GB2381903A

GB2381903A - A method for expiring display portions generated via browser devices

Info

Publication number: GB2381903A
Application number: GB0220112A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Andrew Hodgkinson
Original assignee: Pace Micro Technology PLC
Current assignee: Arris Global Ltd
Priority date: 2001-09-01
Filing date: 2002-08-30
Publication date: 2003-05-14
Anticipated expiration: 2022-08-30
Also published as: GB0220112D0; GB2381903B; GB0121251D0

Abstract

A method for expiring display portions generated via browser devices comprises storing data relating to displays from internet locations in a memory and upon selection to generate a display from an internet location which differs from the location of a previous display removing from the memory at least some of the data relating to the displays generated from the previous location. A selection of a first location may generate a parent display and a number of child displays and when the user then selects to generate a second location at least the data relating to the child displays which were generated from the first location may be removed from the memory. The generated display may be generated across the entire screen of a television set.

Description

A Method for Expiring Display Portions Generated via Browser Devices The invention to which this application relates is to the provision of an internet service, typically, but not necessarily exclusively, of the type provided as part of a broadcast data receiver service.

Broadcast data receivers are typically provided to receive data broadcast from a remote location and transmitted via satellite, cable or terrestrial transmission systems. The receiver apparatus can also be connected to a means for allowing the provision of an internet service which can be selected by the user of the apparatus, with the service typically being viewable via the screen of the television set connected to or provided integrally with the broadcast data receiver. The internet browser which allows the navigation of the internet services can typically be controlled by the television remote control.

Commonly, with broadcast data receiver based internet services, the display is generated across the entire screen and typically displays a large element of text and selectable links to other pages. However television screens display the text and links with lower resolution than is possible, say, with monitor display screens provided for Personal Computers.

In many instances, when a web site is accessed or if a particular option is chosen a display portion, conventionally known as a pop up display, is generated. The portion, in a conventional PC based system is generated over a relatively small portion of the displayed internet page so that the majority of the page is still visible. However, on a television screen based system the pop up display is generated across the entire screen due to the lower

resolution problem and this obliterates the previously displayed page.

This therefore means that the current television based systems do not work properly as only one page can be loaded at a time, and so the pop-up or"child"display actually replaces the "parent"display it was launched from and in which the user is most likely to be interested.

If this process is repeated a number of times then a number of problems can occur. One problem is that the user is no longer aware of which pages are available, those which have been actually selected by them and those which have been generated as a result of the automatic display of pop up pages. A further problem is that as the data for a number of active display pages is held in a memory the available space in the memory can be taken up by the multiplicity of generated displays, many of which may not have been requested or required by the user.

The aim of the present invention is to provide a system and method whereby the generation of unwanted displays can be taken into account and, over time the unwanted displays removed from the available displays in memory.

In a first aspect of the invention there is provided an internet browser control method, said browser controllable to generate selected displays on a display screen in response to a user selection, and in addition, the generation of subsequent displays which result from a user selection and/or automatically as a result of a trigger embedded in the selected display software code, said method utilising a memory in which data relating to a series of displays from one or a number of internet locations is held and wherein, during a period of use the method monitors the displays which are selected and generated and, if the user

selects to generate a display from an internet location which differs from the location of the previous display at least some of the data relating to the displays generated from the previous location which were held in memory, are removed.

In one embodiment the user selection of a new location generates a display classified as a"parent"display. From that display and at the same internet location, one or a number of displays classified as child displays can be generated either as a result of user interaction with the parent display or as a result of automatic generation upon selection of the parent display. In this embodiment, when the user selects to leave a parent display location and generate a new parent display from a new location, at least the data relating to those child displays which have been generated automatically from the first location, are removed from the memory. Preferably all the child displays will be removed from the memory.

In such a case, the location from which the parent web page was fetched is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), each parent display having a unique URL. Thus, if the user chooses a display from a new URL the child displays from the previous URL can be considered no longer relevant, and closed automatically.

In one embodiment the memory, or cache, is used to store recently downloaded items and has a predetermined capacity. When said capacity is reached data in the memory is removed to make space for new data, said memory controlled via a system whereby data in the memory is removed according to predesignated criteria.

In one embodiment data for the child display which has not been displayed for the greatest time are removed first when the

capacity is reached or approached, and so on successively with the data for the next generator lapsed display and so on until sufficient memory is available.

