This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 96151540, filed on Dec. 31, 2007. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a file operation method, and more particularly, to a file opening method.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the advancement of digital technologies, portable electronic devices, such as cell phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs), have become increasingly popular due to their high portability. A user can perform video communications and send e-mails, short messages, and multimedia messages by using a portable communication device.
However, since a portable device has very limited storage space, only some basic application programs can be installed therein. Accordingly, when a user uses a portable device for opening a file, a message like “no related application program is available” will be displayed in the portable device if no appropriate application program for opening the file is installed in the portable device. If this happens in an existing desktop computer, two options of “select the program from a list” and “use the web service to find the appropriate program” will be displayed, wherein the option of “use the web service to find the appropriate program” is to find the related application program for opening the file on the internet.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a file opening method, wherein a user can read a file displayed in a portable device through a web browser without performing any complicated manual operation.
The present invention is also directed to a file opening method, wherein an appropriate application program is selected from both a device and an internet according to a customized condition and used for opening a file automatically.
The present invention is further directed to a file opening method, wherein it is made very convenient for a user to open a file.
The present invention provides a file opening method suitable for a device storing at least one file, wherein a web browser is installed in the device. First, an application program for opening a file is searched for in both the device and an internet. Then, if the application program is provided by a first server on the internet, the file is uploaded to the first server. Next, the file is opened in the first server by using the application program. Thereafter, the file is displayed in the device through the web browser.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the step of searching for the application program in both the device and the internet further includes following steps. First, whether there is at least one first program for opening the file in the device is determined, and an application program request is transmitted by the device to a second server. Then, a response is transmitted by the second server to the device according to the application program request, wherein the response includes a plurality of second programs for opening the file. Next, one of the first program and the second programs is selected as the application program according to a customized condition. The second server is a web server or a server in the device. In addition, the second server stores a plurality of file types and respectively lists a plurality of application programs for opening each of the file types, and the second server respectively lists a plurality of network services for providing each of the application programs and a connection path corresponding to each of the network services.
In addition, the file opening method in the present invention further includes directly opening the file in the device by using the first program if the first program is selected as the application program. The customized condition is that a network service for providing the application program is a free service or an application program attribute of the application program includes a latest edition, a professional edition, or a latest release date. In addition, the step of uploading the file to the first server further includes establishing a connection between the device and the first server which provides the application program and then uploading the file to the first server.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the file opening method further includes displaying a message of “no appropriate program is found” in the device if the application program for opening the file is found in neither the device nor the internet.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the first server includes a web server.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the first server is an application service provider (ASP).
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the device is one of a personal computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA) phone, a smartphone, and a touch phone.
The present invention further provides a file opening method suitable for a device storing various files, wherein a web browser is installed in the device. First, a request is transmitted by the device to a first server according to the file. Then, a response is transmitted by the first server to the device according to the request. Next, if the response includes a plurality of first programs for opening the file, one of the first programs is selected as an application program for opening the file. Thereafter, a connection between the device and a second server which provides the application program is established. Next, the file is uploaded to the second server. After that, the file is opened in the second server by using the application program. Next, the file is displayed in the device through the web browser.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the first server stores a plurality of file types and respectively lists a plurality of application programs for opening each of the file types, and the first server respectively lists a plurality of network services for providing each of the application programs and a connection path corresponding to each of the network services.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the step of selecting the application program further includes selecting the application program according to a customized condition, wherein the customized condition is that a network service for providing the application program is a free service or an application program attribute of the application program includes a latest edition, a professional edition, or a latest release date.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, after the step of transmitting the response to the device by using the first server, the file opening method further includes displaying a message of “no appropriate program is found” in the device if the response indicates that the application program for opening the file is not found.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the device is one of a personal computer, a PDA phone, a smartphone, and a touch phone.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the first server is a web server or a server in the device.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the second server includes a web server.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the second server is an ASP.
The present invention further provides a file opening method suitable for a device storing at least one file, wherein a web browser is installed in the device. First, an application program for opening the file is searched for in the device. Then, the file is directly opened in the device by using the application program if the application program for opening the file is found in the device. If the application program for opening the file is not found in the device, a request is transmitted by the device to a first server. Next, a response is transmitted by the first server to the device according to the request. Thereafter, if the response includes a plurality of first programs for opening the file, one of the first programs is selected as the application program for opening the file. After that, a connection between the device and a second server which provides the application program is established. Then, the file is uploaded to the second server. Next, the file is opened in the second server by using the selected first program. Thereafter, the file is displayed in the device through the web browser.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the first server is a web server or a server in the device.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the first server stores a plurality of file types and respectively lists a plurality of application programs for opening each of the file types, and the first server respectively lists a plurality of network services for providing each of the application programs and a connection path corresponding to each of the network services.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the step of selecting one of the first programs as the application program further includes selecting one of the first programs as the application program according to a customized condition, wherein the customized condition is that a network service for providing the application program is a free service or an application program attribute of the application program includes a latest edition, a professional edition, or a latest release date.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the step of uploading the file to the second server further includes establishing a connection between the device and the second server which provides the selected first program and then uploading the file to the second server.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the file opening method further includes displaying a message of “no appropriate program is found” in the device if the application program for opening the file is not found in the device and the response also indicates that the application program for opening the file is not found.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the second server includes a web server.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the second server is an ASP.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the file opening method, the device is one of a personal computer, a PDA phone, a smartphone, and a touch phone.
