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Claims  |
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What is claimed is:
1. A method of automatically adapting a viewable information signal
received from a wide area network server for display on a display screen
associated with a user computer system, the apparatus comprising:
transmitting a user request signal from the user computer system to the
network server, the user request signal including information relating to
at least one display screen-related attribute associated with the user's
display screen and information specific to the user's request;
generating the viewable information signal in response to the information
specific to the user's request; and
adapting the viewable information signal in response to the at least one
display screen-related attribute to semantically conform the information
associated therewith to the user's display screen when viewed, wherein
said adapting step comprises the steps of:
separating web page data for a given web page into a first and a second
group, the first and the second group comprising data objects whose sizes
can and cannot be estimated from a web script, respectively;
removing at least some of the data objects in the second group from the
given web page;
generating hyperlinks to the at least some of the data objects in the
second group; and
adding the hyperlinks to the given web page.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is implemented by a
program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program
of instructions executable by the machine to perform said method steps.
3. A method of automatically adapting a viewable information signal
received from a wide area network server for display on a display screen
associated with a user computer system, the apparatus comprising:
transmitting a user request signal from the user computer system to the
network server, the user request signal including information relating to
at least one display screen-related attribute associated with the user's
display screen and information specific to the user's request;
generating the viewable information signal in response to the information
specific to the user's request; and
adapting the viewable information signal in response to the at least one
display screen-related attribute to semantically conform the information
associated therewith to the user's display screen when viewed, wherein
said adapting step comprises the steps of:
separating web page data for a given web page into a first group and a
second group, the first group comprising data objects having a higher
priority thank data objects in the second group;
removing at least some of the data objects in the second group from the
given web page;
generating hyperlinks to the at least some of the data objects in the
second group; and
adding the hyperlinks to the given web page.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein said adapting step comprises the step of
defining a priority of a data object based upon predefined criteria
corresponding to at least one of an importance to a user, a frequency of
selection, content dependencies, and hierarchical dependencies.
5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of defining a
priority of a data object based upon predefined criteria corresponding to
at least one of a page depth, a time depth, and a volume depth, the page
depth corresponding to a number of web pages to be conformed to the user's
display screen in a single user call, the time depth corresponding to a
time period required to adapt at least one of a target web page and a
target data object to conform to the user's display screen when viewed,
the volume depth corresponding to an amount of data to be conformed to the
user's display screen when viewed.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of imposing a
semantic constraint on at least one of the time depth and the volume
depth, so that only web pages conforming to the semantic constraint are
made to conform to the user's display screen when viewed.
7. The method according to claim 3, wherein said method is implemented by a
program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program
of instructions executable by the machine to perform said method steps.
8. A method of automatically adapting a viewable information signal
received from a wide area network server for display on a display screen
associated with a user computer system, the apparatus comprising:
transmitting a user request signal from the user computer system to the
network server, the user request signal including information relating to
at least one display screen-related attribute associated with the user's
display screen and information specific to the user's request;
generating the viewable information signal in response to the information
specific to the user's request; and
adapting the viewable information signal in response to the at least one
display screen-related attribute to semantically conform the information
associated therewith to the user's display screen when viewed, wherein
said adapting step comprises the steps of:
dividing at least two icons into portions; and
combining at least one portion of each of the at least two icons to form a
composite icon, wherein information represented by one of the at least two
icons is selected when the corresponding portion of the composite icon is
selected.
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said method is implemented by a
program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program
of instructions executable by the machine to perform said method steps.
10. A method of automatically adapting viewable information signal received
from a wide area network server for display on a display screen associated
with a user computer system, the apparatus comprising:
transmitting a user request signal from the user computer system to the
network server, the user request signal including information relating to
at least one display screen-related attribute associated with the user's
display screen and information specific to the user's request;
generating the viewable information signal in response to the information
specific to the user's request; and
adapting the viewable information signal in response to the at least one
display screen-related attribute to semantically conform the information
associated therewith to the user's display screen when viewed, wherein
said adapting step comprises the steps of:
dividing a web page into at least two pages; and
hyperlinking the at least two pages together, so that the at least two
pages can be viewed on the display screen one of concurrently but in a
different configuration than the web page and sequentially.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein said dividing step further comprises
the steps of:
assigning statistical scores to data objects in the at least two web pages;
generating a matrix comprising the statistical scores;
splitting the data objects into at least two groups, based on predefined
criteria; and
forming an individual web page for each of the at least two groups; and
hyperlinking the individual web pages for the at least two groups.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein said hyperlinking step hyperlinks the
individual web pages for the at least two groups hierarchically.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein the predefined criteria is in a form of
a question.
