Source: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/9026581.html
Timestamp: 2018-09-25 00:50:50
Document Index: 291809212

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 61', 'Application No. 61', 'Application No. 61', 'Application No. 61', 'Application No. 61', 'application No. 61']

Mobile device and method of operating same to interface content provider website - Google Technology Holdings LLC
United States Patent 9026581
In a mobile device, a method of interacting with a first social networking website by way of a network includes communicating indirectly with the first social networking website by interacting with an intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the first social networking website. The method further includes determining, based at least in part upon a user input received at the mobile device, that the mobile device should communicate directly with the first social networking website in a manner not involving the intermediate web server. The method also includes communicating with the first social networking website directly in the manner not involving the intermediate web server. In another embodiment, the method relates to interacting with a plurality of social networking sites including a first social networking website and a second social networking site.
Wheeler, Maxon R. (San Jose, CA, US)
Camp II, William N. (Mountain View, CA, US)
Mamitsuka, Lien T. (San Jose, CA, US)
Putterman, Scott I. (Cupertino, CA, US)
Wei, Kai (San Jose, CA, US)
12/878839
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This application claims the benefit of each of the following U.S. provisional patent applications, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/241,291, titled “Mobile Device and Method of Operating Same to Interface Content Provider Website” and filed on Sep. 10, 2009; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/241,301, titled “Method and System for Intermediating Content Provider Website and Mobile Device” and filed on Sep. 10, 2009; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/241,129, titled “Method of Exchanging Photos With Interface Content Provider Website” and filed on Sep. 10, 2009; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/241,370, titled “System, Server and Mobile Device for Content Provider Website Interaction and Method Therefore” and filed on Sep. 10, 2009; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/241,144, titled “Method Generating a Message for One or More Social Networking Websites” and filed on Sep. 10, 2009.
1. In a mobile device, a method of interacting with a first social networking website and a second social networking website by way of a network, the method comprising: (a) communicating indirectly with the first social networking website by interacting with an intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the first social networking website; (b) receiving, from the intermediate web server, notifications and first information, wherein the mobile device receives at least some of the notifications in an asynchronous manner off of the network via a push channel from the intermediate web server at times determined by the intermediate web server, and wherein the mobile device receives the first information following a pull request; (c) communicating indirectly with a second social networking website also by interacting with the intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the second social networking website, wherein the mobile device receives the first information from the first social networking website by way of the intermediate web server; (d) displaying on the mobile device each of the first and second information in a format that is standardized and excludes at least some formatting information that would be present if the mobile device had received the first and second information based upon communications with the first and second social networking websites directly in a manner not involving the intermediate web server; (e) determining, based at least in part upon a user input received at the mobile device, that the mobile device should communicate directly with the first social networking website in a manner not involving the intermediate web server; and (f) communicating with the first social networking website directly in the manner not involving the intermediate web server.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is an internet-type communication network that includes at least one wireless communication link.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (g) further determining that the mobile device should again communicate indirectly with the first social networking website by interacting with the intermediate web server; and (h) further communicating indirectly with the first social networking website by interacting with the intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the first social networking website.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating in step (f) is conducted simultaneously with additional communicating of the mobile device indirectly with the first social networking website by interacting with the intermediate web server.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the push channel is further established by the intermediate web server, and wherein the push channel employs one of more of a transmission control protocol (TCP), an extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP), and an asynchronous communications technique.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least some additional communications of the mobile device in relation to the web server involve web services calls, and the at least some additional communications allow for data transfer between the mobile device and the web server.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information lacks at least some formatting information that would be present if the first information had been received by the mobile device directly from the first social networking website.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device receives from the intermediate web server a common changelist with updates from a plurality of content providers and updates the information provided to the user from the common changelist.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information includes difference information indicative of one or more changes that have occurred in content available from the first social networking website at two different times.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information includes at least one of message information, friend identification information, status update information, happenings information, and news.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device receives the first information in response to polling signals transmitted from the mobile device onto the network for receipt by the intermediate web server.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating in (a) includes transmitting a picture file for receipt by the intermediate web server, receiving an identifier back from the intermediate web server for identifying the picture to the server and the device.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein, as part of the communicating in step (a) or the receiving in step (b), the mobile device receives both content information and an identifier indicative of which of a plurality of social networking websites including the first social networking website supplied the content information.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein as part of the communicating in (a), the mobile device transmits content information for receipt by the web server and additionally transmits an instruction for receipt by the web server that instructs the web server to additionally share at least some of the content information with a second social networking website.
15. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying on a screen of the mobile device at least one input entry feature, wherein the at least one input entry feature includes at least one of an input button, a text field into which text can be entered, and a selectable icon, and wherein the communicating in (a) includes transmitting information received at the mobile device as entered by a user by way of interaction with the at least one input entry feature.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input is indicative of a request for additional information from the first social networking site that cannot be provided to the mobile device by way of the intermediate web server, and wherein the mobile device automatically proceeds to step (f) upon completing the determining in step (e).
17. In a mobile device, a method of interacting with a first content provider website and a second content provider website by way of a network, the method comprising: (a) communicating indirectly with the first content provider website by interacting with an intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the first content provider website; (b) communicating indirectly with a second content provider website also by interacting with the intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the second content provider website; (c) receiving, from the intermediate web server, notifications, first information, and second information, wherein the mobile device receives the first information from the first content provider website by way of the intermediate web server and receives the second information from the second content provider website by way of the intermediate web server; (d) determining, based at least in part upon a user input received at the mobile device, that the mobile device should communicate directly with the first content provider website in a manner not involving the intermediate web server; and (e) communicating with the first content provider website directly in the manner not involving the intermediate web server.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: displaying on the mobile device each of the first and second information in a format that is standardized and excludes at least some formatting information that would be present if the mobile device had received the information based upon communications with the websites directly in a manner not involving the intermediate web server, wherein the mobile device receives at least some of the notifications in an asynchronous manner off of the network via a push channel from the web server at times determined by the intermediate web server, and wherein the mobile device receives first information following a pull request.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising: providing a user interface by way of the mobile device, wherein the user interface presents a choice of a plurality of content provider websites including the first content provider website and the second content provider website; receiving at the mobile device a first selection of one or more of the plurality of the content provider websites; determining a first parameter pertaining to a first type of message to be entered via the user interface based upon the first selection; further receiving at the mobile device a second selection of one or more of the plurality of the content provider websites, the second selection being different than the first selection; and determining a second parameter pertaining to the first type of message to be entered via the user interface, wherein the second parameter differs from the first parameter based upon the second selection; and receiving a message of the first type in accordance with at least one of the first and second parameters.
20. In a mobile device, a method of interacting with a first social networking website and a second social networking website by way of a network, the method comprising: (a) communicating indirectly with the first social networking website by interacting with an intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the first social networking website; (b) receiving from the intermediate web server, notifications and first information, wherein the mobile device receives the first information following a pull request, wherein the mobile device receives the first information from the first social networking website by way of the intermediate web server, and wherein the first information lacks at least some formatting information that would be present if the first information had been received by the mobile device directly from the first social networking website; (c) communicating indirectly with a second social networking website also by interacting with the intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the second social networking website by way of the intermediate web server; (d) displaying on the mobile device each of the first and second information in a format that is standardized; (e) determining, based at least in part upon a user input received at the mobile device, that the mobile device should communicate directly with the first social networking website in a manner not involving the intermediate web server; and (f) communicating with the first social networking website directly in the manner not involving the intermediate web server.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the mobile device receives at least some of the notifications in an asynchronous manner off of the network via a push channel from the intermediate web server at times determined by the intermediate web server, and wherein the first information is in a compressed format.
