KR100855997B1 - Configurable transformation of electronic documents - Google Patents

Abstract

Altering a portion of the text of the original version of the digital document to produce a modified version of the digital document, wherein the text of the modified document is shorter than the text of the original document, wherein the change is based on a preference associated with the device. And receiving a request for the digital document from a device connected to the channel via a communication channel, and transmitting the modified version over the communication channel in response to the request. Configurable conversion method for documents.

Description

CONFIGURABLE TRANSFORMATION OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS}

This patent application is a priority claim application based on US Provisional Application No. 60 / 238,424, filed on October 10, 2000 and US Provisional Application No. 60 / 235,551, filed on September 27, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The present invention relates to the division, conversion and viewing of electronic documents.

People often have a desktop or laptop computer with a screen that is more than 10 inches diagonally and access the Internet at a communication speed of at least 28.8 kbps to access web pages, text files, email and corporate (private) information. Electronic documents are typically designed to be sent and rendered on such devices.

Internet-enabled devices, such as cell phones, hand-held devices (PDAs), cordless pagers, set-top boxes, and microbrowsers with dashboards, often have small screens ( For example, two to three inches diagonally), relatively slow communication speed and small memory on a wireless network. Some of these devices can't display any part of a document of a size that exceeds a fixed limit, while others can cut out portions over a fixed length. Using these devices, accessing electronic documents (often containing lots of paragraph text, complex images, and rich media content) can be very difficult or impossible.

Automatic content conversion systems convert electronic documents that were originally designed to be sent and displayed on devices with large screens to versions suitable for transmission and display on less powerful devices, such as mobile phones. For example, Wei-Ying Ma, Ilja Bedner, Grace Chang, Allan Kuchinsky, HongJong Zhang, "Adaptive Content in Heterogeneous Network Environments. A Framework for Adaptive Content Delivery in Heterogeneous Network Environments "(SPIE Multimedia Computing and Networking 2000, January 2000, San Jose, Calif.).

In general, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method of modifying a portion of a text of an original version digital document to produce a modified version of the digital document having text that is shorter than the text of the original document, and through a communication channel. Receiving a request for a digital document from a device connected to the channel and transmitting the modified version over the communication channel in response to the request.

Embodiments of the present invention include one or more of the following features. The change includes reducing the size of the image included in the original document, such as by image compression or resampling, or by conversion from color to black and white. Altering the portion of the text optionally includes applying one or more transformations to the text. The transformation to be applied to the text as part of the modifying step is selected based on preferences associated with the device. The preference is associated with the device based on the unique identifier of the device. The preference is stored in advance prior to the document request. The preference is stored in a database associated with the server. The preference is indicated by the user through the interface of the device. The preference is indicated by the user through an interface of a device different from the device from which the document request was issued. The preference is indicated on a form provided from the server. The preference is stored for each device sending a document request. The preference is stored for each type of device that sends a document request. The preference is stored on the device using a cookie mechanism. The change depends on the type of device. Identification information of the device type is received from the device. The change is performed at the proxy server or origin server. The apparatus includes an apparatus that is not configured to display the entire document at one time. The apparatus includes a PDA, hand held device or a cell phone. Such modifications include date compression, word abbreviation, or image suppression for images contained in the original document. Digital documents include web pages. The method includes dividing a digital document into subdocuments and transmitting fewer but not all of the segments in response to the request.

In general, in another aspect, the present invention relates to preferences associated with different client devices in connection with certain changes to be performed on the entire web page requested by the client device not configured to display the entire web page. Maintaining a defining database. This change makes the documents more suitable for display on the client device.

In general, in another aspect, the present invention relates to a method for obtaining information of a client device about a preference in relation to a predetermined change to be performed on the entire document requested by the client device not configured to display the entire web page. And associating a preference regarding the client device with a database.

In general, in another aspect, the invention provides a method for creating a content for a web page to be provided for a client device type that is not configured to display the entire web page, and the entire web page to be suitable for display on the client device. Storing information about the conversion to be performed. The stored information associates, for each type of device, a conversion to be made to the entire web page requested by the device of that type.

Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following detailed description and claims.

1 is a document conversion and provision system.

2 is a document.

3 is a flow chart.

4 and 5 are document hierarchy diagrams.

6 is a document conversion process.

7 is a database.

8 is a document conversion system.

9 is a preference representation process.

