Patent Application
20200117893
The present invention relates to a computer program product, system, and method for determining differences in documents to generate a visualization highlighting the differences between documents.
Developers of web pages and program user interfaces use various tools to determine differences in how different versions of a user interface page are displayed in a web browser or other computer user interface. Some tools allow identification of the portions of code providing display attributes to control the display of content, such as positional and stylistic information, and may display the differences in the code for displaying content between the versions of the user interface. Other programs create images that show differences between the visual output of two documents to assist the developer in further modifying the document to an optimal visualization.
There is a need in the art for improved techniques for providing information on differences between documents and how the documents render output.
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for determining differences in documents to generate a visualization highlighting the differences between documents. Name-value pairs are extracted for objects in a first document. The objects include code to control rendering of content in the first document in a graphical user interface (GUI). Each extracted name-value pair indicates a value for a name of an attribute in the first document. Name value pairs are extracted for objects in a second document. A determination is made whether a difference in values of a specified name indicated in the name-value pairs extracted from the first and second documents exceeds a threshold provided for the specified name. A visualization is generated highlighting an object rendered according to different values provided for the specified name that are determined to exceed the threshold provided for the specified name.
Comparison tools illustrate and allow visualizations of differences in code and the rendering of content for documents that are rendered in a computer user interface, such as a web browser or application window. These comparison tools may highlight or provide visualizations of differences in the code, or display attributes, even for visual differences that are barely noticeable or that that the developer is not interested in considering.
Described embodiments provide improvements to computer technology for comparing documents and providing visualizations of the differences in documents by extracting from first and second documents name-value pairs of display attributes for the objects. A determination is made of values of a specified name indicated in the name-value-pairs extracted from the first and second documents and whether the difference in the values between the documents exceed a threshold provided for the specified name. A visualization is generated highlighting an object rendered according to the different values provided for the specified name that are determined to exceed the threshold provided for the specified name.
The described embodiments provide improvements to computer technology for rendering visualizations highlighting differences in display objects from first and second documents when the values for display attributes of the display objects, such as position and stylistic information, exceeds thresholds. In this way, visualizations highlighting differences are not provided for differences in display attribute name-value pairs that do not exceed thresholds provided for a name of a display attribute because such differences that do not exceed the threshold are deemed to have a minimal impact on the visualization of the objects.
The extracted name-value pairs each provide a value for a display attribute (name), such as a string of unicode characters. The name value-pairs may be organized into objects, where each object may represent a display object to render in the documents 1021, 1022 and the name-value pairs that provide display attributes to control how the object is displayed in a rendering of the documents 1021, 1022, such as position, size, shape, font, color, etc.
The comparison tool 110 processes the name value-pairs in the first 1121 and second 1122 extracted name-value pairs to generate a results document 114 having information on those name-value pairs that provide different values for a same name. The comparison tool 110 may maintain object name thresholds 300, such that for each display object, only name-value pairs having value differences between the first 1121 and second 1122 extracted name-value pairs that exceed a threshold for a name are included in the results document 114. In this way, only name-value pair differences for a display object having a difference exceeding the threshold are included in the results document 114. The comparison tool 110 processes the results document 114 to generate a visualization of a comparison of the documents 116 that highlighting differences of the display objects documents 1021, 1022 as indicated in the results document 114.
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The memory 106 may comprise any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory device storing programs and data structures accessed by the processor 104.
Generally, program modules, such as the program components 108 and 110, and any others described herein, may comprise routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The program modules may be practiced in distributed cloud computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.
The program components and hardware devices of the computing device 100 may be implemented in one or more computer systems, where if they are implemented in multiple computer systems, then the computer systems may communicate over a network.
The program components 108 and 110 and any others described herein, may be accessed by a processor from memory to execute. Alternatively, some or all of the program components 108 and 110, and any others described herein, may be implemented in separate hardware devices, such as Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) hardware devices.
The functions described as performed by the program components 108 and 110, and any others described herein, may be implemented as program code in fewer program modules than shown or implemented as program code throughout a greater number of program modules than shown.
