CN1408168A - Transferring fitted content for user from server - Google Patents

Abstract

A technique for transferring content between a server and a client when the client has a limited CPU capability includes the client forwarding a request for content to the server with a header, the header including the characteristics of the client. The server then scales the requested content according to the client characteristics contained in the header so as to be suitable for use by the client prior to transmitting the content to the client. In addition, the technique for transferring content between a server and a client having a limited memory capacity via a gateway disposed between the server and client includes splitting a page to be sent to the client from the server into two or more sub-pages when the memory of the client is insufficient to store the entire page, the information as to the size of the memory of the client being forwarded to the gateway.

Description

Deliver appropriate content from the server to the user

field of invention

The present invention relates to client/server systems, and more particularly, the present invention relates to transferring content between servers and clients.

Description of related fields

One of the newest technologies in cellular telephone technology being advanced by major cellular telephone manufacturers is the implementation of cellular telephones with larger graphical display devices that allow cellular telephone users to access various databases and services via the Internet.

To operate this cellular phone setup, the user turns on the phone and a signal is sent to the antenna, which transmits the signal to the nearest receiving cellular base station, which receives the phone's transmission.

The user can then, for example, dial a request for an Internet connection to the base station, which then sends the request to the mobile switching center via the base station controller. The transit center routes the request to its desired destination by appropriate routing, eg, the web server address defined by the (URL) request.

When the server obtains the information requested by the user, the information is reformatted to fit the display screen of the cell phone, the information is transmitted to the mobile switching center, the base station controller and the base station, the information will be transmitted back to the cell phone requesting the information, and then is displayed on the display screen of the cellular phone.

Unfortunately, the processing power and memory capacity of cellular telephone microprocessors are relatively limited.

Also, the size and resolution of the display is limited.

Finally, the data transfer rate between the server and the client (of a cellular phone) is currently limited to about 9.6 kbps, which is significantly less than the usual 56 kbps used by clients to communicate with the Internet over ordinary telephone lines The speed is much lower than the speed of communication between the client and the Internet using high-speed data line communication (such as DSL).

Therefore, there is a need to reduce the amount of processing performed by the CPU of the cellular phone and to have more of the processing performed by the server. Particular attention is paid to adjusting the screen aspect ratio and scaling of the image content transmitted by the server to the client and displayed on the cell phone display.

In addition, because the information to be transmitted to an Internet Web server on a client computer is generally not considered the size of the client computer's memory because the Internet client computer generally has enough memory, there is a need for fragmentation when the client computer's memory is not enough to store an entire page. One page transmitted by the server to the client is the requirement of two or more subpage techniques.

Summary of the invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a new technique for transferring content between a server and a client.

More specifically, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a technique that allows the server to implement screen aspect ratio and content scaling conversion before transmitting the content to the client when the CPU processing power of the client is limited. It is possible to fit the client display.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a new technique between a client and a server having only limited memory, when the memory of the client is not enough to store a full page, by using a gateway to split the page to be sent to The client's page is two or more subpages to transmit content by the gateway.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of transferring content between a server and a client, the method comprising:

A request for content and characteristics of the client is sent by the client to the server;

shaping the requested content at the server according to the characteristics of the client transmitted by the client; and

The server sends the shaped requested content to the client.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for transferring content between a server and a client, the apparatus being disposed on the server, comprising:

a receiver that receives requests from clients and client characteristics;

a store that stores content requested by the client;

shaping means for shaping the stored content according to the characteristics of the client transmitted by the client; and

An output unit that sends the shaped requested content to the client.

Further embodiments of the method and device are defined by the dependent claims.

Brief description of the drawings

Figure 1 shows a telecommunication system to which the invention may be applied.

Figure 2 is a flowchart of a portion of the operation of the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates page segmentation according to the invention.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating scaling of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BEST EMBODIMENTS

The following description of the invention, by way of example, utilizes the operation of a cellular telephone connected to an Internet web server. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited in this manner, but can be used with any client/server type where the client has limited CPU processing power and/or limited memory.

