may provide a service that crawls or
spiders an
environment to generate a description file for the environment, or resources
(e.g., other
elements) available in the environment. In one aspect, the results may be
stored in a database,
and the element may present this as a searchable database of functional
elements within the
environment, such as by indexing the results according to elements of the
description file. In
another aspect, the element may configure itself to communicate with other
elements according
to their description files, and the element may further modify its own
description file to reflect
any new services or remote elements accessible therefrom. It will be
appreciated that such an
automatically configuring element or group of elements may take many forms.
For example,
the element may incorporate any identified methods so that they operate within
the element. As
another example, the element may present references to external or remote
methods so that they
may be located, but not directly accessed, througli the description file of
the element. Some
embodiments may run in one computing facility, others may operate over a
plurality of
computing facilities. Some embodiments may automatically provide redundancy,
failover,
29
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
logging, and the like, either by default or optionally through an interface
described within the
description file.
[00108] In one embodiment, the interface 2202 of Fig. 12 may be used to
provide the
composite service 1100 described in reference to Fig. 11. In another
embodiment, the interface
2202 may be used to provide the OPML server and database described above. In
general, any
composite service that can be created using the core services 110,
metaservices 120, and ad hoc
services described above may be provided as a network-accessible service using
the interface
2202 of Fig. 12.
[00109] In one aspect, the architecture described above may be employed to
provide
an interface, such as an HTTP-based, put/get interface for a variety of
syndication, outlining,
and related functions. In embodiments, aspects of such a system may be
presented to an
application developer in the form of an Application Programming Interface
("API"). This API
may include software interfaces allowing an application developer to access
one or more
syndication services within an operational kernel or description file of a
server. This may
include, without limitation, syndication services such as create, publish,
and/or subscribe;
semantic services such as outlining, listing, adding, deleting, tagging,
labeling, analyzing,
filtering, sorting, and the like; database functions such as read, write,
search, retrieve, and the
like; security services such as encryption, decryption, authentication,
access, and the like;
infrastructure services such as traffic management, routing, redundancy,
logging, and so forth;
and any other services that might be usefully employed within an enhanced
syndication.
[00110] An application developer may use the API to .develop an application
that uses
one or more of the syndication services and any other services in the enhanced
syndication
environment, as well as any number of ad hoc services available on a network.
The syndication
services may be implemented in an operating system, in a database management
system, in a
user-level process on a client, in a user-level process on a server, as a Web
service, and so forth.
While in one aspect, the API presented by a server may operate exclusively
using on protocol
(or combination of protocols), it will be understood that the API may access
other services that
communicate using a variety of different protocols or communications media,
including ad hoc
services available through programming interfaces on remote sites. For
example, one service
may have an API iinplemented in a user-level process on a client, and the
interface between the
application and the user-level process may be a socket through which one or
more messages
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
may be passed. As another example, one API may be implemented as a Web
service, where the
interface between a user (which may be another service) and the Web service is
an HTTP
session over which one or more messages may be passed via SOAP. The
application
programming interface may employ a TCP/IP socket over which remote procedure
calls are
passed. The API may be implemented in a database management system. The
interface
between the application and the user-level process may include XQUERY
messages.
Alternatively, the database management system may include an integral
impleinentation of the
API, which may without limitation be accessed as a Web service. Thus, a simple
interface
employing HTTP-based gets and puts may expose a variety of services within a
networked
environment in a manner fransparent to a user. Further, this interface may be
extended to
provide access to services using other prograinming interfaces.
[00111] It will be appreciated that this approach to deploying and integrating
services
and functions offers significant advantages. The use of HTTP-based gets and
puts offers
effectively universal accessibility, while URL's offer a commonly accepted
platform for
addressing elements of an (extensible) API. Similarly, the description file
may employ OPML
or similar outlining structures for a standardized grammar for describing the
interface. The
result may be a highly distributed, multi-user environment of variably-
structured services and
functional blocks. The system may employ any degree of data typing, and
accommodate an
ever expanding collection of cooperating elements which may be recursive, self-
referential, and
recombinant. The collective system may perform a wide variety of syndication-
related, as well
as non-syndication-related, functions at varying degrees of complexity. Thus,
for example, an
interface of an element may combine, index, access, move, convert, filter, or
otherwise
manipulate content. In addition, the interface may be employed to trigger
other operations from
other building blocks, or to display or transmit data.
[00112] In one application, the platform above may support a semantic computer
that
offers a family of functions organized around processing of content available
on a network.
This semantic computer may provide any number of core functions for
processing, and
optionally may provide extensibility as described above for additional
functions that are, for
example, user-created and endorsed by a user community. For example, the
semantic computer
may include a programming interface that includes an interface for
membership/sign-in, spider
31
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
configuration and deployment, aggregation or storage of spider results,
parsing, organizing
(using, e.g., OPML), and output or display of results.
[00113] A programming interface for performing these functions may include the
following core elements:
Get
In: A URL of an element, object, pool, relation; zero or more constraints
Out: The element, object, pool, relation, according to the constraints
Constraints: "current," "in date range <start> <end>," "matches <keyword>,"
"index
is <index>."
Post
In: An element, object, pool, relation; a URL of a service
Actions: Posts the input to the service at the URL
Put
In: element, object, pool, or relation; a URL
Actions: Puts the input at the URL
Delete
In: A URL of an element, object, pool, or relation
Actions: Deletes the thing at the URL
Getlndexes
In: A URL of an element, object, pool, relation
Out: The indexes of the thing at the URL
Postlndex
In: An index; a URL of an element, object, pool, relation
Actions: Posts the index to the thing at the URL
Putlndex
In: An index; a URL
Actions: Puts the input at the URL
Deletelndex
In: An index; a URL of an element, object, pool, or relation
Actions: Deletes the index of thing at the URL
32
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[00114] The programming interface may also, or instead, include RSS-specific
methods, such as:
ImportRS SFeed
In RSS Feed URL; import format (e.g. a schema, "HTML," etc.)
