System, apparatus, and method for dynamically configuring application access point settings

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses, computer program products, and methods for dynamically customizing and/or configuring applications on devices. Current access point information associated with the terminal is transmitted from the terminal. In response to providing this current access point information, the terminal receives updated access point information via the network. The terminal is configured to enable data communication by way of an access point identifiable from the updated access point information, rather than from any prior access points.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is described in connection with the representative embodiments illustrated in the following diagrams.

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a representative method for modifying a base application resident on a terminal in accordance with principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of other representative methods for modifying a terminal-resident client application based on terminal-related information;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of representative terminal and configuration server systems in accordance with the invention;

FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C illustrate representative embodiments of the user interface (UI) variant infusion and access point configuration according to the invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of the invention which facilitates the configuration of access points in a terminal;

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment where a mobile device communicates with a configuration server system to obtain the appropriate access point information;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a client-initiated retrieval of access point information suitable for use by the client;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are block diagrams illustrating representative embodiments of systems for reconfiguring access point information to enable data communication with a targeted service provider;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating various representative embodiments of manners in which terminal access points can be configured in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a representative system in which the present invention may be implemented or otherwise utilized.

Claims

1. A method comprising: transmitting at least current access point information from a terminal;receiving updated access point information in response to providing the current access point information; andconfiguring the terminal to enable data communication via an access point identifiable from the updated access point information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving updated access point information comprises receiving the updated access point information from a configuration server system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving updated access point information comprises receiving the updated access point information from a network element associated with providing a service targeted by an application on the terminal.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein transmitting the current access point information from the terminal comprises initiating the transmission of the current access point information via an application on the terminal, and wherein configuring the terminal comprises configuring the terminal to enable data communication with that application via an access point provided via the updated access point information.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the terminal retrieving an address of a configuration server upon activation of an application at the terminal, and wherein transmitting the at least current access point information from the terminal comprises transmitting the access point information to the configuration server addressed by the address.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the terminal retrieving an address comprises the application initiating retrieval of a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) corresponding to the configuration server.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising overriding the current access point information with the updated access point information until a subsequent configuration of the access point is performed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising temporarily overriding the current access point information with the updated access point information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated access point information comprises a plurality of access point settings available for use as the access point, and wherein the updated access point information includes a relative prioritization of the plurality of access point settings.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein configuring the terminal comprises configuring the terminal to enable data communications using the highest relative priority access point setting.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the terminal comprises automatically configuring the terminal to enable data communication via an access point having a network address directly or indirectly obtained via the updated access point information.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising invoking an application on the terminal, and transmitting the current access point information from the terminal in response to invoking the application on the terminal.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the updated access point information as configured on the terminal serves as the default access point setting for all applications.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising obtaining an application-specific access point setting after the default access point has been configured on the terminal, and overriding the default access point setting using the application-specific access point setting.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving updated access point information comprises receiving application-specific access point information that is at least partly dependent on a particular application operating on the terminal.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving updated access point information comprises receiving catalog-specific access point information identifying an access point for communicating with a catalog server system.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving an address to the catalog server system, and wherein configuring the terminal comprises configuring the terminal to communicate with the catalog server system via the access point identified from the catalog-specific access point setting.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising disregarding the updated access point information after receipt at the terminal and utilizing the current access point information.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the updated access point information for subsequent use on the terminal.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the current access point information, and reverting back to the current access point information from the updated access point information.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the current access point information comprises a set of one or more available access point settings.

22. A terminal comprising: storage to store terminal-related information including an identification of at least one current access point by which the terminal can access a network;a transmitter;a processing system coupled to the storage and configured to cause the transmitter to direct at least some of the terminal-related information to a network element;a receiver configured to receive identification of at least one updated access point from the network element; andwherein the processing system is further configured to replace at least one of the current access points with the at least one updated access point.

23. The terminal of claim 22, wherein the processing system is configured to cause one or both of the transmitter and receiver to communicate data with the network element by way of the at least one updated access point.

24. The terminal of claim 22, wherein: the storage further stores an address of the network element; andthe processing system is further configured to retrieve the address of the network element, and to cause the transmitter to direct the at least some terminal-related information to the network element addressed by the address.

25. The terminal of claim 22, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the transmitter to direct the at least some terminal-related information to the network element in response to activation of an application operable on the terminal.

26. The terminal of claim 22, wherein the identification of at least one updated access point comprises application-specific access point information, and wherein the processing system is configured to replace at least one of the current access points with an access point identifiable by the application-specific access point information.

27. A system comprising the terminal of claim 22, wherein the network element is configured to ascertain the at least one updated access point from a database based on at least some of the terminal-related information.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the network element comprises a content server configured to provide the updated access point and data requested by the terminal.

29. A server comprising: a receiver configured to receive terminal-related information from a plurality of terminals, wherein the terminal-related information includes at least current access point information by which terminals gain access to a network;an access point information identification module executable by a processing arrangement and configured to obtain updated access point information for the terminals based on at least some of the terminal-related information; anda transmitter configured to transmit the updated access point information to the respective terminals for use by the respective terminals in updating the current access point information with the updated access point information.

30. The server of claim 29, wherein the server comprises a database of the updated access point information available for the plurality of terminals, and wherein the access point information identification module is further configured to identify within the database the updated access point information for a particular terminal based on the terminal-related information provided by that particular terminal.

31. The server of claim 29, further comprising a plurality of the servers distributed to multiple server locations, wherein at least some of the updated access point information is replicated in databases associated with each of the multiple server locations.

32. A method comprising: receiving terminal-related information from a terminal, wherein the terminal-related information includes at least current access point information for the terminal;obtaining updated access point information for the terminal using at least some of the terminal-related information, wherein the updated access point information includes at least one updated access point by which the terminal can gain access to a network; andtransmitting the updated access point information to the terminal, thereby facilitating replacement of a current access point with the at least one updated access point at the terminal.

33. A system comprising: (a) a configuration server system;(b) a plurality of terminals, each of the terminals comprising: storage to store terminal-related information including an identification of at least one current access point by which the terminal can access a network;a transmitter;a processing system coupled to the storage and configured to cause the transmitter to direct at least some of the terminal-related information to the configuration server system;a receiver configured to receive identification of at least one updated access point from the configuration server system;wherein the processing system is further configured to replace at least one of the current access points with the at least one updated access point;(c) wherein the configuration server system comprises: a receiver configured to receive the terminal-related information from the terminals;an access point information identification module executable by a processing arrangement and configured to obtain the identification of the updated access point for the terminals based on at least some of the terminal-related information; anda transmitter configured to transmit the updated access point information to the respective terminals for use by the respective terminals in replacing the at least one current access point with the at least one updated access point.