Transport and administration model for offline browsing

• US 20050050172A1
• Filed: 09/03/2003
• Published: 03/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Redpath, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 9,811,603 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

The present invention provides a mechanism for efficiently displaying a web site and its content on a mobile device independent of whether the mobile device is connected or disconnected from the network. When the mobile device requests a server hosting the web site, the server compresses the page elements which compose the web site content. The server transmits the compressed page elements in response to the mobile device'"'"'s request. The mobile device decompresses the page elements and locally stores the decompressed page elements. The mobile device displays the web site content which is locally stored when a user of the mobile device so requests.

Claims

1. A mobile device for displaying information comprising page elements defining web site content stored on a server in a network, the mobile device comprising:

a memory containing;

a web browser for displaying a web site;

a software component for receiving a compressed file containing compressed page elements, for decompressing the compressed file into page elements, and storing the page elements to the memory, the software component reading the stored page elements and serving the page elements to the web browser; and

a processor for running the web browser and the software component.

2. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the compressed file stores the page elements according to their relative path names.

3. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the software component includes a web server and a DMS client.

4. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the software component includes a web server, the web server further including a decompression manager.

5. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the software component operates to cause requests for an update to the compressed file.

6. The mobile device of claim 5 wherein the updated compressed file retrieved is a replacement for the stored page elements.

7. The mobile device of claim 5 wherein the request to update the compressed file contains a listing of stored page element names and their associated last modified date locally stored.

8. The mobile device of claim 7 wherein the updated compressed file retrieved contains new page elements and page elements that have a last modified date which is more recent than the stored page elements.

9. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the web browser displays any requested page element locally stored when the mobile device is disconnected from the network.

10. The mobile device of claim 1 wherein the compressed file is a JAR file.

11. A server for delivering a web site over a network in response to one request, the server comprising:

a memory containing;

a web server for hosting a web site composed of page elements;

a compression manager for receiving a request for a compressed file and for transmitting the compressed file composed of page elements to a mobile device; and

a processor for running the web server and the compression manager.

12. The server of claim 11 wherein the compression manager stores the page elements according to their relative path names.

13. The server of claim 11 wherein the compression manager transmits a compressed file previously stored in memory.

14. The server of claim 13 wherein the compressed file transmitted includes all the page elements which compose the web site.

15. The server of claim 13 wherein the compressed file transmitted includes page elements having an associated last modified date which is later than corresponding page elements stored on the web device and page elements having no corresponding page element on the web device.

16. A method for browsing web content on a mobile device comprising:

providing a web server on a mobile device;

transmitting a request to a server for a mirror copy of a web site being hosted by the server;

compressing page elements composing the web site to define a compressed file;

receiving the compressed file at the mobile device;

decompressing the compressed file into local page elements;

storing the local page elements onto the mobile device; and

displaying the local page elements to a user of the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 16 where in the compressing step compresses the page elements according to their relative path names.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

transmitting a request for an updated compressed file to the server.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the updated compressed file comprises a set of all the page elements which compose the web site.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the request for an updated compressed file contains a listing of page elements and their associated last modified date.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the updated compressed file retrieved contains new page elements and page elements that have a last modified date which is more recent than those page elements stored on the mobile device.

22. The method of claim 16 wherein the displaying step is performed while the mobile device is disconnected from the network.

23. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a network processing system having a mobile device, a server, and a network to perform a download of a compressed file containing page elements representing web site content, the mobile device displaying web site content independent of the mobile devices connectivity to the network, the network processing system having a client program and a server program with functions for invocation, by performing the steps of:

sending a request to the server program by the client program for a mirror copy of a web site being hosted by the server;

receiving the request by the server program;

invoking the function by the server program in response to receiving the request such that the web site having page elements are compressed;

returning the compressed file to the client program by the server program;

decompressing the compressed file by the client program into local page elements;

storing the local page elements by the client program onto the mobile device; and

displaying the local page elements by the client program to a user of the mobile device.

24. A mobile device for displaying information comprising page elements defining web site content stored on a server in a network, the mobile device operable to view unvisited web site content while either connected to a network or disconnected from the network, the mobile device comprising:

a memory containing;

a web browser for displaying a web site;

a software component for receiving a compressed file containing compressed page elements, for decompressing the compressed file into page elements, and for storing the page elements to the memory, the stored page elements comprising visited and unvisited page elements, the software component reading the stored page elements and serving the page elements to the web browser when the mobile device is connected or disconnected from the network; and

a processor for running the web browser and the software component.