10 and 11 are preference forms.

12 is a wired / wireless communication system.

13 is a document conversion system.

14 is a web page.

15 and 16 show a portion of a web page on a small screen.

17 illustrates separation of subdocuments for individual use.

In various implementations of the invention, the electronic document is segmented and converted before being presented over a low bandwidth communication channel for viewing on a user device with a small screen and / or low memory. First, let's look at the features of partitioning and then the features of transformation.

Division

At a high level, as can be seen in FIG. 1, a user of an Internet-enabled device 10 (e.g., a WAP-enabled mobile phone) may have an electronic document 12 (e.g., a web page or e-mail, a text file, or a commercial application). When requesting a document in a format or markup language), the user's request, expressed as a URL, eventually arrives at the proxy server 14. Accordingly, the proxy server requests the document from the origin server 16 using the URL. The origin server is a computer on the Internet that is responsible for providing the document. After receiving the document from the origin server, the proxy server divides the document into sub-documents. The proxy server sends the first of these subdocuments 1 to the client as a web page. The document division need not be performed at the proxy server, but can be performed at other places in the network as will be described later.

As can be seen in FIG. 2, each subdocument 20 delivered by the proxy server to the client includes hyperlinks 22, 24 to a series of subdocuments before and after (if any). The hyperlink is displayed to the user. If the user selects a forward pointing (or backward pointing) hyperlink in a sub document, this request is sent to the proxy server, which then responds with the next (or previous) sub document.

As shown in FIG. 3, the first step in the segmentation process is to determine 30 the maximum document size allowable at the client device. If the client-server communication is RFC2616 {R. Fielding, RFC2616: Hypertext Transfer Protocol-HTTP / 1.1. June 1999. When adhering to an HTTP protocol standard such as that described in " http: //www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.txt" Notify the proxy server of the information. The server may determine the type of micro browser installed on the client device using, for example, a value of the USER-AGENT field, and by this information, the maximum document is referred to by referring to a table showing the maximum document size for all known devices. The size can be determined.

The length of the original document will be expressed as N below. The length can be measured by the size of the document (including markup) in bytes. The maximum length of a document allowed by the client is indicated by M. Obviously, the segmentation algorithm associated with the maximum length M imposed by a client should produce at least a number of segments that round up to N / M.

The next step in the segmentation process is to convert the input document into XML 32, a markup language with a tag containing a hierarchical tree structure on the document. Conversion from many other original formats, including HTML, to XML can be done using existing software packages.

As shown in Figure 4, the third step is to apply a procedure for dividing the XML tree 40 into partitions 34, each of which is not greater than M in length. The leaves 42 of the tree represent the elements of the original document, such as text blocks or images. Internal nodes 44 of the tree represent structure and markup information, where markers indicate paragraphs or tables, hyperlinked text, bold areas, and the like. One way to achieve partitioning is to use an agglomerated, bottom-up leaf clustering algorithm. The leaf clustering scheme begins by placing each leaf in its own partition (as shown in Figure 4) and then merging the partitions repeatedly until there are no adjacent partition pairs to be merged. 5 shows the tree after two merges have been made, resulting in merged splits 50, 52.

Each merge operation creates a new modified tree with one less partition. Each step targets all adjacent split pairs and merges the optimal pair based on the scoring function defined for the merge candidate target. Examples of scoring functions will be described below. When the algorithm ends, the last partitions represent the partitions of the original XML tree.

Scoring function

In one example of the scoring function, a lower score represents a more desirable merge (in this context, the score of the merge can be thought of as the cost of performing the merge). In this example, the score for merging the divisions x and y is related to the following amount.

1. Size of division: The scoring function prefers to merge smaller divisions rather than large ones. The number of bytes of the partition x is denoted by | x |. If everything else is the same, then | x | = 100, | y | = 150, | z | = 25, a good scoring function is score (x, z) <score (y, z) <score (x, y Will be like In practice, the effect of these criteria is to balance the size of the resulting partitions.

2. Family proximity of divisions: Given that divisions x and y have a common parent z, if everything else is the same, they are only involved when connected via grandparent (or distant ancestor) nodes. It will constitute a more desirable merge. The fact that the two divisions are related only through distant ancestors is less convincing as evidence that the divisions belong together than when they are related by less distant ancestors.