14. The method according to claim 10, wherein said method is implemented by
a program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program
of instructions executable by the machine to perform said method steps.
15. A method of automatically adapting a viewable information signal
received from a wide area network server for display on a display screen
associated with a user computer system, the apparatus comprising:
transmitting a user request signal from the user computer system to the
network server, the user request signal including information relating to
at least one display screen-related attribute associated with the user's
display screen and information specific to the user's request;
generating the viewable information signal in response to the information
specific to the user's request; and
adapting the viewable information signal in response to the at least one
display screen-related attribute to semantically conform the information
associated therewith to the user's display screen when viewed, wherein
said adapting step comprises the step of combining objects in at least one
web page that one of include and reference information corresponding to
one of a same topic and a similar topic.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the adapting step is rule-based.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the adapting step is statistic-based.
18. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one display screen-related
attribute includes a screen size.
19. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one display screen-related
attribute includes a window size.
20. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one display screen-related
attribute comprises a shape of one of the display screen and a window
displayed thereon.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein said adapting step comprises the step
of fitting the information to the shape of one of the display screen and
the window.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein said fitting step comprises the step of
placing at least one of lines, data objects, and text in parallel with at
least one edge of the shape of one of the display screen and the window.
23. The method of claim 15, wherein said adapting step comprises the step
of removing at least one object from a web page to be displayed, when the
display screen is smaller than a predefined threshold.
24. The method of claim 15, wherein said adapting step comprises the step
of adding at least one object to a web page to be displayed, when the
display screen is one of equal to and larger than a predefined threshold,
the at least one object corresponding to at least one link comprised in
the web page to be displayed.
25. The method of claim 15, wherein said adapting step comprises the step
of creating one of an icon, a button, and a hyperlink to collectively
represent the combined objects.
26. The method of claim 15, wherein said adapting step comprises the step
of separating objects in at least one web page that one of include and
reference information corresponding to different topics.
27. The method of claim 15, wherein said adapting step comprises at least
one of the steps of:
abbreviating text in a web page;
replacing pictures by portions of the pictures; and
replacing icons by textual names.
28. The method according to claim 15, wherein said method is implemented by
a program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program
of instructions executable by the machine to perform said method steps. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to systems and methods for organizing viewing
materials and, more particularly, to systems and methods for organizing
viewing materials associated with web sites on visual display screens and
windows on and within which the viewing materials, e.g., home or web
pages, are being viewed.
Currently home or web pages, which are typically accessible over a wide
area network (e.g., Internet), are designed without taking into account
the variety of displays or windows on and within which they may be
observed. Usually, only the most typical size of personal computer (PC)
monitors are taken into account by web page designers. If such a web site
is accessed from devices with small screens (e.g., palmtops, web phones),
only small parts of the web pages can be viewed by users and, in order to
access other parts of the web pages, users must move the respective home
pages (left-right, down-up) across their displays. The only other options
available to users of small screens is to convert the web site completely
to a textual context. This is not an acceptable solution for most web site
users. Conversely, if a user happens to have a relatively large display
screen, the user can see a whole web page which may include several links.
However, the user may need to activate several links, hierarchically,
before he arrives at the link containing the needed information. The user
of the larger display screen would be more satisfied if he could view the
content of many links simultaneously, since the size of his display screen
can accommodate such viewing. Similar problems occur if a user is viewing
web pages in some window, or shell, whose size is only a fraction of a
whole screen.
It is to be appreciated that the term "window" used herein is intended to
refer to a graphical shell which is typically the outer layer of an
applications program which provides the graphical user interface. Since
the shell typically includes its own graphical symbols and format, the use
of the shell results in only a fraction of the display screen being
available to display web page data. Also, "window" may refer to the
well-known graphical partitions employed by various software programs
running under Microsoft Windows operating systems, which also result in
only part of the display screen being available to display web page data.
