Patent Grant
9311427
The present invention relates generally to techniques for building web-based content, and more particularly to techniques and tools for the automated generation of a website optimized for mobile devices based on an existing website.
Of the over half billion websites that exist today, most were designed and developed for viewing by, and interaction with, users via a traditional computer device—that is, a desktop or laptop computer having a relatively large display screen and a traditional QWERTY-type keyboard. In the past, such computer devices connected to the Internet first via wired connections, and then later more often via wireless connections. During this time, use of computer devices grew exponentially while simultaneously computer hardware grew smaller, faster, and more powerful. More recently, the addition of data connectivity capability to cellular phones, resulting in what is known as the “smartphone”, has transformed not only the phone industry but also the rate of communication between such users and their accompanying expectations of such devices. Smartphone users now connect directly to the Internet and demand the same capabilities they would have had were they browsing the Internet using a traditional computer.
Recent research has suggested that at the end of 2011, more than 85% of all cell phones were connected to the Internet, with mobile data traffic expected to double every year for several years thereafter, and that by 2016, connections to the Internet via smartphones are predicted to outpace connection by desktop computers. The implications for business owners who want to be found on the Internet by customers, especially in local markets, will be profound.
The traditional website designed for viewing on a desktop or laptop often involves the download of a significant amount of data in order to capitalize on the relatively large amount of viewing space on the screen, and to implement interactive functionality, animations, video, and/or sound to attract visitors to the website. Websites designed for the traditional computing device can get away with such large data transfer due to the typically high-bandwidth data communication link that such devices use. However, while technology has certainly advanced to allow for increasingly greater data bandwidth and speed, the demand for data, both in terms of volume and speed, has still outpaced the current available communication link technologies. These considerations, coupled with the different physical attributes of the typical cell phone, such as its smaller screen size, smaller or even non-existent keyboard, and typically slower data communication link, require an owner of a website to at least consider creating a mobile-ready website that is optimized for mobile devices.
As mentioned, a typical mobile device such as a cell phone or pad computer, includes features, such as connection speed, user input mechanisms and screen size, that are fundamentally different than such features provided in a traditional computer device. Considering first the slower data connection that most mobile devices have in comparison to their desktop and laptop counterparts, in a mobile website it is desirable to reduce the amount of data required to be downloaded for each web page in order to provide a better response time when a user requests the web page. In addition to designing the mobile website to download less data, mobile websites may provide different user input controls than the traditional website. The traditional website typically includes navigation buttons, page scrolls, and other functional buttons which are manipulated by pointing, clicking, and other movements of a mouse cursor on the screen. This type of user interface is typically cumbersome for mobile device users, and additionally takes up valuable screen space. Another difference between traditional computer devices and mobile devices is the screen size. Traditional computer devices have larger screens and often place a lot of content on each page. Because screen space is at such a premium, traditional web pages that include a lot of content may be best displayed on a mobile device by breaking the content up into different pages, or by using many of the features, such as sliding, that are already natural to mobile device users. In summary, the end result of using the same website for both traditional computers and for mobile devices may be poor presentation of, and/or user frustration with, the website on the mobile device, which may result in lost customers to the business owner of the website.
All of the aforementioned differences between the mobile device as compared to the desktop or laptop device can lead to fundamental differences in the design of a website that is intended for display on mobile devices versus the website that is intended for display on a traditional computer. A website optimized for a mobile device is characterized by at least one of several optimization features, including utilizing content that is less data-intensive, and provisioning the website with mobile-appropriate user interface features.
Unfortunately, however, the idea of having to design of a mobile-ready website that is separate and different from their traditional website can be daunting to many website owners, as such process can be both time-consuming and costly. In essence, the cost and time required to design a mobile-ready website may be on the same order as that of the design of the original website. It would therefore be desirable to have a way to quickly and automatically generate a mobile-ready website. It would further be desirable to automatically match the mobile-ready website such that at least some of the content, and the look and feel, match that of an existing website. It would further be desirable to have an interactive user interface for editing a mobile website. It would still further be desirable to automatically, or allow a user to, incorporate features, icons, and functionality accessible on the Internet (such as, but not limited to, links to social media accounts, click-to-call, maps, directions, etc.) into the mobile website and to automatically configure the mobile website to enable the functionality of such features.
