Displaying a large amount of information in a browser window

• US 7,055,097 B1
• Filed: 02/05/2002
• Issued: 05/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Precisely Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Group 1 Software Inc. (Böwe Systec AG)
• Inventors: Netsch, Tana
• Primary Examiner(s): HUTTON JR, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US10/072,131
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 715/526
• US Class Current: 715/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/114 Pagination

Abstract

A method for facilitating display of content in a browser window includes receiving a user request for content, determining that the requested content cannot be displayed in a browser window using a single page, and generating code which, when executed, causes the display of the requested content to be divided into multiple frames. Each frame displays a portion of the requested content. The frames displayed in the browser window appear to the user as a single page containing the requested content.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving data pertaining to a user request for content;

determining that the requested content cannot be displayed in a browser window using a single page; and

generating code which, when executed, causes a display of the requested content to be divided into a plurality of frames displaying corresponding portions of the requested content in the browser window, the plurality of frames appearing to a user as a single page containing the requested content,

wherein determining that the requested content cannot be displayed in the browser window includes;

calculating the number of formatting elements needed for display of the requested content in the browser window using a single page; and

determining that the calculated number of formatting elements exceeds a predefined threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the code is presented in the form of a markup language document identifying the plurality of frames associated with child markup language documents.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of frames has invisible borders and is positioned immediately after a preceding frame.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of frames is associated in the code with a set of parameters that cause said each of the plurality of frames to request the corresponding portion of the requested content from a content source during the execution of the code.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the plurality of frames request corresponding portions of the requested content in parallel.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of frames in the code includes instructions that causes the plurality of frames to operate as a single page in response to user interaction with the displayed content.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the data pertaining to the user request is a query execution plan.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

Calculating the number of frames required to display the requested content.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the number of frames depends on a layout of the display of the requested content.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein:

the layout includes a set of columns; and

each of the plurality of frames is designated to display data in a particular column within the set of columns.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of frames is an inline frame.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending the code to a client device for execution.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a user request processor to receive data pertaining to a user request for content and to determine that the requested content cannot be displayed in a browser window using a single page; and

a code generator to generate code which, when executed, causes a display of the requested content to be divided into a plurality of frames displaying corresponding portions of the requested content in the browser window, the plurality of frames appearing to a user as a single page containing the requested content,

wherein the user request processor is to determine that the requested content cannot be displayed in the browser window by calculating the number of formatting elements needed for display of the requested content in the browser window using a single page and determining that the calculated number of formatting elements exceeds a predefined threshold.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the code is presented in the form of a markup language document identifying the plurality of frames associated with child markup language documents.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein each of the plurality of frames has invisible borders and is positioned immediately after a preceding frame.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein each of the plurality of frames is associated in the code with a set of parameters that cause said each of the plurality of frames to request the corresponding portion of the requested content from a content source during the execution of the code.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the plurality of frames request corresponding portions of the requested content in parallel.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein each of the plurality of frames in the code includes instructions that causes the plurality of frames to operate as a single page in response to user interaction with the displayed content.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the data pertaining to the user request is a query execution plan.

20. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the code generator is further to calculate the number of frames required to display the requested content.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the number of frames depends on a layout of the display of the requested content.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein:

the layout includes a set of columns; and

each of the plurality of frames is designated to display data in a particular column within the set of columns.

23. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein each of the plurality of frames is an inline frame.

24. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving data pertaining to a user request for content;

means for determining that the requested content cannot be displayed in a browser window using a single page; and

means for generating code which, when executed, causes a display of the requested content to be divided into a plurality of frames displaying corresponding portions of the requested content in the browser window, the plurality of frames appearing to a user as a single page containing the requested content.

25. A system comprising:

a client computer to receive a user request for content; and

a server, coupled to the client computer over a network, to calculate the number of formatting elements needed to display the requested content in a browser window using a single page, to determine that the calculated number of formatting elements exceed a predefined threshold such that the requested content cannot be displayed in the browser window of the client computer, to generate a markup language document according to the user request for content, wherein the generated markup language document causes a display of the requested content to be divided into a plurality of frames with invisible borders which display corresponding portions of the requested content in the browser window, and to send the markup language document to the client computer for display, the markup language document being displayed in the browser window as a single page.

26. A tangible computer readable medium comprising executable instructions which when executed on a processing system cause said processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving data pertaining to a user request for content from a client device;

calculating the number of formatted elements needed to display the requested content in a browser window using a single page; and

determining that the calculated number of formatting elements exceeds a predefined threshold such that the requested content cannot be displayed in a browser window using a single page; and

generating a script which, when executed, causes a display of the requested content to be divided into a plurality of frames with invisible borders which display corresponding portions of the requested content in the browser window, the plurality of frames appearing to a user as a single page in the browser window containing the requested content.