3. Node Replica Required by Merge: When converting partitions into well-formed documents, you will have to duplicate internal nodes. Of course, in dividing the original document into sub-documents, you will want to minimize the duplication of the resulting sub-documents.

Define d (x, y) as the minimum number of nodes that must pass when moving from partition x to partition y through the tree, and r (x, y) as the amount of node replicas required by merging partitions x and y Let's define The general candidate scoring function is as follows.

score (x, y) = A (| x | + | y |) + B (dx, y) + C (rx, y)

Here, A, B, and C are functions that can be determined by the user (for example, real coefficients).

example:

Algorithm 1:

Cohesive splitting of XML documents

input:

D: XML document

M: maximum allowable subdocument length

Print:

D ': XML document with size less than or equal to M, rounded up to N / M

1. Assign each leaf in D to its partition.

2. Score score (x ₁ , x ₂ ) for all pairs of adjacent partitions x ₁ , x ₂ in D.

3. Let x and y be the split pairs with the smallest score (x, y).

4. When the merge of x and y produces a partition of size larger than M, we end.

5. Merge the partitions x and y.

6. Go to step 1.

Other methods may be used in scoring for candidates of split merging.

The algorithm described above ignored the actual lexical content of the document in determining the partitioning scheme. In another example, we consider the nature of the words contained in each partition and use the criteria to prefer locations where no breaks appear to hinder the flow of information. To do this, the system must check the words contained in the two partitions that are considered for merging to determine whether they are related to the same subject. Topics such as text segmentation are described, for example, by M. Hearst, "TextTiling: Segmenting text into multi-paragraph subtopic passages, Computer Linguistics." 23 (1), 33-65, 1997 ".

Referring back to Figure 3, the next step is to transform the splits of the last tree into XML documents 36 of each legitimate form. Doing so requires replication of the node. For example, in Figure 5, merging leafs B and F has the effect of separating sibling nodes F and G. This means that when converting the first and second splits of the tree on the right into a legitimate document, each document must contain an instance of Node C. In other words, Node C is duplicated in the resulting set of subdocuments. If nodes F and G were related by a common grandparent, rather than a common parent, the replication would have been worse. In this case both parent and grandparent nodes will have to be replicated in both partitions.

After calculating the partition for the original document, the proxy server stores each sub-document in the cache or database 38 to facilitate future interaction with the user. When a user follows a hyperlink to access the next subdocument in that column in the first subdocument, this request is forwarded to the proxy server, whereby the proxy server responds (39) to the appropriate subdocument stored in the cache. do.                 

If the proxy server is responsible for handling requests from many other clients, the proxy server may be responsible for keeping track of which documents the client is reading and passing through and which sub-documents make up that document. State 41 is maintained. As before, the proxy server may use HTTP header information to determine the unique identifier of the client device (such as an IP address or a mobile phone number), and an internal database that associates the status with each user. You can use this code as a key. The following is an example of extracting a part of the database as described above.

user condition 1 2 3 4 5 [Subdocument 1] [Subdocument 2] [Subdocument 3] ... [Subdocument 8] 45537 [Subdocument 1] [subdocument 2] 98132 [Subdocument 1] [Subdocument 2] [Subdocument 3] ... [Subdocument 6]

Many client devices cannot process documents written in XML, only documents written in text or other markup languages such as HTML, WML, or HDML. The conversion of the XML subdocument into another format 43 may be done on the proxy server by any available converter.

The aggregation partitioning algorithm (Algorithm 1 above) is performed only once per original document when the user first requests the document. When the user reads and passes the lower documents constituting the original document, the calculation burden on the proxy server is minimized. All you need is to deliver the appropriate pre-stored subdocument.                 

Once the document is divided into sub-documents, it is possible to use the sub-documents in many other ways than just presenting them in the order they appear in the original document.

For example, as can be seen in FIG. 17, the original HTML document 100 can include a form 102. In order to facilitate the interaction of the page with the user, it is useful to separate the form from the rest of the page and replace it with a link in one of the sub-documents. The user can then call the link from the user's local device to view the form. If the user does not wish to view or use the form, it is possible to proceed through searching the other sub-documents discussed above without having to load the form at all.

