Application Crawler for Dynamic Web Content Indexing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Standard web crawlers are inadequate for modern web applications, which often rely on multiple file types and dynamic content, failing to extract detailed information from complex, instantiated web pages and applications.
Innovation Solution
A crawler that inspects and indexes the object model of web applications, instantiating components like scripts, media players, and dynamic HTML to extract metadata and content, simulating user interactions to gather information from instantiated web pages across networks and sites.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If standard web crawlers are used to parse HTML text files, then the crawler can process static documents efficiently, but it fails to extract detailed information from modern web applications with dynamic content and multiple file types
Solution Approach 1:
The crawler is divided into specialized modules: an HTML parser for static content, a script executor for JavaScript/VBScript, a media player inspector for video/audio files, and an object model inspector for dynamic content. Each module handles specific file types and can be independently configured, allowing the system to process multiple formats without requiring complete architectural redesign for each new content type.
Solution Approach 2:
The crawler is designed as a universal system that can process multiple file types (HTML, JavaScript, VBScript, video files, audio files, Flash animations) through a single integrated architecture. The object model inspector and script executor provide multi-functional capabilities that work across different web application types, enabling the crawler to adapt to various content formats without requiring separate specialized tools for each format.
2Measurement precision
If the crawler inspects and instantiates all components of modern web applications, then it can extract detailed information from dynamic content, but the processing time and computational resources increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The crawler performs preliminary actions by downloading and caching all necessary components (HTML files, scripts, style sheets, media files) before the actual inspection and instantiation phase. This preliminary gathering of materials allows the subsequent extraction phase to proceed more efficiently without repeated network requests, reducing overall processing time while maintaining comprehensive information extraction.
Solution Approach 2:
The crawler implements selective instantiation based on configuration parameters and detected content types. Rather than instantiating every possible component unconditionally, the system performs partial instantiation only for components relevant to the current crawling task and content type, reducing unnecessary processing overhead while still extracting required information accurately.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method is provided for searching for files on the Internet. In one embodiment, the method may provide an application crawler that assembles and dynamically instantiates all components of a web page. The instantiated web application may then be analyzed to locate desired components on the web page. This may involve finding and analyzing all clickable items in the application, driving the web application by injecting events, and extracting information from the application and writing it to a file or database.