METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CHECKOUT TRANSITION IN AN E-COMMERCE APPLICATION

• US 20090187820A1
• Filed: 01/18/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: KIM, SANG-HEUN, STINSON, CHARLES LAURENCE
• Granted Patent: US 8,418,056 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/238
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A method and apparatus for transcoding content or elements of a webpage received at a client device, for example, a mobile communication device or other type of networked device. The apparatus includes a transcoding engine which is configured to transcode webpage content during a secure end-to-end connection between a client device and a website without the use of a proxy. According to an embodiment, the transcoding engine resides on the client, and is implemented as a plug-in to the browser, and transcoding instructions are provided to the client device by way of the signature file(s) each time the plug-in is invoked. The client device uses the transcoding instructions to manipulate the secure response from the secure server, for example, to transcode the response to a format suitable for display on the client device.

Claims

1. A method for generating a page suitable for display on a mobile communication device based on a webpage from a website server, said method comprising the steps of:

requesting the webpage from the website server;

establishing a communication link directly between the website server and the device;

receiving at least a portion of the webpage over said communication link with said website server;

obtaining one or more transcoding instructions;

transcoding said received portion of the webpage according to said one or more transcoding instructions; and

generating a page suitable for display on the mobile communication device based on said transcoded webpage.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said direct communication link comprises a secure communication channel between said website server and the mobile communication device.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said one or more transcoding instructions comprise a signature file, and said signature file is associated with a page family for said website server.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein said page family comprises an e-commerce application.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein said direct communication link comprises an HTTPS connection between the website server and the device.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of obtaining said one or more transcoding instructions comprises establishing a communication link with another server and downloading said one or more transcoding instructions.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said step of establishing a communication link and downloading said one or more transcoding instructions is initiated in response to said step of requesting a webpage.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of obtaining said one or more transcoding instructions comprises installing a file on the mobile communication device.

9. A mobile communication device configured for displaying a page generated from a webpage received from a website server over a communication network, said mobile communication device comprising:

a component configured to request the webpage from the website server;

a component configured to establish a communication channel directly between the website server and the device;

a component configured to receive said webpage over said communication channel;

a component configured to retrieve one or more transcoding instructions;

a transcoding engine configured to execute said one or more transcoding instructions to transcode content in said received webpage; and

a component configured to render a page suitable for display based on said transcoded content.

10. The mobile communication device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said one or more transcoding instructions comprise a signature file and said component configured to retrieve said one or more transcoding instructions is configured to retrieve said signature file from a server via another communication link.

11. The mobile communication device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said transcoding engine includes a mapping component configured to map data stored locally to one or more fields in the page.

12. The mobile communication device as claimed in claim 11, wherein said locally stored data includes one or more of client name, client password, client address, client preferences, credit card information and payment account.

13. A computer program product for generating a page suitable for display on a mobile communication device, said computer program product comprising:

a storage medium configured to store computer readable instructions;

said computer readable instructions including instructions for, requesting a webpage from a website server;

establishing a communication link directly between the website server and the device;

receiving at least a portion of the webpage over said communication link with said website server;

obtaining one or more transcoding instructions;

transcoding said received portion of the webpage according to said one or more transcoding instructions; and

generating a page suitable for display on the mobile communication device based on said transcoded webpage.