Translating tabular data formatted for one display device to a format for display on other display devices

• US 6,976,226 B1
• Filed: 07/06/2001
• Issued: 12/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Champlin, David, Strong, Jack B., Patel, Vivek, Kleid, Jonathan J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bonshock, Dennis G.
• Application Number:
  US09/900,484
• Time in Patent Office: 1,621 Days
• Field of Search: 345/674, 715/792, 715/788, 715/864, 715/798, 715/744
• US Class Current: 715/788
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/027 Arrangements and methods specific for the display of internet documents

Abstract

A method and system are provided that translates tabular data prepared for a first display format into a second display format. Tabular data prepared for display on a conventional desktop display device may be adjusted for display on a portable computing device having a different display device. Tabular formatting may be removed for single row and single column tables. The method and system may also remove tabular formatting for tables having horizontal dimensions exceeding a specified amount. Tabular data may be removed from tables having more than one column that exceeds a specified maximum column size. The method and system may also identify nested tables and eliminate tabular formatting for all but the innermost tables.

Claims

1. A method for translating tabular data prepared for a first display format into a second display format, comprising:

determining if the tabular data includes nested tables, wherein the nested tables include an inner table and outer tables;

removing tabular data formatting if the inner table contains less than one column or less than one row;

removing tabular data formatting if the inner table contains more than one column exceeding a first predetermined width allowance;

removing tabular data formatting if the inner table has a horizontal display length greater than a second predetermined width allowance; and

removing tabular data formatting for the outer tables.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein removing tabular data formatting if the inner table contains more than one column exceeding a first predetermined width allowance, comprises:

examining columns in the inner table to determine if more than one column contains a form input field, an image exceeding a maximum pixel width allowance, or text exceeding a maximum text length allowance.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the maximum pixel width allowance is 120 pixels.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the maximum text length allowance is 40 characters.

5. A method of translating tabular data prepared for a first display format into a second display format, comprising:

determining if columns in the tabular data contain image data exceeding a maximum pixel width allowance;

determining if columns in the tabular data contains a form input field;

determining if columns in the tabular data contain text data exceeding a maximum text length allowance;

removing tabular formatting if more than one column in the tabular data contains image data exceeding the maximum pixel width allowance, contains a form input field, or contains text data exceeding a maximum text length allowance; and

determining if the tabular data contains nested tables, wherein the nested tables include an inner table and at least one outer table;

removing tabular formatting for the at least one outer table.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining if the tabular data exceeds an absolute maximum width allowance; and

removing tabular formatting if the tabular data exceeds the absolute maximum width allowance.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the absolute maximum width allowance is 350 pixels.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining if the tabular data contains related images if the tabular data exceeds the absolute maximum width allowance; and

sizing the related images to fit within the absolute maximum width allowance.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining if the tabular data contains more than a single row;

determining if the tabular data contains more than a single column; and

removing the tabular formatting if the tabular data contains only a single row or a single column.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the maximum pixel width allowance is 120 pixels.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein the maximum text length allowance is 40 characters.

12. A system for translating tabular data from a first display format to a second display format, comprising:

a single row/single column heuristic module configured to examine tabular data and remove tabular formatting from the tabular data if the tabular data contains less than two columns or less than two rows;

a maximum width display heuristic module configured to examine tabular data and remove tabular formatting from the tabular data if the tabular data indicates a horizontal display length exceeding an absolute maximum width allowance;

a wide column display heuristic module configured to examine tabular data and remove tabular formatting if the tabular data contains more than one column exceeding a predetermined maximum column width; and

a nested table display heuristic module configured to examine tabular data, determine if the tabular data indicates nested tables, containing an inner table and at least one outer table, and remove tabular formatting from the at least one outer table if the outer table exists.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the wide column display heuristic module further comprises:

a first column examiner configured to indicate that a column in the tabular data exceeds the predetermined maximum column width if the column contains image data exceeding a maximum pixel width allowance;

a second column examiner configured to indicate that a column in the tabular data exceeds the predetermined maximum column width if the column contains a form input field; and

a third column examiner configured to indicate that a column in the tabular data exceeds the predetermined maximum column width if the column contains text data exceeding a maximum text length allowance.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the maximum pixel width allowance is 120 pixels.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the maximum text length allowance is 40 characters.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the maximum width display heuristics module further comprises:

a related image module configure to determine if images exceeding the absolute maximum width allowance are related and resize related images to fit within the absolute maximum width allowance.

17. A proxy server, comprising:

a processor configured to process requests for remote data pages received from portable computing devices;

display heuristics software configured to examine tabular data in remote data pages and translate the tabular data from a first display format to a second display format;

a memory configured to retain the display heuristics software and data generated by the display heuristics software during examination of the tabular data; and

a nested table display heuristic module configured to examine the tabular data, determine if the tabular data indicates nested tables, containing an inner table and at least one outer table, and remove tabular formatting from the at least one outer table.

18. The proxy server of claim 17, wherein the display heuristics software further comprises:

a single row/single column heuristic module configured to the examine tabular data and remove tabular formatting from the tabular data if the tabular data contains less than two columns or less than two rows.

19. The proxy server of claim 17, wherein the display heuristics software further comprises:

a maximum width display heuristic module configured to examine the tabular data and remove tabular formatting from the tabular data if the tabular data indicates a horizontal display length exceeding an absolute maximum width allowance.

20. The proxy server of claim 17, wherein the display heuristics software further comprises:

a wide column display heuristic module configured to examine the tabular data and remove tabular formatting if the tabular data contains more than one column exceeding a predetermined maximum column width.