Out The feed formatted according to the import format
GetRSSFeedsByTag
In: A tag
Out: All RSS feeds tagged with the tag
[00115] The programming interface may also, or instead, include OPML-specific
methods such as:
GetRelatedOPMLs
In URL of OPML file
Out OPML of all related OPML files
HostOPML*
In OPML, opmlname
Out Hosted OPML URL
HostOPMLFromURL*
In OPML URL,opminame
Out Hosted OPML URL
TagOPML
In Hosted OPML URL, tag
GetOPMLByTag
In tag
Out All OPML tagged with the tag
CreateUserAccount
In Username, Password
Out Encrypted password key for usemame
GetMyOPMLFiles
In Usemame/Encrypted password
Out OPML file of all hosted OPML files for usemame
GetMyOPMLFile
33
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
In Hosted OPML URL, encrypted password
Out OPML
ValidateOPML
In OPML
Out Valid/Invalid
Validate OPMLByURL
In OPML URL
Out Valid/Invalid
GetOPMLRSS
In OPML URL
Out RSS of all posts of contained feeds
ReadOPML
In OPML URL
Out HTML of all posts of contained feeds
IsOPMLContained
In Parent OPML URL, Child OPML URL
Out True/False of if the parent contains the child
IsOPMLRelated
In Parent OPML URL, Child OPML URL
Out True/False of if the two URLs are related
GetRelatedOPML
In OPML URL
Out All OPML related to this one
GetContainingOPML
In OPML URL
Out OPML file of all parents of this OPML
GetContainedOPML
In OPML URL
Out OPML file of all descendents of this URL
[00116] The programming interface may also, or instead, include OPML search
methods such as:
34
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
GetHTMLOPMLKeywordSearch
In keywords
Out HTML Outlines containing keywords in the text
GetRS S OPMLKeywordS earch
In keywords
Out RSS containing outlines containing keywords in their text
GetOPMLKeywordSearch
In keywords
Out OPML containing outlines containing keywords in their text
GetOPMLPodcastSearch
In keywords,podcasts
Out OPML with podcast feeds containing keyword(s) in their text
GetOPMLRSSSearch
In keywords,rss
Out OPML with RSS feeds containing keyword(s) in their text
GetOPMLOPMLSearch
In keywords,opml
Out OPML containing OPML outlines that contain keywords(s) in their text
GetCategoryByKeyword
In keyword, category
Out OPML of outlines containing keywords in their text that are not tree nodes
OPMLSearchFilterByURL
In keyword, URL term
Out all the above results filtered to only show URLs containing the URL terrrx
SearchOPMLByAttribute
In attribute name, keyword
Out return OPML of all OPML files containing the keyword in the value of
attribute
passed
[00117] It will be understood that the above methods are representative only,
and that
variations of the above methods may be suitably employed, including removal
from or addition
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
to the methods identified above. All such variations are intended to fall
within the scope of this
disclosure.
[00118] Thus, it will be appreciated that one general aspect of a system
described
herein includes a plurality of atomic functions for manipulation of OPML
including search,
presentation, navigation, publication, syndication, and so forth. These atomic
functions may be
exposed as individual services, as described generally above, or integrated
into an OPML
system, with a customized, web-based (or other) user interface for structured
access to and use
of OPML data. It will similarly be appreciated that the functionality
described herein may be
encapsulated in hardware such as a network server, a client computer, an
integrated circuit, or a
chip set.
[00119] A more generalized example of a useful arrangement of atomic functions
for
an OPML-based system is described below. In this example, atomic functions (or
groupings of
functions into atomic tool sets) are arranged around OPML creation, OPML
validation, OPML
publication, OPML search, OPML browsing, OPML reading, and subscription,
wllich may be
deployed using the architecture described above, or may form a set of core
services 110 for an
OPML-based metaservices system. These functions/groupings are discussed in
greater detail
below.
[00120] OPML creation: An OPML editor may be provided for creating and editing
OPML files. An OPML manager may be provided for managing collections of OPML
content
distributed across multiple files. OPML creation tools may include, for
example, tools for
migrating content into and out of OPML format, as well as reader/browser type
tools for
viewing OPML content. These OPML functions may be encapsulated in a functional
module
accessible to end users separately, or within an integrated OPML environment.
[00121] Publication/Validation: OPML content may be published at an OPML site,
or directly from a client device. Publication may be in native OPML format,
and/or may be
suitably formatted and handled for syndication. For syndication purposes, a
publication source
may independently configure its own polling frequency or else use a remote,
hosted ping API to
notify other locations of content updates. The ping interface may be an XML-
RPC standard
API. A corresponding spider for related search and indexing may, for example,
employ
robots.txt conventions to flag content in the root domain of a source. The
source URL may be
identified to never be auto-polled at a user's discretion. Auto-polling may
occur at any suitable
36
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
regular or irregular frequency, such as every 24 hours. Another tool that may
be combined with
publication tools or provided separately may validate OPML content for proper
format, etc.
These OPML functions may be encapsulated in a functional module accessible to
end users
separately, or within an integrated OPML environment.
[00122] Search: An OPML search engine may provide search capability across
published OPML using, for example, the OPML search API's described above. A
user may
specify, for example, RSS, OPML, Podcasts, Categories, or the like. Once a
user locates these
types, the user may, through the interface, render the search results, as
indicated in the interface
with hyperlinks such as Read, Listen, View RSS feeds (this is so that you can
preview a feed
before you subscribe to it), and so forth. A user may also navigate to the
OPML outline and
content, such as using an OPML browser or an OPML reader. In addition, OPML
files can be
bookmarked within the interface to permit a user to return to bookmarked
pages. These OPML
functions may be encapsulated in a functional module independently accessible
to end users, or
within an integrated OPML environment.
[00123] Browse/Read: A browser interface and functionality may be provided for
OPML files and content. In the browser, a user may navigate up and down a
hierarchy of
interrelated OPML content, and render leaf nodes containing, e.g., text,
audio, video, and the
like. Rendering engines may be provided for various media types. A user may
also, or instead,
directly read an OPML file, and navigate between OPML files through embedded
references,
using, for example, a client-side or server-side OPML renderer. These OPML
functions may be
encapsulated in a functional module independently accessible to end users, or
within an
integrated OPML environment.
