Method and apparatus for communicating information over low bandwidth communications networks

• US 6,343,318 B1
• Filed: 05/29/1998
• Issued: 01/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1998
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: Access Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Lincke, Scott D., Hawkins, Jeffrey C., Sipher, Joseph K.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, VIET DUY
• Application Number:
  US09/087,515
• Time in Patent Office: 1,341 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/227, 709/313, 709/328, 709/329
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/085 specially adapted for interworking of IP-based networks with other networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/165 Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/326 in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] H04L69/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A system having a distributed web site is described. The web site is distributed between a client, a server and a web server. The client stores a set of predefined applications that correspond to a part of the web site. The applications are formatted according to a first markup language. From the set of predefined applications, the client can generate queries. The server receives the queries and generates new, related queries. The new queries correspond to a second query protocol. The second query protocol is used by the web server. The web server generates responses to the new queries and sends these responses to the server. The responses are formatted according to a second markup language. These responses correspond to the second portion of the web site. The server then converts the responses into new responses that the client can use.

Claims

1. A handheld computer comprising:

a display;

an antenna;

a memory configured to store a set of data configured for a selected network site; and

a processor configured to;

access the set of data from the memory to render a form for the selected network site, the form including one or more fields;

associate user-input to the one or more fields provided by the form;

signal a wireless communication over the antenna for the selected network site, the wireless communication comprising the form with the user-input being associated with the one or more fields,

receive a response over the antenna, the response originating from the selected network site; and

providing a content comprising one or more selectable pages appearing on the display, a first portion of the content being derived from the set of data for the selected network, a second portion of the content being derived from the response received over the antenna from the selected network site.

2. The handheld computer of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication is signaled from the antenna in a compressed markup language.

3. The handheld computer of claim 1, wherein the one or more pages comprising the content are linked to one another, and wherein at least some of the data for linking the one or more pages to one another is stored with the set of data configured for the selected network site.

4. The handheld computer of claim 1, wherein the response originating from the network site is received from the network site in a compressed markup language.

5. The handheld computer of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to access the set of data to structure the form so as to generate a response from the selected network site.

6. The handheld computer of claim 2, wherein the compressed markup language corresponds to Compact Markup Language (CML).

7. The handheld computer of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to access the pre-configured data to structure the form in Compact Markup Language (CML) so as to generate a response from the network site in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

8. The handheld computer of claim 1, wherein at least some of the first portion of the content corresponds to the form.

9. A handheld computer comprising:

a display;

a memory to store a set of data for a selected network site;

a processor configured to;

execute an application associated with the selected network site, the application accessing the set of data to generate a query form to be signaled across a wireless channel to the network site;

execute a browser with the application to signal the query form to the network site, and to render a content comprising one or more pages, at least some of the content being derived from a response received from the network site, the one or more pages of the content being linked using data in the set of data.

10. The handheld computer of claim 9, wherein the application associated with the network site accesses the set of data to display a portion of one page of the one or more pages in the content concurrently with the browser using the response to display another portion of the one page.

11. The handheld computer of claim 9, wherein a portion of the content corresponds to the query form.

12. The handheld computer of claim 10, wherein a first portion of the content is static so as to be independent of the response received from the network site, and wherein a second portion of the content is dynamic so as to be determined by the response from the network site.

13. The handheld computer of claim 10, further comprising a serial port to exchange communications with another computer, and wherein the set of data for the selected network site is signaled from another computer over the serial port.

14. The handheld computer of claim 13, wherein the application associated with the selected network site is signaled from another computer over the serial port.

15. The handheld computer of claim 9, wherein the memory is configured to store a plurality of data sets, each data set corresponding to one of a plurality of network sites, and wherein the processor is configured to execute a plurality of applications, each of the plurality of applications being associated with one of the plurality of network sites, and each of the plurality of applications generating a query form configured for the associated one of the plurality of network sites.

16. The handheld computer of claim 9, wherein the application associates a plurality of network pages configured for the selected network site.