Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-13
2003-10-21
Kindred, Alford (Department: 2172)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C717S118000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06636863
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a system and method for generating programs associated with Internet web pages that can persist from one web page to another without requiring repeated downloading of the programs from a remote server, or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The World Wide Web is generally considered to be largely stateless because one web page cannot transfer information to a page that is outside of its scope, or the scope of its parent. For example, programs or subroutines, such as JAVA applets, that are embedded in the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) code for a web page, can only be run in association with that page, and cannot be stored on a user's computer for subsequent use with other web pages. This restriction is currently bypassed, to some extent, in several ways. One way is to use active server pages (ASPs) on the host server that can generate pages dynamically, on the basis of information that persists on the server. For instance, MICROSOFT's INTERNET INFORMATION SERVER can be used to generate active server pages that act as if they have memory. There is no intelligence, however, provided in the browser itself.
As an illustration, consider a “shopping cart” example where items are offered for sale at a store site on the Internet, and a list of items selected by a purchaser (client) is generated as they enter their order. A central computer has a database of the items for sale, and pictures, descriptions and prices for each item. The items are assembled into web pages that are encoded using HTML, as is conventional. In addition, the web pages that display the items are each ASPs, because instructions are contained in these pages that will generate the final HTML page that will be sent to a client who wishes to place an order for one or more of the items. The central computer does processing, according to instructions contained on the ASP, retrieves all of the required elements from databases, and assembles a page that the client computer's browser can read. Thus, the items are stored in the central computer, and central computer processing generates the page. As a result, the pages are usually in the form of grid-like, computer-generated lists.
Suppose the client buys something on a page, by pressing a “button” on the web page. The button sends information to the central computer, which stores that information centrally and then generates another page, indicating what has been purchased. This new page is then downloaded to the client's computer, which displays the new page with its browser. Links are kept open at the central computer that wait for the client to enter additional purchase requests. If another purchase request is received, the central computer generates yet another page that contains the updated purchase information, and once again, downloads this page to the client's computer. Once the client finalizes their order, the central computer collects credit, address and other information from the client to conclude the transaction. Clearly, the foregoing procedure is demanding on the central computer's resources since it requires that the central computer generate and download an updated page each time another item is selected.
Memory can also be maintained on the browser, through what are known as “cookies” that may be used to store name-value pairs on a client's computer. A cookie is a string of up to 2K of name=value pairs, separated by ampersands, such as Product1=jam&Product2=butter &Price1=14&Price2=22.95. These cookies are used by JAVASCRIPT, which is a scripting language contained in HTML. In this technique, a program that is executed on one page tests for the presence of the name-value pairs in memory associated with a browser, and when it finds them, it assumes that they were placed there by some other program on a previous page, and it operates on the information. Each page contains, in its entirety, the code that runs on that page. It must also contain the code to store and to retrieve cookies. This is sometimes done on cheaper shopping carts, usually for very small merchants.
In the shopping cart example, cookies work in the following manner. A merchant's items for sale are located on a normal HTML page. The central computer does no processing, but simply delivers the page. On that page, there can be up to 200 to 300 lines of JAVASCRIPT code. It is meticulously written to display the items for sale, and to store cookies. A purchaser buys something by pressing a button. The code on that page looks to see if there is a cookie that indicates that the purchaser has bought something else previously. If so, the program retrieves the cookie, and displays the total sales, including previously selected items, as well as the currently selected item Then, this information is stored in a revised cookie. Now suppose that the purchaser jumps to the next HTML shopping page. That page has to contain all of the JAVASCRIPT code all over again, because there is no memory of the code from one HTML page to another. As with the previous page, the program then looks to see if there is a cookie, and if there is, it retrieves it and displays the sales from previous pages. Thus, although the use of cookies eliminates the need for the central computer to perform processing of the purchase information through storage of name=value pairs in the browser computer's memory, it is still necessary for each page to contain extensive JAVASCRIPT code, and this tends to place major restrictions on web page design freedom.
Recent browsers, MICROSOFT EXPLORER 4 and 5 in particular, implement Dynamic HTML, which allows the persistence of some variables on the browser. However, neither this limited persistence nor any of the other aforementioned techniques have yet reached the stage at which a particular program can survive from page to page on the browser, without any intervention from the server gathering, remembering and processing information. As a result, anytime the same program is to be utilized with each of a plurality of sequentially downloaded or accessed web pages, the program and any associated data must either be downloaded from the server to the client with each page, or it must remain resident on a server, and interact with each page, thus not only taxing the server's resources, but also substantially slowing the client computer's processing speed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of the aforementioned techniques through provision of methods by which programs and data associated with web pages are automatically stored in a computer's or other computing device's memory for subsequent use in association with other web pages. This is achieved through use of the inherent characteristics of a software engine, such as JAVA's VIRTUAL MACHINE (JVM), that runs on the computing device, and executes applets and other programs that are embedded in the HTML coding of web pages when they are loaded on the computer. More particularly, the present invention employs first and second techniques by which a program generated object, such as a shopping cart, can be generated by loading of a first web page containing the necessary code for generating the object, and will remain, or appear to remain, generated as additional web pages are loaded on the computer.
In the first technique, program code is added to the HTML of each of a plurality of web pages that is loaded and executed by the software engine to generate the object when a first of the web pages is loaded on the computer. As is conventional in JAVA programming, the program code includes a tag that identifies the program by name and codebase so that if the software engine has already executed the same program during a previous page load, the codebase for the program, which is now resident in the computer's memory but in a suspended or inactive state, will be accessed to reactivate the same prog
Jones Tullar & Cooper PC
Kindred Alford
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