For this purpose, the document can be divided into subdocuments 104, 106, 108 representing the main body portion of the document and subdocuments 110, 112 representing the form 102 portion. One of the sub-documents 106 includes an icon 114 representing a link 116 to the form. Other links 118, 120, and 122 allow searching between the sub-documents described above.

conversion

The content of the subdocument provided to the user device is automatically converted in such a way as to reduce the amount of data to be delivered and displayed while making the information representing that data obsolete. The user can customize the automatic conversion of the electronic document by displaying a preference regarding the desired conversion result. The preferences of these users are stored in the request document automatically converted as customized for later use.

For example, when a user views a document on a limited-size screen, he or she may want to abbreviate words in the original document. Other users may be bothered by the abbreviation of these words and may be willing to accept longer documents that are generated if the abbreviation is not used. These preferences can be displayed and saved and later used to control the conversion of the actual document.

First, the steps in the conversion of the document will be described first, and then the process of requesting user preferences will be described.

Conversion of documents

1 and 6 and as described above, the user 6 of the device 10 requests 11 a document 12 (eg, enters a URL into a browser running on the device or bookmarks previously stored in the browser). Selection, or by selecting a link from a hypertext document previously loaded in the browser), the proxy server receives the request 18 and retrieves the document from the origin server (20).

After receiving the document from the origin server, the proxy computer checks the database 26 for client preferences to determine suitable parameters to be used in the conversion process for the device 10 of the user making the request. Reference 24 is made. The proxy computer then applies the transformation to the document 28 to make it suitable for transmission and rendering 32 to the client device 30.                 

The information about the client itself that the client device notifies the proxy server may include two related information as follows.

1. Unique identifier of the device: For a wireless Internet device equipped with a micro browser distributed by Phone.com, for example, make sure the HTTP header variable X-UP-SUBNO has a unique identifier for this device.

2. Type of device: For example, the HTTP header variable USER-AGENT is a string indicating the type of browser software installed on the device.

When document conversion occurs, the proxy computer can already obtain the unique ID and use it as a key value to look up in the database a set of preferences associated with the user.

7 shows an example of several rows in a processing database 24. Each column 40 identifies a device by its phone number. The column above associates the identified device with a user preference (four different preferences in the case of FIG. 7). In this case, the telephone number (e.g., the number of the cellular phone) is a unique ID used as a key value for the record of the database.

After referencing the database to determine a suitable preference value for the user, the proxy computer can use these values in derivation of the conversion process. Thus, as can be seen in Figures 1 and 4, the input to the conversion process is the original document (e.g. in HTML) and the user preference value (a column in the database of Figure 7). As can be seen in FIG. 8, document conversion includes date compression (52), word abbreviation (54), image suppression (55), etc., in the case of converting the original document into a form suitable for rendering on a small screen device. Involves a series of tasks. In every step, preferences for the target device are used to construct the conversion task. For example, client-specific preferences may instruct the image suppression 55 to be applied only to images that do not abbreviate words or exceed a specified size.

In addition to image suppression, other kinds of transformations can be applied to the image to reduce the size. For example, the image can be compressed, downsampled or converted from color to black and white.

Examples of user-configurable parameters include the following:

contraction

To reduce the space needed to display the document, words can be abbreviated. Compressing words involves truncating long words, abbreviating common suffixes (such as "national" to "nat'l"), eliminating vowels, or Soundex algorithms {Margaret K. Odel There are many ways, including using more complex procedures such as Margaret K. Odell, US Patent Nos. 1,261,167 (1918) and 1,435,663 (1922) to Robert C. Russell. The corresponding user configurable parameter may be a Boolean value indicating whether the user wishes to activate or deactivate the abbreviation. Enabling shortening can reduce the length of the resulting document, but it can blur the meaning of the document.

Image suppression

Many small scrollable devices cannot render bitmap images. Even if possible, rendering a large image may require a long transmission time. Bitmap images are prone to poor image quality when rendered on low resolution screens. In this case, the corresponding user configurable parameter may be, for example, a Boolean value (rendering or not) or a value representing the maximum acceptable size of the original image in number of pixels.

Object compression

The translation system may use a natural language analyzer to find some class of string and rewrite it in short form. For example, the analyzer can find the date stamp and rewrite it in short form. In other words, "December 12, 1984" is changed to "12/12/84", "February 4" to "2/4", and "The seventh of August" to "8/7".

The corresponding user configuration parameter value can be a Boolean value (compressed or not) or one of three values: uncompressed, compressed in month / day / year format, or compressed in day / month / year format. have.