Referring to Figure 1, which shows the configuration of a cellular telephone system, initially, a user communicates a request for content from an Internet web server.

This request is sent by radio waves to the base station, which in turn transmits the request to the base station controller which connects to other base stations.

The base station controller forwards the request to a mobile switching center, in the case of an ordinary telephone call, this center sends a message to the central office to connect the requested telephone, in the case of an Internet request, this center forwards the Internet request to an Internet web server, For example, via a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) gateway.

The Internet web server processes the request and forwards the content back to the client's cell phone along the same path to the cell phone.

In general, clients requesting content from Internet World Wide Web servers use either desktop computers with relatively large displays, moderately powerful CPUs, and sufficient memory for storing and displaying graphical content, or desktop computers with slightly weaker CPUs and less RAM, but still enough for a laptop to display image content from an Internet World Wide Web server.

On the other hand, newly developed cellular phones with Internet functions are equipped with CPUs of limited capabilities and very small memories for storing image contents.

Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of the shaping functionality of the present invention in the form of page segmentation. At the start of the page splitting function, the client initiates a connection to the web server using an appropriate client/server handshake protocol, and then sends a content request to the web server in step 10.

Also included in the handshake protocol is information transmitted to the server about the memory capacity of the client storing the image content pages.

Note that requests, handshakes, and content are not transmitted directly between the MSC and the IWWW server, but rather, via the IWWW as an in-MSC or cellular network and actually perform a variety of inventive and other functions. WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) gateway for the interface between servers.

In step 20, a WML (Wireless Markup Language) page is received by the gateway from the web server in response to the client's request.

In step 30, the WML page is formatted and all unnecessary elements are removed (like comments, unnecessary line breaks, etc.). The "cleanup" step of the WML page reduces the memory requirement of the page and allows a more accurate estimate of whether the page needs to be split.

In step 35, the page size (memory requirement to store the page) is determined.

In step 40, the size of this WML page is compared to the client memory limit that was transferred to the gateway during the handshake process described above.

Since in practice WML pages must be compiled before being forwarded to the client, a comparison between the size of an uncompiled WML page and the client memory limit certainly cannot determine whether the compiled WML page size is greater than the client memory limit, But it can certainly be determined that the compiled WML page size must be larger than the client memory limit by the size of the uncompiled WML page being larger than the client memory.

Therefore, if the uncompiled page size is larger than the client memory, processing steps to step 50, where the WML page is divided into two or more WML subpages.

The details of these partitioned WML pages are discussed in detail below.

In step 60, the divided WML subpages are compiled with the usual protocol and step 70, and the compiled WML subpages are sent to the client and displayed on the display screen of the client.

Alternatively, if in step 40 the WML page size is not greater than the client memory limit, processing proceeds to step 80 where the WML is also compiled using the same protocol used in step 60.

In step 90, the size of the compiled WML page is compared to the client memory limit.

If the compiled WML page size is larger than the client memory limit, of course the WML page must be split into two or more WML subpages, and therefore, processing proceeds to the above-mentioned step 50 of splitting the WML page into two or more subpages. Alternatively, if the compiled WML page size is not larger than the client memory limit, then the compiled WML page is sent to the client (step 70).

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of WML page segmentation according to the present invention.

The original page itself is unfortunately too large to be stored and displayed on the client's monitor.

Therefore, according to the present invention, this page is divided into subpage 1/2 and subpage 2/2.

Note that the header, the options section and the return section are common to both subpages, and note that the next and previous links link the subpages to each other.

Regarding the details of page splitting, the following common elements must be present on every page:

          A-some common tasks (template, time, type of access = "accept

Accept" etc.);

B-head;

C-option;

D-Return.

The following elements are inseparable elements and must be together on the same page:

A-link, task (Go, Do, etc.);

B - some input type (option group, field set, etc.);

C-word.

If it is necessary to split the option group, it can be done by placing a link to the actual page, which points to a separate subpage with the option group.

