Intelligent harvesting and navigation system and method

• US 6,430,624 B1
• Filed: 02/14/2000
• Issued: 08/06/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Air2Web Incorporated (Velti PLC), Weiss, Peck & Greer Venture Associates V, LCC
• Original Assignee: Air2Web Incorporated (Velti PLC)
• Inventors: Kohn, Tyler, Sullivan, Jacob, Jamtgaard, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, David Y.
• Application Number:
  US09/503,797
• Time in Patent Office: 904 Days
• Field of Search: 709/246, 709/217, 709/220, 709/221, 709/218, 709/202, 709/203, 709/219, 709/227, 709/228, 709/250
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

A content delivery system and method are provided in which different types of content may be delivered to different information appliances having different protocols and different browser specifications. The system permits internet content providers to create a single piece of content that is re-formatted automatically for the different information appliances.

Claims

1. A system for intelligently harvesting information from a data source for one or more different information appliances having different input/output formatting capabilities, comprising:

means for receiving web-based content information of a first input/output format;

means for translating the received content information from the first input/output format to a different input/output format that is recognizable by a specific device; and

means for providing the translated content information to the device.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the device is a wireless device having a predetermined display screen size.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for receiving information from a device that indicates the input/output format of the device so that the translated content is generated based on the input/output format of the device.

4. A system for translating content information from a first formatting language to a second formatting language, comprising:

a host system including content information of a first formatting language;

a translation server remotely connected with the host system, the translation server configured to receive the content information of a first formatting language and translate the received content information from the first formatting language to a second formatting language; and

a device remotely connected with the translation server, the device configured to receive the content information of the second formatting language and display the content information.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the device is a wireless device having a predetermined display screen size.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the host system comprises an Internet web server that includes at least one web page thereon, the web page having a specific URL Internet address and including the content information of the first formatting language.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the translation server comprises means for establishing a communications session with the host system so that information content of the first formatting language can be received by the translation server;

means for receiving the information content of the first formatting language;

means for converting the information content of the first formatting language to information content of an intermediate formatting language recognized by the translation server;

means for translating the information content of the intermediate formatting language to information content information of the second formatting language;

means for formatting the content information of the second formatting language so that the content information can be transmitted to and displayed on the device.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the information content of the first formatting language comprises HTML.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the intermediate formatting language is XHTML.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the translation means comprises an XML engine.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the XML engine comprises a hashtable module for comparing the URL Internet address of the received content information with a group of predetermined rulesets that define a criteria for translating the content information to the second formatting language;

and a transform processor configured to convert the received content information of the intermediate formatting language to content information of a second intermediate formatting language.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the second intermediate formatting language comprises RML.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the group of predetermined rulesets define a branding criteria for the content information of the second formatting language so that the content information of the second formatting language displayed on the device is similar in appearance to that of the content information of the first formatting language received from the webpage.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the group of predetermined rulesets comprise XSL rulesets defined by the host system.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the formatting means comprises a layout engine.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the layout engine comprises a content cutter for extracting portions of the content information of the second intermediate language that are not compatible with a display capability of the device so that the content information of the second formatting language can be generated from the remaining content information of the second intermediate language;

a layout processor for dynamically generating a layout format for the content information of the second formatting language that is optimized for the display screen size of the device; and

a protocol processor for generating the content information of the second formatting language.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the layout format comprises a presentation shoe that includes at least one presentation card, each presentation card representing a display page of the device, each presentation card including at least a portion of the content information of the second formatting language, wherein subsequent presentation cards in the presentation shoe are linked so that the content information of the second formatting language can be selectively viewed on the device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the presentation cards include at least one pane portion thereon and wherein the content information is separated into atomic groups of content information, the atomic groups of content information being organized and assigned to the pane portions of the presentation card so that formatting of the content information can be optimized for the display screen on the device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the presentation cards in the presentation shoe are transmitted to the device so that the content information of the second formatting language can be displayed on the device.

20. The system of claim 7, wherein the device formatting means further comprises means for receiving information from a device that indicates the input/output format of the device and means for formatting the content information of the second formatting language based on the received device information.

21. The system of claim 4, wherein the translation server further comprises a content connection handler.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the content connection handler comprises a client connection module configured to establish and maintain a communications session with the host system;

a data processor configured to receive the content information of the first formatting language from the host system, a cleanup module configured to convert the content information of the first formatting language to content information of the intermediate formatting language;

means for translating the information content of the intermediate formatting language to information content information of the second formatting language; and

means for formatting the content information of the second formatting language so that the content information can be transmitted to and displayed on the device.