[00124] Subscription: A subscribe feature may allow a user to select a default
reader
for OPML search results. Subscription to a feed of RSS or other content
identified in an OPML
file may be encapsulated within that interface as a one-click operation with,
e.g., a hyperlink or
icon. OPML source files may also, or instead, by subscribed to through a one-
click operation.
These OPML functions may be encapsulated in a functional module independently
accessible to
end users, or within an integrated OPML environment. Reading lists may also be
integrated
into an OPML system. Reading lists may be OPML documents that point to RSS
feeds. Rather
tlian a typical RSS subscription, however, a reader or aggregator may
subscribe directly to an
OPML Reading list (or other document) itself. When the author of the OPML
document adds a
37
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
feed, the aggregator may automatically check that feed in its next scan, and
when a feed is
removed, the aggregator may stop checking that feed. The editor of an OPML
file can thus
update all subscribers by updating the OPML file. These OPML functions may be
encapsulated
in a functional module independently accessible to end users, or within an
integrated OPML
environment.
[00125] Each of these functions or functions sets, such as create, validate,
publish,
search, browse, and read may be deployed independently, e.g., as a web
service, a client
program, or a hosted service encapsulated within, e.g., a web page user
interface or Application
Interaction Interface. Each function or function set may, in certain
embodiments, be accessed
individually by end users, and groups of functions or function sets may be
combined into an
integrated interface for use by end users, either locally or hosted at a
remote network location.
[00126] For example, the core services 110 and metaservices 120 may be adapted
for
use with medical records. A hospital directory may, for example, be
constructed around OPML,
with numerous data types and levels of hierarchy, all of which may be deployed
in a conditional
access environment for limited or controlled use of data and functions. The
OPML
metaservices system may be employed to permit custom interfaces for various
users on top of
the entire pool or environment of hospital data. This may include general
information interfaces
for the general public, patient interfaces with conditional access to records
for a particular
patient, physician interfaces with conditional access to data and functions
(e.g., prescription
ordering) for groups of patients under treatment by a physician, administrator
interfaces with
conditional access to financial and payment data, and so forth.
[00127] The integrated system may be deployed as a private machine with access
controlled by the creator using, e.g. password access to fuiictions, function
sets, source content,
or integrated interfaces. Similarly, an OPML chip or physical device may
integrate the
functions and function sets into hardware. In another aspect, functions and
function sets may
themselves be deployed in a social network, as generally described above with
respect to web
superservices.
[00128] In a more general aspect, the platform described above may support a
single
point of contact for fixed services, extensible services, and/or ad hoc
services. This generalized
platform may be used to deploy new composite services created from various
sources. The
platform may, for example, be used to deploy a large-scale public aggregator
that provides
38
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
access control, searching, filtering, and clustering of content, or to deploy
the OPML
server/database described above.
[00129] In another aspect, the platform may provide an integrated system for
managing semantic reference networks that arise from community-based,
interactive
collaboration and communication on a network such as the Internet. The
integrated system may
include classification schemes for naturally occurring structures such as
labels, links, keywords,
and so forth. In addition, the system may support conditional access,
instrumentation to provide
metrics for traffic and usage, security, and any of the semantic functions or
other functions
described above.
[00130] The term "service" and related terminology is now discussed in some
detail
as it relates to the systems disclosed herein. The term "superservice" is used
in Application
Integration and Middleware rubric to describe services that provide an API as
a common service
that replaces or masks other existing APIs. More generally, superservices may
be understood as
atomic, possibly canonical services that are released in a scalable,
efficient, globally available
form for re-use, combination, and re-composition into other services in a
manner that requires
no special activity by a user other than calling the superservice. Common
superservices have
evolved from, for example, various special purpose software that implements
CRM, SCM, B2B,
and other internal operational applications. These products usually operate
across two or more
operating systems, transaction processing systems, database management
systems, application
servers, and/or networking layers. Examples include adapters for accessing
ERP, CRM, or other
third-party application packages. More generally, a superservice may be any
highly scalable
atomic function that can be exposed as a service. In one aspect, the system
described herein
provides a common platform and/or central point of contact for deploying new
superservices
formed from other services and superservices that exist as ad hoc, remote
programming
interfaces. Superservices are often recognized by decomposition of large,
special-purpose
software systems, or evolved by users who identify a.nd address needs for
services in a networlc
environment, or may be derived from any other source. Superservices, along
with other
services and/or data or content sources, may be combined into composite
services using, for
example, a metaservice that provides a service for managing and combining
services.
[00131] As used herein, the term "superservice" is intended to include the web
superservices generally described above, as well as any other highly scalable,
networked service
39
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
that provides a front end for proprietary data and/or software such as
enterprise systems. The
term "metaservice" is intended to include a service for managing other
services including for
example storing, accessing, executing, testing, cataloging, indexing,
discovering, searching,
annotating, characterizing, combining, and/or publishing services and
specifying interfaces
therefore. The term "composite service", as used herein, is intended to refer
to a combination of
services. As used herein, the term "service" is intended to more generally
include any network-
available service, including but not limited to the superservice, metaservice,
and composite
services described above, along with any other resource that might be cast as
a service and made
available through a network such as web services, search engines, mapping
utilities, geolocation
services, databases, dictionaries, RSS aggregators, spiders, and so forth, as
well as mashups and
other combinations of any of the foregoing.
[00132] Thus while a metaservice may be employed to arrange ad hoc services
and
core services into a specific application, such as an OPML database and/or
server, the
metaservice may more generally be used to provide any services such as web
services, ad hoc
services, superservices, composite services (combinations of superservices
and/or other
services, released as a new service) and/or metaservices (services for
managing services,
superservices, and/or composite services), thus enabling f-ully customizable,
user-specified web
services that combine any network-connected content and/or services. Thus any
service, such
as a front end for a database, may be combined with any other service, such as
a mapping
system with an API, to provide unique user services. A server built from the
core services 110
and database 111 may provide a metaservice for organizing and combining these
services, and
sharing new, composite services with others.
[00133] This type of services composition can be observed in mashups,
including
popular combinations of mapping and other information services currently
available on the web.
