E-business mobility platform

• US 7,287,093 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2001
• Issued: 10/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mobileaware Technologies Limited
• Original Assignee: Mobileaware Technologies Limited
• Inventors: Carr, James M., Lynch, Mark, Kinane, Brian, Fennelly, Thomas, Howe, Eamonn, McGaley, Paul, Hanrahan, Rotan
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrell; Robert B.
• Application Number:
  US09/920,943
• Publication Number:
  US 20020035617A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,272 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/248, 709/246, 709/200, 607/60, 700/83, 715/513
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• 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 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A platform (1) allows end users to engage in a session with servers such as content providers, corporate systems, commercial services or ASPs. A session object is associated with each session, attributes of which include the channel—thereby allowing changing of a channel during a session. Request/event objects are associated with the session object as requests/notifications arise, and these objects are shared with other modules. Hosted services may be physically resident on the platform or may be accessed transparently via interfaces. A device/channel neutral mark-up language extended from a presentation mark-up language is used as a single common form from which the delivered content is derived. The content from a service is generated by an executable process, normally (but not exclusively) in the extended mark-up language. The derivation of deliverable content is performed via a dynamic and configurable sequence of providers that manipulate the original content in stages.

Claims

1. An e-business mobility platform comprising:

a request handler interface for communicating with a user device to receive a request for content and for downloading the content to the requesting user device in a format suitable for the user device;

a content interface for communicating with a content server to retrieve requested content;

a transformation engine for dynamically transforming content received from the content server in real time to a suitable format for the user device, and for routing the transformed content to the request handler interface for download to the requesting user device to complete a transaction initiated by the request for content, the transformation engine performing said transformation according to;

intention tags which are in the content and which capture non-presentation properties of the content as intended by an author, including indicating relationships between blocks of content to be preserved in the transformed content,

task tags which are in the content and which indicate blocks of the content which are optional or alternative for user device types, and

presentation tags indicating content presentation attributes; and

the transformation engine converts the content to a document object model (DOM) in which nodes correspond to document tags, and transforms the document object model by parsing tags indicating blocks of content and deciding on transformation on a block-by-block basis according to the task and intention tags.

2. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user device interface comprises means for causing session manager to generate a session object upon receipt of a user device request, and said session object comprises means for controlling full execution of the session until delivery of the requested content even if the user device changes.

3. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 2, wherein the device interface comprises a device detection function for detecting device attributes, and the session manager comprises means for using said attributes to create a session object.

4. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 3, wherein the device detection function comprises means for accessing a hierarchical device database to retrieve device attributes.

5. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 2, wherein the session manager comprises means for maintaining a list of session for each user and for caching the associated content.

6. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transformation engine comprises means for dynamically activating providers in series for a session, said providers being for performing a transformation-related function.

7. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 6, wherein at least one provider comprises means or caching reusable intermediate data captured from a stream of content being transformed, and at least one other provider comprises means for using cached data.

8. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 7, wherein a provider comprises means for caching user preference data.

9. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transformation engine comprises means for applying user preferences to the device-format content.

10. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 9, wherein said preferences are applied by dynamically retrieving preference data from a user database and modifying the content accordingly.

11. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 1, wherein the platform comprises a database system and all functions of the platform comprises means for accessing said database system via accessors each dedicated to a data type.

12. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 11, wherein the data types include user, group, and device data types.

13. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transformation engine comprises means for combining content by combining DOMs generated from different incoming content streams.

14. The e-business mobility platform as claimed in claim 1, wherein the platform comprises a messaging system comprising means for controlling communication within the platform by passing objects representing events between functions.

15. A computer program product comprising software code for completing a platform as claimed in claim 1 when executing on a digital computer.

16. An e-business mobility platform comprising:

a request handler interface for communicating with a user device to receive a request for content and for downloading the content to the requesting user device in a format suitable for the user device;

a content interface for communicating with a content server to retrieve requested content;

a transformation engine for dynamically transforming content received from the content server in real time to a suitable format for the user device, and for routing the transformed content to the request handler interface for download to the requesting user device to complete a transaction initiated by the request for content, the transformation engine performing said transformation according to;

intention tags which are in the content and which capture non-presentation properties of the content as intended by the author, including indicating relationships between blocks of content to be preserved in the transformed content,

task tags which are in the content and which indicate blocks of the content which are optional or alternative for user device types, and

presentation tags indicating content presentation attributes; and

the transformation engine converts the content to a document object model in which nodes correspond to document tags, and transforms the document object model by parsing tags indicating blocks of content and deciding on transformation on a block-by-block basis according to the task and intention tags;

wherein the transformation engine maintains continuity of a session if the user device changes during the transaction by changing a session parameter identifying the user type in a database;

wherein the transformation engine identifies the type of content requested and subsequently identifies a set of data and content manipulation providers and a sequence for applying the providers to complete the transaction; and

wherein cache providers of the transformation engine access and store intermediate data as it passes from one content manipulation provider to a next content manipulation provider.