Browser hierarchical contextual information for web pages
First Claim
1. A method that provides contextual information for pages, wherein each page has an address that identifies the source of the page, wherein each address comprises a plurality of identifiers in a hierarchy, comprising:
- displaying pages within windows on a display in a hierarchical relationship; and
in response to a user requesting a change to a current window in the plurality of windows, updating the pages in other of the plurality of windows to maintain the hierarchical relationship, and wherein the updating step further comprises determining a parent page for each page by clipping a most-narrow identifier in the page addresses.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A mechanism for providing contextual information for a web page. In the preferred embodiment, a browser displays multiple web pages in multiple windows in a parent-child hierarchy on a display screen. The browser maintains this hierarchical relationship by building and updating a window-list data structure, which contains information about the active windows and their web-page contents. When the user requests a change to the contents of one window, the browser updates the contents of the other windows to maintain the parent-child hierarchical relationship. In this way, the browser provides contextual information for a displayed web-page.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. A method that provides contextual information for pages, wherein each page has an address that identifies the source of the page, wherein each address comprises a plurality of identifiers in a hierarchy, comprising:
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displaying pages within windows on a display in a hierarchical relationship; and
in response to a user requesting a change to a current window in the plurality of windows, updating the pages in other of the plurality of windows to maintain the hierarchical relationship, and wherein the updating step further comprises determining a parent page for each page by clipping a most-narrow identifier in the page addresses. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
detaching the current window from the hierarchical relationship.
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3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
deleting the current window from the plurality of windows.
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4. The method of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical relationship further comprises:
- a parent-child relationship between pages in successive windows.
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5. The method of claim 1, wherein the page address further comprises delimiters between the identifiers and the determining step further comprises clipping the identifier following a last delimiter.
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6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
in response to the user requesting a new page in the current window, retrieving the new page and displaying the new page in a first window in the plurality of windows.
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7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:
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determining the addresses of ancestor pages of the new page;
retrieving the ancestor pages using the addresses; and
displaying the ancestor pages in successive windows to the first window.
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8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
in response to the user requesting a new page in the current window, retrieving the new page and displaying the new page in a current window in the plurality of windows.
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9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
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determining the addresses of ancestor pages of the new page;
retrieving the ancestor pages using the addresses; and
displaying the ancestor pages in successive windows to the current window.
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10. The method of claim 1, wherein the most-narrow identifier comprises a file name.
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11. The method of claim 1, wherein the address comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
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12. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying step further comprises:
concurrently displaying the plurality of windows, wherein each of the plurality of windows is at least partially visible.
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13. The method of claim 12, wherein the displaying step further comprises:
displaying the plurality of windows in a cascading format.
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14. A program product that provides contextual information for pages, wherein each page has an address that identifies the source of the page, wherein each address comprises a plurality of identifiers in a hierarchy, comprising:
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a browser that displays pages within windows on a display in a hierarchical relationship and in response to a user requesting a change to a current window in the plurality of windows, the browser updates the pages in other of the plurality of windows to maintain the hierarchical relationship, and wherein the browser updates the pages by determining a parent page for each page by clipping a most-narrow identifier in the page addresses; and
signal-bearing media bearing the browser. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A computer system, comprising:
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a processor;
memory;
a window list residing in the memory and comprising a plurality of elements that describe a plurality of windows on a display and a hierarchical relationship of the plurality of windows; and
a browser residing in the memory and executing on the processor, wherein the browser displays pages within windows on a display in a hierarchical relationship, wherein each page has an address that identifies the source of the page, wherein each address comprises a plurality of identifiers in a hierarchy, and in response to a user requesting a change to a current window in the plurality of windows, the browser updates the pages in other of the plurality of windows to maintain the hierarchical relationship, and wherein the browser updates the pages by determining a parent page for each page by clipping a most-narrow identifier in the page addresses. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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Specification