Presented herein are techniques and tools for the automated generation of a website optimized for mobile devices based on an existing website. Embodiments of the invention includes systems and method for automatically generating a mobile-optimized website from an existing www. website, including automated matching of suitable mobile-optimized headers, automated generation of a matching color scheme/gradients/shadows based on a limited subset of colors from the www. website, automated addition of device-specific autodetection and configuration code in mobile web pages that include audio tags. Additional embodiments of the present invention include a mobile website design studio for editing and configuring a mobile website, including configuration and selection options for the mobile website header, layout, color scheme, and functional widget content. In one embodiment, the mobile website design studio includes a fully editable header. In yet another embodiment, the mobile website configuration engine includes a dynamically modifiable mobile device simulator.
Although the present invention is described below by way of various embodiments that include specific structures and methods, embodiments that include alternative structures and methods may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.
In general, embodiments described below feature a network-based application that automatically generates a website optimized for mobile devices based on an existing website. A preferred embodiment of the present invention features a network-based application for automatically converting assets of a designated website into corresponding assets of a mobile-ready website that are optimized for mobile devices. A preferred embodiment of the present invention may also feature a network-based design application which allows a user to edit and configure features of a mobile-ready website.
In one embodiment, the present invention is implemented as a web-based service that may be accessed through the Internet, for example, using a Web browser. The service provides an interface that allows a user to select a website and request the generation of a matching mobile-ready website. The request is received at a server which automatically generates a website optimized for mobile devices and which preferably matches the look-and-feel of the selected website. The service further provides a design environment which allows the user to make changes to the automatically generated mobile website and to publish the mobile website.
Further preferred embodiments of the present invention may feature automated matching of mobile-ready page headers to match the headers of the traditional website page headers, automated generation of a matching color scheme based on selected colors of the original website, and automated detection and configuration of appropriate audio players when the mobile website is loaded at a mobile device.
An introduction to Internet-related technology is helpful in understanding the present invention. The Internet is a vast and expanding network of computers and other devices linked together by various telecommunications media, enabling the various components to exchange and share data. Web pages and websites (collections of related web pages organized under a particular domain), accessible through Internet, provide information about numerous businesses, products and services, as well as education, research, and entertainment.
A resource that is attached to the Internet is often referred to as a “host.” Examples of such resources include conventional computer systems that are made up of one or more processors, associated memory and other storage devices and peripherals, such as modems, networks interfaces and the like that allow for connection to the Internet or other networks. In most cases, the hosting resource may be embodied as hardware and/or software components of a server or other computer system that includes an interface module, which allows for some dialog with users and that may process information input by the user. Generally, such a server will be accessed through the Internet's graphical user interface, the World Wide Web, (e.g., via Web browsers) in the conventional fashion.
In order to facilitate communications between hosts, each host has a numerical Internet Protocol (IP) address. The IP address of a hypothetical host computer might be 69.17.223.11. Each host also has a unique “fully qualified domain name.” In the case of the hypothetical host 69.17.223.11, the “fully qualified domain name” might be “computer.domain.com”, the three elements of which are the hostname (“computer”), a domain name (“domain”) and a top-level domain (“com”). A given host looks up the IP address of other hosts on the Internet through a system known as domain name service.
A page of a website is addressable by way of a Uniform Resource Locator, or “URL”. A URL specifies three elements: (1) a transfer protocol; (2) a web server name or domain name; and (3) a path. The first element of the URL is a transfer protocol, most commonly “http” standing for hypertext transfer protocol, but others include “mailto” for electronic mail, “ftp” for file transfer protocol, and “nntp” for network news transfer protocol. The domain name indicates the name of the web server that stores the web page. The path indicates the location of web page on the named web server.