A Netscape browser provides options for users to strip some specific bars
and buttons from a menu, e.g., Jim Minatel, Easy World Wide Web with
Netscape, Que Corporation, 1996. However, this frees only small amounts of
a display screen or window and does not resolve the problem facing a user
of not being able to display many objects associated with a web page.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides organization of viewing material associated
with web sites for visual displays and windows on and within which these
web pages are being viewed. A different viewing-access strategy is
provided for such visual devices varying, for example, from standard PC
monitors, laptop screens and palmtops to webphone and digital camera
displays, to any device, with a display, capable of web browsing, and from
large windows to small windows. However, it is to be appreciated that the
teachings of the present invention are not limited to implementation with
the above-mentioned types of displays and one of ordinary skill in the art
will contemplate usage with other forms of displays. A new web site design
incorporates features that permit automatic display of the content of web
pages in the most friendly manner for a user viewing this content from a
screen or window of a certain size. For example, if a size of a display
screen or window allows, links are displayed with some text or pictures to
which they are linked. Conversely, if a size of a screen or window does
not allow display of all textual and icon information on a whole screen or
window, the web page is mapped into hierarchically linked new smaller
pages that fully fit the current display or window. The unique display
strategy of the invention is provided by a web page adaptation scheme that
is implemented on a web site server, and also preferably partly
incorporated on a client's computer such as in a web browser (e.g., as a
java appelet). This adaptation strategy employs variables that provide
size of screen and/or window information associated with the visual
display from which a call to a web site was initiated.
Advantageously, any type of display device and associated screen can be
provided by a user: e.g., webphone or palmtop. Also, any size window may
be displayed on such screen. The display adaptor of the present invention
efficiently provides for special marks to be incorporated into scripts
(e.g., URL) which describe format and link hierarchy. For example, let a
first page (in some standard format) have icons I1, I2 I3, and I4 and
links L1, L2, L3 and L4. Assume that icons I1 and I2 have a common topic
that can be represented by the icon I12 and icons I3 and I4 have another
common topic that can be represented by icon I34. Similarly, assume links
L1, L2 and L3 are related to some topic that can be represented by a link
L123. Then, according to the invention, if the web site is viewed on a
display that is much smaller than a standard display, the viewer sees,
e.g., icons I12 and I34 and links L123 and L4, i.e., four items instead of
eight items. In order to access I1 or I2, the user must select icon I12
(e.g., by clicking on the icon using a conventional computer mouse) and
the icons I1 and I2 are displayed. Similarly, the user can view other
hierarchically ordered links. Conversely, if the user views the web site
on a screen that is larger than a standard display screen, not only are
icons I1, I2, I3, I4 and links L1, L2, L3, L4 displayed, but some other
icons and links that are hierarchically related to those items are
displayed.
The present invention also preferably provides a semantic interpreter
module that automatically decides how to fold or expand the content of web
pages depending on a size of a screen or window without using preliminary
marks left by web designers. This semantic module can be formed as a
Finite State Automata (FSA) system whose states and arcs correspond to
different web page appearances (e.g., links, titles, sizes of words,
semantic interpretation words in links and titles, relative position of
main items on pages). It is to be understood that FSA is a concept
associated with a finite system whose states correspond to some situations
and whose arcs correspond to some transition rules. An FSA system is among
the simplest computing machines. FSA is well known in the art with
extensive literature associated therewith, e.g., Gerald Gazdar & Chris
Mellish, "Natural Language Processing in POP-11," Addison-Wesley
Publishing Co., New York 1989. As described therein, simple semantic
notions may be represented in a formal language and instructions are
provided on what should be done when certain semantic data is obtained.
The most natural application for FSA are situations where, first, semantic
notions should be associated with some input data and, second, rules
should be produced on what actions should follow given semantic notions.
As a consequence of this fact, an interpreter module, e.g. a semantic
interpreter module can be represented as FSA. As an example,
interpretation of a symbol "HR" may be considered as a decorative element.