Similarly, the conversion system can analyze and compress the quantity representation. For example, "seventeen" changes to "17" and "ten gigabytes" to "10GB".

In addition, various other transformations may be devised for various kinds of documents.

Specify and save device-specific preferences

We will now discuss two examples of how to get preferences from device users and associate them with specific client devices.

Preferences input from small screen devices

By visiting the proxy computer using a small screen device used for Internet connection, the user can enter and maintain preferences. As can be seen in FIG. 9, the proxy computer may store a hypertext form 60 that a user of the small screen device will search and fill in according to a desired preference. Upon receiving the HTTP request 62 from the client device, the proxy computer automatically obtains a unique identifier for the client device (using the HTTP protocol). The proxy computer then sends a form 64 containing a series of preferences to the user. If the user device already has a relevant item in the database, the current value of each parameter is indicated in the form otherwise the default value. On this form the user can change the parameter while checking for properness and then submit the form back to the proxy computer (66). The proxy computer may then store this updated value in a record associated with the client device in the database.

Preferences input from a regular computer

As an alternative to this, the user can visit the same URL using a conventional web browser on a desktop or laptop computer. The proxy computer will not be able to automatically determine which device to associate the preference with the HTTP header information. The user must explicitly specify the unique identifier (eg phone number) of the device for which the user wishes to set preferences.

10 shows an example of such a form as seen in a typical HTML-based desktop web browser. Fig. 11 shows the first screen of the corresponding page on the four-line screen of the mobile phone (the user has to scroll down to see the remaining options).

Specify and save preferences by type

As discussed above, the user uses a small screen device to access documents stored remotely, and a proxy computer (performing the conversion) serves to mediate between the user's device and the entire Internet.

Another case where configurable conversions are useful is when an individual or organization wants to regulate the display of documents they create on a small screen device. To this end, automatic content conversion software (using modules or plug-ins for web server software) may be mounted on the origin server responsible for storing and transmitting the data. This allows the origin server host to configure and control the translation software as desired.

The origin server may give content creators the ability to configure the transformations to be applied to these documents when any user retrieves documents from this server at a particular type of client device. In other words, rather than giving end users the ability to customize the transformation, they can instead grant this ability to the individual or organization that created the content. This approach is appropriate when the content provider wants strict restrictions on the display of their content on the small screen device.

Rather than storing preferences for each of the user's personal devices in a database, the origin server only stores a set of parameter values for conversion, by device type. Information flowing into the origin server from the user is as follows.

1. The user requests a document from the origin server.

2. The origin server receives the request and information regarding the type of client device from which the request originated.

3. The origin server consults the conversion parameters appropriate for the device in processing the requested document.

4. The origin server delivers the converted document to the client device.

An example of an entry in a database used in step 3 is as follows.

Device type The word abbreviation? image? Document size Date display abbreviation? Samsung SCH-8500 Yes no 2000 bytes Yes Motorola Startech no Yes 16000 bytes Yes Pim VII no no 1492 bytes no 412-309-8882 Yes Yes 1223 bytes no

The previous section explained how to allow end users to specify and store preferences that will be associated with a single device. This section explained how to configure content authors to configure the translation of documents from the origin server. These two solutions are not incompatible. Suppose an end user requests a document X from the origin server Y. Assume also that the end user has registered a set of preferences for the transformation, and that there is a separate set of preferences on the origin server for the document delivered from the origin server. First the document will be converted according to the preferences in the origin server and then in accordance with the preferences of the end user. In this approach, the end user's preferences can often be ignored. For example, if the end user does not want to abbreviate a word but is designated to abbreviate a word in the preferences of the origin server, the end user will receive a document containing the abbreviated word in spite of his preference. will be.

Save preferences about client devices

Another method of associating preferences for devices is the HTTP "cookie" state mechanism {D. Kristol, L. Montulli. RFC 2109: HTTP State Management Mechanism, 1997. See "http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2109/rfc2109.txt". In this case, the preference information is not stored in a database remote from the user device, but in the device itself. In this environment, device-specific preference information flows as follows:

1. A user of the small screen device submits a request for a preference form document to the proxy computer. The form document is sent from the proxy computer to the device.

2. The user enters his preferences and submits the filled back form to the proxy server.

3. The proxy computer responds with an acknowledgment document and also sends a cookie containing the user's preference, to the client device, in HTTP header information. For example, the cookie may be as follows.

