Caching data for offline display and navigation of auxiliary information

• US 7,577,771 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2004
• Issued: 08/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Drake, Stephen R., Fuller, Andrew J., Rhoten, Matthew P., Perez, Juan, Steeb, Curt A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kindred; Alford W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee; Chun-Kuan
• Application Number:
  US10/837,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20050243020A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,933 Days
• Field of Search: 710/20, 715/234
• US Class Current: 710/20
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time

Abstract

Described is a system and system by which application programs provide data to auxiliary display device (that is associated with a main computer system) for display, including at times when the main computer system is powered down. The cache maintains the user data in association with structured navigational information, to allow navigation within the data via the structure. When online, the main computer system prepares the data cache from program data in combination with navigational information, and transfers the cache to an offline medium such as auxiliary storage in firmware. The cache may be arranged as a tree structure, such that navigation commands result in output according to data in the tree. Other events such as time-based events can change the auxiliary device output.

Claims

1. In a computing environment having a main computer system and an auxiliary display device, a system for displaying application program data on the auxiliary display device even when the main computer system is powered off, the system comprising:

an auxiliary device service that runs on the main computer system, wherein the auxiliary device service performs a method for providing, to the auxiliary display device, first application program data corresponding to any one of a plurality of application programs that runs on the main computer system such that the auxiliary display device displays the application program data even when the main computer system is powered off, wherein the auxiliary device service comprises a layer architecture by which the plurality of application programs interface with any one of a plurality of types of auxiliary display devices, the layered architecture including an application layer, a service layer, and a protocol layer, the method comprising;

receiving, from a first application program of the plurality of application programs, a request to register the first application program with the auxiliary device service, and in response to the request, registering the first application program to display first application program data on the auxiliary display device;

upon receiving a notification that the main computer system is being powered off, the auxiliary device service prompting the first application program to provide the first application program data to be stored in a cache of the main computer system for subsequent transfer to an auxiliary storage of the auxiliary display device such that the first application program data will be accessible by the auxiliary display device even when the main computer system is powered off;

receiving the first application program data from the first application program, wherein the first application program data is received at the application layer of the layered architecture and wherein the first application program data is not structured for display on the auxiliary display device, and wherein the first application program data includes a timer based event for notifying the auxiliary display device that a portion of the first application program data should automatically be displayed on the auxiliary display device at a specified time;

generating, at the service layer, structured data by combining the first application program data with navigation information, wherein the navigation information is used to structure the first application program data in a manner that preserves context and structure information such that the first application program data may be viewed on the auxiliary display device even when the main computer system is powered off such that the auxiliary display device cannot communicate with the main computer system, and wherein the structured data is generated by the service layer independently from the first application program such that the generation of the structured data is abstracted from the first application program;

caching, in a cache stored on the main computer system, the structured data; and

the service layer providing the cache to the protocol layer which transfers the structure data stored on the main computer system'"'"'s cache to the auxiliary storage of the auxiliary display device such that the auxiliary storage stores the structure data and such that the auxiliary display device may access and display the first application program data even when the main computer system is powered off such that the auxiliary display device cannot communicate with the main computer system, wherein the transfer of the structure data is abstracted from the service layer such that the service layer need not be aware of underlying requirements for transferring the structure data to the auxiliary display device; and

wherein the auxiliary display device performs a method for presenting the structured data corresponding to the first application program, the method comprising;

receiving, at the specified time, a notification of the timer based event while the main computer system is powered off such that the auxiliary display device cannot communicate with the main computer system to access the cache on the main computer system or the first application program corresponding to the structured data;

in response to the notification of the timer based event, accessing the structured data only from the auxiliary storage of the auxiliary display device to present the portion of the first application program data on the auxiliary display device; and

displaying the portion of the first application program data automatically without user input on the auxiliary display device by rendering the structured data, wherein the structured data which corresponds to any one of the plurality of application programs is being rendered and displayed by a common application program which is different from the plurality of application programs.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the cache on the main computer system contains a reference to the first application program data in a main memory of the main computer system, and wherein the auxiliary display device presents at least some of the first application program data by obtaining the first application program data via the reference when the main computer system is powered on.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the structured data stored in the auxiliary storage is accessed via a shell program.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the structured data is structured as a tree.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the structured data stored in the auxiliary storage is accessed via a shell program and wherein the shell program presents a home page corresponding to a root of the tree.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary device service wherein the auxiliary device service determines whether to reduce the amount of the first application program data received for caching based on available storage space in the auxiliary storage.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary display device is physically connected to a housing of the main computer system.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary display device is remotely coupled to the main computer system.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the auxiliary storage is physically separate from the main computer system, and wherein the auxiliary display device is remotely coupled to the main computer system via access to the structured data stored on the auxiliary storage.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the structured data stored on the auxiliary storage contains at least one bitmap for presenting on the auxiliary display device.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the structured data comprises data that when interpreted creates an image for rendering on the auxiliary display device.

