Computer system and computer-implemented method for interpreting hypertext links in a document when including the document within another document

摘要

A method for rewriting document references such as URLs located in an included document, when an include operation is performed. The include operation may be performed by the server at any time, for example, when the including and included documents are stored on the server. One aspect of the invention is a process for inserting a second document into a first document, where the second document has a reference to a third document. The reference may be a link to the third document or may be an instruction to insert the third document. In this process, the second document is parsed to identify a relative reference to the third document with respect to the second document. An effective base reference for the second document is determined. In an HTML document, the effective base reference is the effective base URL. The relative reference to the third document is converted to an absolute reference using the determined effective base reference of the second document. An effective base reference for the first document is determined. The absolute reference to the third document is then converted to a new relative reference with respect to the first document, using the effective base reference of the first document. The second document is then inserted within the first document while replacing the relative reference to the third document with respect to the second document with the new relative reference to the third document with respect to the first document.