Set-Cookie: PREFS = "abbrevs: yes images: no dates: yes ..."; path = /; expires = 04-Sep-01 23:12:40 GMT

4. The client device stores this cookie in a persistent state.

5. If the user of the client device subsequently requests a document from the proxy computer, the device also sends to the proxy computer the following cookie containing the stored preferences.

Cookie: PREFS = "abbrevs: yes images: no dates: yes ...";

6. Upon receiving a preference for this client, the proxy computer applies this preference to the conversion of the requested document. If the client device did not send the cookie due to the expiration or deletion of the cookie, the proxy computer applies the default translation.

Applications

As can be seen in FIG. 12, communication between the wireless device 50 and the "wired" Internet 53 is typically through a gateway 52, which will mediate the wired and wireless areas. For example, a document request by a user of a WAP-capable device is sent to the wireless gateway, which in turn sends the request to the origin server 54 (on the Internet) responsible for the request document (according to the DNS protocol).轉送) If the request document is specifically designed for the client device and the device accepts a markup language (sometimes it may be HTML, it is often another markup language such as WML, HDML or other commercial languages). If written in, no content conversion is required. Because different wireless data devices have different capabilities, content producers must create separate versions for each target markup language as well as for all possible target devices. The content provider will also need to understand how to determine the type of client device and how to produce a document with an optimal format for such a client. As can be seen in FIG. 13, the automatic content conversion system 70 can automatically reformat the document 72 and reformat it to a format that is optimal for display on a particular target device. This allows content creators to focus on the content creation itself rather than reorienting the content for various target devices.

The content conversion system intercepts a request from a non-traditional client device, customizes the request document for display on the target device 78, and sends the converted document 74 to the client. The content conversion system uses the user preference 76 and the device specification 64 to guide the document conversion process. If the request page 72 is specifically designed for the client device from which the request originated, no content conversion is needed. But designing a document for a wireless device is not an easy task. The document should be written in an acceptable markup language (sometimes HTML, but often in other markup languages such as WML, HDML or other commercial languages) that the device accepts. Because hundreds of different wireless data devices each have different capabilities (64), content producers face the expectation that they must produce separate versions for each target markup language, as well as for all possible target devices. Done. The content provider will also need to understand how to determine the type of client device and how to produce a document with an optimal format for such a client.

By using a system 70 that automatically compresses the document 72 and reformats it to a format that is optimal for display on a particular target device, the content creator has a core ability rather than reorienting the content for a variety of target devices. Focus on the in-content creation itself. Once installed, the content conversion system intercepts a request from an unusual client device, customizes the request document for display on the target device, and sends the converted document to the client. The content conversion system may use an automatic document segmentation method to deliver large documents to devices that cannot handle the entire large document.

The core content conversion component 81 may include the above-described partitioning process. The XML cache object 84 resides where user-specific sub-documents are stored for the partitioning process.

Content conversion is a server-side technology and can be deployed in various locations within the channel between the client and the origin server (any location from the wireless gateway to the origin server with the original content). Some locations where content conversion is applicable are shown in the following table.

Environment Explanation advantage Within a web server Plug-in module for Apache and competing web server software, enabling customized real-time conversion to handheld devices After installation, the web server can automatically detect requests from wireless clients and generate content optimized for the requesting device. Within reverse proxy server Convert all content from a single site or a set of sites in a centralized location Same as above, but also uses a proxy cache to centralize the conversion process and reduce server load Within proxy server Resources shared by an organization (such as a company) Allow proxy users to access the entire Internet with their wireless devices Wireless gateway By taking the requested URL and handing it over to the client prior to delivering the document to the client device, the gateway handles the HTTP request from the wireless client. Enables all subscribers to these wireless services to have full, customized Internet access to their devices Independent software Integrated as part of the web development process. Web developers can use the software as a rapid prototyping tool, where they can refine their output if desired. Allow companies to create custom wireless content at a fraction of the cost of creating their own content

Fig. 14 shows an example of an input document (full size web page) divided into five sub-documents. 15 shows the lower part of the fourth sub-document 72, which corresponds to the middle part of the "Bronx-Whitestone Bridge" paragraph of the original page. By invoking the hyperlinks (icons) labeled "prev" 74 and "next 76", the user can navigate to the third and fifth sub-documents, respectively. 16 shows the first part of the fifth subdocument 78 starting at the end of the fourth subdocument. The user can scroll through the sub-documents as needed. As shown in some implementations, icons 74 and 76 are only displayed when the user scrolls to the beginning or end of the subdocument. In another example, the icons may always be displayed.

