Customizing a client application using an options page stored on a server computer

• US 6,810,410 B1
• Filed: 08/03/1999
• Issued: 10/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NBC Universal Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Durham, Peter Emmanuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M.
• Application Number:
  US09/366,485
• Time in Patent Office: 1,911 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/201, 709/203, 709/206, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/223, 709/224, 709/227, 709/228, 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A method and apparatus for displaying an options page for client application in a network environment. Instead of hard coding the options page within the client application, the options page is stored on a server computer and may be updated dynamically without modifying the client application. In one aspect, the user requests to view the options page using menu commands generated by the client application. In response to the user request, the client application launches a browser, if needed, and passes the current settings for the options page to the browser along with an address pointing to the location of the options page on a server computer. The browser connects to the server computer specified in the URL, requests the page associated with the address, and passes the user settings to the server computer. The server computer generates a current version of the options page, initializes the options page by applying the user settings to the options page, and downloads the options page to the browser for display. In another aspect, the user makes changes to the options page in the browser to customize the client application. The browser sends the changes to the server and the server returns the changes to the browser as a special file type. The browser uses a helper function to handle the special file type and launches an application that saves the user settings on the client computer.

Claims

1. In a network including a client computer coupled to a server computer, a method of displaying user options for a client application, comprising:

storing a current version of an options page on the server computer, the options page having options that a user can select to control a client application, other than a browser, on the client computer;

storing selections made by the user for the options page;

initializing the options page by applying the stored selections to the current version of the options page; and

displaying the initialized options page using a browser on the client computer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) using the client application to retrieve the stored selections for the options page;

(b) passing the stored selections to the browser; and

(c) using the browser, passing the stored selections to the server computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored selections for the options page are stored on the client computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored selections the user made for the options page are stored on the server computer.

5. The method of claim 1, further including storing the user selections for the options page in a cookie on the client computer.

6. The method of claim 1, further including using the client application to retrieve an address of the server computer, the address being stored on the client computer.

7. The method of claim 6 further including

(a) retrieving the stored user selections;

(b) encoding the stored user selections;

(c) appending the encoded user selections to the address of the server computer; and

(d) passing the address and encoded user selections to the browser.

8. The method of claim 1 further including automatically instantiating the browser in response to a user request to view the options page in the client application.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein initializing includes generating an HTML encoding of the current version of the options page using the server computer.

10. The method of claim 9 including returning a current version of the options page with the user settings to the browser.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the browser is an application.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the browser is an embedded control that hosts a hypertext language.

13. A method for displaying user options in an options page for a client application on a client computer, wherein the options page has options a user can set to control the client application, the method comprising:

in response to a user requesting access to an options page in a first client application, passing the request to a second client application;

using the second client application, connecting to a network server computer and retrieving a copy of the options page from the server computer; and

displaying the options page in the second client application.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the user options in the option page affect the operation of the first client application and are unrelated to the operation of the second client application.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the second client application is a browser for allowing a user to access the Internet.

16. The method of claim 13, further including:

(a) retrieving stored user settings for the options page using the first client application;

(b) retrieving an address of the server computer;

(c) appending the user settings to the address of the server computer; and

(d) passing the stored user settings and the address to the second client application.

17. The method of claim 13 further including:

(a) initializing the options page by applying current user settings to the options page, wherein the initialization is performed by the server computer; and

(b) passing the initialized options page to the second client application for display to the user on the client computer.

18. The method of claim 13 further including:

(a) receiving user changes to the options page in the second application;

(b) submitting the user changes to the server computer; and

(c) receiving from the server computer, an address of a save report stored on the server computer to be displayed to the user.

19. The method of claim 13, further including:

(a) receiving user changes to the options page in the second application;

(b) submitting the user changes to the server computer;

(c) receiving from the server computer, a file type containing the user changes; and

(d) storing the user changes on the client computer.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the user changes are stored in the registry on the client computer.

21. The method of claim 19 further including checking a list of applications and determining an application associated with the file type.

22. The method of claim 21 further including instantiating the application associated with the file type and passing the user changes to the application.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein the file type is a MIME file.