Consistent with this trend, many entities are releasing increasingly low level
interfaces to web
services, such as Google's maps, or eBay's auction site. However, mashups
remain a fully
custom, one-off technique for creating composite services from these low level
interfaces. It
will be appreciated that any number of useful combinations of these and other
third party
services may be created using the metaservices described herein. This may
include
combinations of any of the following services that are present on the World
Wide Web, as well
as any other services amenable to structured access: mapping, auctions,
telephone directories,
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
patent databases, Edgar/SEC corporate filings, online want-ads (such as
Craigslist), search
engines, location services for cellular phones, services directories
(restaurants, hotels, museums,
etc.), RSS syndicated content, news feeds, stock quotes, sports scores,
dictionaries, real estate
listings, electronic commerce, legal databases (statutes and case law), multi-
player games,
IRC/online chat, and instant messaging. This may also, or instead, include new
(typically
commercial) services which may be increasingly decomposed and liberated for
use by the
public, such as: ticket sales, reservation systems, equities trading, supply
chain management,
customer ordering, customer relationship management, inventory management,
financial
reconciliation, tax preparation, and human resources. This may also include
new superservices
emerging on the web. Virtually any service that is maintained within an
enterprise or otherwise
provided by computers may be decoupled from its environment and offered as a
stand-alone
superservice for combination witli other services on the Internet. Interfaces
to such services
may be through scripting or other programmatic access to URLs or URIs with
cominand line
interfaces, RSS, OPML, XML, APIs (including SOAP), and/or any other
input/output
mechanisms through which such services may be rendered.
[00134] As described generally above, the metaservices 120 or core services
110 may
provide for metering of access to services that are commercially available so
that these services
can be incorporated into a composite service on a pay-as-you-go basis. The
core services 110
may also provide reports on usage, and may support automated or manual payment
for usage of
such commercial services.
[00135] In one aspect, there is disclosed herein a metaservice system for
locating,
manipulating, combining, and publishing services, web services, superservices,
and/or content
sources. Thus the OPML server, for example, may also function as a service
server or
metaservice platform through which individual, decomposed services are
located, registered,
and made available alone or in combination with other services through a
server such as the
server hosting the core services 110. A user interface may be provided for
searching for
services (or searching an index of services), for selecting and combining
services, and for
manually or automatically generating scripts or other portable instantiations
of composite
services which may be published, such as through the core services 110, for
use by clients 112
connected to a networlc. In another aspect, the core services 110 and database
111 may operate
as a search engine for location of services, superservices, composite
services, or otlier
41
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
metaservice servers. It will be noted that through a metaservice, composite
services may
themselves be created and syndicated, i.e., published for subscription and use
by third parties.
[00136] In a social aspect, users of the core services 110 may communicate
with one
another and share various services, superservices, and combinations of
services, which may, in
turn, be layered into additional composite services. Additionally, the
community of users may
identify new services that are needed, which may be contributed by community
members, or
constructed from existing services. Thus, in an alternative embodiment to
structuring content
through the use of OPML outlines, the core services 110 may provide a
metaservice platform
for structuring services that combine services and/or other superservices for
use through a
networlc. Similarly, decomposed services may be ca.nonically arranged and
registered or stored
within the database 111. The tools for supporting this type of social
networking may be
provided as the core services 110 or metaservices 120 described above, such as
through the
social network methods 810 of the application-aspect interface 802 thereof.
[00137] In another aspect, an interface provided by the metaservice platform
may
provide for user submissions of new services, and may provide a sandbox for
testing new
services, superservices, and composite services. The testing may ensure, for
example, end-to-
end integration and/or compatibility across various platform, hardware, and/or
software. Thus,
for example, the validation may ensure timeliness of updates or information,
compatibility with
known web browsers, responsiveness of remote application programming
interfaces, or
compatibility with certain hardware for uploads (e.g., iPods, BlackBerry e-
mail devices, Treos,
cellular phones, etc.). The metaservice platform may also maintain a reference
library of
validated superservices meeting some performance criteria. Since the
superservices themselves
may have independent commercial value in such an environment, access to
libraries of
superservices may be fee based, using any number of known business models for
electronic
commerce or software licensing. These interfaces may provided, for example
through the
infrastructure-aspect interface 1302 and/or the prograin method 804 of the
application aspect
interface 802 described above.
[00138] Significant advantages may be realized from a structured, human-
readable
approach to creating and deploying composite services that aggregate a number
of different
services to achieve a new service. As an example, OPML may provide a useful
structure for
describing an interrelationship of seivices to achieve a new coinposite
service. More generally,
42
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
any XML-based, plain text based, command line oriented, or other syntax
capable of capturing
hierarchy, chronology, structure, and the like in an outline or other suitable
format may be
usefully employed.
[00139] As a general example, services may be arranged in an outline that
describes
the manner in which they are combined. For example:
<COMPOSITE SERVICE>
Item 1
Subitem a
Sub-sub item (i)
Item 2
Subitem b
Subitem c
</COMPOSITE SERVICE>
[00140] The outline, or more generally, the conceptual structure within the
outline,
may also be expressed implicitly as a sequence of terms made available within
a URL/URI. For
example, the composite service described above can be written as an extension
of or substitute
for a URL with an in-line syntax to delimit components. Using, for example, an
ampersand, the
above expression may be stated as <COMPOSITE SERVICE>&Item 1&Subitem a&Sub-sub
item (i)&Item 2&Subitem b&Subitem c&</COMPOSITE SERVICE>. Similarly (and
consistent with IETF RFC 1738), variables for local action by a browser may be
demarcated by
a '#' symbol.
[00141] Each element of the outline of a composite service may include a
"name" and
associated "value" or values. A name in this instance refers to a pre-defined
variable and/or to a
sub-action or sub-service that is to be invoked by that element. The value
refers to but is not
limited to a character, number, letter, word, term, list, array, cluster,
object or any other kind of
data element. The value may be inserted into the variable and/or used to
condition the
invocation of the action or service that is to be carried out by the element
in the outline. The
name and/or value may include elements of outlines, URI/URLs, and/or file
names. For
example, the name "search" might be associated with "General Electric" to
invoke a search of a
given data set for information related to General Electric Corporation.
Additionally, name and
value may be extracted from a file, a URL, and/or an element of text or other
data stream, and
43
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
this in turn may help condition the action or actions being invoked. For
example, an image file
or recorded music file or video file may have metadata encoded within the file
itself, as is the
case with ID3 data in music files.
