Method and system for transferring content from the web to mobile devices

• US 7,716,281 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2007
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Oomble, Inc.
• Inventors: Hess, Christopher K., Lin, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHILLIPS, HASSAN A
• Application Number:
  US11/769,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20080195712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,049 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A web page architecture is provided for enabling a user browse the web within an inline frame embedded in a web page and drag and drop content rendered in the inline frame into a receiving panel in the web page for transmission to the user'"'"'s mobile device. The delivery mechanism to receive such content on the user'"'"'s mobile device may be either through SMS messaging or through communicating with a client application on the user'"'"'s mobile device.

Claims

1. A method performed at a web server for enabling a user to drag and drop multimedia content from web pages into a mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

serving a web page to a web browser wherein the web page comprises code for (i) an inline frame for rendering web pages, (ii) a receiving panel to receive dragged content rendered in the inline frame (iii) a click handler for directing user clicks in the inline frame to the web server, and (iv) a drag and drop handler for enabling content in the inline frame to be dragged into the receiving panel;

receiving from the web browser a web page request containing a URL for a third party web page;

transmitting an HTTP request for the URL to the web site of the URL;

receiving from the web site of the URL an HTTP response containing HTML code payload for the third party web page;

generating a response containing the HTML code payload of the HTTP response;

transmitting the response to the web browser in response to the web page request;

receiving from the web browser a URL for multimedia content rendered in the inline frame;

retrieving a file associated with the URL for multimedia content from the web site of the URL for multimedia content; and

transmitting a sequence of file system operation instructions to a client application on the mobile device to instruct the client application to execute a sequence of file system operations on the mobile device corresponding to the sequence of transmitted file system operation instructions in order to store the file in a location of the file system of the mobile device accessible by an application installed on the mobile device and capable of consuming the file.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the web page request is an HTTP POST request, the URL for the third party web page is part of a name-value data pair in the message body of the HTTP POST request, and the generated response is an HTTP response to the HTTP POST request.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the code for the click handler and the drag and drop handler is JavaScript.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the application installed on the mobile device is a native application of the mobile device for consuming multimedia content.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of transmitting an SMS push registry message to the mobile device to wake up the client application for executing the sequence of file systems.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the steps of receiving a request from the client application to establish a TCP connection and establishing the TCP connection with the client application.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the sequence of file system operation instructions are transmitted through the established TCP connection.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the SMS push registry message comprises a network address of the web server that is used by the client application to transmit the request to the web server to establish the TCP connection.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving a request from the web browser to transmit multimedia content to the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitted response is rendered in the inline frame.

11. A web server for enabling a user to drag and drop multimedia content from web pages into a mobile device, the web server comprising:

a processor configured to;

(a) serve a web page to a web browser, wherein the web page is configured to (i) embed other web pages into an inline frame, (ii) enable the user to drag and drop multimedia content from the inline frame into a receiving panel, and (iii) enable the user to request that dragged multimedia content be transmitted to the mobile device,

(b) receive web page requests for third party web pages from the web browser rendering the web page,

(c) generate HTTP requests to fetch the third party web pages,

(d) embed HTML code into responses to the web page requests, wherein the HTML code is received in HTTP responses received from third party web servers serving the third party web pages,

(e) receive from the web browser a URL for multimedia content rendered in the inline frame,

(f) retrieve a file associated with the URL from the web site of the URL, and

(g) transmit a sequence of file system operation instructions to a client application on the mobile device to instruct the client application to execute a sequence of file system operations on the mobile device corresponding to the sequence of transmitted file system operation instructions in order to store the file in a location of the file system of the mobile device accessible by an application installed on the mobile device and capable of consuming the file.

12. The web server of claim 11 wherein the processor is further configured to communicate with an SMS gateway to send SMS push registry messages to the mobile device to wake up the client application on the mobile device for executing the sequence of file system operations, wherein the SMS push registry messages comprise a network address of the web server that is used by the client application to transmit the request to the web server to establish a TCP connection.

13. The web server of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a request from the client application to establish the TCP connection and establish the TCP connection with the client application.

14. The web server of claim 13, wherein the application installed on the mobile device is a native application of the mobile device for consuming multimedia content.

15. The web server of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to store the file associated with the URL locally.

16. The web server of claim 13, wherein the sequence of file system operation instructions are transmitted through the established TCP connection with the second application.

17. A method for enabling a user to drag and drop multimedia content from web pages into a mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

providing an inline frame in a web page for rendering other web pages;

transmitting a URL for a third party web page to a proxy server;

receiving web page code for the third party web page from the proxy server;

rendering the web page code in the inline frame;

accessing the DOM of the inline frame to provide drag and drop functionality;

providing drag and drop functionality to drag multimedia content from the inline frame into a receiving panel in the web page; and

transmitting to the proxy server a request made by the user to send multimedia content dragged into the receiving panel to the mobile device, wherein upon receiving the request, the proxy server transmits a sequence of file system operation instructions to a client application on the mobile device to instruct the client application to execute a sequence of file system operations on the mobile device corresponding to the sequence of transmitted file system operation instructions in order to store the multimedia content in a location of the file system of the mobile device accessible by an application installed on the mobile device and capable of consuming the file.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the web page with the inline frame is served by the proxy server.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising the steps of monitoring clicks on hypertext references in the inline frame and directing requests for such hypertext references to the proxy server.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of transmitting a URL for a third party web page to the proxy server uses an HTTP POST request.