22. The method of claim 10, wherein the first information is in a compressed format.
Content provider websites (CPWs), such as social networking websites (SNWs), news feeds, music and photograph websites, as well as other types of websites such as business-to-business (b2b) or business-to-consumer (b2c) websites, are interactive websites that allow for the downloading and/or uploading (e.g., posting) of various forms of data, such as news, weather, personal and/or business information, pictures, videos, and songs and thereby facilitate the creation and maintaining of interpersonal connections among persons and groups of persons. The uploading of data to a CPW by one user can allow other users to access and/or download the uploaded data. Typically, a SNW provides the architecture for countless users to create respective personal or professional spaces that respectively identify the respective users and allow uploaded data to be associated with the respective spaces.
In at least one embodiment, the present invention relates to a method in a mobile device, where the method is for interacting with a first social networking website by way of a network. The method includes (a) communicating indirectly with the first social networking website by interacting with an intermediate web server by way of the network, the intermediate web server in turn being in communication with the first social networking website, and (b) receiving from the intermediate web server, notifications and first information, wherein the mobile device receives at least some of the notifications in an asynchronous manner off of the network via a push channel from the web server at times determined by the intermediate web server, and wherein the mobile device receives the first information following a pull request. The method further includes (c) determining, based at least in part upon a user input received at the mobile device, that the mobile device should communicate directly with the first social networking website in a manner not involving the intermediate web server; and (d) communicating with the first social networking website directly in the manner not involving the intermediate web server.
In another embodiment, the present invention relates to a method in a mobile device, where the method is for communicating with a first social networking site by way of a network and an intermediate web server. The method includes establishing a push channel over the network by which the mobile device is capable of receiving communications from the intermediate web server, and receiving first information off of the network arriving from the intermediate web server, the first information being communicated over the network over the push channel at a first time determined by the intermediate web server. The method additionally includes receiving second information off of the network arriving from the intermediate web server, the second information being communicated at a second time, wherein at least some of each of the first information and the second information has originated from the first social networking site, and establishing an additional communication link over the network by which the mobile device is capable of directly communicating with the first social networking site without communicating with the intermediate web server.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing example components of the intermediary web server of FIG. 1; and
FIGS. 4-9 are flow charts showing various example steps of operation of the intermediary web server and mobile devices of FIG. 1.
Although three mobile devices 102 are shown in FIG. 1, in other embodiments only one mobile device is present in communication with the web server 104, or alternatively any arbitrary number of mobile devices can be in communication with the web server 104. Likewise, although three CPWs 106 are shown in FIG. 1, in other embodiments only one CPW is in communication with the web server 104, or alternatively any arbitrary number of CPWs can be in communication with the web server 104. Additionally, any arbitrary number of mobile device(s) can be in communication with any arbitrary number of CPW(s) by way of direct communication links such as the link 110 in other embodiments. That is, FIG. 1 is intended to be representative of any of a variety of systems employing any arbitrary number of mobile devices and any arbitrary number of CPWs that are in communication with one another either indirectly via a web server interface or directly with one another.
As will be discussed below in more detail with regard to FIGS. 4-7, the web server 104 is configured to serve as an intermediary between the mobile devices 102 and the CPWs 106. Various types of communications between the mobile devices 102 and CPWs 106 are passed through, processed and/or monitored by the web server 104 including, for example, communications involving the uploading and downloading of files (e.g. photos, music, videos, text entries, etc.), blog postings, and messaging (e.g., short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and Instant Messaging (IM)). The CPWs are generally intended to encompass a variety of interactive websites that allow for the downloading and uploading (e.g., posting) of various forms of data, such as personal and/or business information, pictures, videos, and songs and thereby facilitate the creation and maintaining of interpersonal connections among persons and groups of persons. Examples of CPWs include, for example, Facebook™, MySpace™, hi5™, LinkedIn™, and Twitter™. For purposes of the present invention, CPWs can also be understood to encompass various other types of websites (e.g., business-to-business or business-to-consumer websites) that, while not focused entirely or predominantly upon social networking, nevertheless also include social networking-type features. Other content provider websites include sources of RSS or other news feeds, photograph services such as Picasa™ or Photobucket™, and music services such as LastFM™.