[00142] A composite service may generate an outline as output from its action
and/or
as an output of any of its sub-actions. Outlines produced in this manner may
in turn be used to
invoke other services and to condition their action, and to direct the input
of data into, and/or
output of data from, the process or processes. Where none of the services
provide persistence
for this interim data, the data may be stored in the database 111 for the core
services 110
(including, by way of example, as an RSS feed), or locally at a client device
as discussed above.
The data storage may be specified in the outline created, or may be specified
along with the
outline that specifies the composite service. In one aspect, services may each
independently
find a location to store interim data.
[00143] Each element of the outline of a composite service may refer to a
specific
service available on the network. The order may imply flow control for
composition into a new
service. Again referring to the example above, Item 1 may be performed by
applying the results
of Subitem a (which are in turn derived from Sub-sub item (i) to the service
defined by Item 1.
The output of Item 1 may be passed to the service defined by Item 2, which may
receive an
input that is the output of a sequential pre-processing by the services
defined by Subitem b and
Subitem c. In addition to sequencing, flow control may be provided with
additional delimiters
for, e.g., concatenation or combination of outputs, branching, looping,
conditional statements,
exit conditions, return codes, and the like. Each item may be further defined
using any number
of required or optional parameters. For example:
Item
<service location>
<input(s)>
(e.g., source(s) or specific value(s), format, etc.)
<service parameters>
(specification of service(s))
(any optional or required cominand parameters for the service(s))
<output format>
1. data typing
44
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
2. output location
a) another web service
b) display (with, e.g., formatting/layout parameters)
c) remote data site
d) local machine folder
3. file type
a) audio
b) video
c) presentation document (Word, PowerPoint, etc.)
[00144] Where the service defined by the item is registered with a metaservice
such
as one of the metaservices described above, the parameters may be
automatically reviewed,
filtered, corrected, supplemented, or otherwise interpreted before invoking
the service identified
by the item. Thus a layer of intelligence may be provided by a metaservice for
registered, or
otherwise known or recognized services. Optionally, an unregistered service
may be called
blind, i.e., invoked by reference to a location with one or more strings of
commands that are
unconditionally passed to the identified location.
[00145] In one aspect, a composite service may take the form list/logic or
attribute/value pairs. In a list/logic pair, the composite service grammar may
specify locations
or lists coupled with logic. A list could, for example, include a URL, a
source, a folder, a file,
HTML code, HTML permalinks, source code, and so forth. More generally, the
list may be any
data or content at any location. The logic may specify one or more operations
to. perform on the
list, or optionally, a service to receive the list. The logic may further be
pararneterized
according to any corresponding capabilities of the service or logical
operation receiving the list.
This may include switches, parameters, options, and the like such as are
conventionally found in
a command line syntax or the like.
[00146] The core services 110 or metaservices 120 described above may include
a
metaservices engine such as a parsing service for analyzing and processing
composite services,
whether expressed as list/logic pairs or any other suitable syntax or grammar.
Thus for
example, the metaservices 120 may include a selvice for parsing,
choreographing, and
executing a composite service, and for post-processing any results therefrom.
This metaservices
engine may be invoked directly by passing a suitably formatted outline, or may
be invoked
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
internally by a user interface provided by the core services 110 (or
metaservices 120), or some
combination of these. In einbodiments, a browser or similar program at a
client 112 may be
locally configured to provide a human-usable interface for accessing the
metaservices engine.
This interface may be generalized, or may be specific to a certain task,
service, or function.
[00147] In one aspect, a virtual machine may be formed by a master list of
tasks for
the core services 110. The master list may include a list of tasks or
elements, each of which
may contain actual logic (e.g., code of any form) or abstract functional
descriptions, or
references to external sources of the foregoing. The master list may organize
and schedule
tasks. Much as a computer prograin executing on a computer, the core services
110 may parse
and execute (as appropriate) elements of the master list in programmatic
fashion to achieve a
design objective. Using the techniques described above, the core services 110
may call remote
services that consist of nothing more than an application programming
interface available
through a network. The core services 110 may orchestrate presentation of a
suitably formatted
request to the programming interface and retrieval of any output from the
service. Thus, widely
distributed and unstructured data and services may be marshaled to one or more
prograinmatic
objectives of the core services 110, which may be hosted at a metaservices
server that provides
a central point of contact for accessing and managing network services. As a
significant
advantage, this general architecture may accommodate various distributions of
data and
processing, which may be optimized according to constraints such as data
mobility or
processing resources.
[00148] Other generalized computing concepts may be realized within the
framework
described above. Where a plurality of remote sites offer the same programming
interface and
services, the master list may employ parallelism and/or pipelining. Similarly,
the master list
may employ redundancy for important tasks. In various configurations, new
tasks or logic may
be expressed in the master list for execution, or deployed as a new service
that can be invoked
by a metaservices engine processing the master list. All such uses and
variations are intended to
fall within the scope of this disclosure.
[00149] In various embodiments, a composite service may execute locally on a
client
device that parses the structure of the master list, or the service may be
created by a metaservice
that orchestrates execution and provides any explicit or implicit flow control
along with any
required transient storage. Optionally, the metaservice may simply coordinate
connections
46
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
among the services without handling inputs and outputs except for a final
result. Of course, this
latter embodiment would require services that permit connections to be created
among each
other from a remote location, or otherwise provide for transient storage to
support data
persistence. A composite service may, for example, overlay or combine multiple
outputs into a
single, end-user display or data set.
[00150] Thus there is generally provided herein a programming language or
syntax
for creating, managing, invoking, searching, and syndicated composite
services. The syntax
may be expressed in OPML, or any other suitable grammar, and may provide for
flow control,
input/output management, parameterization of service calls, and the like for
orchestration of a
number of remote services into a composite service. The OPML (or other
grammar) may be
shared with others, who may use a particular composite service in combination
with other
services, or modify the composite service, or some combination of these. The
composite
service may be registered with a metaservice, or syndicated for third party
use.
[00151] In another aspect, the metaservice may provide a forms-based system
for
creating composite services by providing a searchable database of registered
services, along
with forms that structure inputs, outputs, parameterization of service calls,
and the like.