As previously indicated, in order to access the Internet most users rely on computer programs known as “Web browsers.” Commercially available Web browsers include such well-known programs as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox, to name a few. If an Internet user desires to view a Web page hosted at www.domain.com, the Internet user might enter into a Web browser program the uniform resource locator (URL) “http://www.domain.com”.
Once a URL is entered into the browser, the request is routed to a Domain Name System (DNS) server capable of matching the domain name specified in the URL to a corresponding IP address of a web server hosting the requested web page. Thus, the DNS server ultimately matches an alphanumeric name such as www.domain.com with its numeric IP address 69.17.223.11.
When a host receives a request from the Internet, it returns the data in the file pointed to by the request to the client making the request. Such data may make up a Web page, which may include a text message, sound, image, video, or a combination of such elements. A user can move between Web pages through the use of hyperlinks, which are links to other pages or locations on pages on the Internet.
An integral component of the present invention is a computer server. Servers are computer programs that provide some service to other programs, called clients. A client 5 and server 20 of
Architecture
With these concepts in mind, an embodiment of a system architecture of the present invention is presented in
The application server 140 comprises a website management server 150 that includes a website configuration server 160 and a mobile website configuration server 170. The mobile website configuration server 170 includes a mobile website generation engine 172, a mobile website matching engine 174, and a mobile website configuration engine 176. The mobile website generation engine 172 automatically generates a mobile version of an existing website such that the mobile version of the website is optimized for mobile devices. The mobile website generation engine 172 may utilize the services of the mobile website matching engine 174 to include mobile website assets that match at least some content and look and feel of the existing website. The mobile website configuration engine 176 allows a user, operating a client machine 100 and using a web browser 105, to configure features and make changes to the mobile website. Website assets, such as images, text content, audio files, etc. may be provided at the server machine, or alternatively, one or more website assets may be uploaded to the server by the user from the client machine 100. Website assets may be stored in one or more website asset databases 192.
A traditional website is a set of one or more web pages served by a web server at a particular domain name. A web page is typically a text document containing text and browser-interpretable instructions, such as the well-known Hypertext Markup Language (HTML or XHTML), Dynamic HTML (DHTML), Document Object Model (DOM), etc. A browser 105 running on a client machine 100 requests a web page by specifying the Universal Resource Locator (URL) of the specific page, and upon receiving the requested page from the server 120, renders the page on the user's display screen by processing and executing the browser-interpretable instructions. Web pages may be linked to other web pages by way of hyperlinks placed within the page(s). Typically, a hyperlink specifies a URL of a web page, a position in the web page, or a resource accessible by the server serving the web page.
A typical website consists of a home page that is served when the URL specifies the domain name without specifying a particular path (e.g., www.mycompany.com). Additional pages belonging to a website may be specified by way of the path following the domain name in the URL. For example, a “Contact Us” web page for the www.mycompany.com website may be specified as “www.mycompany.com/ContactUs”, where the path “/ContactUs” in the URL indicates the location at the web server of the “Contact Us” web page.
With reference now to
Returning to
In an embodiment, during editing of a www. web page of a website, the website building tool 102 modifies a copy of a selected corresponding current web page of the site. The modified copy of the edited web page is not visible to the public until it gets published to the hosted websites database 194. The website building tool 102 includes a publish control (such as a button), which allows the user of the website building tool 102 to publish the edited page once he or she is satisfied with any changes made to the page.
In an embodiment, the website building tool 102 includes a preview function which allows the website owner to preview the changes made to the page prior to publishing it. To preview the changes, a Preview button may, when clicked by the user using a mouse or other input device, trigger the loading and rendering of the edited page into a browser for display to the user. The Publish button triggers the writing of the HTML version of the edited page to the hosted web pages database 194, overwriting the corresponding existing page if one exists.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a corresponding mobile-optimized website (hereinafter a “m. website”) is automatically created and/or updated when a conventional website (hereinafter referred to as a “www. website”) is created and/or updated. This may happen in one of several ways. In one embodiment, a corresponding m. web page is created automatically and without user request by the mobile website generation engine 172 each time a www. web page is created by the user. The corresponding m. page preferably matches at least some content and the corresponding look and feel of the www. web page. In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a m. website is initially created only when the user requests creation of the m. website. The mobile website generation engine 172 then operates in conjunction with the mobile website matching engine 174 to pull mobile website assets optimized for mobile devices from the website asset database 192 that match the website assets present on the www. website and to perform additional mobile-specific optimization to generate an initial m. website for the user.