Referring to FIG. 2, there is provided a block diagram illustrating example internal components 200 of a mobile device such as the mobile device 102 in accordance with the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the components 200 include one or more wireless transceivers 202, 203, 205 a processor 204 (e.g., a microprocessor, microcomputer, application-specific integrated circuit, etc.), a memory portion 206, one or more output devices 208, and one or more input devices 210. In at least some embodiments, a user interface is present that comprises one or more output devices 208, such as a display, and one or more input device 210, such as a keypad or touch sensor. The internal components 200 can further include a component interface 212 to provide a direct connection to auxiliary components or accessories for additional or enhanced functionality. The internal components 200 preferably also include a power supply 214, such as a battery, for providing power to the other internal components while enabling the mobile device to be portable. All of the internal components 200 can be coupled to one another, and in communication with one another, by way of one or more internal communication links 232 (e.g., an internal bus).
Each of the wireless transceivers 202 utilizes a wireless technology for communication, which can include for example (but are not limited to) cellular-based communication technologies such as analog communications (using AMPS), digital communications (using CDMA, TDMA, GSM, iDEN, GPRS, EDGE, etc.), and next generation communications (using UMTS, WCDMA, LTE, IEEE 802.16, etc.) or variants thereof, or peer-to-peer or ad hoc communication technologies such as HomeRF (radio frequency), Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 (a, b, g or n), or other wireless communication technologies such as infrared technology. In the present embodiment, the wireless transceivers 202 include a cellular transceiver 203 and a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver 205, although in other embodiments only one of these types of wireless transceivers (and possibly neither of these types of wireless transceivers, and/or other types of wireless transceivers) is present. By virtue of the use of the wireless transceivers 202, the mobile device 102 is capable of communicating both with the CPW 106 by way of the communication link 110 and also with the web server 104 (and thus indirectly again with the CPW 106) by way of the communication link 105.
Upon completion of the filtering substep 514, the process then advances to a substep 516, in which the web server 104 (specifically the front end portion 308 of the web server) determines one or more differences that may exist between the information that was obtained at the step 406 from the CPW 106 and previous information that was received earlier from the same CPW. In the present embodiment, it is only such difference information that is ultimately transmitted back to the mobile device 102. As already noted, the substeps represented by FIG. 5 corresponding to the step 408 of FIG. 4 end at the substep 518. It will be recognized that step 516 can advantageously occur in the back end portion 306 between steps 504 and 506, in which case the information will only be further processed in the web server 104 if there is a change in CPW information from the previous time content was pulled for the particular subscriber. This will free up server resources to continue to pull information from the CPW for the user of device 102 or other users who use the intermediary web server and the CPW.
The appropriate time at which low importance processed information is sent by the web server 104 to the mobile device 102 can be based upon various considerations. For example, in some embodiments, such appropriate times are merely periodically-occurring times at which the mobile device 102 polls the web server 104 for information. Such polling typically involves the repeated sending of inquiry signals from the mobile device 102 to the web server 104. In other cases, an appropriate time occurs when the particular circumstances have arisen. For example, an appropriate time for sending low importance processed information can occur when the mobile device 102 makes a request if additionally it is the case that by that same time the web server 104 has determined that a certain quantity of low importance processed information has been stored for transmission to the mobile device. Although in the above description the obtaining of information by the web server 104 is described as involving pulling while the obtaining by the mobile device of low importance information from the web server is described as involving polling, it should be understood that either pulling or polling operations (and either periodic or asynchronous communications) can be used by either of the web server and the mobile device, respectively, to obtain information from the CPW and the web server, respectively, depending upon the embodiment. Additionally, it is envisioned that the server 104 can be pulling information from the CPW 106 when the mobile device 102 is not connected to the server, as a consequence of which the server will hold information until the mobile device reconnects, or when enough time elapses that the server deletes the information.
