Method and system for caching and adapting dynamic display pages for small display devices

• US 20060064636A1
• Filed: 09/23/2004
• Published: 03/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ma, Wei-Ying, Xie, Xing, Hua, Zhigang
• Granted Patent: US 7,418,660 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/273
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/114 Pagination

Abstract

A display system adapts a display page to a small display area using semantic information indicated by portions of the display page that are designated as cacheable. The display system adapts a display page by identifying leaf fragments, that is, fragments that contain no other fragments. The display system then determines whether each leaf fragment is a block that can be displayed as a unit in the display area or should be subdivided into blocks that each can be displayed as a unit in the display area. The display system then displays the display page on a block-by-block basis.

Claims

1. A method for displaying contents of a display page on a display device, the method comprising:

retrieving content of the display page from a display page server, the content being organized hierarchically into document nodes, some document nodes being designated as fragment nodes that can be cached;

identifying as segment nodes those document nodes that have no child document nodes;

designating as block nodes segment nodes and subdivisions of segment nodes that are to be displayed individually on the display device;

caching content of fragment nodes, the identification of segment nodes, and the designation of block nodes; and

upon receiving a request to display content of a node,

when the cached content of the node has expired, retrieving from a display page server content of a fragment node that is an ancestor of the node, identifying segment nodes of the fragment node, designating block nodes of the fragment node, and caching the received content, the identification of segment nodes, and the designation of block nodes; and

displaying the content of the node based on the cached content, the identification of segment nodes, and the designation of block nodes.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the received request to display content of a node specifies a document node.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the received request to display content of a node specifies a block node.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a fragment node contains descendent fragment nodes.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cached content of a node expires when the cached content of an ancestor fragment node has expired.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a node is an ancestor of itself.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the designating as block nodes designates a segment node as a block node when not subdivided.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the designating as block nodes designates a segment node as a block node when it fits on the display device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein a segment node is subdivided into a hierarchy of block nodes.

10. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to display content of a display page on a display device, by a method comprising:

retrieving content of the display page from a display page server, the content being organized hierarchically into document nodes, some document nodes being designated as fragment nodes that can be cached;

designating as block nodes subdivisions of leaf document nodes that are to be displayed individually on the display device;

caching content of fragment nodes and designations as block nodes; and

upon receiving a request to display content of a node,

when the cached content of the node has expired, retrieving from the display page server content of a fragment node that is an ancestor of the node, designating block nodes of the fragment node, and caching the retrieved content and the designation of block nodes; and

displaying the content of the node based on the cached content and designation of block nodes.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the received request to display content of a node specifies a document node.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the received request to display content of a node specifies a block node.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein a fragment node contains a descendent fragment node.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the cached content of a node expires when the cached content of an ancestor fragment node has expired.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein a node is an ancestor of itself.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the designating as block nodes designates a leaf node as a block node when not subdivided.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein the designating as block nodes designates a leaf node as a block node when it fits on the display device.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 wherein a leaf node is subdivided into a hierarchy of block nodes.

19. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to display contents of a display page on a display device, the display page being hierarchically organized into document nodes, some document nodes being cacheable, by a method comprising:

designating as block nodes subdivisions of leaf document nodes that are to be displayed individually on the display device;

caching contents of cacheable document nodes and designations as block nodes; and

upon receiving a request to display content of a node,

when the content of the node has expired, retrieving from a display page server content of an ancestor cacheable document node, designating as block nodes subdivisions of leaf document nodes of the retrieved ancestor cacheable document node, and caching the retrieved content and the designation of block nodes; and

displaying the content of the node based on the cached content and the designation of block nodes.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the received request to display content of a node specifies a document node.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the received request to display content of a node specifies a block node.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein a cacheable document node contains a descendent cacheable document node.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the cached content of a node expires when the cached content of an ancestor cacheable document node has expired.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein a node is an ancestor of itself.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the designating as block nodes designates a leaf document node as a block node when not subdivided.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the designating as block nodes designates a leaf document node as a block node when it fits on the display device.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein a leaf document node is subdivided into a hierarchy of block nodes.

28. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to adapt a display page, by a method comprising:

providing a display page with a fragment node;

when the fragment node can be displayed as a unit on a display device, designating the fragment node as a block node;

when the fragment node cannot be displayed as a unit on the display device, designating subdivisions of the fragment node as block nodes; and

displaying the display page by displaying nodes designated as block nodes as a unit.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the provided display page includes a non-fragment node and including:

when the non-fragment node can be displayed as a unit on the display device, designating the non-fragment node as a block node; and

when the non-fragment node cannot be displayed as a unit on the display device, designating subdivisions of the non-fragment node as block nodes.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein a fragment node is designated as a block node or subdivided only when the fragment node contains no fragment nodes.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein the designating is cached along with a fragment node.

32. A computer system for adapting a display page with a portion designated as being cacheable, comprising:

a component that identifies a cacheable portion of the display page;

a component that designates the identified cacheable portion to be displayed as a unit when the identified cacheable portion will fit in a display area; and

a component that designates subdivisions of the identified cacheable portion to be displayed as units when the identified cacheable portion will not fit in the display area.

33. A method in a device for adapting a display page for a display area, the display page having portions identified as cacheable, the method comprising:

identifying a cacheable portion of the display page that contains no nested cacheable portion;

when the identified cacheable portion can be effectively displayed as a unit in the display area, designating the identified cacheable unit as a block;

when the identified cacheable portion cannot be effectively displayed as a unit in the display area, designating subdivisions of the identified cacheable portion as blocks; and

displaying the display page on a block-by-block basis.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the designations of blocks is cached.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein the display page is a web page document with elements marked as cacheable.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the display page is designed to fit on a display device that is larger than the display area.

37. The method of claim 33 including caching blocks along with designations of blocks.