In another preferred embodiment a mobile website configuration engine 176 allows a user to actively select and/or modify various configuration options including page layout, colors and color schemes, text fonts, content, and other features on the m. website.
The user may at some point request that the edited web page be published to the hosted website database 194 (step 55). The website management server 150, upon receipt of such request, instructs the database server 180 to write the .html web page corresponding to the edited web page to the hosted websites database 194 (step 56).
The mobile website configuration server 170 automatically generates a corresponding mobile-optimized version of the edited web page (step 57). This may occur either automatically at the direction of the website management server 150, or automatically upon request by the user (step 58). In an embodiment, the mobile website configuration server 170 triggers the automatic generation of a m. web page corresponding to the newly edited www. web page, preferably in both the <XML> format used by the mobile website configuration tool 178 and .html format renderable by web browsers 105 (step 59). The mobile website generation engine 172 communicates with the mobile website matching engine 174 to retrieve mobile-ready website assets (such as mobile-optimized headers, layouts, color schemes, content and functionality) from the website assets database 192 that match the look-and-feel of the conventional website assets of the user's www. website.
The user may view the system-generated m. website and decide to customize the configuration. The user may invoke the mobile website configuration tool 178, which sends the <XML> of at least one m. web page to the mobile website configuration engine 176 (step 59). The mobile website configuration tool 178 receives user input configuration selections and sends <XML> updates to the mobile website configuration engine 176 (step 60), which generates a corresponding .html page (step 63). When requested by the user or by the mobile configuration website configuration tool 178, the server sends the .html m. web page to the client 100 where it is rendered on the user's display screen in the browser 105 (step 64).
Eventually, the user may request that the changes made to the m. web page or m. website be published to the hosted websites database 194 (step 65). Upon receipt of such request from the client 100, the website management server 150 copies (and replaces any existing page if necessary) the new .html m. web page containing the changes made by the user through the mobile website configuration tool 178 to the hosted websites database 194 (step 66), where it becomes available to the public and accessible to be served by the web server 130.
Turning now to details of the mobile website generation engine 172, it is useful to first understand the various components of a conventional web page in order to understand how a conventional web page can be optimized for mobile devices.
In a www. website, which has more display area than available on mobile devices, portions (e.g., 204a) of the artwork 204 (comprising portions 204a and 204b) (such as a logo or image) in the header may extend vertically into one or more of the inner background 202 or navigation area 207. The header artwork 204 then appears to partially wrap around one or both of the top corners of the user content area 209. The resulting appearance may be such to reduce the “building-block” look of the website, resulting in a more sophisticated appearance which is more aesthetically pleasing to the user.
As previously mentioned, a conventional (.www) website is typically created for display on a desktop 71 or laptop 70, which is typically wider than it is tall. A typical number of pixels on a conventional desktop or laptop display 75 might be, for example, 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels long. In contrast, the display screen 76 on a typical mobile device 72 is usually longer than it is wide. For example, a typical mobile device might provide 320 pixels width by 480 pixels length. This is illustrated in
In order to allow for computer-automated product matching, such as websites, mobile websites, email marketing campaigns, and printed products such as business cards, postcards, brochures, etc., the assets can be categorized into families of “matching” assets. Matching assets are components that share a common image or look-and-feel such that when different matching assets are used across different type of products (such as websites, mobile website, email marketing and printed products), all of the different types of products appear to have a coordinated look—i.e., they appear to belong to the same set of coordinated products. This may be achieved by using one or more of the same image, color scheme, font scheme, etc., and/or by using multiple different images having a similar theme along with an identical color scheme, font scheme, or other component.