It is envisioned that the user ID and password required for the web server 104 to upload and download content to and from the CPW 106 for a particular user account on the CPW can be loaded into the web server 104 by the user when the mobile device 102 first connects to the server and sets up the CPW on the web server. The web server will store the user ID and password in the memory, and access the CPW using the user ID and password as long as the user does not change them, to maintain a persistent connection with the CPW regardless of whether the mobile device 102 is connected. It is further envisioned that the pulling of information by the web server 104 from the CPWs 106 can be reduced in frequency, or completely paused (or terminated), if the mobile device does not request information from the server for a predetermined time period, or if the web server queue containing content to be further downloaded to the device exceeds an age threshold and/or a storage capacity threshold.
Upon the establishment of the communication link at the step 436, or if it is determined at the step 432 that a communication link was already established with the other CPW, then the process advances to the step 438, at which the content information is uploaded to the other CPW. Thus, by virtue of the steps 430-438 the content information already provided to a first CPW at the step 428 is additionally provided to another CPW. It will be understood that, although FIG. 4 does not show immediate looping in the repeat performing of the steps 418-438, the steps can be repeated numerous times in relation to numerous portions of information and more than one additional CPW. It is envisioned that the content will be provided from the mobile device 102 in a uniform format, and that the server back end portion will format the data separately and appropriately for each of the target CPWs to which the content is being uploaded.
It is envisioned that the back end portion 306 can include a separate plug-in for each CPW 106, including respective APIs appropriate for its respective CPW. Each of the plug-ins includes APIs for its respective CPW by which the plug-in pulls information from the web site and reformats the information into the universal format of the mobile device 102 client. Additionally, content from the mobile device will be reformatted from the uniform format of the mobile device 102 client program to the appropriate format specified by the CPW associated with that plug-in when uploaded by the back end portion 306. In this way, content from the mobile device 102 can be sent in a single message having a uniform format and it will be routed as selected by the user and formatted by each of the back end portion plug-ins for each of the respective CPWs to which it is targeted.
Once the notifications have been sent in either of the steps 808 or 810, then at a step 812 the front end portion 308 of the web server 104 at a later time can receive a request from the mobile device 102 to send the change information itself. The request can be received at any time as determined by the mobile device 102. Often, if the change information is of high importance, the mobile device 102 will immediately or very soon after receiving the notification at the step 808 send the request for the information. In contrast, if the change information is of low importance, the mobile device will often wait until a predetermined time (e.g., a periodic or non-periodic polling time) for such a request has been attained. For example, the device may wait no more than 5 minutes to request high importance information and wait 15-30 minutes between requests to download the low importance information. In any event, upon a request for transmission of the change information being received from the mobile device 102 at the step 812, then the requested change information is subsequently sent by the front end portion 308 of the web server 104 to the mobile device 102. In the present example, it is preferable that this change information is not sent by the push channel, or alternatively that only high-importance change information is sent by the push channel, to reduce the amount of time the mobile device is powered up to receive the change content, though it is recognized that in other embodiments all of the change information can be sent via the push channel.
Upon the sending of this information at the step 814, or if no request for information is received (or at least not received within a predetermined time period) at the step 812 or if no change was detected in the information received from the CPW 106 at the step 802, then the process returns to the node C (and thus to the step 418) of FIG. 4. It will be recognized that, should no content be required for uploading to the CPW, the web server 104 will typically repeatedly return to step 406 as it will continue to pull content from the CPW independently of whether content is being uploaded to the mobile device 102 client.
