Custom loading activity or progress animation

• US 20070124666A1
• Filed: 11/29/2005
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Schreiner, Tony, Sauve, Aaron, Morgan, Bruce, Manthos, Brian, Hachamovitch, Dean
• Application Number:
  US11/289,774
• Publication Number:
  US 20070124666A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Custom loading activity or progress animation is provided in which an activity indicator file, specific to a particular web site or page, is downloaded on a user'"'"'s computing device. When a user browses to that particular web site or page, the user'"'"'s browser retrieves the site-specific animation and renders it for the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

creating a custom activity indicator file that includes custom art; and

associating the custom activity indicator file with a web page in a manner that permits the custom activity indicator file to be rendered while the web page is being loaded by a browser and which indicates to a user that the associated web page is currently loading.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising making the custom activity indicator file available over a network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of associating is performed by creating an association in HTML that defines at least a portion of the web page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of creating and associating comprises creating and associating multiple different custom activity indicator files for different web pages within a particular domain.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of creating comprises creating a bitmap strip containing animation art.

6. The method of claim I further comprising prior to the act of creating, defining the custom art.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

navigating to a web site;

determining whether the site has an associated custom activity indicator file;

in an event the site has an associated custom activity indicator file, retrieving the custom activity indicator file; and

rendering the custom activity indicator file while loading a page associated with the web site.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the act of determining is performed by examining HTML that comprises part of a page of the web site.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said acts are performed by a web browser.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the act of retrieving comprises retrieving the custom activity indicator file from a remote location.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the act of retrieving comprises locally retrieving the custom activity indicator file.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the custom activity indicator file defines a bitmap strip that provides animation art.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the act of rendering is performed by rendering the custom activity indicator file adjacent an address bar in a browsing window.

14. The method of claim 7 further comprising pre-processing the custom activity indicator file to ensure that animation defined by the file fits within an area in which it is to be rendered.

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a browser window defining a tabbed browsing environment that can present one or more tabs to a user;

using the browser window, navigating to a web site;

determining whether the site has an associated custom activity indicator file;

in an event the site has an associated custom activity indicator file, retrieving the custom activity indicator file; and

rendering the custom activity indicator file within a tab while loading a page associated with the web site.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the act of determining is performed by examining HTML that comprises part of a page of the web site.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising in an event the site does not have an associated custom activity indicator file, rendering a default animation file during page load.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the act of retrieving comprises retrieving the custom activity indicator file from a remote location.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the act of retrieving comprises locally retrieving the custom activity indicator file.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the custom activity indicator file defines a bitmap strip that provides animation art.