Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-28
2001-10-30
Lintz, Paul R. (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06311180
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to data formatting and communications, and more particularly to a system and method for dynamically mapping and formatting information for presentation on a computer display device.
The ever-increasing capabilities of computer networks and the internet has brought an increasing demand for information accessibility. Not only do people use desktop computers to access networked data information, various communication devices also provide a capability for displaying large volumes of information. It is increasingly important now for a user of modern communication devices to be able to access various information available on a company-wide intranet, the internet and/or other networked communication infrastructure. Usually information providers store and supply the information while numerous users access the information using many different types of display devices, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, cell phones, personal digital assistant (PDAs), etc. However, many types of display devices are of different shapes and sizes, especially those for mobile devices, and often accept the information in different formats.
It is a common practice to store a document or an application (collectively “document”) on a server computer. The document may also include a defined page orientation for appropriately transmitting and mapping the stored information to an individual display device. With the proliferation of available display devices on the market, more limitations are inevitably imposed on the display devices with respect to their display characteristics. This proliferation has caused a number of problems in displaying a single document on a wide array of display devices, especially with regards to page orientation.
One problem for efficiently displaying information on a display device is “conforming” the document, i.e., arranging the information in a predetermined format to be used by the display device. This is also referred to as a conformal problem. Taking the popular internet data communication structure as an example, when a user accesses an individual web page document, the document is transmitted as a file to the user's display device. If the web page document was not designed by the original programmer/designer to be in an appropriate format and size as supported by the receiving display device, then the accessed web page may become difficult, if not impossible, to read.
Although a typical desktop computer web browser is able to display almost any web page document of various dimensions and/or complexity, various mobile communication devices (e.g. cell phones or pagers) may have very limited display space. Furthermore, some communication devices do not have a web browser available. Further still, in some cases, the display is limited to only a couple of lines. In these situations, it is almost impossible to maintain the original page orientation because the page as designed simply can not fit in the small display. If the original page orientation is removed from the document, or not defined at all, then the document can not properly conform to the display device.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, an internet based data communication network
10
is shown to illustrate the conformal display problem. In this example, a document including individual web pages
102
a
-
102
n
is stored in an application server
104
. The application server
104
is connected to a database (DB)
106
and an e-commerce server
108
for formatting the web pages and transmitting them to a web server. It is understood that the servers
104
,
108
and DB
106
may actually represent one or more different servers that may contain one or more separate databases on an as-needed base. Moreover, any one document may contain a series of displayable files such as the web pages.
The web pages
102
a
-
102
n
are to be transmitted to a web server
110
, and then transmitted via hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) to different receiving display devices
112
,
114
and
116
. Display devices
112
,
114
, and
116
have different sized “display views”
118
,
120
, and
122
, respectively. A display view defines the display area on a display device, and is described in display parameters such as the number of characters, the number of character rows, the number of character columns, font and image capability, and so forth. For example, computer
112
is a typical desktop using a web browser and Display View
118
is capable to display web pages in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format. Computer
114
is a cell phone and Display View
120
has a comparatively small viewing area. The web pages created for Display View
118
may not be used on the Display
120
because of specific display limitations.
In order to display the web pages
102
a
-
102
n
in a useful and practical way, they are separately recreated and/or reformatted. In addition, the web pages would have to be rewritten in a language compatible with the display device, e.g., a mark up language that the display device
114
can accept. It is understood that languages such as Wireless Markup Language (WML) and Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML) are typical for wireless communication display devices, but are significantly different from languages such as HTML which is used for the display device
112
.
One of the reason that the WML and HDML were created is because the wireless communication display devices can not handle many display objects, such as pictures, multimedia objects, and so forth. Similarly, for a personal digital assistant (PDA)
116
which has a browser that can display information in languages other than the HTML, the web pages
102
a
-
102
n
on the application server
104
are required to be reformatted by a web page designer/programmer to fit for Display View
122
.
With the above described communication structure in place, the availability of a single document to be used by various display devices requires that the document be recreated in different formats. A designer/programmer usually has to create, at the document level, a document for each expected display device format. As the numbers and types display devices increase, and as the documents become more complex, the conformal problem becomes more troublesome.
For example, three different models of cell phones may have three different display views. One model may have a text interface of four display lines with twelve characters on a line; another model may have a text interface of twelve display lines with sixteen characters on a line, and the third model may be able to cope with images and may have a graphical interface. Traditionally, a separate document must be created for each model of the cell phone. Not only does this require extra time to create the documents, the created documents may clog the application server. Moreover, maintaining these different versions of the original document are excessively burdensome.
Therefore, problems caused by the conventional model in creating multiple documents for different display devices inevitably impose an unnecessary cost on the development and maintenance effort. Moreover, the designer/programmer has to anticipate what new display devices or new versions of the existing display device are going to be used in the future and what their capabilities will be so that the designer can constantly create new documents.
Another problem for efficiently displaying information on a display device is “localizing” the document, i.e., interpreting the information in a predetermined style for the user the display device. For example, a web page document may be created in one part of the world (e.g., France) and received in another (e.g., the U.S.). The user receiving the document may prefer the document be in a specific language (e.g., English). The display device may also be programmed to indicate a preferred language that the user can understand. However, in the conventional model, in order to present the document in different languages, a copy of the document must be crea
Haynes & Boone LLP
Lintz Paul R.
Linx Data Terminals, Inc.
LandOfFree
Method for mapping and formatting information for a display... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method for mapping and formatting information for a display..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method for mapping and formatting information for a display... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2576139