WO2006021580A1 - Method for rapidly navigating in a limited display computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

The method for rapidly navigating in a computer system with limited display and quasi-static and dynamic information consists in loading application information requested by a user in a single document formatted by Web technologies, wherein the document size is defined according to the number of information, in using a shifting function for passing from one information to another and in using a user-server request for loading required dynamic information.

Description

 RAPID NAVIGATION METHOD IN A CALCULATION SYSTEM

DISPLAY LIMIT

The invention relates to a method and a system for rapid navigation within an Internet technology site for a device with limited display capacity in computing time.

In the description, the word "page" refers to any document formatted by Internet technologies. The term "website" used to simplify the description refers to browsing the Internet through an Internet Explorer PC marketed by Microsoft for example or any other browser of equivalent power.

Today, browsing within a site is a classic way of calling an HTML page by sending a request to an http server. The page is returned to the client interpreting the HTML code and rendering graphically. After a user action (navigation to a new page), the client sends an http request again, retrieves the associated HTML page, interprets it and then displays it again.

On receivers with relatively low computing power; such as the boxes used by television or in English SetTop Box, personal assistants or PDAs or mobile phones; the recovery, the interpretation and the display of an HTML page require resources that penalize the interaction with a user. The page is operational after a significant period of time, which degrades the overall responsiveness of the system. Similarly, navigating several times on the same screen requires reloading of this screen as well as a reinterpretation of the HTML code. This is penalizing for the receiver but also for the network where several times the same data pass.

The invention proposes a new approach to fast navigation method operating on the principle where all pages or formatted document by Internet technologies are loaded into a single page. Only part of this page is displayed in the client view window of the Web technology site. The loading of the page is then done by moving the client display area. The invention relates to a method of rapid navigation in a computation system of limited display and quasi-static and dynamic information, characterized in that it comprises at least the following steps: o Load the information of the application called by a user in a single document formatted by Web technologies, the size of the document being defined according to the number of information, o Use a move function to move from one information to another, o Use client-server requests to load the dynamic information needed.

The display limited computing system comprises for example an Internet technology site and the documents are HTML pages.

For example, the main document contains internal frames, and each frame for example loads its HTML page. The loading order of documents formatted by web technologies may be a function of the priority associated with a formatted document.

The method can be used for a personal assistant (PDA), a mobile phone, etc. The invention relates to a rapid navigation system within an Internet technology site characterized in that it comprises in combination: a server hosting quasi-static and dynamic information, said server being adapted to load all the quasi-static information in a single document formatted by Internet technologies and having a displacement function, o a user equipped with an inbox information from the server.

The invention notably has the following advantages: the part that penalizes the processing of documents formatted by technologies Internet or pages is done at the beginning of loading. The method used allows the reduction of the volume of data exchanged, the number of client / server requests, the number of interpretations of the pages by the navigation.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear better on reading the description which follows of an example given by way of illustration and in no way limiting attached to the figures which represent: FIG. 1 an example of architecture of a system comprising a server adapted according to the invention and a client, FIGS. 2, 3, 4 show the progress of the steps of the method according to the invention, FIG. 5 an example of n-dimensional application of the method according to the invention .

FIG. 1 schematizes an exemplary architecture of a system comprising a server 1 adapted to perform the steps of the method according to the invention, a client 2 equipped with a receiver box or decoder 3, a display screen 4 applications or programs requested and a control device 5.

The server is for example an Internet technology site adapted to allow the loading of the so-called static information (that is to say information that does not vary substantially during the use required by the customer) in a single page. The size of the single page is for example n times larger than a conventional page, where n is the number of pages of a given application. The site also includes a scrolling function or Anglo-Saxon scrolling.

The user or client, upon request, loads the page containing all or almost all the information of the application containing several pages available on the site. The scroll function is activated by the user using the remote control for example. This function allows the user to access or view all the pages of the application he has loaded. Each time the user requests a page, the scroll function is called, displaying the corresponding page. In the case of pages needing to retrieve dynamic data or requiring user actions (forms for example), requests will have to reach the server and return to the client. These pages should preferably pass the data without a complex graphical representation. Only the area containing the data can then be refreshed by launching a request on the web server. They are displayed in dedicated locations on the screen.

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 show an example of an Internet technology site composed of 6 screens, for example a home page, a menu page, a program details page, a sub-menu page, an information page, a message page. The 6 screens are built in one page and are arranged next to each other. When accessing this page, the browser is placed at the top left on the first screen of the site (home screen for example). The user sees only this screen; the others are outside the viewable area, while remaining accessible with the scroll function.

The selection of a link does not cause a new http request, but simply a move in the page containing the 6 screens, for example using the Javascript function of displacement (scrolling in Anglo-Saxon) known to the skilled person. Thus, the link causing the display of the page 2 triggers a displacement of the size of a screen to the right. The menu screen is displayed for example. From this part of the page, it is possible to access all the other pages of the application. The user by means of his remote control moves from page to page by simply moving in the main page initially loaded.

To access the dynamic information, an http request is for example sent to the server. The server returns a page containing a minimum of formatting according to a method known to those skilled in the art, for example. This page is displayed in an internal area.

Figure 5 shows an example of an application that extends the principle of using a main page containing all the screens of the desired application to each of the screens of the site. For example, a page For example, a list of photos is constructed as follows: o The main page contains both the "Menu" and "Photos List"screens; o The user moves from one screen to another by the scroll or move function. The second "photo list" screen contains an internal zone (IFRAME) that loads a second page. This second page consists of as many screens as there are photos. The displacement in this internal zone is carried out by means of the scrolling function.

An implementation variant of the application makes it possible to avoid monopolizing the browser resources during the loading phase of the page containing all the screens. Indeed, the more the site contains pages and more the loading of this page can be complex and long. To reduce the loading time, the main page contains for example internal frames ("frame"), in the example given up to 6. Each of these frames will load its html page. The order of this loading will be controlled according to the priority of loading pages. The first page of the site is loaded. Once it is loaded and interpreted, it will launch the loading of the pages of which it has a link. Once this second page loaded, it will ask the loading of the following pages and so on. Thus, the first page is accessible as quickly as possible as well as all other pages that can possibly be accessed quickly. While the user discovers the page, the following are being loaded. Once all pages are loaded, the application will no longer access the http server.

Claims

1 - Method of rapid navigation in a computation system of limited display and quasi-static and dynamic information, characterized in that it comprises at least the following steps: o Load the information of the application called by a user in a single document formatted by web technologies and containing static information, where the size n of the formatted unique document is defined according to the number of formatted documents of the called application, o Use a move function to switch from a formatted document to a another document formatted within the single document, o The user sends a request to the server of the display system, client-server request, to load the necessary dynamic information. 2 - Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the system comprises an Internet technology site and the documents are pages HTML. 3 - Method according to claim 2 characterized in that the main document contains internal frames, and in that each frame loads its HTML page. 4 - Method according to claim 3 characterized in that the loading order of documents formatted by web technologies is a function of the priority associated with a formatted document. 5 - Use of the method according to one of claims 1 to 4 to a housing used by the television. 6 - Use of the method according to one of claims 1 to 4 to a personal assistant (PDA), a mobile phone. 7 - A fast navigation system within an Internet technology site characterized in that it comprises in combination: a server hosting quasi-static and dynamic information, said server being adapted to load all the information quasi- static in a single document formatted by Internet technologies and having a displacement function, o a user equipped with an inbox information from the server. 8 - System according to claim 7 characterized in that the site is an Internet technology site.