Components that are considered to “match” one another are considered to be in the same “family” of assets. Thus, a designer of a www. website may have designed a www. header 81, www. navigation area 82, a www. layout 83, a www. inner background 84, a www. footer 85, a font scheme 86, and a color scheme 87. In order to generate matching email campaigns, the designer may also have created a matching Email header 88. In order to generate matching designs for business cards, postcards, and brochures, the designer may have generated corresponding matching printed product assets that are used by an automated design generation engine to create matching products.
In one embodiment, families of matching assets also preferably include matching m. webpage assets. For example, when a designer generates website assets for a particular www. design that can be automatically combined by a computer system to generate a web page, the designer may at that time also create a matching m. header 91 that is designed to fit on the display screen of a mobile device. The m. header 91 may further be designed to require less data to download to the mobile device in order to allow the m. web page to load more quickly. One way to achieve less data in the header is to reduce the images used and the resolution of the images.
The m. web page assets may also include one or more navigational panels 92a, 92b, 92m, one or more different layout styles 93a, 93b, 93m, and other m. web page components that may be used in the construction of a matching m. website. Each of the m. components are optimized for mobile by reducing the size (i.e., amount of data) of the component and considering the aspect ratio and pixel count of a mobile device. For example, m. layouts tend not to place navigation areas to the left of the content (as they do in www. web pages) but rather centered above or below the user content area on the screen.
In some instance, the website designer may not have generated a m. header or other corresponding assets. In these instances, alternative techniques for generating m. components that match the www. website as closely as possible are necessitated. The particular path to follow depends in part on what assets are available from the family from which the www. assets belong. For example, there may be a different asset in the same family that, although not designed specifically for a m. website, may be close enough in terms of size (i.e., data size) and dimensions. For example, often a header used in an email marketing message is narrower (such as 300 pixels wide) and is smaller in terms of data. Since the email marketing header 88 is close in width and is less data intensive, the email marketing header 88 could be used as the header in a m. website. In this case, if no m.-specific header asset existed in the family of assets, then the system could choose to use the email marketing header 88 as the header component for the m. website.
Alternatively, for any given family of assets, a representative accent image 95 could be associated with the family 99a. The accent image 95 could be an image that appears in some form or another on all products, both electronic (e.g., websites and email marketing) and printed (e.g., business cards, postcards, brochures, etc.). The accent image 95 could be incorporated by the m. website generation engine 172 into an image container in a generic m. header.
In an embodiment, the mobile website generation engine 172 requests matching m. web page components from the mobile website matching engine 174, which identifies one or more families of website assets from which the www. components come from. The mobile website matching engine 174 selects a family that preferably best represents the matching components of the www. website and returns the family identifier to the mobile website generation engine 172. The mobile website generation engine 172 then pulls the appropriate m. website assets from the website assets database 192 and combines them into a corresponding “matching” mobile-optimized website.
In addition to automatically selecting m. website components, preferably matching when available, the mobile website generation engine 172 also generates a set of colors for use in the m. website based on a subset of colors in the www. website. As part of rendering the mobile web page, it is desirable that the colors of the m. website matches the colors of the www. website as closely as possible. While the website assets typically include some pre-defined color schemes, including pre-defined colors for the header, background, text, buttons, and button text, the number of pre-defined colors in a given color scheme is often not enough for all the colors needed to make a mobile website look good. For example, additional colors may need to be generated or determined for the following components and states:
Background light gradient color
Background dark gradient color
Button light gradient color
Button dark gradient color
Button hover light gradient color
Button hover dark gradient color
Button pressed light gradient color
Button pressed dark gradient color
Page text shadowing color
Button text shadowing color
Button border color
Because of the limited number of pre-defined colors in a given color scheme, the mobile website generation engine 172 uses the limited number of colors in the color scheme (e.g., the original 5 colors corresponding to the Header color, background, text color, button color, and button text color, as provided by the matching engine 174, or directly by the customer, if they use the advanced color options), to generate, on-the-fly, all the above colors needed to render the page.
