Patent Application
20070094605
The present invention relates to computer managed communication networks such as the World Wide Web (Web), including network, e.g. Web documents distributed throughout the network from sources or sites, and electronic mail (E-mail) messages transmitted over such networks in a more limited distribution from user to user.
The past decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies that have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or Web related distribution of documents. The Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached “critical mass” and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers have direct access to all manner of documents and media distributed from Web document sources or database sites throughout the Web. Also, as a result of the rapid expansion of the Web, E-mail, which has been distributed for over 25 years over smaller private and specific purpose networks, has moved into distribution over the Web because of the vast distribution channels that are available. As a result of this expansion, extraordinary worldwide communication channels and resources have become available to businesses, academic institutions and individuals.
The network documents, e.g. Web documents including Web pages are the instruments for repetitively distributing large amounts of information from the database sources or sites on the network, e.g. Web sites. Web documents are implemented in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) language. Web or like private network documents contain highlighted hyperlinks that may be activated by users to access other Web documents from other linked Web sites. Web or like network documents contain relatively large amounts of information, and through hyperlinks embedded in such documents provide the user receiving such documents access to even greater amounts of information in the linked Web documents.
E-mail frequently uses the same distribution channels on the Web or like networks for smaller distribution of personal or business messages among senders and recipients. While E-mail and Web or like network documents very frequently use the same distribution channels, there appear to be no practical applications available involving any interchange of the contents of E-Mail messages and Web documents or Web pages. The present invention provides for such an interchange.
The present invention provides the user at a receiving computer controlled display terminal that has accessed and displayed a network, e.g. Web document with the ability to select a section of the displayed Web document to designate, e.g. block off a section in the document, and to transform the designated section into an E-mail message. According to the broadest aspects of the invention, a user is enabled to define a portion of the content of said displayed document, and to transform the defined portion of said document into an E-mail message. The resulting E-mail message may then be transmitted to at least one destination on the communications network. When the user defines the portion of the network document to be transformed into the E-mail message, the user is prompted to select to transform the defined portion into an E-mail message. There also may be provided at the Web document receiving computer display, a storage facility accessible to the computer controlled display for storing the received document, and means for accessing the received document from the storage facility. When the portion is defined, a new E-mail message is customarily formed. However, the transformed portion may also be incorporated into an existing E-mail message.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the system may be used to transmit a sequence of said electronic mail messages, with each message including a defined portion of a displayed Web document to one selected network destination. This may be done by selecting a target destination on said network, enabling the user to define portions in each of a sequence of displayed Web documents, and enabling the user to sequentially respectively transform each of the defined portions into an E-mail message so that the means for transmitting transmit the sequence of electronic messages to the target destination on the network, e.g. Web.
The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:
Referring to
Before going further into the details of specific embodiments, it will be helpful to understand from a more general perspective the various elements and methods that may be related to the present invention. Since the major aspect of the present invention is directed to Web documents and electronic mail transmitted over global networks, such as the Web or Internet, an understanding of such communication networks and their operating principles would be helpful. We will not go into great detail in describing the networks to which the present invention is applicable. For details on Web nodes, objects and links, reference is made to the text, Mastering the Internet, G. H. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc., Alameda, Calif., 1996; or the text, Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition, Margaret Young et al., Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, Calif., 1999. Any data communication system that interconnects or links computer controlled systems with various sites defines a communications network. Of course, the Internet or Web is a global network of a heterogeneous mix of computer technologies and operating systems. Higher level objects are linked to the lower level objects in the hierarchy through a variety of network server computers.
Web documents may be implemented in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) language, which is described in detail in the text entitled Just Java, van der Linden, 1997, SunSoft Press, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealing with the handling of Web pages; and also in the above-referenced Mastering the Internet, particularly pp. 637-642, on HTML in the formation of Web pages.
In addition, aspects of this invention will involve Web browsers. A general and comprehensive description of browsers may be found in the above-mentioned Mastering the Internet text at pp. 291-313. More detailed browser descriptions may be found in the above-mentioned Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition, particularly in Chapter 19, pp. 419-454, on the Netscape Navigator; in Chapter 20, pp. 455-494, on the Microsoft Internet Explorer; and in Chapter 21, pp. 495-512, covering Lynx, Opera and other browsers.
Returning now to the details of
Before proceeding with a description of the computer functions used in the implementation of this invention, reference should be made to
A read only memory (ROM) 16 is connected to CPU 10 via bus 12 and includes the basic input/output system (BIOS) that controls the basic computer functions. RAM 14, I/O adapter 18 and communications adapter 34 are also interconnected to system bus 12. I/O adapter 18 communicates with the disk storage device 20. Communications adapter 34 interconnects bus 12 with the outside network enabling the data processing system to communicate as respectively described above through the Web or Internet. The latter two terms are meant to be generally interchangeable and are so used in the present description of the distribution network. I/O devices are also connected to system bus 12 via user interface adapter 22 and display adapter 36. Keyboard 24 and mouse 26 are all interconnected to bus 12 through user interface adapter 22. It is through such input devices that the user may interactively receive or control the received Web pages and the E-mail messages being sent via the network. Display adapter 36 includes a frame buffer 39 that is a storage device that holds a representation of each pixel on the display screen 38. Images may be stored in frame buffer 39 for display on monitor 38 through various components, such as a digital to analog converter (not shown) and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capable of inputting information to the system through the keyboard 24 or mouse 26 and receiving output information from the system via display 38.
Now, with respect to the sequence of
Now, with respect to
Now, with reference to the flowchart of
It should be noted that the programs covered by the present invention may be stored outside of the present computer systems until they are required. The program instructions may be stored in another readable medium, e.g. in disk drives associated with the receiving terminals or the hub servers. The program instructions may be in a removable memory, such as an optical disk for use in a CD ROM computer input or in a floppy disk for use in a floppy disk drive computer input. Further, the program instructions may be stored in the memory of another computer prior to use in the system of the present invention and transmitted over a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), such as the Internet, when required by the user of the present invention.
One skilled in the art should appreciate that the processes controlling the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of computer readable media of a variety of forms.
Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.