This interpretation could be done using FSA methodology in which states
correspond to some words of URL script and to a size of a display that is
available, etc. Rules (that are represented by arcs) would require
actions, e.g. "underline" in some special way some words if HR was
presented and there is enough space. But always underline words in some
way if they represent links, since links are typically recognized as
underlined words. More complex sequences of states and rules could be
associated with interpreting of icons. Icons would be states, arcs would
correspond to sequences of rules on extracting a content (other states)
from pictures in icons or titles (other states) in icons if they are
available, etc. It is also to be appreciated that other techniques may be
used to form the semantic interpreter module. For example, formal methods
associated with expert knowledge system methodology may be used.
Further, the present invention provides means for counting how often each
link on a page is visited. Links can be ordered via these counts and, as a
result, on small screens or windows, links with higher scores are
displayed first. Still further, the present invention provides a
statistical approach, as will be explained, to formatting web pages via
decision trees with questions about web page appearance, i.e., semantic
interpretation. This decision tree can be trained on a set of examples
pertaining to how web pages were designed. Decision trees are a special
way to represent questions, as will be explained. Nodes represent a set of
questions that are asked at this node and links to other nodes depend on
answers to those questions. The other nodes that are connected to the
first node in the decision trees represent another set of questions and so
on. For example, at the first node A of a web related decision tree one
can ask: Is this an icon? This node leads to two different nodes. For YES
answer, A is connected to B1 and for NO answer A is connected to B2. The
node B1 may contain a question: Is there a title in this icon? A node B2
can contain questions that clarify how an object in question is
represented (Is this a link?, Is this a picture?, etc.) In statistical
trees questions (splits) are found statistically (as explained in the
text). In a binary tree, each (parent) node is connected with two (son)
nodes, each of which is a parent node for next two (son) nodes on lower
level. Nodes in binary trees correspond splits of sets in two subsets
(that are interpreted as questions). For example, a set can be pictures. A
first subset consists of pictures that contain living objects (people,
animals) and the second subset could consist of objects that do not
represent living objects (e.g. houses, cars etc.). This split represents
some question about picture content. Statistical methods for producing
such splits are described herein.
In one aspect of the present invention, computer-based apparatus for
automatically adapting a viewable information signal received from a wide
area network server for display on a display screen associated with a user
computer system comprises: means for transmitting a user request signal
from the user computer system to the network server, the user request
signal including information relating to at least one display
screen-related attribute associated with the user's display screen and
information specific to the user's request; means for generating the
viewable information signal in response to the information specific to the
user's request; and means for adapting the viewable information signal in
response to the at least one display screen-related attribute to conform
the information associated therewith to the user's display screen when
viewed.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention
will become apparent from the following detailed description of
illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connection with
the accompanying drawings in which the same reference numerals are used
throughout the various figures to designate same or similar components.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating components of a display screen and window
size related web page adaptation system according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of a client
machine and server computer for implementing features of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a diagram of a web page adaptor server according to the
invention;
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a client web page adaptor module according
to the invention;
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary display mode message
according to the invention;
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of interpretation of URL
instructions and matching with a display or window size;
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an original and folded web
page according to the invention;
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an automatic web page adaptation module
according to the invention;
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an operator module according to the
invention;
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of prioritization dependent
web page representation according to the invention;
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of depth web page
representation according to the invention;
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of data separation according
to the invention;
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of adaptation of a web page
via semantic criteria according to the invention;
FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of transformations of icons
according to the invention;
FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of an application of the
invention to a display or window of non-conventional shape; and
FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating a statistical approach to formatting
web page data according to the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring initially to FIG. 1, a diagram illustrating components of a
display screen and window size related web page adaptation system
according to the invention is shown. The basic components of the display
screen and window size related web page adaptation system are shown in
relation to other components of the World Wide Web (WWW) in FIG. 1. While
the invention is illustrated and described in the context of the WWW, the
invention may be implemented on other similar networks and/or related
networks that comprise the Internet (e.g., ftp). Block 100 represents a
client machine (computer) that runs a web browser program 101 and a client
web page adaptor module 112, as will be explained, and includes a display
device 113. The client machine 100 is operatively coupled to a server 104.
