As computer devices are operated, there are circumstances under which available resources must be located. For example, in navigating the Internet, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a means of specifying the location of network resources and is a key component in making the Internet easy to use. Billions of people are familiar with URLs beginning with “http://www” and recognize them as indicating addresses (locations) on the World Wide Web. These people have experience with using a computer device and gaining access to Web pages through an Internet browser application.
In this way, a URL acts as a request for service from a specified network resource. The request is initiated by a computer device that is connected to the network and that therefore is, itself, a node of the network. For example, a URL beginning with the characters “http://www” and ending with the characters “.html” can be provided to an Internet browser and will be recognized as specifying a Web page, which the browser will retrieve from the URL address and render for display to the user. In that scenario, the “html” URL requests a Web page (the service) from a Web server (the resource), which is received by the browser and is processed (i.e., rendered).
Service from other resources comprising different applications can be requested. For example, a browser that is provided with a URL beginning with “http://www” and ending with “.pdf” will recognize the URL as calling for a file on the World Wide Web that should be rendered according to the “PDF” file format as specified by Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, Calif., USA. The browser can automatically launch an appropriate application to open the PDF file and display it properly. Other file extensions can be recognized as being associated with other programs, which the browser can look for on the host computer.
Other formats of URLs can act as requests for service from a corresponding resource of a different type. A URL beginning with “mailto:” and appended with an email address (e.g. name@place.com) can cause the browser to automatically launch an email application that sets up a message that is directed to the appended email address. In this scenario, the “mailto:” URL can be viewed as requesting an email message service from an email application resource. The email application makes use of network communications and is characterized as a network resource, even though the email application itself may be locally installed on the computer device. Other URL formats request other types of resources that can be accessed over the Internet. For example, URLs beginning with “ftp:” and “tel:” provide integration with additional services for file servers (ftp) and telephone connections (tel). Other URL formats can request other computer resources, such as search engines, printing services, multimedia presentations, and the like.
The core concepts behind successful utilization of Internet URLs for resource requests are that (a) each resource is assigned a unique network location, specified by a URL, and (b) it is assumed that all resources specified by a URL are accessible by any computer connected to the network. Thus, a URL specifies a network address at which communications occur between a requesting network node (the user device) and a specified resource.
These assumption do not necessarily hold true for mobile and wireless devices which may be only occasionally connected to the network. Most Internet resources, such as Web servers, file servers, and email servers, are continuously available to receive service requests. But when mobile and wireless devices are not connected to the network, they cannot submit network service requests and cannot be reached via any URL at which they would otherwise be communicating. Additionally, there are occasions on non-mobile computers where URLs, as defined today, are insufficient to easily locate a resource.
In addition to Internet browsers, other applications on computer devices may be configured to locate resources (such as files or applications) in response to receiving resource parameters (e.g. file identifiers or application names). For example, file finder or explorer applications can be used to search for resources such as data files or installed applications. Typically, such resource finding applications are limited in the resources and domains over which they will search, such as being limited to searching only a local hard disk drive or a particular network store for a specified item. Thus, the range of resources over which searching can occur is limited.
Locating resources on network-capable mobile devices such as cell telephones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) can be especially troublesome because of the typically limited application catalog available on such devices. For more powerful computer systems such as desktop computers and laptop computers, a program and/or resource registry determines the resources available to applications. If an application on a computer system requests processing from a resource comprising a second application, the first application can determine whether the second application is installed by consulting the registry and, if the second application is missing, it can request network access (such as by launching a Web browser) to retrieve and download the second application. Mobile devices, in contrast, typically have relatively simple application catalogs and do not have the more sophisticated resource registries and operating capabilities to identify missing applications and request their download and installation. Thus, resource requests on mobile devices are more likely to fail in the case of missing applications.
It should be apparent that the computer resource search and location experience would be improved if the resources and network conditions over which search is performed could be enlarged. The present invention satisfies this need.
In accordance with the invention, a resource request is received at a computer application, wherein the resource request has a resource specification that determines multiple resources for fulfillment. The received resource specification is evaluated, a plurality of computer resources are identified for processing of the resource request in accordance with the evaluated resource specification, and an order of processing the request among the identified resources is identified for fulfillment of the resource request. Thus, multiple resources can be determined from a single resource request and the multiple resources can be utilized for fulfillment of the request. If desired, the computer application can be installed at a computer device that communicates with a network, so that resources available to the computer application can include network resources. The resource request itself can determine network locations at which the requested resource can be found. With this technique, it is not necessary for the computer application to have access to a resource registry to locate resources or to communicate with other applications, rather, the conditional resource request is self-contained. In the case of a Web browser application that is configured to process such a conditional resource request, the request comprises a conditional uniform resource locator (C-URL) that describes one or more network locations at which a single resource may be accessed.
