Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02625398 2008-04-10
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URL DOCUMENT VIEWING THROUGH A PLUG-IN APPLICATION FOR A MOBILE
BROWSER ON A WIRELESS DEVICE
BACKGROUND
1. Field
[0001] The present disclosure is directed to wireless communication devices,
and more
particularly to a method and apparatus for viewing documents identified by a
Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) from a mobile browser on a wireless communication
device.
2. Description of the Related Art
[0002] Internet browser applications are well known for displaying web page
content as
hypertext, and for permitting user navigation between pages and downloading of
documents
through the use of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). Document viewing in this
manner
using a desktop PC involves downloading the document and either launching the
original
authoring application to display the downloaded document or viewing the
document through
an application browser plug-in. For mobile devices, document viewing is
accomplished by
downloading the document onto the mobile device and launching a mobile edition
of the
original authoring application to display the document.
SUMMARY
[0003] It is an aspect of the present specification to set forth a method and
apparatus for
viewing the content of a document pointed to by a URL while browsing a web
page using a
mobile device and viewing this content within the context of the browser
application, without
having to launch a mobile edition of the original authoring application.
[0004] The above aspects can be attained by a method of displaying a document
identified by a URL on a mobile browser, comprising registering an attachment
viewer plug-in
to the mobile browser for a predetermined data stream content type,
registering a mobile
data service transcoder for predetermined document types, sending a request
for the
document of one of the predetermined document types from the mobile browser to
the
mobile service transcoder, retrieving and converting the document to the
predetermined data
stream content type, and forwarding the converted document from the mobile
data service
transcoder to the mobile browser for display via the attachment viewer plug-
in.
[0005] The above aspects can likewise be attained by an apparatus for
displaying a
document of a predetermined document type identified by a URL on a mobile
browser,
comprising an attachment viewer plug-in to the mobile browser for displaying
attachments
conforming to a predetermined data stream content type, and a mobile data
service
transcoder for receiving a request for the document from the mobile browser
and initiating
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retrieval and conversion of the document from the predetermined document type
to the
predetermined data stream content type, and transmitting the converted
document to the
mobile browser for display via the attachment viewer plug-in.
[0006] These together with other aspects and advantages which will be
subsequently
apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully
hereinafter
described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings
forming a part
hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] Figures 1A and 1 B show a mobile browser user interface with a document
identified
by a URL.
[0008] Figure 2 shows the document displayed using a plug-in to the mobile
browser.
[0009] Figure 3 is a block diagram showing plug-in data flow between the
device, a Mobile
Data Service (MDS), Web Server and Attachment Server, according to the
preferred
embodiment.
[0010] Figures 4A shows operation of the mobile browser and plug-in, according
to the
preferred embodiment.
[0011] Figure 4B shows operation of an MDS transcoder, according to the
preferred
embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0012] Before discussing the architectural implementation of the preferred
embodiment,
reference will be made to Figures 1 and 2, showing an exemplary mobile browser
user
interface for displaying a document identified by a URL in a web page.
[0013] In Figure 1A, a URL for a document (Executive Resume) is shown within a
web
page (i.e. Google Search). An indication is provided (i.e. DOC) that the
documented is a
supported MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) type (i.e. MS Word ).
In response
to user selection of the URL, a pop-up menu appears with a "Get Link" command
that, when
selected, causes a browser plug-in application to display the downloaded
document, as
shown in Figure 2.
[0014] A preferred embodiment of the method and apparatus for viewing the
documents
displayed via the user interface of Figures 1 and 2, is set forth in Figure 3.
The mobile device
3 incorporates a web browser and an Attachment Viewer (referred to herein.as
"DocView")
plug-in for the browser to permit viewing supported document MIME types when a
valid URL
from a web page points to a document, as discussed above in connection with
Figure 1A.
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[0015] During start-up (step Al in Figure 4A), the Attachment Viewer browser
plug-in
("DocView") registers itself (step A2) for a predetermined data stream content
type, such as
Universal Content Stream (UCS). According to the preferred embodiment, the
browser plug-
in registers an "application/vnd.company.ucs" content type with the browser,
such that the
browser adds "application/vnd.company.ucs" to the "Accept" header when
requesting HTTP
URLs.
[0016] Mobile Data Service (MDS) 5 forms a secure communication conduit
between the
mobile device 3 and servers, such as Web Servers 9A, 9B, etc., and Attachment
Server 7.
The MDS 5 functions as an HTTP and TCP/IP proxy with special features. MDS 5
incorporates a UCS transcoder that registers itself at start-up (step B1 in
Figure 4B) for all
MIME content types (step B2 in Figure 4B) supported by the Attachment Server 7
(e.g.
