Patent Application
20050257131
A. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to Internet technology, and more particularly, to an HTML frame environment that provides web browser history entries for the various views loaded into the frame environment.
B. Background of the Invention
As the number of people accessing information through the World Wide Web continues to increase, content providers continue to look for better ways to present information to users. Most web pages are written using the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTML allows content providers to define how to present text, images, hypertext links and other elements to a user within a web page. A software application, called a web browser, interprets the HTML code and displays the web page to a user through a display such as a monitor connected to the user's computer.
One way to format contents for a particular web page is through the use of frames. HTML includes a FRAMESET tag that allows a content provider to define multiple frames for a web page. The contents of these frames can be defined independently and can be changed without changing the contents of the other frames. These frames may be visible to the user or may be hidden from the user. Often, visible frames are used to display content to the user while hidden frames contain code that provides added functionality for the web page.
In a conventional frameset environment, the frames are static. The size and layout of the frames do not change. For conventional framesets, the browser maintains history entries within the browser history for each frame of the frameset. The browser's history includes an entry for each web page the browser has loaded. Typically, this entry consists of the URL associated with the web page. These history entries are listed in the order in which the web pages were loaded by the browser. The browser uses these history entries to determine which pages to load when the user clicks on the navigation buttons of the web browser. The navigation buttons include the forward or back buttons found on most web browsers.
In a dynamic frame environment, where the size and the layout of the frames change, the browser records history entries for the various frames but does not record the size and/or layout of the frames. When a user navigates to a frame using the forward and back buttons of the web browser, the web browser loads the URL of the next or previous history entry, respectively, into the current frame. However, the browser does not restore the size and/or layout of the frame to its original size and/or layout. In some applications, this may be undesirable to a user because the web browser does not function as expected when pages are displayed in frames; thereby limiting the use of frames by content providers.
Accordingly, what is desirable is improved systems and methods for addressing the above-described limitations of prior systems.
The present invention provides a frame environment that supports navigation between the various views displayed in the frame environment using the forward and back buttons of a web browser. In one embodiment, the frame environment is defined as an HTML frameset with multiple frames including a display frame, a history frame and a control frame. The display frame is a visible frame that displays a view to a user.
According to one embodiment, the control frame may contain code that detects user actions within the display frame and loads the appropriate view into the display frame in response to the user action. In one embodiment, when a user clicks on a link in the view displayed in the display frame, the control frame may create a new frame. A request for the contents of the view associated with the link may be requested from a remote server and loaded into the new frame. The contents may be loaded into the new frame such that the browser does not record a history entry for the new frame. The control frame may also cause a history entry to be entered into the browser's history for the history frame. In one embodiment, the control, frame may navigate the history frame to a URL that is associated with the current view. This may result in the creation of a history page that may comprise the contents of the history frame. When the history frame URL changes, the browser may create an entry for the URL in the browser history.
According to one embodiment, the history page may contain code that is executed by the web browser when the history page is loaded in the history frame. In one embodiment, the history page may be loaded when the user clicks on the forward or back buttons of a browser. When the user clicks on the forward or back button, the browser may navigate to the next or previous URL, respectively, in the browser's history. When the browser loads the URL associated with a history page, code within the history page may notify the control frame to load the view associated with the history page. In one embodiment, the code within the history page may send the URL of the history page to the control frame.
Reference will be made to embodiments of the invention, examples of which may be illustrated in the accompanying figures. These figures are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Although the invention is generally described in the context of these embodiments, it should be understood that it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to these particular embodiments.
According to an embodiment, a frame environment that supports navigating between the various views displayed in a frame environment using the navigation buttons, such as the forward and back buttons, of a web browser is described. In one embodiment, a history frame associates a history page with each view displayed in the frame environment. The URL of the history frame may be updated by a control frame when a new view is displayed in the frame environment. The web browser may load the URL of the history frame as an entry in the browser's history and a corresponding history page may be cached. When the user navigates using the back and forward buttons of the browser, the browser may load the previous or next URL, respectively, stored in the browser's history. When the URL of a history page is loaded by the browser, the browser may load the cached history page. The history page may include code that is executed by the browser when the page is loaded. The code may also notify the control frame to make the view associated with the history page visible in a frame that is displayed to a user.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide an understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without these details. Furthermore, one skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments of the present invention, exemplary ones of which are described below, may be utilized in any device that supports a web browser architecture. Accordingly, structures and devices shown below in block diagram are illustrative of specific embodiments of the invention and are meant to avoid obscuring the invention.