24. The method of claim 13 further including launching a second instance of the first client application that is not visible to the user.

25. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 13.

26. The method of claim 13, further including dynamically updating the options page, without changing code for the first client application.

27. In a networking environment including at least one server computer coupled to a plurality of client computers, a method of updating an options page on a client computer, comprising:

(a) displaying a set of menu items to a user in a first client application, wherein one of the menu items displays a set of commands that allow a user to customize the first client application by providing graphical user interface elements that can be selected and modified by the user;

(b) in response to selecting a command to customize the first client application, launching a second client application unrelated to the first client application; and

(c) displaying an options page in the second client application, wherein the options page is associated with customizing the first client application.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the second client application is a browser and the first client application is not a browser.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the graphical user elements are selected from a group consisting of menu buttons, text fields, radio buttons, scroll bars, check boxes, and combinations thereof.

30. The method of claim 27 further including receiving user input into the second client application for user changes to the options page and sending the user settings for the options page to the server computer.

31. The method of claim 30 further including returning the user settings to the second client application as a special file type.

32. The method of claim 31, further including using the second client application to search a list to determine an application to launch in response to receiving the special file type.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the special file type is a MIME file.

34. The method of claim 30 further including returning an address to the second client application of a page acknowledging that a save of the user settings is complete.

35. A method of displaying an options page for a client application running on a client computer in a network environment, the method comprising:

steps for displaying menu commands to customize a first client application, which is a non-browser application; and

steps for displaying an option page on a browser in response to a user selecting the menu commands, wherein the options page has user selectable user interface elements that control the first client application.

36. The method of claim 35 further including steps for allowing the user to change the option page by sending the changes to a server computer.

37. In a network environment including at least one server computer coupled to multiple client computers, a method of displaying an options page for a client application on a client computer and for saving user customization changes made to the options page, comprising:

displaying, in a browser, the options page having graphical user interface elements associated with customizing the client application on the client computer;

receiving user input from a user input device for changing settings of the graphical user interface elements;

passing the settings for the graphical user interface elements to a server computer on a network;

receiving from the server computer, a response labeled as a special file type, the response including the settings for the graphical user interface elements;

using the browser, checking a list of applications to determine a client application associated with the special file type;

launching the client application obtained from the list of applications; and

using the launched application, saving the settings for the graphical user interface elements on the client computer to control the client application.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the special file type is a MIME file.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein the list of applications includes a list of helper applications, one of which is registered as a helper application for the special file type.

40. The method of claim 37 wherein the client application that is launched is a second instance of the client application associated with the options page.

41. The method of claim 37 wherein the client application that is launched is not visible to the user.

42. The method of claim 37 wherein the response from the server includes an address of a save-acknowledgement page located on the server computer, and the method further includes using the launched application to pass the address of the save-acknowledgement page to the browser, which retrieves the save-acknowledgement page and displays it to the user.

43. In a network environment including at least one server computer coupled to multiple client computers, a method of displaying an options page for a client application on a client computer, comprising the steps of:

storing user settings for the options page in a cookie on the client computer, the options page having graphical user interface elements associated with configuring the client application, wherein the client application is not a browser;

receiving from a server computer a page having topics of information with an invitation to update the options page to include one or more of the topics of information;

if the user accepts the invitation to update the options page;

(a) retrieving the cookie from the client computer;

(b) modifying the settings for the options page to include the one or more topics of information;

(c) passing the modified settings to the client computer; and

(d) storing the modified settings in the cookie.

44. The method of claim 43 further including automatically determining that the user does not have the client application associated with the options page stored on the client computer and automatically prompting the user to download the client application.

45. In a network including a client computer coupled to a server computer, a method of displaying user options for a client application, comprising:

receiving in the client application an uninitialized options page, the options page having options that a user can select to control the client application;

receiving in the client application, initialization options for the options page;

sending the initialization options to the server computer; and

upon subsequent accesses to the server computer, receiving from the server computer the initialized options page and displaying the initialized options page on the client computer.