"application/ms-word", "applications/ms-excel", etc). The Attachment Server 7
performs
document conversion of attachments to a form suitable for transmission to the
device 3 and
display thereby. For example, if the attachment is a MS Word document, the
Attachment
Server 7 performs a binary conversion of the document into UCS format,
suitable for
wireless delivery. The UCS format supports text, image, vector and hybrid
content. Text
content retains some of its original formatting, such as bold, italic and
underlining, but the
UCS rich text file is much smaller than the original document (e.g. 10% of the
original
document size).
[0017] The following content types are registered by the MDS transcoder:
Content Type Application
Application/msword Microsoft Word
A lication/vnd.ms-excel Microsoft Excel
A lication/vnd.ms- ower oint Microsoft PowerPoint
A lication/ df Adobe PDF
A lication/word erfect5.1 Corel Word Perfect 5.1
Application/vnd.wordperfect erfect Corel Word Perfect
[0018] When a user selects "Get Link" (Figure 1 B and step A4 in Figure 4A)
for a URL
that points to a supported content type (Figure 1A and step A3 in Figure 4A),
an HTTP
request is sent (step A5 in Figure 4A) to the MDS 5 with
"application/vnd.company.ucs"
added to the "Accept" header. Upon receipt of the HTTP request from the
Browser (step B3
in Figure 4B), the MDS 5 sends the HTTP request (step B4 in Figure 4B) to the
destination
web server (e.g. Web Servers 9A, 9B, etc.) along with the document types that
can be
converted (e.g. "application/pdf') from native form to UCS data by the
Attachment Server 7.
The MDS 5 sends all acceptable content types to the destination server,
because the UCS
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transcoder has registered a list of acceptable contents that can be transcoded
into UCS, and
the device 3 accepts UCS data.
[0019] Upon retrieving the page content from the Web Server (step B5 in Figure
4B),
MDS 5 transmits the data via the "appiication/vnd.company.ucs" transcoder to
the
Attachment Server 7 for conversion (step B6 in Figure 4B). Upon successful
binary
conversion of the document to a UCS data stream, the Attachment Server 7
transmits the
UCS data back to MDS 5 transcoder (step B7 in Figure 4B), which then sends it
to device
browser 3 via HTTP response (step B8 in Figure 4B), and the transcoder process
ends (step
B9 in Figure 4B).
[0020] The MDS 5 pushes UCS data for the document back to the device 3 in the
HTTP
response (to a limit of 250 KB in the preferred embodiment, which is the
default MDS
setting). Upon receipt of the "application/vnd.company.ucs" content type
stream (for which it
registered at start up), the browser invokes the "DocView" plug-in to display
the UCS data,
as shown in Figure 2. More particularly, the browser requests the DocView plug-
in for a
"BrowserContent" object. Once the browser receives the object it calls a
finishLoading
method. The Browser Plug-in invokes the Attachment Viewer passing the HTTP
Input
Stream as an input parameter. Then, the Attachment Viewer parses the UCS data
in 3K
chunks and reads more data from the HTTP Input Stream as and when required.
[0021] To avoid having the user wait until all the UCS data has been
downloaded into
the browser cache the plug-in invokes the browserAttachment Viewer as soon as
3Kb of
UCS data is available (step A6 in Figure 4A) for parsing and display of the
UCS content.
Then, the Attachment Viewer parses and displays the UCS data in 3 Kb
increments (step A7
in Figure 4A), thereby simulating the well known attachment viewing experience
when
viewing an attachment via email on a mobile device, using the "More" feature.
Browser
process then ends (step A8 in Figure 4A)
[0022] To preserve storage within device 3, the Attachment Viewer does not
persist (i.e.
save) the converted file when a conversion is requested through the plug-in.
Closing the
Attachment Viewer returns the user back to the previous web page from which
the Get Link
request was originally invoked.
[0023] As discussed above, in order to communicate with the Attachment Server
7 upon
receiving requests from the browser plug-in, MDS 5 uses a dedicated transcoder
that
handles all request and response communication with the Attachment Server 7.
Supported
content types for the Attachment Server 7 are registered by the transcoder
(e.g.
application/pdf->application/vnd.company.ucs).
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[0024] Alternatives and variations to the preferred embodiment will be
understood to a
person of skill in the art.
[0025] Many features and advantages are apparent from the detailed
specification and,
thus, it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and
advantages.
Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those
skilled in the
art, it is not desired to impose any limit on the exact construction and
operation illustrated
and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may
be resorted
to, falling within the scope of the claims appended hereto.