Reference in the specification to “one embodiment,” “this embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, characteristic, or function described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
As illustrated in
According to an embodiment, display frame 101 may display the contents of a view, to the user. A view may consist of data that can be displayed to a user, including but not limited to a web page. In one embodiment, the view may be displayed in an IFRAME within display frame 101. In one embodiment shown in
Control frame 103 may contain code that controls navigation within the frame environment 100. In one embodiment, control frame 103 may not be visible to the user. The code of control frame 103 may detect when a user clicks on a link within the view displayed in display frame 101 and may respond by loading the view associated with the link into display frame 101. For example, if a user clicks on a link in display frame 101, the code in control frame 103 may respond to the click by first determining if the view corresponding to the link has been cached. If the view is cached, control frame 103 may make the cached view the active frame visible to the user in display frame 101.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the control frame 103 may load the view into display frame 101 in a way that does not create a browser history entry. This is done so that navigating using the forward and back buttons may be controlled by one embodiment of the present invention. In one embodiment, the location.replace(URL) function may be used to load the view into display frame 101. This function may replace the current view with the view of the specified URL. When a document is replaced using the location.replace( ) function, the browser may replace the history entry of the frame with the URL of the new view. Thus, the forward and back buttons may no longer navigate to the previous view.
If the view has not been cached, a new frame may be created and a request for the view may be sent to the server containing the view. In one embodiment, control frame 103 may dynamically create a new IFRAME within display frame 101. An IFRAME is an HTML element which provides a mechanism for embedding data within an HTML document. The embedded data may be displayed in a subwindow of the web browser's window. Thus, IFRAMEs are more analogous to an object, such as an image, within an HTML document than to a typical HTML frame. When an IFRAME is created, it does not affect the browser's history (i.e. the browser does not add a history entry for the IFRAME).
When the server responds with the contents of the view, the view may be loaded into the new IFRAME. The code within control frame 103 may make the new IFRAME the active IFRAME displayed to the user in display frame 101. The code in control frame 103 may make the previous active IFRAME inactive so that it is not visible to the user in display frame 101. The code in control frame 103 may also update the universal resource locator (URL) of history frame 102, assigning history frame 102 a URL associated with the newly loaded view.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the history frame 102 may enable navigation between the various views loaded in frame environment 100 using the forward and back buttons typically found in web browsers. In one embodiment of the invention, history frame 102 may not be visible to the user. As described above, in one embodiment, the URL for the history frame 102 may be updated by the code in control frame 103 when a new view is displayed to the user in display frame 101. The URL of history frame 102 may correspond to the view being displayed in display frame 101. In one embodiment, JavaScript code in control frame 103 may update the URL of the history frame 102. Each time the URL of the history frame 102 is updated, the browser may add a new entry in the browser history for the new URL. As a result, the browser may view the contents of the history frame as a different history page each time the URL of the history frame is updated.
When a user clicks on the back or forward buttons in the browser, the browser may navigate to the previous or subsequent URL, respectively, within the browser's history. When a history page is loaded by the browser, code which may be embedded within the history page is executed by the browser. This code may notify control frame 103 to load the view associated with the history page into display frame 101.
I. Navigating within the Frame Environment by Clicking on Links
As illustrated in
In one embodiment of the invention, when the user clicks on the msgl link, the code in control frame 103 may detect the user action and may perform the necessary steps to load the view for msg1 into display frame 101. In one embodiment, the control frame 103 may check the cache to determine if the view for msg1 has previously been cached. If the view is stored in the cache, the code in control frame 103 may load the view from the cache into display frame 101. As described above, control frame 103 may load the view in a way that does not create a browser history entry for the view. Loading the view from the cache may be advantageous since it does not require a server request for the msg1 contents from a remote server. As a result, the view may quickly be displayed to the user.
