Displaying content on a mobile device

• US 8,762,556 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Priyadarshan, Eswar, Mohammed, Irfan, Cuccinelli, Joseph, Chittari, Ravikiran, Miller, Andrew, Vadrevu, Jayasurya, Rothman-Shore, Jeremy W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Whipple, Brian P
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDWARDS, JAMES A
• Application Number:
  US12/138,876
• Publication Number:
  US 20090070413A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,202 Days
• Field of Search: 709/230
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/00 Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149

Abstract

A method for facilitating the rendering of a web page on a mobile device includes providing an enhanced DOM tree for the web page that includes web page components and their display coordinates. A rule set is applied to the DOM tree, thereby selecting components for display on the mobile device. A mobile-device-specific version of the source code is generated based on the selected components.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for creating an enhanced document object model tree for an original web page published by a web page publisher, the method comprising:

receiving, in response to a request for the original web page from the web page publisher, source code of the original web page;

parsing the source code of the original web page to identify components of the original web page with content to yield identified components;

rendering the original web page to yield a rendered page and determining display coordinates of the identified components by scanning the rendered page;

annotating the source code of the original web page by associating the display coordinates with the respective components, thus creating an enhanced document object model (DOM) tree for the original web page;

automatically selecting, by the computer, using a rule set determined by the publisher of the original web page, at least one identified component of the original web page to be excluded from the enhanced DOM tree wherein the at least one excluded web page component is not replaced;

storing the enhanced DOM tree on a physical storage medium;

receiving, in response to a later request for the original web page, an update of the original web page, wherein the update of the original web page is determined by the web page publisher and the update of the original web page comprises at least one of updated content or updated source code;

identifying the components in the updated web page that correspond to nodes of the enhanced DOM tree, yielding updated identified components;

updating the enhanced DOM tree using the updated identified components, yielding an updated enhanced DOM tree; and

storing the updated enhanced DOM tree on a physical storage medium.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the source code comprises one of HTML or XML.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying components in the updated web page that do not correspond to nodes of the enhanced DOM tree;

automatically selecting, by the computer, using the rule set, additional updated identified components of the updated web page to be included in the enhanced DOM tree; and

updating the enhanced DOM tree using the additional updated identified components, yielding an updated enhanced DOM tree.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the display coordinates comprise horizontal and vertical distances of the components from an origin located on the original web page.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the display coordinates are determined with respect to an origin in the rendered page.

6. A computer implemented method for generating a mobile-device-specific version of an original web page published by a web page publisher, the method comprising:

(a) generating an enhanced document object model (DOM) tree for the original web page, the generating of the enhanced DOM tree comprising (i) identifying components of the original web page by parsing source code of the original web page to yield web page components, (ii) rendering the original web page to yield a rendered page;

(iii) determining display coordinates of the web page components by scanning the rendered page; and

(iv) annotating the source code for the original web page by associating the display coordinates with their respective components;

(b) automatically applying, by the computer, a rule set to the enhanced DOM tree, the rule set determined by the publisher of the original web page and the rule set defining which of the web page components are to be included when rendering the original web page on the mobile device to yield selected components, wherein applying the rule set results in exclusion of at least one web page component from the selected components and the at least one excluded web page component is not replaced; and

(c) generating a mobile-device-specific version of the source code based on the selected components;

(d) receiving, in response to a later request for the original web page, an update of the original web page, wherein the update of the original web page is determined by the web page publisher and the update of the original web page comprises at least one of updated content or updated source code;

(e) identifying the components in the updated web page that correspond to nodes of the enhanced DOM tree, yielding updated identified components;

(f) updating the enhanced DOM tree using the updated identified components, yielding an updated enhanced DOM tree; and

(g) generating and storing an updated mobile-device-specific version of the source code.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing the mobile-device-specific version of the source code to a mobile device for rendering thereon.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the rule set is specific to the web page.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the rule set is specific to a domain at which the web page is hosted.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the rule set is specific to a model of the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the rule set comprises one or more scope attributes associated therewith, and further comprising selecting the rule set from a collection of rule sets based on scope attributes of the web page.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein step (b) further comprises categorizing the selected components.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the categories comprise one or more of text components, advertisements, navigational components, multimedia components and images.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the determination of the components to be included when rendering the web page on the mobile device further comprises automatically selecting categories of components to be included.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the determination of the components to be included when rendering the web page on the mobile device further comprises manually selecting, by the publisher of the original web page, categories of components to be included in the mobile-device-specific version of the source code.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

storing the categorization of the selected components to yield a stored categorization; and

responsive to a later request for the mobile-device-specific version of the web page and a change in the content of the original web page, updating the mobile-device-specific version of the source code based on the stored categorization.

17. A system for facilitating the display of an original web page, published by a web page publisher, on a mobile device, the system comprising:

(a) a web page parser application configured to generate an enhanced document object model (DOM) tree for the original web page, the generating of the enhanced DOM tree comprising (i) identifying components of the original web page by parsing source code of the original web page to yield web page components, (ii) rendering the original web page to yield a rendered page;

(iii) determining display coordinates of said web page components by scanning the rendered page; and

(iv) annotating the source code for the original web page by associating the display coordinates with their respective components;

(b) a component selection module configured to;

(x) apply a rule set to the enhanced DOM tree, the rule set determined by the publisher of the original web page and the rule set defining which of the web page components are to be selected for inclusion when rendering the original web page on the mobile device to yield selected components, wherein applying the rule set results in exclusion of at least one web page component from the web page components selected for inclusion and the at least one excluded web page component is not replaced, and (y) generate a mobile-device-specific version of the source code based on the selected components;

(c) an update module configured to;

receive an update of the original web page in response to a later request for the original web page, wherein the update of the original web page is determined by the web page publisher and the update of the original web page comprises at least one of updated content or updated source code;

identify components in the updated web page that correspond to the nodes of the enhanced DOM tree yielding updated identified components, update the enhanced DOM tree using the updated identified components yielding an updated enhanced DOM tree, generate an updated mobile-device specific version of the source code based on the updated enhanced DOM tree; and

(d) a physical storage device for storing the updated mobile-device-specific version of the source code for subsequent transmission to a mobile device.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising a web server application which, upon request of the web page by the mobile device, transmits the mobile-device-specific version of the source code that is stored on the physical storage device to the mobile device for display.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, perform a method of creating a mobile-device-specific version of an original web page published by a web page publisher, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions for:

(a) generating an enhanced document object model (DOM) tree for the original web page, the generating of the enhanced DOM tree comprising;

(i) identifying components of the original web page with content by parsing source code of the original web page to yield web page components, (ii) rendering the original web page to yield a rendered page;

(iii) determining display coordinates of said web page components by scanning the rendered page; and

(iv) annotating the source code for the original web page by associating the display coordinates with their respective components;

(b) automatically applying a rule set to the enhanced DOM tree, the rule set determined by the publisher of the original web page and the rule set defining which of the web page components are to be included when rendering the original web page on the mobile device to yield selected components, wherein applying the rule set results in exclusion of at least one web page component from the web page components to be included and the at least one excluded web page component is not replaced;

(c) receiving an update of the original web page in response to a later request for the original web page, identifying components in the updated web page that correspond to the nodes of the enhanced DOM tree yielding updated identified components, updating the enhanced DOM tree using the updated identified components, generating an updated mobile-device specific version of the source code based on the updated enhanced DOM tree; and

(d) generating an updated mobile-device-specific version of the source code based on the selected components.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the executable instructions further comprise instructions for providing the mobile-device-specific version of the source code to a mobile device for rendering thereon.