Client-server protocol

• US 20030233375A1
• Filed: 12/18/2002
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Sagar, Richard Bryan
• Granted Patent: US 9,805,032 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2866 Architectures; Arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system including a client and a server in a client-server architecture. The client transmits requests to the server for content subject to a sorting criterion that is ultimately used to sort results of the search. The server identifies an item matching the sorting criterion from its items collection. The server further generates an identifier for the directory item. The identifier is generated from the sorting criterion and is transmitted to the client. The client uses the identifier to sort the matching items.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a client configured to transmit a request for content subject to a sorting criterion;

a server configured to, in response to the request, identify a directory item matching the sorting criterion that is retrievable by the server and the server is further configured to generate and transmit to the client an identifier associated with the directory item, the identifier being generated from the sorting criterion.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises a plurality of servers and the servers use a common protocol to generate identifiers associated with directory items.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the identifier comprises data representative of a characteristic of the directory item matching the sorting criterion.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is configured to further transmit with the identifier, displayable data enabling a user to identify the directory item when the displayable data is displayed.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the sorting criterion is one of a genre, artist, title or date.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the sorting criterion further comprises a boundary for a value of the sorting criterion.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the client further classifies the directory item relative to other directory items based on the identifier.

8. A client comprising:

a user interface enabling a user to indicate a sorting criterion for content;

a processing unit configured to generate a request for content comprising data representative of the sorting criterion;

a transmitter for transmitting the request to a server;

a receiver configured to receive an identifier associated a directory item retrievable by the server and matching the sorting criterion, the identifier being generated based on the data representative of the sorting criterion.

9. The client of claim 8, wherein the identifier comprises a characteristic of the directory item matching the sorting criterion.

10. The client of claim 9, wherein the identifier comprises alphanumerical characters representative of the characteristic.

11. A server comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a request from a client for content, the request being subject to a sorting criterion;

a processing unit configured to identify a directory item matching the sorting criterion and further configured to generate from the sorting criterion an identifier associated with the piece of content;

a transmitter configured to transmit the identifier to the client.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the transmitter is further configured to the client displayable data enabling a user to identify the directory item when the displayable data is displayed.