[00152] Unlike Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), which
relies on standardized protocols for a Web services registry, the systems
described herein can
accommodate registration as a technique to simplify user access to registered
services, while
permitting reference to arbitrary services regardless of their relationship to
a metaservice or
other registration site. Further, the systems described herein may permit a
human-readable
document to describe the interrelationship and flow control of a number of
separate services. In
particular, a syntax such as OPML, or OPML supplemented by a flow control
syntax, may be
used to embody a composite service of remote services. In addition, whether
intended for local
or remote execution, the composite service description itself may be shared
through direct
transfer or syndication using, for example, RSS or any other syndication
techniques described
herein.
[00153] The composite services, and techniques for creating same, as described
herein may be used to deploy a wide array of new services. For example, using
a Wireless
Access Protocol for a portable device, a user may provide location
information, status, and the
like, which may be converted to an OPML output that may be made available to
OPML search
47
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
engines. A composite service may be configured, for example, to retrieve
information for
specific individuals (such as through a search or filter of location/status
OPML files) and
present location information on a map (such as through the Google Map API)
along with a link
or call out to status information. Optionally, the output or display of data
may be configured to
show multiple user locations, along with buttons to select individuals on a
pick list for whom
location may be displayed. Or, if the user information includes a group or
affiliation; the output
may also include a control to select a particular group for display within a
map. Where location
data is also syndicated, a data feed may be used to reconstruct not only a
location, but a map
showing changes in location over time, or a path taken by the located
individual.
[00154] Composite services may be created for enhanced aggregator functions.
For
example, a composite service may be configured to render an outline of
syndicated feeds by
displaying the outline structure, and rendering within that outline groups of
items from each
feed (such as an RSS feed) identified.
[00155] Composite services may be created for managing multimedia content. For
example, a composite service may be configured to search for podcast content
within an OPML
data structure, and render the content as a list of podcast items, aloiig with
an address of a
location for the item. As another example, a composite service may be
configured to identify
podcast content, apply a filter (which may be a remote service or program
logic within the
composite service description) for suitable content, convert any responsive
items into a single
file format, and storing the converted items in a folder, which may be a
remote storage folder or
a folder on a user's local machine. A scheduler may re-execute the composite
service either by
proinpting a user for a refresh or re-executing on a fixed timetable. As
another example, the
composite service described above may be applied to video content. The system
may be
extensible. For example, the description above mentions a filter, which would
presumably be a
filter for metadata associated with multimedia. However, an independent
developer may
develop a content filter that analyzes, e.g., audio content and creates a
feature vector useful for
measuring perceived similarity to other audio content. If the developer
provides this
fiuictionality as a network-accessible programming interface, the content-
based filter may be
integrated into the podcast filter to identify, e.g., music that a user would
probably like. As
another example, a developer may create a tecluiique for embedding media with
a digital
watermark that encodes data into the media. This may be employed to certify,
identify, or log
48
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
media as it is processed. This watermarking may be incorporated into any media
processing
through suitable incorporation of the corresponding remote, unstructured
service.
[00156] Composite services may be used to prepare summary documents. For
example, a spider or search engine may be applied to traverse an OPML tree
structure, with
results output to a file format such as PowerPoint, Word, or Excel. Parameters
for such a
service may include outline levels to be displayed, and an outline level at
which pagination
occurs (e.g., new page at each change in outline level 2).
[00157] Fig. 13 shows an architecture for user interaction with various
distributed
content. In general, the architecture 2300 includes an OPML-based content
collection 2302, a
rendering and conversion system 2304, an abstraction layer 2308,-and a number
of user
interfaces 2310 on client devices 2312. While generally depicted as a bottom-
up process of
rendering content and services on client devices, it should be understood
that, consistent with
this disclosure, the process may move from client devices 2312 to the
collection 2302, such as
where a client device 2312 publishes new content or creates and releases a new
service.
Similarly, while the description below focuses on obtaining customized client
views of
unstructured content and services, these new views may themselves form new
services or
content that can be published to the collection 2302 for use by others. In the
following
description, the term "content" is used generally to refer to data in any
format, as well as
services such as any of the services described above, and any other network-
accessible, or
potentially network-accessible resources.
[00158] The OPML-based content collection 2302 includes content of any type
that
might be organized into relationships using, for example, OPML. Other content
may include
documents (such as e-mail, calendar entries, spreadsheets, word p'rocessing
documents, PDF,
presentation documents (such as power point5, and the like), services such as
any of the services
described above, multimedia (audio, video, animation, etc.), RSS or other
syndicated formats,
databases (including search engines) and any other electronic content, as well
as additional
OPML structures which may or may not be interrelated with one another. It will
be appreciated
that, while OPML is one convenient language for interrelating content into
knowledge
structures, any other suitable technologies may be employed such as other
outlining languages,
directory structures, relational databases, and so forth. More generally, the
collection 2302 may
be understood as a set of network-accessible content, along with an
infrastructure for accessing
49
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
and manipulating same. In one embodiment, this encompasses all content
available on the
Internet. In other embodiments, the content may be all content within an
enterprise, or a subset
of publicly available resources defined by access-control restrictions,
individual preference, or
the like.
[00159] The rendering and conversion system 2304 may be provided to
accommodate
the various content types available to the system. This may include rendering
engines for
various content using proprietary and open formats, as well as any number of
conversion
eingines for converting content into a suitable form for end use. In addition,
significant
advantages may be realized by providing bi-directional converters for OPML (or
any other
language used to interrelate the content) so that knowledge structures may be
readily ported into
or out of the system. Thus, for example, an OPML structure may-be converted
into a power
point presentation for purposes of communicating to others, or a Word document
may be
converted into an OPML outline. More generally, bi-directional converters may
be usefully
employed to enhance content (including services) creation options for client
devices 2312.
Suitable converters may be provided, for example, through the interpretation
method 1108 of
the semantic-aspect interface 1102, the media viewer method 808 of the
application-aspect
interface 802, the format-display method 904 of the client-aspect interface
902, or the data
transformation method 1010 of the data-aspect interface 1002, or any
combination of these
appropriate for a particular conversion type.