With respect to
If (at block 518) no threshold is exceeded that does not have a threshold cause name 406, then the comparison tool 110 determines (at block 520) whether a change between documents is indicated for the values for the threshold cause name 406 extracted from documents. If (at block 520) a threshold 404 being exceeded having a cause 406 was caused by the threshold cause name name-value pair, i.e., the name-value pair for the threshold cause name 406 changes between the extracted first 1121 and second 1122 name-value pairs, then control proceeds to block 522 to add all the name-value pairs of object j from the extracted first 1121 and second 1122 name-value pairs, including those not having a threshold exceeded or having a threshold exceeded but not by the specified threshold cause name 406. After processing object j from block 514 or 522 or from the no branch of block 520, control proceeds (at block 524) back to block 512 until all objects in the extracted first name-value pairs 1121 are processed. After processing all the display objects, if (at block 526) the extracted second name-value pairs 1122 from the second document 1022 includes a display object 200 not found in the extracted first name-value pairs 1121, then the comparison tool 110 adds (at block 528) any object and object name-value pairs in the second extracted name-value pairs 1122 from the second document 1022 that are not included in the first extracted name-value pairs 1121 to the results document 114.
The embodiments of
If name-value pairs from the source documents 1021, 1022 are not included in objects 200i, then such unaffiliated name-value pairs satisfying threshold difference requirements may be added to the results document 114 separately.
The visualizations 116 and 700 comprise code that when executed by the computing device 100 render visualizations on a display monitor 1020 (
If (at block 806) object j is not indicated in the results document 114 for both the first and second documents, then the comparison tool 110 determines (at block 810) whether the results document 114 indicates name-value pairs for object j in one of the first 1021 and second document. If (at block 810) object j is provided for the first document 1021, then the comparison tool 110 highlights (at block 812) a visualization of object j in rendered first document 702i and render information indicating object j removed from second document. If (at block 810) object j is provided for the second document 1022, then the comparison tool 110 highlights (at block 814) visualization of object j in rendered second document 7022 and render information indicating object j added in the second document 1022.
The embodiment of operations of
The embodiment of
In the embodiment of
The reference characters used herein, such as i, j, and n, and any others, are used to denote a variable number of instances of an element, which may represent the same or different values, and may represent the same or different value when used with different or the same elements in different described instances.
The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.
The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.
Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.
Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.
Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions.
These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
The computational components of
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Computer system/server 1002 typically includes a variety of computer system readable media. Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computer system/server 1002, and it includes both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.
System memory 1006 can include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 1010 and/or cache memory 1012. Computer system/server 1002 may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storage media. By way of example only, storage system 1013 can be provided for reading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media (not shown and typically called a “hard drive”). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided. In such instances, each can be connected to bus 1008 by one or more data media interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below, memory 1006 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out the functions of embodiments of the invention.
Program/utility 1014, having a set (at least one) of program modules 1016, may be stored in memory 1006 by way of example, and not limitation, as well as an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment. The components of the computer 1002 may be implemented as program modules 1016 which generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein. The systems of
Computer system/server 1002 may also communicate with one or more external devices 1018 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 1020, etc.; one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computer system/server 1002; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system/server 1002 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication can occur via Input/Output (I/O) interfaces 1022. Still yet, computer system/server 1002 can communicate with one or more networks such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 1024. As depicted, network adapter 1024 communicates with the other components of computer system/server 1002 via bus 1008. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardware and/or software components could be used in conjunction with computer system/server 1002. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.
The terms “an embodiment”, “embodiment”, “embodiments”, “the embodiment”, “the embodiments”, “one or more embodiments”, “some embodiments”, and “one embodiment” mean “one or more (but not all) embodiments of the present invention(s)” unless expressly specified otherwise.
The terms “including”, “comprising”, “having” and variations thereof mean “including but not limited to”, unless expressly specified otherwise.
The enumerated listing of items does not imply that any or all of the items are mutually exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise.
The terms “a”, “an” and “the” mean “one or more”, unless expressly specified otherwise.
Devices that are in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries.
A description of an embodiment with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. On the contrary a variety of optional components are described to illustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the present invention.
When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device/article (whether or not they cooperate) may be used in place of a single device/article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein (whether or not they cooperate), it will be readily apparent that a single device/article may be used in place of the more than one device or article or a different number of devices/articles may be used instead of the shown number of devices or programs. The functionality and/or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are not explicitly described as having such functionality/features. Thus, other embodiments of the present invention need not include the device itself.
The foregoing description of various embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto. The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims herein after appended.
