Method, system and program product for animated web page construction and display

• US 6,720,981 B1
• Filed: 12/08/1999
• Issued: 04/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Berstis, Viktors
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Application Number:
  US09/457,221
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• Field of Search: 345/760, 345/748, 345/772, 345/839, 345/977, 345/706, 345/733, 345/738, 345/764, 345/781, 345/757, 345/758, 345/473, 345/474, 345/950, 345/952, 345/960, 345/629, 345/630, 345/634, 345/638, 345/683, 345/769, 345/770, 715/513, 715/515, 715/514, 715/526, 434/118
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed in which a browser application animates web page construction. The animated construction involves the browser associating each web object with an animated mover character. The web object and animated mover character are moved from outside a boundary area of the web page to its programmed location within the web page wherein the movement simulates that the animated mover character is building the web page. The browser processes all of the web objects to display the entire web page with all of the web objects.

Claims

1. A method for constructing and displaying a web page, on a display screen, said method comprising:

in response to receipt of a specified hyper-text transport protocol (http) address, a browser retrieving a markup language file identified by the specified http address,

the browser parsing the markup language file to identify, within the markup language file, at least one universal resource locator (URL) retrieval address and automatically retrieving a plurality of web objects from one or more storage locations associated with said at least one URL retrieval address,

in response to retrieving said plurality of web objects, displaying at least one web object on the display screen outside of a boundary of the web page,

displaying at least one mover character in association with said web page, and

animating movement of the at least one web object from outside the boundary of the web page to a programmed location inside the boundary of the web page while animating movement of said at least one mover character, wherein said movements of the at least one web object and said at least one mover character simulates the at least one mover character building the web page by placing said at least one web object at the programmed location.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one web object is a multiple number of web objects.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

saving, by the browser, into a memory device an image covering a location over which the at least one web object and the at least one mover character have been drawn on the display screen,

re-drawing the image that was covered using the at least one image saved in the memory device as the at least one web object and the at least one mover character are slid over and no longer covering the location,

determining whether the at least one web object and the at least one mover character are at the programmed location,

repeating the sliding step, the saving step, and the re-drawing step if the at least one web object and the at least one mover character are not at the programmed location, and

removing the at least one mover character from the web page if the at least one web object and the at least one mover character are at the programmed location.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether all of the at least one web object have been displayed within the boundary of the web page,

repeating the animating movement step for all remaining of the at least one web object if all of the at least one web object have not been displayed on the web page.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one mover character is at least one animal mover character.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one mover character is at least one person mover character.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

discontinuing display of the at least one mover character within the web page if all of the at least one web objects is displayed at the programmed location.

8. A system for constructing and displaying a web page, on a display screen, said system comprising:

a web page processing system for processing the web page,

a display screen coupled to the web page processing system,

a data storage device storing a browser executable by said web page processing system, wherein said browser includes;

means, responsive to receipt of a specified hyper-text transport protocol (http) address, for retrieving a markup language file identified by the specified http address,

means for parsing the markup language file to identify, within the markup language file, at least one universal resource locator (URL) retrieval address and for automatically retrieving a plurality of web objects from one or more storage locations associated with said at least one URL retrieval address,

means for displaying the at least one web object on the display screen outside a boundary of the web page,

means for displaying at least one mover character in association with the web page, and

means for animating movement of the at least one web object from outside the boundary of the web page to a programmed location inside the boundary of the web page while animating movement of said at least one mover character, wherein the movement of the at least one web object and the at least one mover character simulates the at least one mover character building the web page by placing said at least one web object at the programmed location.

9. A program product for constructing and displaying a web page, on a display screen, said program product comprising:

a computer usable medium; and

a browser encoded within said computer usable medium, said browser including;

means, responsive to receipt of a specified hyper-text transport protocol (http) address, for retrieving a markup language file identified by the specified http address,

means for parsing the markup language file to identify, within the markup language file, at least one universal resource locator (URL) retrieval address and for automatically retrieving a plurality of web objects from one or more storage locations associated with said at least one URL retrieval address,

means for displaying the at least one web object on the display screen outside a boundary of the web page,

means for displaying at least one mover character in association with the web page, and

means for animating movement of the at least one web object from outside the boundary of the web page to a programmed location inside the boundary of the web page while animating movement of said at least one mover character, wherein the movement of the at least one web object and the at least one mover character simulates the at least one mover character building the web page by placing said at least one web object at the programmed location.

10. The program product according to claim 9, wherein said computer usable media is a memory medium.

11. The program product according to claim 9, wherein said computer usable media is a floppy disk.