[00160] The abstraction layer 2308 may be employed to translate content
between its
native, distributed format and a form suitable for interaction in a user
interface (such as the
interfaces described with reference to Figs. 14 and 15 below). Thus for
example, documents,
services, multimedia and other content may be represented as icons or other
user-operable
objects that can'be positioned within a user interface. OPML relationships may
be converted to
lines interconnecting such objects. Where the underlying content has
associated metadata or
properties, these may be presented within the object as buttons, drop-down
menus, text, and so
forth. Thus, for example, where a database object is presented through the
abstraction layer, a
table structure or a query interface may be presented directly within the
object in a user
interface, or in a manner accessible through the interface. Multimedia may be
presented within
a frame that includes controls such as volume, progress bar, forward, back,
pause, color, and so
forth. Services may be presented in an object that lists or provides access to
API components.
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[00161] In a navigation mode, a user interface 2310 may present content to a
user in
its abstracted form, with relationships shown within the interface 2310. The
interface 2310 may
enable management of the content by, for example, showing a certain number of
layers within a
hierarchy, and permitting a user to jump from node to node within a hierarchy.
A user interface
2310 may also be preconfigured for certain types of data. For example, a
health care
information user interface might automatically provide a directory of
hospitals, a topical map of
high level categories, and a link to data restricted to access by treating
physicians. The health
care interface might also place conditional access controls at a top menu
level for ready access,
and may provide access to functional aspects of health care systems for
suitably authorized
users (for example, a prescription ordering system). By contrast, a general
news interface might
place filtering controls at a top level, along with an area for configuring
paid content
subscriptions. Each interface might default to specific OPML data sets or
hierarchies. A user
may also configure the interface according to personal preferences for
rendering modes and
tools that are provided within a menu hierarchy. In one aspect, the interface
and elements
thereof may be provided by the core services 110 and/or metaservices 120
described above.
[00162] In a manipulation mode, the user interface 2310 may permit a user to
alter
content. Thus for example, a new document may be added to the content by, for
example,
dragging and dropping an icon into the interface, associating the icon with a
local document,
and connecting the icon (within the interface) to an OPML structure or another
document
already in the interface. The resulting document and association(s) may then
be automatically
passed through the abstraction layer (uploaded), passed through any
appropriate
rendering/conversion steps, and placed into the content collection 2302.
Alternatively, an
explicit publish command may be provided by the user. In a services example, a
number of
services within the network may be interconnected within the user interface to
create a
composite service as generally described above. The user interface may also
include tools for
validating and publishing suchcomposite services. In another example, a
database may be
queried, with results passed to a service that outputs content which may be
stored in a
spreadsheet, which may be provided to a user through the user interface or
republished into the
OPML-based content. Any number of permutations are possible. Generally, the
architecture
provided herein contemplates access to and use of all such resources within a
user interface
which may be customized for various users and use types. Search engines, media
converters,
51
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
outlines, syndicated content, Web pages, and any other content, whether
document-based or
functional, may be viewed and manipulated.
[00163] Thus in one aspect there is provided herein a visualization tool for
Internet
content. The visualization tool provides a medium for viewing, manipulating,
interrelating, and
viewing relationships among various content. The tool may also provide
configurable access to
services. Views may be configured for different data types (e.g., health care,
financial, news,
sports, etc.), different professions (doctor, lawyer, accountant), and
different data structures
(e.g., OPML, structured databases, etc.). These views may be expressed as
composite services
that can be processed by a metaservice, and may be customized for individual
use, and may be
shared or published for third parties.
[00164] In another aspect, provided herein are visual design tools for
manipulating
web-accessible services.
[00165] In another aspect, provided herein is a design environment for
functionally
interconnecting web-based content.
[00166] In another aspect, provided llerein is a visually oriented OPML
manager
providing tools for visualizing and manipulating OPML-based relationships and
content.
[00167] In one embodiment, an additional functional layer may be added for
post-
processing content. In one implementation, data such as RSS data or other
documents, may be
processed to create organizational metadata such as an index, table of
contents, list of
figures/multimedia, bibliography, and the like, and this may be converted into
an OPML
structure that may be navigated using, e.g., the viewers described above. Thus
in one aspect,
disclosed herein is a system for automatic conversion of syndicated content or
other data into
OPML structures. The conversion may include searching, filtering, and
clustering of syndicated
content according to user parameters, as described generally, for example, in
U.S. App. No.
11/223,826 and the documents referred to therein.
[00168] Fig. 14 shows a spreadsheet paradigm that may be used as a user
interface
2400 for the navigation, management, and visualization tools described herein.
It will be
understood that the term spreadsheet, as used herein, refers to the visual
organization of
elements rather than functionality. At the same time, the spreadsheet
interface 2400 may
employ conventional spreadsheet nomenclature and operations to manipulate data
and other
items within the spreadsheet.
52
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[00169] In the spreadsheet, a service such as a search may be parameterized
using,
e.g., values entered into cells of the spreadsheet. Cells may also, or
instead, contain functional
specifications, such as descriptions of Boolean operators, aggregation,
filtering, output formats,
conversions, mathematical operators, conditional statements, and so forth.
These may be, for
example written in a programming language specifically adapted for spreadsheet
visualization,
or using an existing programming language or syntax, by a creator of the
spreadsheet or, they
may contain interim or final results copied and pasted from other locations.
In other
embodiments, a cell may simply contain a reference to an external location
where the desired
service, function, parameter, or the like is present. Thus each cell may carry
local content, or be
defined with respect to other content. Similarly, each cell carries a global
reference unique to
the spreadsheet, so that it may be referenced from within the spreadsheet.
These cells may also,
or instead, be globally unique if the name of the spreadsheet can be uniquely
identified within a
global name hierarchy.
[00170] Thus, as depicted in Fig. 14, a user may create an area for filters
within the
spreadsheet. The top line of the filters area carries a title, which may or
may not have
functional significance within the spreadsheet. That is, the title line may
simply carry text
inserted by the user to denote the significance of additional content within a
column, row, or, as
depicted, a bordered box of cells. In other embodiments, the word "Filter"
appearing in a
column may indicate that related adjacent cells are filter descriptions having
a certain
predetermined syntax. Similarly, a user may populate cells with spidering
tools, formatting
tools, source lists, media types, keywords, or any other relevant parameters
for a spreadsheet.