The server 104 is operatively coupled to web sites 105, 106 and a web page
adaptor server 107. The web page adaptor server 107 is operatively coupled
to servers 114.
It is to be appreciated that the client machine 100 may take many forms
given the various existing types of devices having displays capable of
viewing web site related data, e.g., personal computer (PC), multiscreen
PC, laptop computer, webphone. However, the present invention is not
limited to only these machines and may be implemented with other diverse
client machines adapted to have communication and browsing ability, e.g.,
palmtops, calculator, web TV, remote control devices, clocks, digital
cameras, vehicle-based computers, industrial facility-based computers. Of
course, the above list is not exhaustive. Also, each display type may also
be capable of displaying various sized windows (shells). Examples of such
windows are shown on some of the display types (113a-113e), and denoted as
windows 115, in FIG. 1.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary configuration of a client machine 100
including a CPU 10 operatively coupled to RAM 14, ROM 16, mass storage
device 18, input device 20 and output device 22 via bus 12. It is to be
appreciated that the components of the present invention, to be described
in detail herein in accordance with the related figures, are implemented
as software modules stored in ROM 16 and/or mass storage device 22 and, as
required, loaded into RAM 14, over bus 12, and executed (run) by the
central processing unit 10. The CPU 10 running the software modules may be
responsive to user input provided by input device 20, e.g., keyboard,
keypad, mouse, touchscreen. Further, the CPU 10 running the software
modules may output results therefrom to output device 22, e.g., display,
printer, speaker. Also, a modem device 24 is operatively coupled to the
bus 12 which provides the communication interface between the client
computer and the network of servers. Accordingly, while FIGS. 1, 3, 4, 6,
8 and 9 could be considered block diagrams of apparatus for carrying out
the invention, such figures may also be considered flow diagrams. In this
regard, it should be appreciated that since the invention is carried out
utilizing one or more suitably programmed general purpose digital
computers, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2, the functional elements depicted in
the figures are exemplary of functional elements which would be
established within the computer by such programming. Thus, said figures
may be considered to illustrate a suitable and preferred processor
architecture for practicing the invention which may be achieved by
programming of a general purpose processor, e.g., CPU 10. Of course,
special purpose processors configured in the manner depicted in said
figures may be employed.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, it is to be understood that the web page
adaptor server 107 and servers 104 and 114 may have similar architectures
as shown in FIG. 2 and, as a result, the functional elements shown in the
figures relating thereto may be software modules executed on one or more
general or special purpose processors, as explained above.
As mentioned, and a key impetus for the present invention, the display 113
for a client machine 100 may include different sized, shaped and
configured monitors (displays), as shown in a few examples illustrated
within block 113, e.g., a standard PC monitor (113a), a multiscreen PC
system (113b), a laptop display (113c), a webphone (113d), and a watch
display (113e). Of course, the types of displays shown in block 113 are
exemplary and not intended to be an exhaustive illustration of the types
of displays which may be used in accordance with the invention. Also, each
display may include various sized windows (shells) for displaying icons
and information. Examples of such windows are shown on some of the display
types shown in FIG. 1 (113a-113d) and denoted as windows 115.
Given the above-described interconnectivity of a preferred display screen
and window size related web page adaptation system of the invention, the
operation thereof will now be explained. The client 100 sends (via modem
24) a request message 102, conforming to the URL (uniform resource
locator) standard, at some port using standard TCP-IP Internet connection
108 to a server machine 104. The port protocol between the client machine
100 and the server 104 is preferably HTTP (hypertext transport protocol).
As is known, the URL serves as the address that defines the route to a
file on a server computer on the World Wide Web or any other Internet
facility. The request message 102 conforming to the URL standard, thus,
provides the client with access to web pages which, themselves, have URLs
embedded therein to provide hypertext links to other pages.
Simultaneously with the request message 102, a client sends a display mode
message 103. This display mode message 103 includes several
characteristics or parameters of the client display 113. One parameter is
a display size that is represented as a height and width (e.g., 360 by 400
pixels). Other characteristics can include, for example: a character
format and size; memory related information such as, for example, a memory
address; window size, etc.