In one embodiment if the system only presents one page at a time to the user, be it a parent or child display and allows the user to select between available displays, it can keep track of which displays the user has viewed, and when the user last viewed them. It can then sort the child displays in order from least recently viewed to most recently viewed, and close the least recently viewed page. If this does not resolve whatever problem it was which led to the original decision to close displays automatically, the device can close the next least recently viewed display, and so on, until there are no child displays left to close.

In a further embodiment if the user can readily access any child or parent display from memory at any time, then the system can rationally assume that the user only viewed the displays he or she was interested in, so getting rid of the least recently viewed makes sense-the user is probably least interested in those pages. If however, the device only offers a"view next or view back"function-rather like flipping pages on a flip chart, and being forced to flip them in order-then it could be that the user frequently looked at a page he or she was not interested in, purely because they were"flipping through"the pages to get to the one of real interest. In such a case, the criteria of"least recently viewed"system for closing displays is not best suited and instead the data for the child display for which the greatest time has elapsed since the data was downloaded into the memory can be removed first.

It should be appreciated that the system does not have to be limited to child displays. It may be that the system can allow

the user to open parent displays as they like, under user control and if the memory capacity is approached the system can remove child or parent displays in accordance with the specific predetermined criteria, but typically not data relating to displays generated from a location selected by the user at that instant. Most typically data relating to child displays is removed first and if more memory is required the data for parent displays can be removed in accordance with predetermined criteria.

Typically, in practice, the memory capacity is most likely to be reached during the download of new data for a new user display. As at least part of a parent display must be downloaded before it can open any child displays; the system cannot predict the opening of child displays before downloading anything and so the downloading of the child pages will therefore always commence after the download of the parent commences.

However the data for child displays is usually pretty small in data size terms compared with parent displays so the downloading of the child displays nearly always completes before the parent, even though it started after. It is thus likely that the device is running low on memory because of the parent page, which is (still) being downloaded. This is why we choose to automatically remove child windows before parents, even if the child window is totally independent of the parent (though sometimes there is a more intimate relationship which requires the child to close if the parent does, in which case automatic removal would drop out in passing anyway).

Typically the system processes the invention by implementation using appropriate software to arrive at a decision as to whether this"least recently viewed"approach is justified at all; if so, how many pages should be removed; and whether child and/or parent displays need to be removed.

An alternative embodiment of the above criteria is to allow removal of displays from memory, when required, on the basis of the first display to be removed is that which has been least recently downloaded from the internet browser, i. e. the oldest display in the memory. This embodiment is more likely to be useful on devices where more than one parent page is allowed, so there are groups of child pop-up windows relating to different parents.

Typically, the download time of every display is recorded, and if pages are required to be closed, the child displays are first sorted, with the oldest display in memory being the first to be removed and the most recent display last. Preferably the child displays are grouped in terms of the parent displays to which the same relate and these groups are in turn sorted by analysing and ordering the parent displays in the same manner as the child displays.

In practice, this method is most useful when multiple parent displays are possible and so the sorted lists of parent displays with respective child display groups sorted underneath them are used to first expire the oldest child display of the oldest parent display and then progressively through that parent display's child displays and then that parent display is removed and moving onto the group of child displays for the next parent display and so on.

In one embodiment both of the selection criteria can be used in combination. For example, whilst it might allow multiple parent displays there may only be one present when memory capacity is reached in which case the viewing time is used for automatically closing items. If on the other hand there were multiple parents, the least recently downloaded scheme might be chosen in preference.

In one preferred embodiment if the system makes a decision to remove a display from memory then a display is generated on screen to inform the user of this and the identity of the display.

The user can then be provided with the means to override the deletion and/or select and alternative display.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided an internet system wherein the multiple internet displays which can be generated are managed wherein display pages held in memory can be selectively deleted based on the criteria in that when the user changes to a new location in a parent display, the child pages, or some of the same, for the previous parent display are deleted.

In this invention, the web browser in the device keeps track of which parent pages opened which child pages. Thus when the parent display is changed by user selection any child displays opened for the previous parent display are automatically closed Specific embodiments of the invention are now described with reference to the accompanying drawings; wherein Figure 1 illustrates the apparatus with which the system of the current invention is of particular use; Figure 2 illustrates a first internet display classified as a parent display ; Figure 3 illustrates a second, internet display, classified as a child display.