Below is an exemplary method for generating additional colors and color gradients given a limited set of “matching” colors from the www. website or as selected from the matching engine 174. In particular, the color generation engine 175 performs the following steps:
The delta for the gradients is dependent on where it's being used. For example, in an embodiment, the background delta is 15, and the button delta is 10. Other delta values may be selected to achieve different gradients and shadow effects.
Once the resulting list of colors is generated, color generation code generates a CSS file (a website's cascading stylesheet) and associates the CSS file with the m. website to be used by the mobile website that defines all the colors used in the site.
Using the color generation engine 175, mobile websites can be automatically configured with “matching” colors, color gradients and color shadows for components included in the m. website that are not present in the original www. website.
In addition to automatically selecting m. website components, preferably matching when available, the mobile website generation engine 172 also parses the content of each www. web page to determine whether it has audio components or tags incorporated into the page. If so, the mobile website generation engine 172 adds .html code to automatically detect the browser and/or mobile device type and to select and configure the correct audio player to work on the mobile device that requested the page.
Given the browser type (and preferably version number) and/or device type (and preferably model number), the audio autodetection and configuration .html code implements functionality for automatically selecting and executing the proper .html code that configures the audio player specific to the mobile device to make the audio player operate correctly (step 244).
Below is an example JavaScript code snippet which checks whether the mobile device is an Android, and if so, follows Android specific configuration code to display and play audio files. Then, if the mobile device is not an Android, the code checks to see if the mobile device is an iPhone and follows iPhone specific configuration code if the mobile device is in fact an iPhone. If the mobile device is not identified as either an Android or an iPhone, the code defaults to configuring an Adobe Flash player for playing audio files.
Audio Autodetection and Configuration Code (written in JavaScript):
In an embodiment, the mobile website URL is “m.domain.com”, where “domain.com” is the domain name of the user's website. In a preferred embodiment, however, the mobile site URL does not need to be known or remembered by visitors accessing the website because the server automatically detects when a www. website is being accessed by a mobile device and automatically redirects to the mobile optimized m. website.
Mobile Website Configuration and User Interface
Embodiments of the invention may include a graphical user interface that enables a user to configure, manage, and edit the content and look-and-feel of the optimized matching mobile website that is automatically created by the system. The graphical user interface includes user input controls that allow the user to select and edit the automatically selected options to create a different look-and-feel of the m. website. In an embodiment, the graphical user interface includes a header configuration section which includes controls to allow the user to view and select additional options for headers as well as the automatically-selected matching header. In a preferred embodiment, the graphical user interface includes a fully-editable studio experience for editing headers. In an embodiment, the graphical user interface also includes a layout configuration section which includes controls to allow the user to view and select various different layouts for a given m. web page. Similarly, the graphical user interface includes configuration sections for selecting different options for colors and for editing content on the m. web page. The graphical user interface also allows a user to add widgets (e.g., social media icons/functionality, maps, hours, etc.) which are automatically configured for mobile sites.
The mobile website configuration page 320 includes a user interface with configuration options for configuring the look and function of the mobile version of the user's website. In an embodiment, if a mobile website has not yet been created when the user clicks on the link 312, a mobile version of the www. website, i.e., a m. website, is automatically generated by the mobile website generation engine 172 by selecting mobile website assets from the website assets database 192 that match corresponding assets of the www. website. The mobile website generation engine 172 may generate automatic device detection page code and navigation control interface code within the m. web page that gets executed by a mobile device browser that requests the m. web page and which causes the mobile device browser to automatically provide navigation controls suitable for a particular mobile device requesting the m. page. For example, a m. web page generated based on a www. page which has navigation buttons in a navigation area may have the navigation buttons replaced by sliders or links on the m. page.
Similarly, the mobile website generation engine 172 may generate automatic device detection page code and audio/video player invocation code that gets executed by a mobile device browser that requests the m. web page and which causes the mobile device browser to automatically invoke an audio/video player playable by the mobile device.
