Website Relationship Map for Dependency Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current website and application mapping tools do not effectively represent dependencies between web pages, controls, and underlying executable code, leading to incomplete analysis of changes and increased software development costs.
Innovation Solution
A method that gathers information about web page relationships, controls, and executable code to create a relationship map, which is then graphically displayed, showing interactions between pages, controls, and code, including navigation and data access dependencies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If maps are built by hand or by analyzing HTML links between pages, then the maps can be created with basic page navigation information, but the maps do not show dependencies to the code underlying the web pages and lack representations of lower level dependencies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a multi-level nested map structure where page maps contain control maps, which in turn contain code dependency maps. This nesting approach allows the system to preserve complete dependency information at multiple levels of abstraction without requiring a single overly complex flat map, thus resolving the contradiction between information completeness and map complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the website dependency map into distinct hierarchical levels: page maps showing navigation dependencies, control maps showing UI element dependencies, and code maps showing underlying implementation dependencies. This segmentation allows each map type to focus on specific dependency relationships, making the overall system manageable while maintaining complete dependency information across all levels.
2Loss of information
If navigation between pages is handled by framework configuration files, then the navigation can be managed centrally, but the navigation cannot be guessed by just looking at pages and complete dependency information is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary analysis layer that sits between the framework configuration files and the final dependency map. This intermediary automatically parses configuration files, extracts navigation relationships, and translates them into visual map representations, making hidden navigation dependencies visible without requiring manual analysis of configuration files.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary automatic analysis of framework configuration files to pre-extract navigation dependencies before the user needs to view the maps. This preliminary action captures navigation information that would otherwise be difficult to detect, preserving complete dependency information while reducing the difficulty of detection during actual map generation.
3Productivity
If the maps lack complete dependency information, then the maps remain simple and easy to create, but the analysis of the impact of changes to the system becomes incomplete leading to increased development costs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic map generation system that automatically adapts the level of detail and scope of dependency analysis based on the specific change being analyzed. When a change impacts multiple levels of the system, the map dynamically expands to show relevant dependencies at appropriate levels, providing complete information exactly when needed without always requiring full complexity, thus improving both analysis efficiency and ease of creation.
Data Source
AI summary
Providing a website map to a user. A method includes gathering information about web pages in a website, including information related to web page relationships, controls, and executable code underlying one or more web pages in the website. A relationship map is created. The relationship map includes representations of relationships between the web pages, the controls and the executable code underlying one or more web pages in the website. The method further includes graphically displaying at least a portion of the relationship map in a graphical user interface at the computing system.