Although in the present example, notifications of change information are provided in the same manner by way of the push channel at the steps 808 and 812 regardless of whether the change information is of high importance or of low importance, this need not always be the case. In other embodiments, for example, a notification regarding a high importance change can be sent more promptly than, or in some other manner than, a notification regarding a low importance change. Further, while in the present example of FIG. 8 the sending of the change information at the step 814 occurs at a different time than the sending of the notifications at the steps 808, 810, this need not always be the case. For example, in one other embodiment, in the event the content of high-importance change information is small (e.g., a text message of less than 100 characters), that content can be provided along with (or even serve as) the notification of the high importance change. From the above description, it should also be apparent that in at least some embodiments the operation of the back end portion can be largely or entirely independent from the operation of the front end portion in terms of the different portions' respective communications with the CPW 106 and the mobile device 102. A variety of different types of communications, for example those involving pulling or polling, or periodic or asynchronous communications, can be employed by either end portion irrespective of the operations of the other end portion depending upon the embodiment. Thus, the back end portion 306 can continuously pull content from CPWs 106 and send changes to the front end portion 308 independent of what the front end portion is doing. The front end portion 308 can likewise push to the mobile device 102 and wait for requests to download change content, or synchronize the web server 104 and mobile device, without concern to what the back end portion 306 is doing at any particular moment.
In another alternate embodiment of the invention, the back end portion 306 includes a plurality of plug-ins, or processors, each of which is associated with a respective CPW 106. Each plug-in includes application programming interfaces (APIs) for its associated CPW 106. Each plug-in uses hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to persistently pull information from its respective CPW 106. When changes are detected by the back end portion 306 plug-ins, the changes are loaded into a queue and the front end portion 308 pushes a notification to the mobile device 102. All of the plug-ins in the back end portion 306 will continue to load the queue with information formatted according to a common format that includes, for example, the ID of the source of the information (the source CPW identification), the account ID of the mobile device (user device), the content type, the priority, and the information. For status, for example, the format can be: type (STATUS, MOOD, STATUS_AND_MOOD), action (clear status or update status), provider, aggregation service account id, external id, friend id if the update is for a friend, status text, post date and time. The web server 104 builds a unified feed for each user device (or user account) by combining the content pulled by all of the plug-ins into a common change list for each respective device (or user account). The content is built over time, and each entry can be time stamped.
The following algorithm can be used for detecting a change during server sync, with server sync being understood to involve syncing of the web server 104 with a CPW 106 (by comparison, client sync can be understood to involve syncing of a client such as the mobile device 102 with the web server). The web server 104 program maintains three numbers for each account: cla, w1, and w2. The cla is the change list anchor, w1 is the beginning time (sample) of the change list window, and w2 is the end time (sample) of the change list window. The web server 104 stores the portion of the change list that falls inside the window [w1,w2]. All changes found during a server sync (i.e., the back end portion pulling from the CPW) are stamped with a sync anchor equal to the current w2 (i.e., before w2 is incremented by 1). The program suspends server sync (CPW size sync) once the window size reaches or exceeds the maximum window size mw. Once suspended, the server will resume server sync when a new client poll is received. The other variables are ca is the client anchor, OFF is a flag indicating no sync activity. The values of cla, w1, and w2 are updated according to the following state transition rules:
server sync w2 = w2 + 1, off = 1 if w2 − w1 >= mw
client sync, cla < w1 and cla = w2 + 1, w1 = cla, w2 = cla, off = 0
(ca < w1 or ca > w2) (aka “change list reset”)
When the client polls for changes, if the client anchor ca falls inside [w1, w2], then a partial sync will work and the web server 104 sends back changes that fall within [ca, w2] (and deletes changes older than ca). At the conclusion of the sync, ca will be updated. If when the client polls for changes, the client anchor fell outside of [w1, w2], a new full sync will occur between the web server 104 and the client program in mobile device 102.
It is envisioned that server sync (the back end plug-ins pulling content for a particular device 102) can be suspended for a particular mobile device 102 account when the window size reaches mw, in which case a few missed pushes (notifications to the device) may cause service outage for a device in the absence of client polling. It is envisioned that it may be advantageous to send pushes if there are pending changes since last w2, where pushes can be sent as long as there are pending changes since wt.