15 and 16, the numbers and words of the original document are abbreviated ("one" is "1", "and" is "&"), and the day display is shortened.

The indication of each subdocument also includes an indication of the heading 79 of the original document. These headings are included in the subdocument when the subdocument is generated from the original document. The indication also includes an indication of the total number 87 of subdocuments and the position 89 of the current subdocument of the series of subdocuments constituting the original document.

Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

For example, in the user interface, the lower portion of each sub document rendered on the target device may include a graphic status bar indicating where the set of sub documents constituting the original document are located. For example, ooxooo could mean "third of seven subdocuments." In addition, each of the " o " in this status bar may be a hyperlink to the corresponding subdocument, thereby allowing the user to arbitrarily access other subdocuments. This can be more efficient than having to go through each subdocument in order.

Claims (29)

Changing at the server a portion of the text of the original version of the digital document to produce a modified version of the digital document, wherein the text of the modified version of the digital document is shorter than the text of the original version of the digital document, and the change The step includes selecting a transformation to be applied to the original version of the text of the digital document and dividing the digital document into sub-documents, wherein the modifying step is performed based on preferences stored according to the device. The changing step, Receiving a request for the digital document from the device via a communication channel; Transmitting sub-documents of a modified version of the digital document over the communication channel in response to the request. Including; Wherein at least one of the transmitted sub-documents contains a link to an adjacent sub-document. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of modifying comprises selectively applying one or more transformations to the text of the original version of the digital document at the server. delete The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is associated with the device based on a unique identifier of the device. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is previously stored prior to the document request. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is stored in a database associated with the server. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is indicated by a user through an interface of the device. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is indicated by the user through an interface of a device different from the device from which the document request originated. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is indicated on a form provided from the server. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is stored for each device sending a document request. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is stored for each type of device that sends a document request. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is stored on the device. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference is stored on the device using a cookie mechanism. The configurable conversion method of an electronic document according to claim 1, wherein said changing step is according to the type of said apparatus. 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving identification information of the device type from the device. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is a proxy server. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is an origin server. The method of claim 1, wherein the device comprises a device that is not configured to display the entire document at one time. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the device comprises a personal digital assistant, a handheld device or a telephone. The method of claim 1, wherein said modifying step comprises date compression. The method of claim 1, wherein said modifying step includes word abbreviation. The configurable conversion method of an electronic document, according to claim 1, wherein said changing step includes a reducing step of reducing the size of an image included in the original version of said digital document. 23. The method of claim 22, wherein said reducing step comprises image compression, resampling, or color to black and white conversion. The method of claim 1, wherein said digital document comprises a web page. delete Maintaining a database defining preferences according to different client devices with respect to any change to be made on the entire web page requested by each client device not configured to display the entire web page Including, The alteration is to make the entire web page suitable for display on the respective client device, The change includes selecting a transformation to be applied to the entire web page and dividing the entire web page into sub-documents to transmit fewer sub-documents than all the sub-documents in response to a request of the client device. And at least one of the transmitted sub-documents comprises a link to an adjacent sub-document. Obtaining information about a preference from the client device in relation to a predetermined change to be performed on the entire document requested by the client device not configured to display the entire document; Associating the preference with the client device by storing a preference according to the client device in a database, The change comprises selecting a transformation to be applied to the entire document and dividing the entire document into subdocuments and sending fewer subdocuments than all the subdocuments in response to a request of the client device; And at least one of the transmitted sub-documents contains a link to an adjacent sub-document. Creating content for the web page to be provided to types of client devices not configured to display the entire web page; Storing information relating to the conversion to be performed for the entire web page to be suitable for display on the client devices, The stored information is respectively stored according to a corresponding one of the client devices, the stored information associating each of the types of client devices with a transformation to be performed for the entire web page requested by that type, The conversion includes dividing the entire web page into sub-documents in response to a request of the client devices to transmit fewer sub-documents than all the sub-documents, wherein at least one of the sub-documents to be transmitted is A configurable transformation method for an electronic document that includes a link to an adjacent child. The method of claim 1, wherein said digital document comprises an electronic mail.

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