23. A method for intelligently harvesting information from a data source for one or more different information appliances having different input/output formatting capabilities, comprising:

receiving content information of the first formatting language from an Internet web server;

converting the received content information of the first formatting language to an intermediate formatting language so that the received content information can be processed and formatted in accordance with a display capability of a device;

translating the processed content information from the intermediate formatting language to content information of the second formatting language; and

transmitting the content information of the second formatting language to the device so that the content information can be displayed on the device.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising receiving information from a device that indicates the input/output format of the device so that the translated content is generated based on the input/output format of the device.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the device is a wireless device having a predetermined display screen size.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the receiving further comprises establishing a communications session with the host system so that information content of the first formatting language can be received by the translator.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the information content of the first formatting language comprises HTML.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the intermediate formatting language is XHTML.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the translation further comprises performing operations with an XML engine.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the performing operations with an XML engine further comprises comparing an URL Internet address of the received content information with a group of predetermined rulesets using a hashtable module wherein the rulesets define a criteria for translating the content information to the second formatting language;

and converting the received content information of the intermediate formatting language to content information of a second intermediate formatting language using a transform processor.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the second intermediate formatting language comprises RML.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the group of predetermined rulesets define a branding criteria for the content information of the second formatting language so that the content information of the second formatting language displayed on the device is similar in appearance to that of the content information of the first formatting language received from the webpage.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the group of predetermined rulesets comprise XSL rulesets defined by the host system.

34. The method of claim 23, wherein the formatting comprises using a layout engine.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the layout engine comprises extracting portions of the content information of the second intermediate language using a content cutter that are not compatible with a display capability of the device so that the content information of the second formatting language can be generated from the remaining content information of the second intermediate language;

dynamically generating a layout format for the content information of the second formatting language that is optimized for the display screen size of the device using a layout processor; and

generating the content information of the second formatting language using a protocol processor.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the layout formatting comprises a presentation shoe that includes at least one presentation card, each presentation card representing a display page of the device, each presentation card including at least a portion of the content information of the second formatting language, wherein subsequent presentation cards in the presentation shoe are linked so that the content information of the second formatting language can be selectively viewed on the device.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the presentation cards include at least one pane portion thereon and wherein the content information is separated into atomic groups of content information, the atomic groups of content information being organized and assigned to the pane portions of the presentation card so that formatting of the content information can be optimized for the display screen on the device.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the presentation cards in the presentation shoe are transmitted to the device so that the content information of the second formatting language can be displayed on the device.

39. A system for translating content information from a first formatting language to a second formatting language so that the content information can be displayed on a device, comprising:

a hashtable module for comparing a URL Internet address of a web page including the content information of the first formatting language with a group of predetermined rulesets that define a criteria for translating the content information to an intermediate formatting language to generate content information of the intermediate formatting language;

a transform processor configured to convert the received content information of the intermediate formatting language to content information of a second intermediate formatting language to generate content in the second formatting intermediate language; and

a layout engine configured to translate the content information to the second formatting language from the second intermediate formatting language and to format the content information for display on the device.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the layout engine comprises a content cutter for extracting portions of the content information of the second intermediate language that are not compatible with a display capability of the device so that the content information of the second formatting language can be generated from the remaining content information of the second intermediate language;

a layout processor for dynamically generating a layout format for the content information of the second formatting language that is optimized for the display screen size of the device; and

a protocol processor for generating the content information of the second formatting language.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the layout format comprises a presentation shoe that includes at least one presentation card, each presentation card representing a display page of the device, each presentation card including at least a portion of the content information of the second formatting language, wherein subsequent presentation cards in the presentation shoe are linked so that the content information of the second formatting language can be selectively viewed on the device.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the presentation cards include at least one pane portion thereon and wherein the content information is separated into atomic groups of content information, the atomic groups of content information being organized and assigned to the pane portions of the presentation card so that formatting of the content information can be optimized for the display screen on the device.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the presentation cards in the presentation shoe are transmitted to the device so that the content information of the second formatting language can be displayed on the device.

44. The system of claim 39, wherein the group of predetermined rulesets define a branding criteria for the content information of the second formatting language so that the content information of the second formatting language displayed on the device is substantially similar in appearance to the content information of the first formatting language received from the webpage.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the group of predetermined rulesets comprise XSL rulesets defined by the host system.

46. A method for intelligently harvesting information from a data source for display on one or more different information appliances, comprising:

receiving the information from the data source in a first predetermined format wherein the information has predetermined hierarchical relationships;

storing the received information in a relational markup language to convert the received information into a second predetermined format wherein the content of the received information is separated from the relationships between the received information; and

outputting information from the second predetermined format into a final format for a particular information appliance having a particular display format.

47. A layout engine for processing incoming information and for generating information that is displayed on one or more different information appliances, comprising:

receiving information to be distributed to the one or more information appliances, the received information having relationships embedded into the content;

mapping the receiving information into a relational hierarchy based on the relationships embedded into the content, the relational hierarchy including one or more atomics containing the content of the receiving information linked to each other based on the relationships in the received information; and

processing the relational hierarchy based on a display format of a predetermined information appliance in order to generate a series of displays appropriate for the predetermined information appliance.

48. A method for processing incoming information having content and relationships embedded into the content, comprising:

separating the incoming information into one or more pieces of content having no relationship information;

generating an atomic for each piece of content in the incoming information; and

generating a relational hierarchy connecting the atomics to each other in a hierarchical relationship based on the relationships embedded into the incoming information.