In the present invention, when a user opens a file in a device, the file can be opened by using an application program installed in the device or an appropriate application program found on the internet. After comparing the application program installed in the device and the application programs found on the internet, the most suitable application program is selected for opening the file. In addition, according to the present invention, when a user opens a file in a device, the file is uploaded to a server and then opened in the server by using an application program. After that, the file is displayed in the device through a web browser. Thus, the storage space required for installing application programs in the device is greatly reduced. Moreover, according to the present invention, the device automatically transmits a request to a web server to search for an appropriate application program, and the web server provides a list of application programs to the device according to this request. Thus, a user needs not to look for the desired application program on the internet by himself, and accordingly, it is made very convenient for the user to use the device.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
In step S107, whether there is software (i.e., an application program) for opening the file is determined according to the response transmited by the server A. If the response of the server A indicates that no software for opening the file is found, in step S109, a message of “no appropriate program is found” is displayed in the device, and in step S130, the file opening process is ended. If the response of the server A includes a program list, namely, the server A determines that there is software for opening the file, in step S111, one of the programs in the program list is selected as the application program for opening the file. The program list lists a plurality of application programs for opening the file, and in step S111, one of the programs in the program list is selected as the application program for opening the file according to a customized condition. The customized condition includes that a network service for providing the application program is a free service or an application program attribute of the application program shows that the application program is of a latest edition, a professional edition, or the application program has a latest release date.
In step S113, a web browser installed in the device is opened, and a connection between the device and a server B which provides the selected application program is established, wherein the server B may be a web server. The server B is an application service provider (ASP).
In step S115, the file is uploaded to the server B through foregoing connection. After that, in step S117, the file is opened in the server B by using the application program provided by the network service thereof. At the same time, the file is displayed in the device through the web browser, and the file opening process is ended in step S130. The file opened by using the application program in the server (for example, an image file or pages provided by the application program on the server, or a readable image converted and processed by the application program on the server) is displayed through a web browser in the device.
In the present embodiment, while opening the file, the device is directly connected to the server A and transmits a request thereto (step S103). However, the present invention is not limited thereto. In another embodiment of the present invention, referring to
In the embodiment described above, if no application program for opening the file is found in the device, the device is directly connected to the server A and transmits a request of the program list and selects the desired application program from the program list. However, the present invention is not limited thereto.
Thereafter, in step S311, whether there is software for opening the file is determined. If no application program for opening the file is found in the device and the response received from the server A also indicates that no software for opening the file is found, a message of “no appropriate program is found” is displayed in the device in step S313, and the file opening process is ended in step S330. If a software for opening the file is found in the device or the response received from the server A includes a program list, namely, the server A determines that there is software for opening the file, in step S315, one of the programs in the program list and the application program installed in the device is selected as the application program for opening the file. In other words, regardless of whether the available application program is in the device or the server A provides the information of a software for opening the file, step S315 is executed as long as it is determined in step S311 that there is an application program for opening the file in the device or the server A.
Accordingly, in step S315, one of the application program in the device and the programs in the program list is selected according to a customized condition or manually by the user and served as the application program for opening the file. The customized condition includes that a network service for providing the application program is a free service or an application program attribute of the application program indicates that the application program is of a latest edition, a professional edition, or the application program has a latest release date.
If the selected application program for opening the file is in the device, the file is directly opened in the device in step S317. Otherwise, if the selected application program for opening the file is one of the application programs in the program list, in step S319, a web browser installed in the device is opened, and a connection between the device and a server B for providing the application program is established, wherein the server B may be a web server. The server B supports active server pages, namely, the server B is an ASP.
In step S321, the file is uploaded to the server B through foregoing connection. Then, in step S323, the file is opened in the server B by using the application program provided by the network service. Meanwhile, the file is displayed in the device through the web browser as an image file or pages provided by the application program in the server, or a readable image converted and processed by the application program in the server. After that, the file opening process is ended (step S330).
As described above, the present invention provides a method for opening a file, wherein when a user opens a file by using a device, the file can be opened by using an application program installed in the device or an appropriate application program found on the internet. After comparing the application program installed in the device and the application programs found on the internet, the most suitable application program is selected for opening the file. Moreover, the file is uploaded to the server and then opened in the server by using the selected application program, and meanwhile, the file is displayed in the device through a web browser as an image file or pages of the file provided by the application program in the server or a readable image converted and processed by the application program in the server. Thus, the storage space required for installing application programs in the device is greatly reduced. Furthermore, according to the present invention, the device automatically transmits a request for searching for an appropriate application program to the web server, and the web server provides a list of application programs to the device according to the request. Thus, the user needs not to search for the desired application program on the internet by himself so that it is made very convenient for the user to use the device.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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96151540 | Dec 2007 | TW | national |