Referring again to
The mobile website configuration page 320 may also include a dynamic mobile device simulator 370 which not only allows a user to preview changes to the mobile website prior to publishing the website, but also allows the user to try out functionality of the mobile website in a live manner. Details of the simulator are discussed in a later section, but for the present discussion it is sufficient to understand that the simulator 370 includes an image 371 of a mobile device that includes a display screen 372 on which a m. web page is rendered. Changes made to the m. website configuration using the mobile website configuration tool 178 are preferably automatically updated to the m. web page displayed on the display screen 372 of the mobile device simulator 370.
In an embodiment, the mobile website configuration page 320 defaults to displaying the Header section 330 in an expanded view, with a default matching header 331a selected (as indicated by the highlighted outline around the header option 331a) and displayed as the header in the m. web page rendered in the display screen 372 of the simulator 370.
The Header section 330 may display a plurality of different header options 331a, 331b, 331c, 331d available for selection by the user for use as the m. website header instead of the default matching header 331a. For example, in the header configuration section 330, header options include the default matching header option 331a which is the header selected by the system that “matches” the header of the www. website, header option 331b which includes the header text of the www. website header with an image positioned to the left of the header text, header option 331c which includes the image positioned to the right of the text, and header option 331d which includes the header text without any image. When a user navigates to the header section 330 of the mobile website configuration page 320, the header option corresponding to the current m. website is selected, indicated by a highlighted border around the selected header option. Thus, the first time a user navigates to the header section 330 of the mobile website configuration page 320, the matching header 331a selected by the system is selected by default. Then, when the user clicks one of the header options 331a, 331b, 331c, 331d, the selected header option is highlighted and the m. web page loaded in the display screen 372 of the simulator 370 updates.
In an embodiment, the content of the header is editable. A user can edit the content of a selected header by clicking on an Edit Header button or link 332b, which opens a header editing dialog 400, as shown in
In an embodiment, the Layout section 340 includes a Manage Pages button 342 which, when clicked, and as shown in
The Color configuration section 350 may display a plurality of different color scheme options 351a, 351b, 351c, 351d available for selection by the user for use as the m. website color scheme. The currently selected color scheme 351a is highlighted. A given color scheme may define a set of colors to be used for various components. For example, a given color scheme may define specific colors for each of the header background, the web page background, the web page text color, the button color, and the button text color, among others. In an embodiment, the color selections apply to all pages on the website. When a color scheme is clicked, the m. web page displayed on the display screen 372 of the simulator is updated with the colors from the scheme.
The color configuration section 350 may also include more advanced color options that allow the user to pick custom colors/schemes for each of the header, the navigation controls (e.g., buttons), text, navigation control text (e.g., button text color), and background. In an embodiment, if a user is still using the automatically-selected matching colors (to their main www. website), and a new header or layout is selected, the server 170 automatically changes the colors to match the newly-selected header or layout. When a user selects one of the buttons 352a, 352b, 352c, 352d, 352e for customizing the header, button color, button text, text, or background, a color picker (not shown) is displayed to allow the user to select a custom color. In a preferred embodiment, selection of a color from the picker will update the selected option only. Color updates in the configuration options 351a, 351b, 351c, 351d, 352a, 352b, 352c, 352d, 352e automatically trigger corresponding changes to the m. web page displayed in the simulator 370 but are not published to the hosted website database 194 until the user requests the page to be published.
Moving next to the Content configuration section 360, shown in
The Hours of Operation widget may trigger the popup of an hours of operation dialog 440, shown in
As described above, in preferred embodiments of the present invention, the mobile website management page 320 includes a dynamic preview simulator 370 which displays a depiction 371 of a mobile device, such as a smartphone, that includes a display screen 372 displaying the mobile web page currently being edited or configured via the mobile website management page 320 graphical user interface. The mobile web page displayed on the simulator device screen 372 depicts the m. web page as it is currently configured within the mobile website configuration tool 178 and 162, including the currently selected header, layout, color(s), and content. As the user makes changes to the selections of the header, layout, color(s), and/or content, the changes are reflected in the mobile web page displayed in the display screen 372 of the dynamic preview simulator 370.
