Method for pre-fetching data chunks of an email attachment on a portable electronic device

• US 8,793,387 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2012
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Dumitru, Dan, Arora, Rakesh, Stalin, Eshwar
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thai
• Application Number:
  US13/401,700
• Publication Number:
  US 20120166595A1
• Time in Patent Office: 889 Days
• Field of Search: 709/207, 709217-219, 715/209, 715/203, 715/255, 715/256, 715/251, 715/748, 715/752
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

A method for downloading an attachment to a portable electronic device'"'"'s attachment viewer includes: sending an initial request from the attachment viewer to a server in response to receiving an email including the attachment by the device; from the server, accessing a graph structure representing a map of the attachment previously built on the server; reconstructing the graph structure in response to the request and encapsulating the graph structure in data having an attachment viewer readable format; (i) downloading successive chunks of the data from the server to the attachment viewer responsive to successive requests; (ii) storing each of the successive chunks on the device prior to display thereof; (iii) displaying the successive chunks on the device and automatically downloading respective next chunks of the data from the server; and (iv) while chunks remain to be downloaded from the server performing (i) to (iii).

Claims

1. A method for downloading an attachment to an attachment viewer of a portable electronic device, comprising:

sending an initial request from said attachment viewer to a server in response to receipt of an email message identifying said attachment by said portable electronic device;

accessing a Document Object Model graph structure representing a map of said attachment from said server, said Document Object Model graph structure having been previously built on said server;

reconstructing said Document Object Model graph structure in response to said initial request and encapsulating said Document Object Model graph structure in data having an attachment viewer readable format, said data being stored on said server;

downloading an initial chunk of said data from said server to said attachment viewer responsive to said initial request;

storing said downloaded initial chunk of said data on said portable electronic device prior to display thereof;

displaying said stored initial chunk of said data on said portable electronic device;

upon displaying said stored initial chunk of said data, detecting scrolling towards an end of the initial chunk of said data and automatically sending a request to download a respective next chunk of said data from said server;

responsive to said request, downloading said respective next chunk of said data from said server; and

while data chunks of said data remain to be downloaded from said server, repeating said storing, displaying, requesting and downloading for subsequent chunks of said data.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said attachment viewer readable format is Universal Content Stream format.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sending and said downloading are conducted over a wireless network selected from the group consisting of GSM/GPRS, CDPD, TDMA, iDEN, Mobitex, and DataTAC, EDGE, EVDO, UMTS, Bluetooth and variants of 802.11.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

prior to displaying said stored subsequent chunk of said data, detecting scrolling of a currently displayed chunk of said data.

5. A portable electronic device, including:

at least one input device;

a content store;

a display; and

a memory storing instructions for an attachment viewer executable by a processor for;

sending an initial request to download an initial chunk of data having a requested size from a server storing said data in an attachment viewer readable Universal Content Stream format based on Document Object Model graph structure;

receiving and storing said downloaded initial chunk of said data having the requested size in Universal Content Stream format in said content store prior to display thereof;

displaying said stored initial chunk of said data on said display;

upon displaying said stored initial chunk of said data, detecting scrolling towards an end of the initial chunk of said data and automatically sending a request to download a respective next chunk of said data from said server; and

while said data chunks of said data remain to be downloaded from said server, repeating said receiving, storing, displaying and requesting for subsequent chunks of said data having the requested size.

6. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 5, wherein said sending and said downloading are conducted over a wireless network selected from the group consisting of GSM/GPRS, CDPD, TDMA, iDEN, Mobitex, and DataTAC, EDGE, EVDO, UMTS, Bluetooth and variants of 802.11.

7. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 5, said attachment viewer further for detecting scrolling of a currently displayed chunk of said data prior to displaying said stored subsequent chunk of said data.

8. A method for downloading data onto a portable electronic device having an attachment viewer, a display and a content store, comprising:

sending an initial request from said attachment viewer to download an initial chunk of data having a requested size from a server storing said data in attachment viewer readable Universal Content Stream format based on Document Object Model graph structure;

receiving and storing said downloaded initial chunk of said data having the requested size in Universal Content Stream format in said content store prior to display thereof;

displaying said stored initial chunk of said data on said display;

upon displaying said stored initial chunk of said data, detecting scrolling towards an end of the initial chunk of said data and automatically sending a request from said attachment viewer to download a respective next chunk of said data from said server;

and while said data chunks of said data remain to be downloaded from said server, repeating said receiving, storing, displaying and requesting for the subsequent chunks of said data having the requested size.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein said data is an attachment that is received in an email message.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein said sending and said receiving are conducted over a wireless network selected from the group consisting of GSM/GPRS, CDPD, TDMA, iDEN, Mobitex, and DataTAC, EDGE, EVDO, UMTS, Bluetooth and variants of 802.11.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:

prior to displaying said stored subsequent chunk of said data, detecting scrolling of a currently displayed chunk of said data.

12. A system, comprising:

a portable electronic device having at least one input device, a content store, a display and an attachment viewer;

said attachment viewer for;

sending an initial request to download an initial chunk of data from a server storing said data in an attachment viewer readable format;

receiving and storing said downloaded initial chunk of said data in said content store prior to display thereof;

displaying said stored initial chunk of said data on said display;

upon displaying said stored initial chunk of said data, automatically sending a request to download a respective next chunk of said data from said server; and

while said data chunks of said data remain to be downloaded from said server, repeating said receiving, storing, displaying and requesting for subsequent chunks of said data; and

a server configured, in response to said initial request, to access a Document Object Model graph structure representing a map of said attachment from said server, said Document Object Model graph structure having been previously built on said server;

to reconstruct said Document Object Model graph structure, encapsulate said graph structure in data having an attachment viewer readable format;

store said data;

and to transmit an initial chunk of said data;

said server further configured to transmit respective next chunks of said data in response to subsequent requests.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a plurality of computer readable instructions executable by a processor to perform a method for downloading data onto a portable electronic device having an attachment viewer, a display and a content store, the method comprising:

sending an initial request from said attachment viewer to download an initial chunk of data having a requested size from a server storing said data in an attachment viewer readable Universal Content Stream format based on Document Object Model graph structure;

receiving and storing said downloaded initial chunk of said data having the requested size in Universal Content Stream format in said content store prior to display thereof;

displaying said stored initial chunk of said data on said display;

upon displaying said stored initial chunk of said data, detecting scrolling towards an end of the initial chunk of said data and automatically sending a request from said attachment viewer to download a respective next chunk of said data from said server; and

while said data chunks of said data remain to be downloaded from said server, repeating said receiving, storing, displaying and requesting for subsequent chunks of said data having a requested size.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, the method further comprising:

prior to displaying said stored subsequent chunk of said data, detecting scrolling of a currently displayed chunk of said data.