For example, each cell within the spidering tools list may include a title
that is visible within the
spreadsheet, along with an associated specification for a spider which may
either be executed
locally or deployed as a service accessible at a defined network address. Thus
the functionality
of a particular spider may be abstracted to a title meaningful to the user. A
user may, as another
example, populate "format outputs" cells within various format conversions,
which may, in turn
be parameterized with exception handling, pagination, viewer capabilities, and
so fortll. Each
cell may, for example, be parameterized with content from other cells, such as
by using media
types to parameterize a filter or spider, or by using an output type to
parameterize the format for
results.
53
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[00171] In one aspect, a composite function may be formed from other functions
within the spreadsheet. Thus, for example, a current view may be constructed
by
parameterizing a search and a filter operation, and sending the output to, in
this case, a region
within the current page, using an output format designated in another cell. An
output format
may, for example, designate a content conversion, an output format, and
related parameters.
For example, an RSS-to-CSV formatted output may specify that only a source,
content
hyperlink, and title are to be presented. Thus the output of a spreadsheet may
be as depicted in
Fig. 14 - a list of relevant items, along with hyperlinks (including text
and/or icons) to
underlying content. This list may also be referenced by additional functions,
such as a sorting
function in another cell, which sorts according to some user-defined criteria
and presents only
the top five results. These results may also be used to populate a pre-defined
region of the
spreadsheet, or may be output to another medium such as an OPML document, a
Word
document or, where the content is multimedia content, to a portable device
such as a cellular
phone or iPod.
[00172] While a search is depicted, it will be appreciated that this
methodology may
be applied to any combination of services that combines databases, RSS feeds,
OPML, web
pages, web services, unstructured services, maps, API's, and any other
resources that might be
available on a network, such as the services described above, and may be used
to specify
complex, composite services within an intuitive user environment. Also, while
the structure of
the "Current View" is depicted as a command line, it will be appreciated that
the structure may
be graphically depicted using a flow chart, state diagram, or other process-
oriented graphical
language.
[00173] In addition, the view itself may be constructed within a graphical
user
interface using drag-and-drop components, each of which may be user-defined
and/or user
parameterized. One example of a suitable graphical user interface is described
below with
reference to Fig. 15.
[00174] Fig. 15 depicts a user interface for a graphical environment for
managing
composite services as described herein. As depicted, the interface 2502 may
provide drag-and-
drop elements such as functions 2504 (which may include manually defined
mathematical,
Boolean, conditional, and/or flow related aspects, as well as references to
external functions),
inputs 2506 (which may include local data items, key-value or attribute-value
pairs, lists,
54
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
OPML, data sources (optionally with defined queries), and the like, as well as
references to
remote or external data) and outputs 2508 (which may include data formats,
database
commands, display types, document or media formats, device types, and the
like, as well as
addresses for output where an output file is created), all of which may be
placed and
interconnected by a user. Each object may be active, and may be activated such
as by double
clicking to invoke a menu, lists, command lines, or other elements that may be
used to
configure the selected item, such as providing data or pointers to local or
remote data and/or
services that miglit be used to foim the composite service. In one aspect, the
system may
employ internal feedback, such as by supplementing a user-defined source list
("Source List 1")
with additional sources identified during a search, or by supplementing the
Keywords with
highly correlated terms.
[00175] The interface may also provide operational data, such as the last time
and/or
date that the output was updated, or a most recent date for inputs or
externally referenced
functions (e.g., remote services). A refresh command may be provided to permit
a manual
refresh of output. In addition, a user may configure the service to refresh
periodically. Where
the composite service created within the interface 2502 is to be published, a
user may also
provide, through the interface 2502, a description of the syntax for invoking
the service, such as
the order and format of inputs. This description may be presented to external
users through a
variety of means, including without limitation the description URL described
above. The
interface 2502 may also provide a publication tool that permits the composite
service, once
designed and tested to the satisfaction of the author, to be published along
with an automatically
or manually generated API for accessing the composite service. In other
embodiments, the
publication tool may permit publication as a web application adapted for human
use through a
web browser or the like.
[00176] Thus, there is disclosed herein a graphical user interface for
managing
composite services. The interface may provide for creation, visualization,
editing, and
publication of composite services in web application or programming interface
form. The
interface may provide GUI access to any of the core services 110 or
metaservices 120 described
above, as well as other content and services, and may provide accompanying
tools for validation
and so forth.
CA 02615523 2008-01-15
WO 2007/011917 PCT/US2006/027794
[00177] It will be appreciated that the above processes, and steps thereof,
may be
realized in hardware, software, or any combination of these suitable for a
particular application.
The hardware may include a general purpose computer and/or dedicated computing
device. The
processes may be realized in one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers,
embedded
microcontrollers, programmable digital signal processors or other programmable
device, along
with internal and/or external memory. The processes may also, or instead, be
embodied in an
application specific integrated circuit, a programmable gate array,
programmable array logic, or
any other device that may be configured to process electronic signals. It
will,further be
appreciated that the process may be realized as computer executable code
created using a
structured programming language such as C, an object oriented programming
language such as
C++, or any other high-level or low-level programming language (including
assembly
languages, hardware description languages, and database programming languages
and
technologies) that may be stored, compiled or interpreted to run on one of the
above devices, as
well as heterogeneous combinations of processors, processor architectures, or
combinations of
different hardware and software. At the same time, processing may be
distributed across a
camera system and/or a computer in a number of ways, or all of the
functionality may be
integrated into a dedicated, standalone device or other hardware. All such
permutations and
combinations are intended to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.
[00178] It will also be appreciated that means for performing the steps
associated
with the processes described above may include any of the hardware and/or
software described
above. In another aspect, each process, including individual process steps
described above and
combinations thereof, may be embodied in computer executable code that, when
executing on
one or more computing devices, performs the steps thereof.
[00179] While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the
preferred
embodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications and
improvements thereon
will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the
spirit and scope of the
present invention is not to be limited by the foregoing examples, but is to be
understood in the
broadest sense allowable by law.
56
