Wrapper Playlists on Streaming Media Services

• US 20070233784A1
• Filed: 06/04/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kucer, Anton, Dean, Dawson, O'Rourke, Bret
• Granted Patent: US 7,496,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Systems and methods for combining streaming media content items for streaming to a client computer across a network are described. In one aspect, a server computer receives a request from a client computer for one or more content items. Responsive to receiving the request, the server computer identifies a data structure that refers to the one or more further content items. The server computer modifies the data structure to reference the requested content items. The server computer provides the content items referenced by the modified data structure to the requesting client computer for streaming media content to a user.

Claims

1. A method for a server computer to automatically provide content to a client computer, the method comprising:

receiving, by the server computer, a request from the client computer for one or more requested content items; and

responsive to receiving the request;

identifying, by the server computer, a data structure that refers to one or more further content items;

modifying, by the server computer, the data structure to reference the requested content items; and

providing, by the server computer, the content items referenced by the modified data structure to the client computer for presentation to a user.

2. The method of claim 1:

wherein identifying the data structure, the data structure comprises a playlist;

wherein receiving the request, the one or more requested content items comprises streaming media content; and

wherein providing the content items further comprises streaming the content items referred to by the playlist.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the data structure, the data structure comprises a first Web page specification, and the requested content comprises a second Web page specification.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the data structure further comprises adding a plurality of references to the requested content item in the data structure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the data structure further comprises adding a plural number of references to the requested content item in the data structure, the number being indicated by the request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request, further comprises receiving a variety of requests from the client computer, at least one subset of the variety of requests comprising respective requests to one or more different content items.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the data structure, the data structure further comprises a placeholder that identifies a particular point in a sequence where the reference to the requested content is placed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the data structure further comprises creating the data structure by modifying a base data structure.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the data structure further comprises creating the data structure by copying a base data structure.

10. A server including a processor configured to perform one or more operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of requests from a client for one or more requested content items;

responsive to receiving the request, and for at least a subset of the received requests;

(a) identifying, by the server, a data structure containing a sequence of references to one or more further content items;

(b) modifying, by the server, the data structure reference to the requested content items; and

(c) communicating, by the server, the content items referenced by the modified data structure to the client.

11. The server of claim 10, wherein the data structure comprises a playlist, the requested content comprising streaming media content, and wherein the communicating comprises streaming the content items referenced by the modified data structure to the client.

12. The server of claim 10, wherein the data structure comprises a first Web page specification, and wherein the requested content comprises a second Web page specification.

13. The server of claim 10, wherein modifying the data structure comprises including a plurality of references to the requested content item in the data structure.

14. The server of claim 10, wherein modifying the data structure comprises including a plural number of references to the requested content item in the data structure, the number being indicated by the request.

15. The server of claim 10, wherein identifying the data structure comprises creating the data structure by modifying a base data structure.

16. The server of claim 10, wherein identifying the data structure comprises identifying the data structure by modifying a copy of a base data structure.

17. The server of claim 10, wherein at least a subset of the received requests refer to differing content items.

18. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a wrapper data structure comprising:

one or more first data fields, each data field containing data therein representing a respective reference to a set of content items;

at least one second data field containing data therein representing a respective placeholder to identify a particular point in a sequence of the one or more first data fields where a reference to a set of client requested content is to be inserted; and

wherein the data structure comprises a playlist or a Web page.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18:

wherein the data structure is a playlist; and

wherein the content items and the client requested content are streaming media content items that are respectively identified with a Universal Resource Locator.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18:

wherein the data structure is a Web page;

wherein the content items are a first set of Web page specifications; and

wherein the client requested content are one or more second Web page specifications.