Method, system and devices for communicating between an internet browser and an electronic device

• US 7,865,573 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2008
• Issued: 01/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Omar, Salim Hayder, Tyhurst, Timothy Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): JEAN GILLES, JUDE
• Application Number:
  US12/128,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20090300137A1
• Time in Patent Office: 950 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-220, 709227-229, 709200-203
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method, system and devices for communicating between a network server and a computer having an Internet browser and a communicatively attached electronic device are described. In accordance with one embodiment, there is provided a method for communicating between a computer and an electronic device connected to the computer through a communications protocol, the computer being in communication with network resources via a communications network, the method comprising: displaying a web page within an Internet browser on the computer, the Internet browser including a scripting engine for executing a scripting language of the web page; providing a device controller for interfacing communications between the scripting engine and the electronic device in accordance with the communications protocol connecting the computer and electronic device; receiving first data from the electronic device through the communications protocol and sending the first data from the computer to a network server connected via the communication network.

Claims

1. A method for communicating via a communications network, the method comprising:

displaying a web page within an Internet browser application on a computer, the Internet browser application including a scripting engine for executing a scripting language included in the web page;

providing a device controller for interfacing communications between the scripting engine and an electronic device in accordance with a communications protocol connecting the computer and the electronic device;

receiving first data from the electronic device by the device controller through the communications protocol; and

sending the first data from the computer to a network server via a communication network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving by the scripting-language capable device controller of second data from the network server; and

sending the second data from the scripting-language capable device controller to the electronic device through the communications protocol.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second data is generated by the network server or selected by the network server in accordance with the first data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications protocol connecting the computer and the electronic device comprises the Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications protocol connecting the computer and the electronic device comprises the Bluetooth protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the scripting-language capable device controller is an ActiveX control.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page comprises a Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (DHTML) web page comprising JavaScript as the scripting language, the scripting engine of the Internet browser being a JavaScript engine.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the scripting-language capable device controller comprises downloading the scripting-language capable device controller from a trusted authority.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a mobile communication device having a communications subsystem for exchanging data with a wireless communications network.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing a device driver on the computer for enabling communications with the electronic device through the communications protocol.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing a device manager for routing all data communications to and from the mobile communication device through the communications protocol when the electronic device is connected to the computer.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the scripting-language capable device controller comprises:

determining by an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server of a domain managed by the LDAP server associated with a user of the computer in accordance with user credentials associated with the user;

determining from information stored in the domain of a location in a data store where the scripting-language capable device controller is stored; and

downloading the scripting-language capable device controller from the location in the data store.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the device driver and providing the device manager comprises:

downloading the device driver from the location in the data store; and

downloading the device manager from the location in the data store.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if one or more communication components comprising the scripting-language capable device controller, the device driver and the device manager is not present on the computer or is out of date; and

downloading one or more of the communication components if the respective component is not present on the computer or is out of date.

15. A data processing system, comprising:

a processor for controlling the operation of the data processing system;

a display connected to the processor;

a data interface connected to the processor and configured for communicating with an electronic device and for exchanging data with the electronic device through a communications protocol;

an Internet browser for displaying a web page, the Internet browser including a scripting engine for executing a scripting language;

a device controller for interfacing communications from the scripting engine with the electronic device in accordance with the communications protocol;

a communications subsystem for exchanging data with a communications network;

a module for receiving first data from the electronic device using the communications protocol; and

a module for sending the first data via the communication subsystem to a network server.