According to one embodiment, if the view is not found in the cache, the contents may be retrieved from a remote server. In this embodiment, email server 205 may contain the contents of msg1. Control frame 103 may create a new hidden frame 204 for the msg1 view. In one embodiment of the invention, hidden frame 204 may be an inline frame, or IFRAME. The browser may initiate a request for the HTML contents of the msg1 view from email server 205. Email server 205 may respond with the contents for the msg1 view which are loaded into hidden frame 204. Once the contents have been loaded, control frame 103 may make hidden frame 204 the active view in display frame 101, making hidden frame 204 the active visible frame within display frame 101. The msg1 contents may also be cached.
As described, the views may be loaded into display frame 101 such that the browser does not create history entries for the various views. This may be done so that the user navigations using the forward and back buttons may be controlled by the frame environment rather than the browser.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the present invention may enhance the operation of the forward and back buttons of the web browser using history frame 102 and control frame 103. As illustrated in
history_frame.location=new_url
The browser may view the update of the URL of the history frame as a navigation to a new page. As a result, the browser may internally create a new history entry for the new history page. The URL for the history entry may be the URL assigned to the history frame. Thus, by changing the URL for the history frame as each new view is loaded in display frame 101, a new entry in the browser history may be added for each URL and a new history page may be created that is associated with each respective view. In one embodiment, each history page may be cached.
II. Navigating the Frame Environment Via the Forward and Back Buttons on the Browser
According to an embodiment of the invention, browser histories 410 and 420 include mulitple history entries. The first entry in the list is the URL for the webpage www.genericstartpage.com. This is the first website loaded by the browser. The second entry in the browser history is www.emaillogin.com. This page is the login page for the user's email. The third entry in the browser history is www.emailstart.com. This web page defines the frameset for the frame environment. The fourth entry is history/#inbox. This is the URL of the history page, associated with the inbox view, that was added when the URL of the history frame was updated by control frame 103 when the inbox view was displayed. The fifth entry is history/#msg1. This is the URL for the history page associated with the msg1 view.
In this embodiment, the history entry highlighted in bold may correspond to the view currently displayed in the corresponding frame environment. As illustrated in
According to an embodiment, when the user clicks on the browser's back button, the browser may navigate to the preceding URL in the browser history. In the embodiment illustrated in
In one embodiment, the code within the history page may send the current URL of the history frame to control frame 103. When control frame 103 receives the URL, control frame may determine if the view associated with the URL Is loaded in a hidden frame within the web browser. If the view is loaded in a hidden frame, control frame may make the hidden frame the active, visible frame within display frame 101. Alternatively, control frame 103 may check to see if the view associated with the URL is located in the cache. If the contents of the view have been cached, control frame 103 may load the view from the cache into display frame 101. If the contents of the view are not found in the cache or in a hidden frame, control frame 103 may create a new hidden frame as described above in
In the embodiment illustrated in
III. Association of a Frame Environment View with a History Entry in a Browser History
In step 530, an action is performed causing a history entry to be entered in the browser's history for the web page, or history page, in a second frame. In one embodiment, the URL of the second frame may be updated, causing the browser to add the URL into the browser's history. In one embodiment, the URL may identify the view that was loaded in the first frame. By assigning a URL to the second frame that identifies the view, the view may be associated with the web page, or history page, in the second frame. As described below, this association may enable the view to be displayed in the first frame when the user navigates to the history page using the forward or back buttons on the browser.
When the history entry is loaded into the browser, data is received 540 from the second frame identifying the view. In one embodiment, the history page may be loaded by the browser when a user navigates to the history page using the forward or back button of the browser. When the user navigates using these buttons, the browser may reference the browser history to determine which URL to load into the browser. When the URL of the history page associated with a view is loaded, code within the history page may cause the second frame to initiate a transfer of data identifying the view that should be loaded into the first frame. In one embodiment, the data may include the URL, which identifies the view to be loaded.
In step 550, the veiw is loaded into the first frame.
While the present invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, those skilled in the are will recognize that various modifications may be provided. For example, the frame environment of the present invention can be used to display any web page and is not limited to email pages. In addition, there are numerous programming languages, including JavaScript, that can be used to write the code utilized in the various frames. Variations upon and modifications to the embodiments are provided for by the present invention, which is limited only by the following claims.