The memory address information is specific to the operating system running
on the client's machine 100, i.e., Windows 95, OS2, etc. For instance,
Windows 95 uses a linear addressing model that provides access up to 4
GBytes of RAM. The 4 GBytes of potential addresses is divided into 4 kByte
sections, each of which is called a page. A page table is used to map
virtual addresses to physical memory locations. The first megabyte of
memory is used for MS-DOS virtual machine operations. The addresses
between 4 MBytes and 2 GBytes are used by 32-bit programs as their base
operation. Each running 32-bit application gets its own local map of these
two gigabytes of addresses. When a program calls an address, it is
translated internally by the Windows 95 virtual memory manager into the
physical memory address that contains the information that the program
wants to access. Previous versions of DOS and Windows divided memory into
conventional, expanded and extended memory specifications. The memory
related information allows to calculate how much memory is available to
display stored information. This information is needed for organization of
data for display, for fast access to data, etc. When addresses of
different kinds of data are given, a storage for some data allocation can
be found as the difference of these addresses.
The display mode message can be represented as a mode number that uniquely
defines display parameters. For instance, it is contemplated by the
invention that tables may be created which contain display characteristics
or parameters associated with a given display terminal and each table can
be identified by a unique mode number. Eventually, if the adaptor server
107 contained tables (stored in its mass storage 18) of most common
display parameters associated with display screens, then the user's
machine 100 need only transmit the mode number and, in response, the
adaptor server 107 could locate the appropriate table and use the
information accordingly.
Still further, additional requirements specified by a user of the client
machine 100 can preferably be included in the display mode message 103.
These additional requirements may relate to sizes and shapes of icons,
fonts, priorities, depth, etc., as will be explained. An example of a
display mode message 103 with user requirements is shown in FIG. 5. A
display mode message 103 can be stored in a special file. In Windows95/NT
machines, a display mode message can be stored in registry. Another place
where a display mode messages may reside is within "cookies." As is known,
cookies are messages that supply a web browser with information about user
preferences.
The request message 102 defines a connection (route) 109 by a server 104 to
a web site 106 and web pages from the web site 106 are sent back to the
server 104 via connection 110. Phantom lines drawn through the server 104
in FIG. 1 serve to illustrate the path direction functions that the server
104 performs. Other conventional functions may be performed by the server
104. Nonetheless, in the server 104, the display mode message 103 and the
content of the web pages received over connection 110 are sent to web page
adaptor server 107 via a connection 110a. While server 104 shows that the
display mode message is routed to the web site and then to the adaptor
server 107 with the web page data from the web site, it is to be
understood that this is not necessarily required and thus the display mode
message could be sent directly to the adaptor server 107 from the server
104. Advantageously, the web page adaptor server 107 transforms web pages
received from web site 106, via server 104, to adapt the content of the
web pages to the size of the display 113 and also to satisfy the user's
requirements as specified in the display mode message 103. Some examples
of operations that the web page adaptor server 107 performs are the
following: stripping objects from a web page if the display size of
display 113 is small or adding content of links to a web page if the
display size of display 113 is large. A detailed description of the web
page adaptation operation of the web page adaptor server 107 will be given
below in the context of FIGS. 3, 8 and 9. The web page adaptor server 107
can also provide transformations of web pages obtained from other server
machines, denoted as servers 114 in FIG. 1, in the same way as for the
server 104. That is, a single server 107 may service a plurality of other
servers on the network.
The transformed set of pages from server 107 are sent to the server 104,
via connection 111a, and then onto the client machine 100 from the server
104, via connection 111. The adapted set of web pages can be either
displayed on the display device 113 or sent to the client web page adaptor
module 112. The adaptor module 112 is preferably installed at the client
machine 100. The adaptor module 112 performs additional specific
operations that may not be available at the web display adaptor server
107. One of the most important such local operations is adaptation of web
pages to a window or shell. A window or shell can occupy a fraction of the
screen of the display device 113 and is typically characterized by smaller
sizes. A detailed description of the operation of the client-based web
page adaptor module 112 is given below in the context of FIG. 4.
