WEB APPLICATION FOR ACCESSING MEDIA STREAMS

• US 20090319925A1
• Filed: 06/16/2009
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cedar Lane Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: Copper Data River LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Katinsky, Steve, Burress, Michael, Furtado, Jefferson
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,830 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms

Abstract

A web page has a player for playing media objects, a sequencer which displays a playlist that defines an order in which media objects are played by the player, and a media access area for containing a plurality of graphical icons. Each graphical icon representing a media object, and the graphical icons can be manipulated by a user to modify the play list. For example, the media icons may be dragged to the sequencer to add them to the sequencer.

Claims

1. A system for generating a media access web page, comprising:

a web server configured to receive queries from a client, to pass said queries to a content database, an interface database, and a user database, to receive resulting recordsets from the databases, and to deliver the recordsets back to the client;

said content database comprising media object metadata;

said interface database comprising a master outline reference table;

said user database comprising user-specific sequencer data;

wherein said web server is further configured to communicate with a media server comprising a plurality of media objects; and

wherein said media server is configured to manage streaming said media objects to the client.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said media object metadata comprises one or more of a media type, uniform resource code, short text description, frame rate, duration, image size, author, copyright source name, source web site, sponsor name, sponsor web site, or price.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said master outline reference table comprises a record for each method of constructing a level of an outline that is generated by querying said master outline.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said record comprises information defining a format of said level and for constructing queries for obtaining a next level below said level.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said master outline reference table comprises at least levelcode, levelcodenext, and querycode data fields.

6. The system of claim 1, said user database further comprising user profile information.

7. The system of claim 1, said user database further comprising user specific web page use history information.

8. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions that, when executed by a client computer system, cause the client computer system to provide a media access web page, by a method comprising:

checking for the existence of a cookie stored on said client computer system;

in response to detecting the existence of a cookie;

establishing a bidirectional database connection to a user database, said user database comprising user-specific sequencer data; and

querying said user database with information from said cookie to obtain said user-specific sequencer data in a state corresponding to a most recent user session;

initiating at least one subsequent query to said user database on behalf of a sequencer Data Source Object (DSO) upon a change to said sequencer DSO; and

reflecting said change to said sequencer DSO in a sequencer user interface by a Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML) object that is bound to said sequencer DSO.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising establishing an independent database connection to an interface database, said interface database comprising a master outline reference table.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, further comprising initiating a query to said interface database when a tab on a media icon access panel user interface is selected.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein said initiating a query utilizes a media icon access panel DHTML object.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein said media icon access panel DHTML object is configured as an array with an entry for each element in an outline that is displayed in a media icon access panel user interface.

13. A method for providing a media access web page on a client computer system, comprising:

checking for existence of a cookie that can identify a user to a web server;

in response to detecting the existence of a cookie;

querying a user database associated with said web server for contents of a sequencer as they existed at an end of a most recent user session;

loading a sequencer Data Source Object (DSO) comprising sequencer tab categories and play lists;

sending a pre-defined initial query to an interface database associated with said web server for contents of a media icon access panel; and

loading tab names and outline information retrieved from said interface database into a media icon access panel DSO.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising activating a site driven area.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising generating a query of said interface database when a user selects a tab or outline line in said media icon access panel.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising storing a returned recordset in a temporary access panel DSO.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising copying said recordset to a Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML) array.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein said media icon access panel DSO is associated with a Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML) array, and further comprising copying a record associated with a media icon from said DHTML array to a JavaScript array, and appending said record associated with a media icon to said sequencer DSO in response to a user dragging said media icon from said media icon access panel to said sequencer.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising querying said user database for a play list in response to user selection of a sequencer tab.

20. The method of claim 13, said sequencer tab categories comprising a category for new media objects that fit a user preference profile.