Systems and methods for configuring a header and layout of a mobile version of a conventional website

• US 9,645,977 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2012
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cimpress Schweiz GmbH (Cimpress Plc)
• Original Assignee: Cimpress Schweiz GmbH (Cimpress Plc)
• Inventors: Kwan, Jeff L., Hale, Tristan C., LaPointe, Christopher M.
• Primary Examiner(s): MERCADO VARGAS, ARIEL
• Application Number:
  US13/351,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20130174014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,939 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/33 Design verification, e.g. functional simulation or model checking
• 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 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A mobile website configuration system for enabling a user to configure, for display on a mobile device, a mobile-optimized website which corresponds to a conventional website. The system includes at least one computer processing unit executing and displaying a graphical user interface on a client machine. The graphical user interface includes a header configuration tool which configures the mobile-optimized website to have a user-selected header selected from a plurality of representations of header images. The graphical user interface further includes a layout configuration tool which configures the mobile-optimized website to have a user-selected layout selected from a plurality of representations of layout options.

Claims

1. A mobile web site configuration system for enabling a user to configure a mobile-optimized website, the mobile-optimized website for display on a mobile device and being a mobile-optimized version of a corresponding conventional website, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

non-transitory computer-readable memory storing computer-readable program instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors implement a graphical user interface which displays a preview of a mobile web page of a mobile website associated with the conventional website, the mobile web page comprising at least a header and a layout,

the graphical user interface comprising a plurality of tools each for independently configuring at least the header and the layout of the mobile web page, the plurality of tools comprising;

a header configuration tool having header configuration tool client-side code executing on the client machine in communication with header configuration tool server-side code executing on a server machine, the header configuration tool client-side code configured to receive from the header configuration tool server-side code a plurality of representations of different header images available to replace the header in the mobile web page, the header configuration tool client-side code further configured to display a plurality of the received representations of header images and associate therewith respective header selection controls and to receive a selection, from a user of the client machine via one of the header selection controls, of one of the displayed representations of header images, the header configuration tool client-side code further configured to generate an indication of the selected image representation in a browser-independent format and to send the indication to the header configuration tool server-side code, the header configuration tool server-side code interpreting the browser-independent format indication of the selected image representation to configure the mobile-optimized version of the conventional web page with browser-renderable instructions for replacing the header in the mobile web page with the header image associated with the selected image representation and rendering the header image associated with the selected image representation; and

a layout configuration tool having layout configuration tool client-side code executing on the client machine in communication with layout configuration tool server-side code executing on a server machine, the layout configuration tool client-side code configured to receive from the layout configuration tool server-side code a plurality of different layout representations, the layout configuration tool client-side code further configured to display a plurality of the received layout representations and associate therewith respective layout selection controls and to receive a selection, from a user of the client machine via one of the layout selection controls, of one of the different layout representations, the layout configuration tool client-side code further configured to generate an indication of the selected layout representation in a browser-independent format and to send the indication to the layout configuration tool server-side code, the layout configuration tool server-side code interpreting the browser-independent format indication of the selected layout representation to configure the mobile-optimized version of the conventional web page with browser-renderable instructions for rendering the layout associated with the selected layout representation.

2. The mobile website configuration system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the different representations of header images is of a mobile-optimized matching header that matches a corresponding header in a corresponding conventional website.

3. The mobile website configuration system of claim 2, wherein the matching header is automatically selected as a default header by the header configuration tool.

4. The mobile website configuration system of claim 3, wherein the automatically selected matching header is included in an automatically generated mobile-optimized version of the corresponding conventional website.

5. The mobile website configuration system of claim 1, further comprising:

a functional content configuration tool configured to offer a plurality of different functional content options, each functional content option having an associated functional content selection control, the functional content configuration tool further configured to receive one or more selections of the different functional content options and to automatically configure the mobile-optimized version of the conventional web page with browser-renderable instructions to enable the selected functional content options.

6. The mobile website configuration system of claim 5, wherein at least one selected functional content option comprises a click-to-call function for allowing a user of a mobile device to automatically place a call when a user clicks on a phone number displayed on the mobile-optimized website.

7. The mobile website configuration system of claim 5, wherein at least one selected functional content option comprises a click-for-map function, the click-for-map function having an associated address input, the click-for-map function for automatically displaying a map which includes the associated address when a user clicks on a click-for-map control displayed on the mobile-optimized website.

8. The mobile website configuration system of claim 7, wherein the associated address is received by the functional content configuration tool during configuration of the mobile-optimized website.

9. The mobile website configuration system of claim 5, wherein at least one selected functional content option comprises a click-to-email function for allowing a user of a mobile device to automatically email a message to an associated input email address when a user clicks on a click-to-email control displayed on the mobile-optimized website.

10. The mobile website configuration system of claim 9, wherein the input email address associated with the displayed click-to-email control is received by the functional content configuration tool during configuration of the mobile-optimized website.

11. The mobile website configuration system of claim 5, wherein at least one selected functional content option comprises a social media function for allowing a user of a mobile device to automatically send or post a message to an associated input social media link when a user clicks on an associated social media control displayed on the mobile-optimized website.

12. The mobile website configuration system of claim 11, wherein the associated input social media link associated with the displayed associated social media control is received by the functional content configuration tool during configuration of the mobile-optimized website.

13. The mobile website configuration system of claim 12, wherein the social media link comprises a social media site address.

14. The mobile website configuration system of claim 12, wherein the social media link comprises a texting link.

15. The mobile website configuration system of claim 12, wherein the social media link comprises an email address.

16. The mobile website configuration system of claim 5, wherein at least one selected functional content option comprises an hours-of-operation function, the hours-of-operation function having an associated input set of hours of operation, the hours-of-operation function for automatically displaying the input hours of operation on a mobile-optimized web page of the mobile-optimized website.

17. The mobile website configuration system of claim 16, wherein the input set of hours of operation is received by the functional content configuration tool during configuration of the mobile-optimized website.

18. The mobile website configuration system of claim 1, the mobile website configuration tool further comprising a functionally-operational mobile device simulator which simulates display of the mobile-optimized website on a mobile device.