When a formatting element is split in the middle, the element must be closed and reopened on the next page. For example:

<B><I>Mary, be my wife, I will never leave you! </I></B>

must be divided into the following two paragraphs:

<B><I>Mary, be my wife,</I></B>

<B><I>I will never leave you! </I></B>

A Deck (precisely defined in WAP terminology) is a downloaded unit of content. A WAP connection always points to a Deck/Card. Deck consists of one or more cards. For example, the display unit is a card and the download unit is a Deck. If a card has a link to another card in the same Deck, the link will not cause network traffic.

The possible split points in the deck are (in order from best to worst):

A-between cards (best);

B-Between paragraphs;

C- between connections;

D-formatter;

E-line spacing;

F - between sentences (in text);

G-words (in text).

Switching between subpages can be accomplished by:

A-option;

B - link at the top of the subpage;

C-link at the bottom of the subpage;

Note that the WAP standard defines at least two buttons for clients. The button names are "Options" and "Back". The user presses the "option" button to switch to the functions defined by the web browser, such as "exit browsing", "set bookmarks", etc., as well as the function of WAP application settings.

The "Back" button is often used to backtrack, as is the case with HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) browsers, but WAP applications can assign different tasks (and titles) to it, and also make it invalid (hidden).

An "anchor" is synonymous with link. WAP links look a lot like HTML links, underlined and pointing to a URL.

If the client's memory is very limited, it is recommended to reduce the page size as much as possible. Therefore, the following element identifiers should be changed to one-character (or very short) identifiers.

A-URL;

B-card name;

C-variable name.

For example, ID references (and most importantly, URL references) are stored uncompressed in WMLC. The shortening process can be:

1. Client request page

http://wap.server.com/menu/main.wml

2. This page contains links

http://wap.server.com/apps/banking/welcome.wml

3. The WAP gateway gets the page and converts it to:

http://x166346 sign 166346 equals

http://wap.server.com/apps/banking/welcome.wml

4. The client gets the page with the URL:

http://x166346

5. The user clicks on the "banking" link.

6. The client sends a request for the connection selected by the user

http://x166346 .

7. The WAP gateway converts the request from the conversion table into

http://wap.server.com/apps/banking/welcome.wml

and send the request to the application server.

Therefore, the client browser will handle short URLs instead of long ones. A Deck includes at least one URL per card, usually 5 to 10 cards. Therefore, marked transformations greatly reduce the transformed size when client memory is very limited.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another aspect of the present invention, that is, shaping content, such as image content, by scaling the content when the client requests image content provided by the server and displays the received image content.

Much has been discussed in client/server systems to use coordinate system patterns for "thin" clients, such as cellular telephones.

Two possible ways are to use physical device coordinate system and logical coordinate system. Using the physical device coordinate system indicates that the programmer of the application uses the real device coordinate system of the client screen. For example, if the programmer wishes to have one end of the screen draw a line to the other, and the actual width of the client is 100 screen pixels or points, then the actual line-drawing instruction would look like line(1,100).

The disadvantage of the physical device coordinate system scheme is that the application must be aware of aspect ratio and scaling issues. It is also a disadvantage that the programmer has to consider all the different client displays.

The second way is to use a logical coordinate system, where the client's graphics submodule handles display scaling. The advantage of this approach is that the application programmer does not have to worry about size, aspect ratio, or other characteristics of the client display.

However, a disadvantage of the logical frame approach is that heavy workloads scaled on the client CPU make the case with limited-capacity CPUs like cellular phones impossible.

In the present invention, the scaling workload is on the server rather than the client. When the client computer sends a content request such as an image to the server, the client computer also provides the characteristics of the client computer's display physical device, such as X-axis resolution, Y-axis resolution, and aspect ratio. Then, the server scales the requested image content according to the device characteristics provided by the client, and forwards the scaled requested content to the client.

As shown in FIG. 4, in step 100, the client computer sends an image request to the server with a client display physical characteristic header.

Headers, such as the Accept-viewport header, provide realistic X, Y dimensions or realistic resolution and display aspect ratio.

In step 110, the server stores the requested image content in a logical coordinate system format.