The resource request can determine multiple resources in a variety of ways. The request, for example, can comprise an implicit conditional Boolean statement or an explicit conditional Boolean statement that can be evaluated to determine resource locations and processing to gain access for fulfillment of the resource request. The schema for composing a conditional resource request can include a parameter set that is used in the evaluation of the statement and in the processing of the request. The resources being located can include network computers, files, devices, servers, Web pages, messages, and the like.
Other features and advantages of the present invention should be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.
A conditional resource request for computer services can specify more than one pathway for fulfillment of the resource request. The specified conditions and pathways can include multiple computer resources and network conditions. In this way, the integration and user experience in accessing multiple software applications on mobile devices is improved. One application of the conditional resource request is the specification for a resource that will be accessed over the Internet, as conventionally specified in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address. When an embodiment of the present invention is used to fulfill such a conditional resource request, the request provides what can be characterized as a conditional URL. In this discussion, a conditional resource request for processing in accordance with the invention will be generally referred to as a “conditional URL”, whether or not the requested resource is a Web page. That is, it should be understood that a “conditional URL” in this context will be applied to a conditional resource request regardless of the nature of the requested resource.
An example of a system that provides the conditional URL (C-URL) features described herein is illustrated in
In
Both resources 220, 230 specified in the request can be located at the user device 100 where the application 150 is installed, or both resources may be accessed over the network 140, or the resources can be at different locations. That is, one of the specified resources 220, 230 can be at the computer device 100 of the user and the other resource can be at a different network location, or both resources 220, 230 can be at the computer device, or both resources can be at network locations (at either the same network location or at different network locations). A requested application or other resource that is installed at the same computer device as the user application 150 will be referred to as a requested application that is “native” to the user application.
Those skilled in the art will understand that the C-URL can be specified via a variety of syntax, and will understand that the conditional statement or operation can relate to more than two states, matching to more than two resource locations. An example of such multiple state, multiple location requests will be described further below.
The
For example, if a Web browser request is for a page or file that is formatted in a non-html format, such as the Portable Document Format (PDF) specification of Adobe Systems Incorporated, then the C-URL enabled browser 150 will examine the computer device 100 to determine if a native PDF-processing application is available. If the application is available, it will be used to open and/or render the file that is the object of the resource request. If no such application is available locally at the device, then the browser 150 will consult the catalog-id 430, retrieve the appropriate application, install the application, and then launch the application to open and/or render the requested file.
An example of an explicit C-URL that might be especially useful to a wireless device application configured in accordance with the invention is given by the text string “if:width%3E240:/240/icon:/96/icon”. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the text string “%3E” represents a URL encoding that is processed by the computer application, such as a wireless browser, to be recognized as “>” (greater than). This explicit C-URL specifies two sizes of icon depending on the width of the device display area. That is, “if” specifies the explicit C-URL, “width%3E” specifies a conditional expression for width >240, and the size of icon if the expression is true (location-a of the schema) is specified as 240 and the size of icon otherwise (location-b of the schema) is specified as 96.
An example of this explicit C-URL that might be especially useful to a wireless application is given by: “switch:width:96:96/icon:120:120/icon:240:240/icon:/64/icon”.
This C-URL specifies four sizes of icon depending on the width of the display area, with a default value in the case where none of the sizes match. In particular, if the display width (expression) is “96” (value-a), then the C-URL-enabled application uses “96/icon”, if the display width is “120” then the application uses “120/icon”, if the display width is “240” then the “240/icon” is used, and the default (if width is not 96, or 120, or 240) is to use “64/icon”. The “expression” need not be numeric. For example, the expression can be alphabetic text such as the C-URL given by “switch:name:bob:bob.html:mary:mary.html:default.html”. In this last example, if the “name” is “bob”, then the Web page “bob.html” is used, if the “name” is “mary” then the Web page “mary.html” is used, and if name is neither “bob” nor “mary” then the Web page “default.html” is used.
Having fully described several embodiments of the present invention, other equivalent or alternative methods of practicing the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. These and other embodiments as well as alternatives and equivalents to the described system will be recognizable to those of skill in the art after reading the description herein. The scope of the invention should not, therefore, be determined solely by reference to the above description, but instead should be determined with reference to the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents and alternatives.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/807,606 filed Jul. 17, 2006 entitled Conditional URL for Computer Devices to Michael Libes and Eric Fu. The disclosure of the Provisional Application No. 60/807,606 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes. This application claims the benefit of priority of co-pending U.S. Provisional patent Application Ser. No. 60/807,606 entitled “Conditional URL For Computer Devices” filed Jul. 17, 2006. Priority of the filing date of Jul. 17, 2006 is hereby claimed, and the disclosure of the Provisional Patent Application is hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60807606 | Jul 2006 | US |