Client-side system for scheduling delivery of web content and locally managing the web content

• US 6,594,682 B2
• Filed: 10/28/1997
• Issued: 07/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Peterson, Leonard J., Ellerman, Erik Castedo, Endres, Raymond E., Freedman, Steven J., Jiggins, Julian P., Partovi, Hadi, DʼSouza, David J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Le Hien
• Assistant Examiner(s): WILLETT, STEPHAN F
• Application Number:
  US08/959,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20010003828A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,086 Days
• Field of Search: 709/277, 709/228, 709/229, 709/232, 709/233, 709/243, 709/202, 709/203, 709/102, 709/200, 709/217, 709/218, 709/234, 713/600
• US Class Current: 718/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A client-based system has a scheduling subsystem to schedule a time to obtain the Web content from the server. When the client reaches the scheduled time, the scheduling subsystem generates an event notification that contains sufficient information explaining how to retrieve the Web content. The client-based system has a delivery subsystem that is responsive to the event notification to obtain the Web content at the time set by the scheduling subsystem. The delivery subsystem preferably has multiple delivery modules that enable different types of distribution mechanism. In addition to the Web content or data itself, the delivery subsystem obtains an index to the Web content. The index summarizes the Web content to facilitate local search and find tasks. The index and Web content are stored in a cache at the client. An indexing subsystem presents the index to a user and enables the user to select from the index portions of the Web content that they prefer. Based on these preferences, filters are created to remove items not of interest. When the client is offline, the user browses the cached Web content. The user is offered essentially the same functionality as a live online session, except that any requests to a remote server are temporarily accumulated for later submission. When the client reconnects to the server, all accumulated data is sent in batch to the appropriate servers. The user can also create his/her own channel by aggregating content from different channels.

Claims

1. In a client-server system in which Web content is delivered from multiple servers to a client, a client-based system implemented at the client comprising:

a scheduling subsystem to schedule times to obtain the Web content from the servers without the servers having prearranged knowledge of the times, whereupon reaching a scheduled time, the scheduling subsystem generates an event notification containing information regarding how to retrieve the Web content from a corresponding server;

a delivery subsystem, responsive to the event notification, to retrieve the Web content and an index of the Web content from the corresponding server;

a cache to store the index and the Web content obtained by the delivery system;

an indexing subsystem to retrieve the index from the cache and present the index to a user, the indexing subsystem including a user interface which enables the user to select from the index portions of the Web content stored in the cache; and

a filter to condense the index according to preferences of the user.

2. A client-based system as recited in claim 1, wherein the scheduling subsystem comprises:

a scheduler to schedule the time to obtain the Web content; and

a notification generator to generate the event notification at the scheduled time.

3. A client-based system as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the delivery subsystem comprises multiple delivery modules that utilize different distribution systems to retrieve the index and the Web content; and

the event notification contains instructions dictating which of the delivery modules is to be used.

4. A client-based system as recited in claim 1, wherein the Web content is multicast to a network address, the delivery subsystem comprising a listener program to listen to the network address at the scheduled time to retrieve the Web content.

5. A client-based system as recited in claim 1, wherein the delivery subsystem comprises a fetching program to access the server and retrieve the Web content from the server.

6. A client-based system as recited in claim 1, wherein the Web content is transmitted as a broadcast data stream over a broadcast medium from the server, the delivery subsystem being coupled to receive the broadcast data stream from a broadcast receiver and to reconstruct the Web content from the data stream.

7. A client-based system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a content user interface to present the Web content to the user.

8. A Web browser application, embodied on a computer-readable medium, comprising:

computer-executable instructions to schedule a time to obtain Web content from a server without the server having prearranged knowledge of the scheduled time;

computer-executable instructions to generate an event notification upon occurrence of a scheduled time, the event notification containing information regarding how to retrieve the Web content;

computer-executable instructions to retrieve the Web content and an index of the Web content;

computer-executable instructions to present the index to a user and to enable the user to select certain Web content identified in the index; and

computer-executable instructions to filter the index according to user preferences.

9. A Web browser application as recited in claim 8, further comprising computer-executable instructions to listen to a multicast address to retrieve at least one of the index and the Web content.

10. A Web browser application as recited in claim 8, further comprising computer-executable instructions to access a remote server and retrieve at least one of the index and the Web content.

11. A system for delivering Web content over a medium, comprising:

a gathering subsystem located at a webcast center to gather Web content from sites on the Internet and to store the Web content;

a scheduling subsystem implemented at a client remote from the webcast center to schedule a time for the client to retrieve the Web content from the webcast server;

a delivery subsystem implemented at the client and responsive to the scheduling subsystem to obtain the Web content from the webcast center at the time set by the scheduling subsystem;

a program implemented at the client to cache a user'"'"'s preferences regarding types of the Web content;

an indexing subsystem at the client to obtain an index of the Web content and present the index to a user, the indexing subsystem including a user interface which enables the user to select certain Web content identified in the index; and

a filter to filter the index according to the user'"'"'s preferences.

12. A system as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

a multicast transmitter at the webcast center to multicast the Web content to a multicast address; and

the delivery subsystem comprising a listener program to listen to the multicast address to retrieve the Web content.

13. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein the delivery subsystem comprises means for accessing the server and retrieving the Web content from the server.

14. A system as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

a broadcast transmitter to broadcast the Web content from the webcast center as a broadcast data stream over a broadcast medium; and

the delivery subsystem being coupled to receive the broadcast data stream from a broadcast receiver and to reconstruct the Web content from the data stream.

15. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein the filter is implemented at the webcast center.

16. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein the filter is implemented at the server.

17. A system as recited in claim 11, wherein the webcast center maintains the index of the Web content and wherein the indexing subsystem obtains the index from the webcast center.

18. A system as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

a cache implemented at the client;

a data submission subsystem implemented at the client to accumulate data, which is destined for the server for server-side processing, within the cache while the client is offline from the webcast center; and

the data submission subsystem submitting the data accumulated in the cache to the webcast center during an online session between the client and the server.

20. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11, further comprising the step of caching the Web content according to a unique identification.

21. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11, further comprising the step of caching the Web content according to a corresponding universal resource locator.

23. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11, further comprising the following steps:

caching data to be submitted to the server when the client is offline from the server; and

submitting the cached data to the server during an online session in which the client is actively connected to the server.

24. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 11, further comprising the following steps:

enabling a user to select Web content obtained from different channels; and

aggregating the Web content into a single channel for presentation to the user.

25. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps as recited in claim 11.

26. A browser application, embodied on a computer-readable medium, having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps as recited in claim 11.

19. In a client-server system in which Web content is delivered from a server to a client, a computer-implemented method implemented at the client comprising the following steps:

scheduling a time to obtain the Web content from the server without the server having prearranged knowledge of the scheduled time;

listening to a multicast address to retrieve the Web content from the server at the scheduled time;

locally caching the Web content obtained from the server;

obtaining an index of the Web content from the server; and

filtering the index according to user preferences.

22. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 19, further comprising the following steps:

presenting the index to a user; and

enabling a user to select items in the index as an indication of preferred Web content.