After the start of processing the request from the client, the server scales the image elements of the requested image content according to the characteristics in the header forwarded by the client.

In step 130, the scaled requested image content is sent by the server to the client and displayed on a display screen of the client.

An example of the above scaling consistent with the present invention is as follows.

Device characteristics are communicated through optional headers. An example may be an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Mode) header, as shown below. Examples of HTTP request packets are:

GET/svg/drawing.svg HTTP/1.0

This request can be extended by the device characteristic header as follows:

GET/svg/drawing.svg HTTP/1.0

Accept-viewport: 70 45 1.1

Here, the numbers are the screen width, height and aspect ratio.

Servers store content in a common form. For example, total width is represented by 1.0 and total height by 1.0. A line across the screen from top left to bottom right is:

line(0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0)

When the server receives a device-specific request header, it scales the content. The server multiplies the content's screen width and height by the physical width and height. The zoomed content may be:

line(0, 0, 70, 45)

This scaled content is then sent to the client where it is displayed.

HTTP example

GET/svg/drawing.svg HTTP/1.0

Accept-viewport: 70 45 1.1

or

GET /servlet/drawswrvlet HTTP/1.0

Accept-viewport: 70 45 1.1

posx=10&posy=30

Although HTTP is almost always used for client/server systems, it is of course understood that the invention is not limited to and can be applied to other protocols.

By placing heavily scaled workloads on the server, the computational load of client CPU image operations is reduced by as much as 50%, which is important for situations with limited-capacity CPUs such as in cellular phones.

The only disadvantage of scaling according to the invention is that the server's CPU has to perform more scaling operations for all clients connected to the server. This can be a problem when there is only limited capacity on small servers.

As indicated above, the exact form of the client device signature header may vary depending on the communication protocol between the server and client. Any transaction type communication protocol can be used.

While the invention has been described in the form of examples, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be modified and used within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (19)

1. One kind between server and client computer the transmission content method, the method comprising the steps of:

   Send feature from client computer to server to requests for content and client computer;

   The feature of the client computer of sending according to client computer is moulded requested content; With

   Mould the requested content in back by server to the client computer transmission.
2. 2. in moulding the step of requested content, be included in the client computer feature convergent-divergent requested content of sending according to client computer on the server by the process of claim 1 wherein.
3. 3. press the method for claim 2, in step:

   Send requests for content and comprise head, comprise the feature of client computer in the head; The method of the step before the convergent-divergent step comprises:

   On server, be the content of form storage client request by logical coordinates; Wherein the step of convergent-divergent comprises:

   Feature convergent-divergent on server of the client computer that comprised is stored the element of content in the head of sending according to client computer.
4. 4. by the method for claim 1, the method comprising the steps of:

   A-carries out handshake procedure between the client-server by being placed on gateway between server and the client computer, and handshake procedure comprises transmits performance gateway of tabulating, this gateway successively the part of forwarding list to server;

   B-is transmitted the request of page or leaf to Web server by client computer by gateway;

   C-accepts requested page or leaf from Web server by gateway;

   D-formats and clears up received page or leaf on gateway;

   E-determines the size of cleaning back and format back page or leaf on gateway;

   If the size of F-page or leaf limits greater than client memory, carry out step G, the memory limitations of client computer if the size of page or leaf is not more than the client memory restriction, is carried out step J in the performance table;

   G-is cut apart this page or leaf and is two or more subpages, and the quantity of subpage is by the size and the client memory limit decision of page or leaf;

   H-compiles subpage;

   Page or leaf after I-sends and compiles or the one page in the subpage are to client computer;

   If the size of page or leaf is not more than the client memory restriction in the J-step F, compiling page or leaf and the size of determining compiling back page or leaf;

   If the size of K-compiling back page or leaf limits greater than client memory, carry out step G, if the size of compiling back page or leaf is not more than the client memory restriction, carry out step I.
5. 5. by the method for claim 1, comprise that step is:

   A-forwarding performance table is to the gateway that is placed between the client-server, and the performance table comprises the memory limitations of client computer;