The use of broadcast data receivers to receive digital data broadcast from remote locations is increasingly prevalent. As

Figure 1 illustrates, the apparatus typically comprises the receiver 2, connected to a television set 4 with a display screen 6. The operation of the receiver is typically user controlled via a remote control device 8, and a connection via modem to a telecommunications network allows further services to be provided.

Many broadcast data receivers now offer world wide web access with the internet pages generated for display on the television screen 6 with the receiver being connected to the internet through a relatively slow modem and communications link 9.

In one example of the use of the internet service, the user visits a gaming web site. The Home or parent page for the site is large, and graphically intensive, so it is heavily demanding of system resources (see a site such as http : //www. planctquake. com/ for an example of genre) as shown in Figure 2. This particular gaming site opens a parent page as shown in Figure 2 but also, automatically a window display is generated which is classified as a child page, which is typically an advert or competition or the like. In this case it is an advert for the US Navy As each of these child pages is created and the browser starts to fetch the ata for the same then, due to the use of the television screen, the user is only shown the most recently generated display across the screen, so the user ends up being faced with the child page as shown in Figure 3 rather than the homepage or other page that they really wished to view.

In one embodiment the user can activate a"next page"feature on the system to move to the view of the original main gaming site parent page but the browser is still fetching over the fairly slow modem.

If, for whatever reason, the user wishes to view another internet location they can do so and, if they do so without vacating the previous site, the system is now supporting two parent pages, one for the gaming location shown in Figure 2 and one for the new location, say a shopping page, and two child pages related to the gaming site.

Even though the modem is now having to download the main gaming location and the new location, the new location uses far fewer complex graphics, so despite the sharing of the modem link the data downloads fairly rapidly. The user goes on to use a window facility in the new location which opens a new child display. As these selections continue, the memory of the broadcast data receiver in which data for the displays is stored approaches a full or predetermined capacity and at this stage the method in accordance with the invention, decides to discard data for at least some of the displays to free memory space.

In one embodiment the decision to discard is made with respect to the least recently viewed child page which is the display shown in Figure 3. The closure and removal of this data frees up some valuable memory and the gaming site location can now download more data, but just before downloading completes, available memory becomes dangerously low again. The web browser repeats its previous action, and this time closes another child page from the gaming site as that is now the least recently viewed child.

The user doesn't see any of this and the child page of the new site downloads normally, is used and can then be closed by the user.

The user can be informed if all child windows related to a parent are shut down in the background because of system resource

shortages by the display of an appropriate warning. The user can dismiss the warning if they wish.

If the user continues in this example, they can therefore return to the gaming site parent page which is still open. More graphics are downloaded, and in the course of this, the memory resources in the web browsing device become, yet again, close to exhaustion. However as there are no child pages open the system performs an alternative memory freeing method. In this embodiment the system decides to remove the display which is the least recently downloaded, or oldest display. In this case, the parent page of the shopping site, which was left open when the user went back to view the gaming site, is the oldest downloaded page not being viewed and is closed down. Once again, the user doesn't need to take any actions to do this manually, and apart from another warning that a parent page had to be close, the browsing of the gaming site is not interrupted by the background"house keeping"task.

Web pages are identified by Uniform Resource Locators, or URLs, so the web browser software can check whenever the URL of the page being shown by a parent was altered (e. g. by the user following a link on the page or activating some kind of "go to"function in their web browsing device), and close related child displays.

For some web sites, this works. For example, take an example of a shopping web site with a"home"page that sees if the user has logged into their account with the site. If the user has not, a pop-up child window is opened allowing the user to log in. When the user fills in the form in the pop-up child and submits it, the child closes itself automatically. If the user were, however, to decide not to use the site but instead go back to the

parent page and change it to a different URL, the unused child pop-up display would be closed.

For those web sites where this approach would not work and instances where a child display needs to be kept open for the duration of a users visit to an internet location, for example, a shopping trolley display, the solution is to only close child windows relating to a parent if the URL that the parent is displaying changes the significant part of its domain-rather than if it changes at all. For example, take the following fictional URL.

http ://www. homeshopping. com/home. html The centre section of this-www. homeshopping. com-is called the host name. The domain is, in simplified form, the part of the host name that is invariant across all hosts (i. e. web servers, in this context) maintained by the same person or group. So for example, we might find that the fictional home shopping site maintains the server above for product information; and two more, for looking at user accounts, and for a secure ordering service (multiple host arrangements like this are quite common).

