Automated Content Retrieval for Fragmented Linked Documents
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face frustration and inefficiency when trying to copy or output portions of fragmented electronic documents, as they need to navigate repeatedly and perform multiple cut-and-paste operations across linked documents, lacking a convenient means to consolidate content into a single, unified format.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for automated content retrieval from a collection of linked documents, allowing users to create a single target document with customizable options to ignore or include links, and format content appropriately, using a specialized copy-and-paste operation that automatically gathers and formats content from multiple sources without requiring navigation through links and titles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If users manually navigate through links and perform cut-and-paste operations to copy content from fragmented documents, then content can be transferred to a target document, but the process becomes time-consuming and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically navigating to linked documents and retrieving content before the user completes the copy operation. When a user selects content and triggers a copy command, the system proactively follows hyperlinks, fetches referenced content, and prepares it for consolidation without requiring manual navigation steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by autonomously handling the content retrieval process. The content retrieval engine automatically traverses the document structure, identifies linked content, retrieves it from external sources, and consolidates it into the target document without human intervention beyond the initial selection and copy command.
2Loss of information
If Web-crawlers are used to follow links and download all sub-information from fragmented documents, then complete content can be obtained, but the content remains in its original fragmented format without convenient means for extracting specific sub-parts
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the specific sub-parts of fragmented documents that are relevant to the user's needs. Rather than downloading entire linked documents, the content retrieval engine intelligently identifies and extracts only the portions of content referenced by hyperlinks or embedded objects, consolidating them into a unified target document.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the content retrieval process into distinct functional components: identifying hyperlinks and embedded objects, retrieving referenced content, formatting it appropriately, and consolidating it into the target document. This segmentation allows the system to handle complex fragmented document structures while maintaining ease of operation.
3Ease of operation
If users navigate around links to select desired sections for copying, then specific content can be copied, but the process becomes frustrating especially when sections are longer than a single screen full
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides multi-functionality by handling both simple and complex content selection scenarios through a single copy command. Whether the user wants to copy a single paragraph or multiple non-contiguous sections across linked documents, the system uniformly processes the request by automatically retrieving all referenced content and consolidating it into the target document.
Solution Approach 2:
The content retrieval engine acts as an intermediary between the user's copy command and the fragmented document structure. It mediates the complex navigation and retrieval process by automatically following hyperlinks, retrieving content from external sources, and presenting it in a consolidated format, shielding the user from the complexity of the fragmented document structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A user initiated unification command can be received from a user interface. The unification command can be associated with a selected portion of a fragmented document. The fragmented document can include more than one discrete documents interconnected by at least one reference. Each reference can be a linkage to content of a document other than the one containing the reference. The selected portion can be associated with one of the discrete documents referred to as a root document. Responsive to the unification command, content represented by the reference can be acquired from the associated discrete documents without presenting the discrete document within a user interface window. The acquired content can be added to the root document.