   B-is transmitted the request of page or leaf to Web server by client computer by gateway;

   C-receives the size of requested page or leaf and definite page or leaf by gateway from Web server;

   Be two or more subpages if the size of D-page or leaf, is cut apart page or leaf so greater than the memory limitations of client computer, the quantity of subpage is by the size and the client memory limit decision of page or leaf; Compiling subpage and the subpage that sends after compiling arrive client computer;

   If the size of E-page or leaf is not more than the memory limitations of client computer, the compiling page or leaf is also determined the size of compiling back page or leaf so;

   If the size of F-compiling back page or leaf limits greater than client memory, cut apart this page or leaf and be two or more subpages, the quantity of subpage is by the size and the client memory limit decision of page or leaf, and compile subpage and send to client computer, if the size of compiling back page or leaf is not more than the client memory restriction, also arrive client computer after the transmission compiling.
6. 6. by the method for claim 4 or 5, wherein requested page or leaf comprises a WML (WAP Markup Language) page or leaf.
7. 7. by the method for claim 4, wherein head comprises a HTTP (HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)) head.
8. 8. by any method of claim 1 to 3, its feature comprises display device the ratio of width to height, the resolution of the size of at least one display device and client computer display device.
9. 9. by the method for claim 4 or 5, its feature list comprises the memory limitations of client computer.
10. 10. by the method for claim 5, also be included in and determine among the step C that the preceding format of size and the cleaning that are requested page or leaf are requested page or leaf.
11. 11. by claim 4 or 10 method, format and cleaning are received and comprise shortening in the step of page or leaf and comprise URL, the step that the element of card name and variable name indicates on gateway.
12. 12. one kind is the equipment of transmission content between server and client computer, this equipment is placed in the server, comprising:

    A receiver is from the request of client computer received content and the characteristic of client computer;

    The content of a memory stores client requests;

    Mould device, mould the content of storage according to the client character of client computer forwarding;

    An output unit sends and moulds the back requested content to client computer.
13. 13. the equipment by claim 12 comprises:

    Be suitable for storing with logical coordinates is the memory of content of the client requests of form;

    The scaler of the content of the client computer feature convergent-divergent storage that comprises in the head that is transmitted according to client computer;

    Be suitable for sending behind the convergent-divergent requested content to the output unit of client computer.
14. 14. the equipment by claim 12 comprises:

    A gateway is placed between server and the client computer, gateway be suitable for receiving and the forwarding performance table to server;

    Wherein said gateway is further adapted for be to transmit the page or leaf that page or leaf that client computer comes asks Web server and reception, format and cleaning to receive, and determine after the cleaning with format after the size of page or leaf;

    Wherein said gateway be suitable for the page or leaf size greater than the performance table in the client memory restriction time cut apart page or leaf and be two or more subpages, the quantity of subpage is by the size and the client memory limit decision of page or leaf, and gateway compiles subpage and transmit them to client computer;

    Wherein said gateway is suitable for compiling page or leaf and definite page or leaf size when the size of page or leaf is not more than the client memory restriction, if the size of compiling back page or leaf limits greater than client memory, it is two or more subpages that described gateway is changed to cut apart page or leaf, the quantity of subpage is by the size and the client memory limit decision of page or leaf, the size that described gateway is changed with page or leaf after compiling is not more than client memory when restriction compiling subpage, and sends compiling back page or leaf to client computer.
15. 15. by the equipment of claim 13, wherein head comprises a HTTP (HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)) head.
16. 16. by the equipment of claim 12 or 13, its feature comprises the ratio of width to height of described client computer display device, the resolution of the size of at least one display device and client computer display device.
17. 17. by the equipment of claim 14, wherein the performance table comprises the client memory restriction.
18. 18., wherein be requested page or leaf and comprise a WML (WAP Markup Language) page or leaf by the equipment of claim 14.
19. 19. by the equipment of claim 14, wherein format and cleaning are received page or leaf and comprise shortening and comprise URL that the element of card name and variable name indicates on gateway.

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