Referring now to FIG. 3, a diagram illustrating the web page server adaptor
107 and operation thereof is shown. The content of web pages 201 (e.g.,
URL/CGI information), received from the web site 106 via the server 104,
is provided to a URL/CGI instruction interpreter module 202. The
interpreter module 202 interprets the URL/CGI instructions. That is, the
interpreter module 202 receives the web page data containing the URL/CGI
instructions and reads, therefrom, numeric data associated with the
URL/CGI textual instructions. Such numeric information includes, for
example, icon and picture sizes, fonts, lengths of text and locations
where these items are to be placed in the displayed web page. It is to be
understood that the basic URL/CGI instructions, which include this numeric
data, are provided by a web page designer. Web pages produced via basic
URL/CGI instructions will typically fit either a format of a display of a
designer's computer or fit most typical monitors belonging to users who
usually visit the designer's web site. However, therein lies the problem
that requesters of such web pages face when attempting to view such
information on a screen that does not fall into one of the categories of
screens for which the web page designer designed the data to fit. As
mentioned, such a problem is part of the impetus for the present
invention. An example of the types of numeric data that are included in a
typical URL are shown in block 500 of FIG. 6.
It is to be understood that CGI refers to Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
scripts which, as is known, are programs written in a script language
which function as the glue or interface between HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language--the document format used on the World Wide Web) pages and other
programs, e.g., database programs. The phrases URL and URL/CGI are
generally used interchangeably throughout this description.
The interpreter module 202 then provides the numeric data read from the
basic URL/CGI instructions to a matching module 203. Also provided to the
matching module 203 is the display mode message 200 (same as 103 in FIG.
1) which contains the information about the size and characteristics of
the user's display 113 (FIG. 1). The matching module 203 then compares the
display parameters from the display mode message to the numeric data
received from the interpreter module 202 to determine whether objects
(icons, pictures, texts, links, etc.) included in the web page data will
fit the particular size of a user's display.
In other words, the matching module 203 checks whether reconstruction of
all of this web page data will fit a display size, given the information
contained in the display mode message. If the matching module 203
determines that the web page representation substantially matches the
display size, i.e., the web page data as designed by the web page designer
will fit the user's display, the web page data is sent to the server 104,
via connection 111a (FIG. 1), to be forwarded to the client machine 100.
Otherwise, alternative URL/CGI instructions 201a-201d are provided to a
search module 205. It is to be appreciated that these alternative URL/CGI
instructions 201a-201d are model URL/CGI instructions provided along with
the main URL/CGI instructions 201 to the adaptor server 107 and stored in
a memory store 204. These alternative models include textual instructions
which include alternative numeric information relating to, for example,
icon and picture sizes, fonts, lengths of text and locations where these
items are to be placed in the displayed web page. Preferably, the
alternative URL/CGI instructions may include a special instruction as a
first instruction which indicates what type of display screen size is
optimal for displaying the web page data associated with that particular
URL/CGI instruction set. The special instruction may be general or
approximate in identifying the optimal display intended. For example, the
special instruction may indicate that the web page data is intended for
display on PC displays, laptop computer displays, or palmtop computer
displays. Alternatively, the special instruction may be precise in that it
describes an intended pixel display area, e.g., N.times.M pixels. Thus,
with this special instruction in each alternative URL/CGI model, the
search module 205 can quickly compare the information in the respective
special instructions to the display mode message information (available
from the matching module 203 or directly from server 104) and determine
which, if any, model is the optimal model for the user's display screen.
If an optimal model is found in this fast search, the search module
provides the instruction set to the server 104 which then transmits the
set to the client's machine 100 for display. It is also to be understood
that the search module 205 searches for the closest matching screen size
from a set 201a-201d. That is, if the module 205 finds a URL/CGI file with
parameters that approximately coincide with the display mode k obtained in
message 200, then the module 205 sends this URL/CGI file to the server
104, via connection 111a (FIG. 1), to be forwarded to the client machine
100. For example, if the display mode k in message 200 contains a
parameter for a display size such as 370 by 380 pixels, this size can be
considered as a close enough match to an available screen size of 360 by
400 pixels as defined in one of the URL files 20 | | |