Furthermore, the mobile web page displayed on the simulator screen 372 is operationally functional. If the user clicks on the links on the m. web page on the simulator, it loads the page associated with the link on the display screen of the simulator. Changes made within the mobile configuration tool 178 are automatically converted into .html code in the m. web page and loaded into the display screen 372 of the simulator 370. This way, the user can see how changes to the m. web page configuration selections affect the look and feel of the web page, and can test them out, prior to publishing the changes to the hosted m. website.
In an alternative embodiment, the mobile website configuration tool 178 is written in the well-known JavaScript and utilizes well-known technologies such as Web fonts (i.e., a font object downloaded from a server that can be attached to a web page for styling text elements and does not need to be installed on the client machine to function) and other markup language technologies to provide rich client-side editing capabilities, such as image and text rotation, in-place rich text editing, and word art. In this type of embodiment, most of the workload is performed on the client machine 100 because the fonts are downloaded as needed.
As also indicated in
When the mobile website configuration page 320 is loaded into the client browser 105, independent scripts representing the mobile website configuration tool 178 and the dynamic mobile device simulator 179 are each started up. The dynamic mobile device simulator 179 receives updates representing changes to the current m. web page from the mobile website configuration tool 178 as the user makes the changes. The dynamic mobile device simulator 179 interprets the received changes and automatically alters the m. web page with .html code representing the change(s) and re-renders the m. web page within the display screen 372 area of the rendered image 370 of the mobile device.
For example, suppose a user selects a change to the layout of the m. web page using the mobile website configuration tool 178. In this case, the layout change is communicated from the mobile website configuration tool 178 JavaScript to the dynamic mobile device simulator 179 JavaScript. The dynamic mobile device simulator 179 JavaScript interprets the layout change to select corresponding .html code representing the layout and to replace the current .html code that implements the layout in the current m. web page with the corresponding selected .html code representing the new layout. The dynamic mobile device simulator 179 JavaScript then re-renders at least the m. web page within the image of the mobile device in the mobile website configuration page 320 on the user's display.
In an embodiment, .html code corresponding to each possible layout, color scheme, and content is stored in the website assets database 192. The dynamic mobile device simulator 179 JavaScript requests .html code corresponding to component changes as indicated by communications from the mobile website configuration tool 178 JavaScript, and replaces associated sections of the .html of the m. web page to dynamically update the current m. web page.
Because the m. web page is actually .html, and the m. web page is rendered in the display screen area 372 of the mobile device image 371 depicting the simulator 370, the m. web page rendered therein is also operationally functional. That is, a user viewing the mobile website configuration page 320 can click on a navigation button or other interactive function displayed in the m. web page on the display screen 372 of the simulator 370, and the function of the button will work. For example, if a user is currently viewing the Home Page of the m. website in the simulator 370 and then clicks on the “About Us” navigation button, the simulator will load the “About Us” page in the display screen 372. In this manner, the simulator dynamically changes itself as the user makes changes to the mobile website configuration. This also allows a user to dynamically change the m. website and try it out immediately on a simulated mobile device 370 prior to publishing the changes to the hosted website database. There is no need to first publish or save and then preview the m. web page.
When the simulator 179 script receives an <XML> component update, (step 504), it either generates or looks up in the website asset database 192 corresponding .html code that implements the <XML> component updates (step 505). The simulator 179 then alters the m. web page .html so as to remove unneeded .html code, add new .html code, and/or replace .html code to effect the changes in the current m. web page as represented by the <XML> updates (step 506). The simulator 179 then re-renders the m. web page .html so that it appears in the location of the display screen 372 in the mobile device image 371 (step 507).
Meanwhile, the simulator 179 script also polls for user input in the m. web page as rendered at the location of the display screen 372 in the mobile device image 371 (step 509). If an action such as a “mouse-click/mouse-up” action occurs, the simulator executes the action indicated by the .html code associated with the link (step 510).
In the foregoing specification the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific exemplary embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
Furthermore, it is to be understood that all systems and methods described herein can be embodied in hardware, including one or more processors and associated non-transitory computer-readable memory storing computer-readable program instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, implement the servers, systems, and methods described herein.
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