We might see URLs as follows:

http ://accounts. homeshopping. com/users/orders/history. cgi https ://secure. chomeshopping. com/order/paydctails. cgi In each case, the domain-"homeshopping. com"-has not changed for any of the various pages the user might have visited. So, if the web browser only automatically discards child pages relating to a parent when the domain of the parent changes, it stands an excellent chance of working well with both sites that just open arbitrary child pages for things such as

adverts, or"single shot"displays for logging into a site, or "persistent"displays for shopping trolley displays and similar.

Thus, in a practical example of this embodiment of the invention, if the user, using the apparatus shown in Figure 1 visits, for example, the Tesco Retailer's shopping site at http : //www. tesco. com/, the Tesco home or parent shopping page is shown. The user goes to the login page to create a new account, and activates a link on the page to check if Tesco delivers to his or her area. A pop-up or child display page is generated across the television display asking for a postcode and is opened automatically by the parent page in response to the user activating the link. The user fills in the post code, and submits the form and the child display closes. The user then finishes registering with the site, shops for some items and submits an order. When completed the web site returns the user to the login or parent display.

The user, having finished using the web browsing device, returns to normal television viewing.

The above does not require any automatic tidying up by the web-browser. Some time later, however, the user returns to the web browsing device, which is still showing the Tesco login page and the user accidentally follows the link to the post code checking child display again. The user then goes back to the main page and changes it to visit the Internet Movie Database at http ://uk. imdb. com/. As the domain of the URL being shown has changed from"tesco. com" to"imdb. com", the web browsing device automatically closes any child windows related to the previous parent display, www. tesco. com. In this case, it is the postcode checking page that the user had left open.

The user doesn't need to know that this housekeeping has gone on and didn't need to perform the close task manually. If the pop-up windows had been left open it would have consumed system resources unnecessarily, and could have caused confusion if the Tesco site was subsequently revisited and another postcode check made, resulting in a second postcode page appearing.

Claims

Claims 1. An internet browser control method, said browser controllable to generate selected displays on a display screen in response to a user selection, and in addition, the generation of subsequent displays which result from a user selection and/or automatically as a result of a trigger embedded in the selected display software code said method utilising a memory in which data relating to a series of displays from one or a number of internet locations is held and wherein, during a period of use, the method monitors the displays which are selected and generated and, if the user selects to generate a display from an internet location which differs from the location of the previous display, at least some of the data relating to the displays generated from the previous location which were held in memory are removed.
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the user selection of a display from a particular new location generates a display classified as a parent display and, from that display, and at the same internet location, one or a number of displays classified as child displays are generated either as a result of user interaction with the parent display or as a result of automatic generation upon selection of the parent display.
3. A method according to claim 2 wherein when the user selects to leave a parent display location and select to generate a new parent display from a new location, at least the data relating to those child displays which have been generated automatically from the first location are removed from the memory.

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4. A method according to claim 3 wherein data for child displays is removed from the memory upon the change of display location regardless of whether the data is displayed automatically or as a result of user interaction.
5. A method according to claim 1 wherein the display location is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) with each parent display having a unique URL.
6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the memory has a predetermined data capacity and if said capacity is reached, data for previous displays is removed from the memory to make space for new data, said display data removed in accordance with predetermined criteria.
7. A method according to claim 6 wherein data relating to the child display for which the greatest time has lapsed since display is removed, and continues successively with data for the next greatest lapsed display until sufficient memory capacity is available.
8. A method according to claim 7 wherein child display data for displays generated from a currently selected internet location is not removed.
9. A method according to any of the preceding claims wherein data relating to child pages is removed from memory in preference to the data relating to the parent pages.
10. A method according to claim 6 wherein data relating to the child display for which the greatest time has elapsed since the display data was downloaded from the internet is

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removed and continues successively until insufficient memory capacity is available.
11. A method according to claim 6 wherein data relating to displays classified as child displays is removed first and then, if further memory capacity is required, data for displays classified as parent displays is removed in accordance with predefined criteria.
12. A method according to any of the preceding claims wherein the generated display is generated across the entire screen of a television set, or other display screen with equivalent resolution value to a television set.
13. A method according to any of the preceding claims wherein the method is utilised in a broadcast data receiver provided with a memory and internet browser facility.
14. A method for controlling an internet browser and data memory as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.