System and Method of Inter-Widget Communication

• US 20130219313A1
• Filed: 12/17/2012
• Published: 08/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Clayton, Gary, Chen, Victor, Athsani, Athellina, Martinez, Ronald G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,836,189 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/765
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

A method and apparatus enabling inter-widget communication and control uses a central server to receive selected widgets and settings associated with at least one widget, wherein the received settings are used to at least partly determine the settings of the other selected widgets according to a pre-defined relationship between or among the widgets.

Claims

1-7. -7. (canceled)

8. A method of controlling when widgets are displayed, as a function of when their display is requested, said method comprising:

assigning at least one of a plurality of widgets to a widget group;

defining a durational period to display the widget group; and

determining whether the widget group should be displayed in response to a display request.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the durational period comprises a start date and an end date.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said determining checks whether a date associated with the display request is within the start date and end date.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the durational period further comprises a frequency value.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the frequency value comprises a start time and an end time.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the widget group is displayed if the date associated with the display request is within the durational period and a time associated with the display request is within a range defined by the start time and the end time of the frequency value.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the widgets comprising the widget group share a common theme.

31. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining whether to send information requests to widget servers based on the durational period.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the durational period comprises at least a start date and an end date;

wherein the information requests are sent if a date associated with the display request is within the durational period; and

wherein the information requests are not sent if the date associated with the display request is not within the durational period.

15-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A system for controlling when widgets are displayed, as a function of when their display is requested, said system comprising:

at least one server configured to receive an assignment of at least one of a plurality of widgets to a widget group;

wherein the at least one server is further configured to receive a durational period to display the widget group; and

wherein the at least one server is further configured to determine whether the widget group is to be displayed in response to a display request.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the durational period comprises a start date and an end date.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the at least one server checks whether a date associated with the display request is within the start date and end date.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein the durational period further comprises a frequency value.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the frequency value comprises a start time and an end time.

27. The system of claim 25 wherein the widget group is displayed in response to the date associated with the display request being within the durational period and a time associated with the display request being within a range defined by the start time and the end time of the frequency value.

28. The system of claim 22 wherein the widgets comprising the widget group share a common theme.

29. The system of claim 22 wherein the at least one server is further configured to determine whether to send a plurality of information requests to at least one widget server based on the durational period.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the durational period comprises at least a start date and an end date;

wherein the at least one server is configured to send the plurality of information requests in response to a date associated with the display request being within the durational period; and

wherein the at least one server is configured to not send the plurality of information requests in response to the date associated with the display request not being within the durational period.

33. A method of controlling when widgets are displayed, as a function of when their display is requested, said method comprising:

assigning a plurality of widgets to a widget group;

assigning one widget from among the plurality of widgets to be a master widget, the master widget controlling at least one setting of at least one of the remaining widgets of the plurality of widgets;

defining a durational period that includes a start date, an end date, a start time, and an end time to display the widget group; and

determining whether the widget group is to be displayed in response to a display request based on the durational period.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein determining whether the widget group is to be displayed comprises:

determining whether a date associated with the display request is within a date range defined by the start date and the end date; and

determining whether a time associated with the display request is within a time range defined by the start time and the end time;

wherein the method further comprises;

displaying the widget group if the date associated with the display request is within the date range and if the time associated with the display request is within the time range; and

not displaying the widget group if at least one of the date associated with the display request is not within the date range or the time associated with the display request is not within the time range.