Method and apparatus for accelerating navigation of hypertext pages using compound requests

• US 6,526,439 B1
• Filed: 03/30/2000
• Issued: 02/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unwired Planet LLC (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Laursen, Andrew L., Martin, Bruce K., Rossmann, Alain S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Qureshi, Shabana
• Application Number:
  US09/539,186
• Time in Patent Office: 1,062 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/203, 709/304, 709/200, 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• 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 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Under the limited bandwidth of the current wireless data network and with the low memory in mobile devices in use today, the process of going through a number of intermediate pages to get to a desired page increases the latency of the information deliver and intensifies the network traffic. A method for accelerating the navigation of hypertext pages based on a compound request is disclosed. After a compound request is entered and activated, the compound request is parsed into an antecedent request followed by a final request wherein the antecedent request comprises a plurality of intermediate requests. All the intermediate requests are processed individually and sequentially as if they were entered individually and cards corresponding to the intermediate requests are fetched sequentially. A final card containing desired information by the final request is fetched based on the card corresponding to the last intermediate request and thereby displayed.

Claims

1. A method for accelerating navigation of hierarchical layers of accessible information hosted in a server device through a two-way communication device over a data network, the method comprising:

receiving in said server device a compound request entered by a user of the two-way communication device to display desired information;

parsing said compound request in said server device to obtain an antecedent request and a final request;

processing the antecedent request and the final request to obtain a final address identifier;

fetching said desired information from a location indicated by said final address identifier; and

transmitting said desired information to said two-way communication device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the antecedent request comprises at least one intermediate request including a first intermediate request.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the first intermediate request corresponds to one of the items in a menu displayed on said two-way communication device.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein said compound request comprises a sequence of numerals, a first numeral in the numeral sequence representing the first intermediate request, subsequent numerals in the numeral sequence each representing one of the intermediate requests respectively, and a final numeral in the numeral sequence representing said final request.

5. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein said menu has no more than 9 items.

6. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the antecedent request and the final request processing comprises:

fetching intermediate cards according to said intermediate requests; and

fetching, based on the intermediate cards, a final card according to said final request.

7. The method as recited in claim 6 further comprising:

parsing a first intermediate card with a subset of said compound request to identify a next intermediate card.

8. The method as recited in claim 6 further comprising:

parsing an intermediate card with a subset of said compound request to identify said final card.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

fetching an intermediate deck of cards from a card server coupled to said server device by a data network.

10. The method as recited in claim 6 further comprising:

receiving a final deck having a final card corresponding to said final request to said two-way communication device; and

displaying said fin al card on the two-way communication device.

11. A server device for allowing a user of a two-way communication device to navigate through hierarchical layers of accessible information, said server device comprising:

an interface to a data network to receive in said server device a compound request entered by said user of said two-way communication device to display desired information;

a parser to parse said compound request in said server device to obtain an antecedent request and a final request;

a request processor to process the antecedent request and the final request to obtain a final address identifier; and

a second interface to fetch said desired information from a location indicated by said final address identifier and to transmit said desired information to said two-way communication device.

12. The server device as recited in claim 11 wherein the antecedent request comprises at least one intermediate request including a first intermediate request.

13. The server device as recited in claim 12 wherein the first intermediate request corresponds to an item in a menu on said two-way communication device.

14. The server device as recited in claim 12 wherein the compound request comprises a sequence of numerals, a first numeral in the numeral sequence representing the first intermediate request, subsequent numerals in the numeral sequence each representing one of the intermediate requests respectively, and a final numeral in the numeral sequence representing the final request.

15. The server device as recited in claim 13 wherein said menu has no more than 9 items.

16. The server device as recited in claim 11 wherein said request processor fetches intermediate cards according to the intermediate requests and fetches a final card based upon final request.

17. The server device as recited in claim 16 wherein said request processor parses a first intermediate card with a subset of said compound request to identify a next intermediate card.

18. The server device as recited in claim 16 wherein said request processor parses an intermediate card with a subset of said compound request to identify said final card.

19. The server device as recited in claim 12 wherein said request processor fetches intermediate cards associated with said intermediate requests.

20. A computer readable medium, said computer readable medium containing a set of computer instructions that when executed cause a processing system to perform a process comprising:

receiving in a server device a compound request entered by a user of a two-way communication device to display desired information;

parsing said compound request in said server device to obtain an antecedent request and a final request;

processing the antecedent request and the final request to obtain a final address identifier;

fetching said desired information from a location indicated by said final address identifier; and

transmitting said desired information to said two-way communication device.

21. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 20 wherein the antecedent request comprises at least one intermediate request including a first intermediate request.

22. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 21 wherein the first intermediate request corresponds to one of the items in a menu displayed on said two-way communication device.

23. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 21 wherein said compound request comprises a sequence of numerals, a first numeral in the numeral sequence representing the first intermediate request, subsequent numerals in the numeral sequence each representing one of the intermediate requests respectively, and a final numeral in the numeral sequence representing the final request.

24. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 22 wherein said menu has no more than 9 items.

25. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 21 wherein the antecedent request and the final request processing comprises:

fetching intermediate cards according to said intermediate requests; and

fetching, based on the intermediate cards, a final card according to said final request.

26. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 25 further comprising:

parsing a first intermediate card with a subset of said compound request to identify a next intermediate card.

27. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 25 further comprising:

parsing an intermediate card with a subset of said compound request to identify said final card.

28. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 20 further comprising:

fetching an intermediate deck of cards from a card server coupled said server device by a data network.

29. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 25 further comprising:

receiving a final deck having a final card corresponding to said final request to said two-way communication device; and

displaying said final card on the two-way communication device.