Synchronizing electronic publications between user devices

• US 9,542,379 B1
• Filed: 09/19/2012
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Thannasi, Kathirvel, Ramamoorthy, Venkata Krishnan, Joshi, Lokesh, Jain, Ankur, Chidambaram, Palanidaran, Tseng, Walter Manching
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDWARDS, JASON T
• Application Number:
  US13/623,002
• Time in Patent Office: 1,574 Days
• Field of Search: 715/235, 715/716, 715/730, 715/731, 709/205, 709/218
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

A user device receives a user input that causes an electronic publication to have a modified state. The user device generates data that, when used to render the electronic publication, causes the electronic publication to have the modified state. The user device transmits the data to a server.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

presenting an electronic publication by a user device, the electronic publication comprising a markup language document and an original cascading stylesheet (CSS) file, wherein the electronic publication is received by the user device;

detecting, by the user device, one or more user interactions that modify a state of the electronic publication on the user device, wherein an original state of the electronic publication comprises a default name associated with a first component of the electronic publication, and wherein a modified state of the electronic publication comprises a new name associated with the first component of the electronic publication;

generating, by the user device without user input, in response to the detecting and based on the one or more user interactions, a first version of a new CSS file incorporating a CSS element associated with the modified state, wherein the original CSS file formats a second component of the electronic publication, and wherein the new CSS file, when referenced in the markup language document, overrides a portion of the original CSS file and formats the first component of the electronic publication to cause the electronic publication to have the modified state;

storing the first version of the new CSS file by the user device; and

sending, by the user device, the first version of the new CSS file to a server for synchronization with other user devices, wherein the first version of the new CSS file causes the new name to be displayed rather than the default name.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second version of the new CSS file associated with a new state of the electronic publication from the server, the second version of the new CSS file having been generated by another user device;

replacing the first version of the new CSS file with the second version of the new CSS file;

identifying the first component of the electronic publication to format using the CSS element in the second version of the new CSS file; and

formatting the first component using the second version of the new CSS file to cause the electronic publication to have the new state.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first version of the new CSS file is generated without modifying the original CSS file.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a reference to the new CSS file in the markup language document; and

sending the reference to the server for synchronization with the other user devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the other user devices are to prioritize first CSS code in the first version of the new CCS file over second CSS code in the original CSS file and wherein the electronic publication comprises a pointer to a location of the first version of the new CSS file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more user interactions that modify the state of the electronic publication are detected as the electronic publication is read on the user device by a user.

7. A method comprising:

receiving, by a user device, a user input that modifies a state of an electronic publication, the electronic publication comprising a markup language document and an original cascading stylesheet (CSS) file;

generating, by the user device, a script object comprising script code that reflects a modified state of the electronic publication, wherein the script object is created within a script execution environment running on the user device, wherein an original state of the electronic publication comprises an original property associated with a first component of the electronic publication, and wherein a modified state of the electronic publication comprises a new property associated with the first component of the electronic publication;

storing the script object to a script file outside of the script execution environment, wherein the script file causes a new script execution environment to be executed using the script object during loading of the electronic publication, and wherein the script object formats the electronic publication to override a portion of the original CSS file comprising the first component to cause the electronic publication to have the modified state; and

sending, by the user device, the script file to a server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user input comprises a user selection of one or more user preferences for the electronic publication.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the user input causes a change to the original CSS file of the electronic publication.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the change to the original CSS file comprises at least one of an instruction to cause text associated with the original CSS file to be hidden, an instruction to cause text associated with the original CSS file to be shown, or an instruction to cause text associated with the original CSS file to have a particular position.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the original CSS file includes a default name associated with a character in the electronic publication, and wherein the change to the original CSS file comprises replacing the default name with a user specified name.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving the user input comprises receiving drawing commands by the user device, the method further comprising:

generating a drawing based on the received drawing commands, wherein the script object comprises the drawing.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions that, when executed by a user device, cause the user device to perform operations comprising:

presenting an electronic publication by the user device, the electronic publication comprising a markup language document and an original cascading stylesheet (CSS) file wherein the electronic publication is received by the user device;

receiving, by the user device, a user input that causes the electronic publication to have a modified state, the user input comprising drawing commands and the electronic publication comprising a markup language document;

generating a drawing based on the received drawing commands;

automatically generating, by the user device, a new CSS file that includes a pointer to the drawing, wherein the original CSS file formats a first component of the electronic publication, and wherein the new CSS file, when referenced in the markup language document, overrides a portion of the original CSS file and formats a second component of the electronic publication to cause the electronic publication to have the modified state and present the drawing;

saving the drawing and the new CSS file; and

sending the drawing and the new CSS file to a server.

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

automatically generating script code that will further format the electronic publication to cause the electronic publication to have the modified state; and

sending the script code to the server.

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

receiving updated data associated with a new state of the electronic publication from the server, the updated data having been generated by another user device; and

rendering the electronic publication using the updated data to cause the electronic publication to have the new state.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the user input further comprises user selection of one or more user preferences for the electronic publication.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the modified state further comprises a change to a CSS element included in the original CSS file.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the change to the CSS element comprises at least one of an instruction to cause a component associated with the CSS element to be hidden, an instruction to cause the component associated with the CSS element to be shown, or an instruction to cause the component associated with the CSS element to have a particular position.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the drawing comprises an SVG file.

20. A first user device comprising:

a memory to store an electronic publication, the electronic publication comprising a markup language document and a cascading stylesheet (CSS) file; and

a processing device, coupled to the memory, to;

receive a script file associated with a modified state of the electronic publication from a server, the script file comprising a script object and having been automatically generated responsive user interactions with the electronic publication on a second user device, wherein the script object formats the electronic publication to override a portion of the CSS file;

load the electronic publication;

execute a script execution environment using the script object from the script file to recreate a state of a prior script execution environment associated with the modified state; and

provide a presentation of the electronic publication using the script object, wherein the presentation of the electronic publication has the modified state.

21. The user device of claim 20, wherein:

the processing device is further to;

receive a user input that causes the electronic publication to have a new modified state;

generate updated data that, when used to present the electronic publication, causes the electronic publication to have the new modified state; and

initiate transmission of the updated data to the server.