Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-13
2003-12-23
Kincaid, Kristine (Department: 2174)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S950000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06667751
ABSTRACT:
MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not applicable.
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
The following related applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, including drawings, and hereby are made a part of this application:
Ser. No.
Docket Number
Filed by:
Filed on:
09/579,257
AUS000196US1
Allen C. Wynn, et al.
May 25, 2000
09/578,749
AUS000197US1
Allen C. Wynn, et al.
May 25, 2000
09/578,748
AUS000201US1
Cristi N. Ullmann, et
May 25, 2000
al.
09/615,771
AUS000203US1
Cristi N. Ullmann, et
Jul. 13, 2000
al.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the arts of web browser graphical user interface technology and web browser link history management. In particular, this invention relates to methods and systems for web browsers which allow the user to control the visual display of histories of previous web browsing sessions.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet and the World Wide Web have become critical, integral parts of commercial operations, personal lives, and the education process. At the heart of the Internet's success and wide spread acceptance is Internet browser technology and Internet server technology. An Internet server contains content which is available to systems and browsers which have Internet connectivity. Web browser or “client” computers may request documents from web addresses, to which appropriate web servers respond by transmitting one or more web documents, image or graphics files, forms, audio clips, etc. The most common protocol for transmission of web documents and contents from servers to browsers is Hyper Text Transmission Protocol (“HTTP”), and the most common web browser content includes Hyper Text Markup Language (“HTML”) pages, Common Gateway Interface (“CGI”) forms and pages, and Adobe's Portable Document Format (“PDF”) pages. The most common graphic image and audio recording file formats found on the web today include Graphics Interchange Format (“GIF”) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (“JPEG”) graphics, moving video clips or segments such as Microsoft's Audio Video Interleave (“AVI”) and Apple's QuickTime, and audio clips such as “WAV” files.
FIG. 1
shows the fundamental client-server arrangement of Internet and intranet communications. A client browser computer (
1
) is provided with Internet access (
2
) to the World Wide Web (
3
) through common means such as a dial-up telephone line and modem, cable modem, or local area network (“LAN”). The web browser computer (
1
) is also provided with appropriate web browsing software, such as Netscape's Navigator or Microsoft's Explorer. A web server computer (
5
) is likewise provided with Internet access (
4
) to the World Wide Web (
3
) using similar means, or higher-bandwidth means such as T1 and T3 data lines, and a web server suite of software. Alternatively, client and servers may be interconnected via an Intranet (
6
), such as a corporate LAN. These arrangements are well known within the art.
HTML, PDF and other web documents provide “hyperlinks” within the document, which allow a user to select another document or web site to view. Hyperlinks are specially marked text or areas in the document which when selected by the user commands the browser software to retrieve or fetch the indicated document.
For example, the text
<A HREF=“http://www.patents.ibm.com”>VIEW PATENTS</A>
when embedded into an HTML document will produce a specially marked or highlighted string of text in the web browser window which simply reads “VIEW PATENTS”. Most commonly, this text will appear in underlined blue text, but the HTML document may specify alternate display characteristics for hyperlirks, as well as the web browser may have options for the display of hyperlinks. If the web browser user selects the hyperlink, such as clicking on the hyperlink using a mouse, the web browser will request the base document from web address www.patents.ibm.com using HTTP commands. The appropriate server for this web address will respond to the request by transmitting a web document, such as index.htm, to the requesting web browser.
Ordinarily, when the user selects a plain hyperlink, the current page being displayed in the web broswer's graphical user interface (“GUI”) window disappears and the newly received page is displayed. If the parent page is an index, for example the IBM web site www.patents.ibm.com, and the user wishes to visit each descending link (e.g. read the document with tips on how to use the site), then the parent or index page disappears and the new page is displayed (such as the help page). The user must click the browser's “back” button to return to displaying the parent page if desired.
FIG. 2
shows an example partial “site map” for a typical web site. A base document (
21
), or “home page”, is transmitted by the hosting web server to a requesting web browser using HTTP whenever a web browser “points” to a plain web address without a file specification, such as www.corp.com. In
FIG. 2
, an example of a base HTML document “index.htm” includes four hyperlinks. If the user selects or clicks on the displayed link for “help”, the file “help.htm” is transmitted by the web server to the browser. In the web browser GUI window, the display of “index.htm” (
21
) is replaced with a display of “help.htm” (
22
). The user can further select a hyperlink in “help.htm” (
22
), such as “Product A”, which will cause the web browser to transmit the file “helpA.htm” (
23
). This can continue many layers deep, and does not have to be organized as a simple tree structure, as shown, because hyperlinks can refer to files on other web addresses, to other parent files, etc.
FIG. 3
shows an example of a web browser graphical user interface (“GUI”) display on a browser computer. On a portion (
30
) of a the user's browser computer screen, a web browser (
31
), such as Netscape's Navigator, is running in its own window. In this example, the browser is currently pointed to the top or home page of the example web site, as indicated in the location bar (
34
). The web page “index.htm” is configured to split the GUI display into three frames. The upper frame (
32
) is being used to display a general banner, the left frame (
33
) is being used to display a list of hyperlinks from the top page (or navigation bar), and the right-bottom frame (
35
) is displaying the contents of the currently selected page. The top of the web browser display includes a row of control icons, including a “back” button (
36
) and a “forward” button (
37
). Additionally, a domain history button (
38
), such as the location bar history dropdown list in Navigator, is provided.
Most web browser software, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator, maintains a history log of visited web sites, domains, subdomains, subdirectories, and filenames. The full history log records the fully qualified path and filename of each file or page viewed and the time it was viewed. The history log can usually be viewed in its entirety by a web browser user, such as by selecting COMMUNICATOR-TOOLS-HISTORY in Netscape's Navigator. A user can usually select certain preferences for the sorting and retention of the information in the history log, such as maximum time a record is retained, and how to show the information sorted by document title, location, date viewed (chronologically or reverse-chronologically), alphabetically, etc. By viewing the fill sorted history log, a user may select a single page or location to visit again, but may have difficulty determining which page he or she wants to visit due to the sometimes cryptic nature of names used in web pages, web site path names and structures.
Thus, currently available browsers provide for some built-in navigation functions using the history log. The “back” button (
36
) shows the previous page, and the “forward” button shows the next page (if the “back” button has been used), assuming a tree-like structure of a web site. Sometimes, a user may descend multiple layers into a web sit
Brown Michael W.
Ullmann Cristi N.
Wynn Allen C.
Frantz Robert H.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Kincaid Kristine
Mims Jr. David A.
Nguyen Le V
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