12. In a computing environment having a main computer system including an auxiliary display device, a method for displaying application program data on the auxiliary display device even when the main computer system is powered off, wherein the application program data to be displayed is provided by any one of a plurality of application programs that run on the main computer system to a layered architecture that interface the plurality of application programs with any one of a plurality of types of auxiliary display devices, the layered architecture including an application layer, a service layer, and a protocol layer, the method comprising:

running an auxiliary device service on the main computer system, wherein the auxiliary device service provides, to the auxiliary display device, the application program data corresponding to any one of the plurality of application programs that runs on the main computer system such that the auxiliary display device displays the application program data even when the main computer system is powered off, wherein the auxiliary device service comprises the layer architecture by which the plurality of application programs interface with any one of the plurality of types of the auxiliary display devices;

receiving, from at least one application program that runs on the main computer system, a request to register the at least one application program with the auxiliary device service that runs on the main computer system, and in response to the request, registering the at least one application program to display the application program data on the auxiliary display device;

upon receiving a notification that the main computer system is being powered off, the auxiliary device service prompting the at least one application program to provide application program data to be stored in a cache of the main computer system for subsequent transfer to an auxiliary storage of the auxiliary display device such that the application program data will be accessible by the auxiliary display device even when the main computer system is powered off;

receiving the application program data from the at least one application program, wherein the application program data is received at the application layer of the layered architecture and wherein the application program data is not structured for display on the auxiliary display device, and wherein the application program data includes a timer based event for notifying the auxiliary display device that a portion of the application program data should automatically be displayed on the auxiliary display device at a specified time;

generating, at the service layer, structured data by combining the application program data with navigation information, wherein the navigation information is used to structure the application program data in a manner that preserves context and structure information such that the application program data may be viewed on the auxiliary display device even when the main computer system is powered off such that the auxiliary display device cannot communicate with the main computer system, and wherein the structured data is generated by the service layer independently from the at least one application program that provided the application program data such that the generation of the structured data is abstracted from the at least one application program;

caching, in the cache stored on the main computer system, the structured data;

the service layer providing the structured data to the protocol layer which transfers the structured data to the auxiliary storage of the auxiliary display device such that the auxiliary storage stores the structured data and such that the auxiliary display device may access and display the application program data even when the main computer system is powered off such that the auxiliary display device cannot communicate with the main computer system, wherein the transfer of the structured data is abstracted from the service layer such that the service layer need not be aware of underlying requirements for transferring the structured data to the auxiliary display device;

receiving, at the specified time, a notification of the timer based event at the auxiliary display device while the main computer system is powered off such that the auxiliary display device cannot communicate with the main computer system to access the cache on the main computer system or the at least one application program corresponding to the structured data;

in response to the notification of the timer based event, accessing the structured data only from the auxiliary storage of the auxiliary display device to present the portion of the application program data on the auxiliary display device; and

displaying the portion of the application program data automatically without user input on the auxiliary display device by rendering the structured data such that context and structure of the portion of the application program data is maintained, wherein the structured data which corresponds to any one of the plurality of application programs is being rendered and displayed by a common application program which is different from the plurality of application programs.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising receiving a navigation command at the auxiliary display device;

and

determining what output data to present on the auxiliary display device based on the navigation command.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein transferring the structured data to the auxiliary storage comprises transferring the structured data to the auxiliary storage prior to powering off the main computer system.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the auxiliary storage is a storage medium that is physically separate from the main computer system.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein accessing the structured data in the auxiliary storage comprises reading the application program data via the auxiliary display device from the auxiliary storage, wherein the auxiliary storage is not coupled to the auxiliary display device at the time of reading the application program data from the auxiliary storage.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising accessing the structured data stored on the auxiliary storage via a shell program running in auxiliary firmware.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein combining the application program data with the navigation information comprises representing the application program data in a tree structure.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising outputting a home page from a shell program running in auxiliary firmware, the home page providing a navigation path to at least some of the application program data stored on the auxiliary storage.

20. The method of claim 12 further comprising reducing the amount of the received application program data based on available storage space in the auxiliary storage.

21. The method of claim 12 further comprising, determining that the time based event corresponds to a particular action that requires accessing the structured data stored on the auxiliary storage.

22. A computer-readable storage medium having stored computer-executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 12.

23. The method of claim 12 wherein rendering comprises displaying bitmaps that are stored in the auxiliary storage.

24. The method of claim 12 wherein rendering comprises constructing the display from at least one of an HTML document and an XAML document.