It is further envisioned that the intermediary web server 104 described herein can be advantageously employed with the device polling manager described in U.S. provisional application No. 61/180,301, entitled A MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE AND METHOD WITH ENHANCED POLING MANAGEMENT, filed on May 21, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Photo uploading will now be described as an example of uploading content. The intermediary web server 104 can be employed to optimize a process of uploading photos from a mobile device 102 to multiple CPWs 106, which in this example are social networking systems, by caching the photos at an intermediate web server 104 memory 302. An exemplary flow can be as follows:
1. The web server front end indicates to the back end portion that a user device uploaded a photograph;
2. The web server front end or back end will give the new photo a photo URL and a system wide unique photo ID;
3. The photo ID is downloaded to the device, responsive to which the device client program associates the photo ID with the photo name;
4. The back end portion downloads the file over HTTP to a location such as /tmp/uniquephotoid.tmp;
5. The respective back end portion plug-ins associated with each of the target CPWs submit work.uploadPhoto for each CPW to upload this photo file;
6. The back end portion provides a report back to the front end portion of the success or failure of the photo share;
7. The front end can optionally notify the user device of the success or failure;
8. After a predetermined time period has passed, the photograph is deleted.
In operation, the photographs from the mobile device 102 are uploaded from the device to the front end portion 308. The front end portion 308 or the back end portion 306 caches the photos in the intermediate web server memory 302 for a predetermined time period to allow the same photo to be submitted to the web sites of different systems without requiring the photo to be uploaded again by the mobile device. After the predetermined time period, the photo will be erased. The predetermined period may be any time period, and is selected according to the memory constraints and the frequency of use. The time period may for example be 24 hours, which time period can start at the time the photograph is upload to the memory, whereby the time period is set once the picture is uploaded, or the time period may start upon the uploading of the photograph to a CPW, whereby the time period will be extended each time the picture is uploaded to a new CPW.
For one exemplary embodiment, a photograph is uploaded from mobile device 102 as an action, along with the identification of a specified CPW 106, to the server front end portion 308 and stored in temporary storage of the network server. The front end portion 308 forwards the photo to a plug-in in the back end portion 306 of the server 104 that can for example be dedicated to the CPW 106 specified by the mobile device 102. The network server front end portion 308 also sends a message including a photo identification (ID) associated with the saved photograph back to the mobile device 102. The photo ID identifies a location or pointer to the location where the photo is stored at the web server memory 302. The mobile device 102 associates (maps) the photo ID with the name of the photo. Subsequently, if the mobile device 102 elects via the user interface to send the same photo to a different CPW (e.g., a different social networking system), the mobile device will send the photo ID, instead of the actual photo, to the web server 104. In response the web server 104 will retrieve the photo and forward it to another plug-in dedicated to the other CPW. It is envisioned that once the photo is removed from the memory 302, an update will be sent to the mobile device 102 to remove the association of the photo name and the photo ID, so that the mobile device will upload the photograph. If on the other hand the photo is no longer stored, and the web server 104 receives a request to upload the photo associated with the photo ID, the front end portion 308 will send an error message to the subscriber mobile device responsive to which the subscriber device will be invited to upload the photo again.
For other embodiments, the web server back end portion 306 will determine whether the photo uploaded from the mobile device 102 is within the requisite limitations (e.g., dimensions and size) of the target CPW (e.g., social networking system). It is envisioned that this can be processed by the plug-in associated with each CPW when a picture is removed from the memory 302, as each plug-in can store the CPW's limitations on photographs. If the limitations are met, the back end portion can send the photo through to the target CPW. Otherwise, the photo will be resized according to the requirements of the CPW. In order to resize the photograph, and/or scale the photo to a target size, a resize factor is determined. A particularly advantageous algorithm that can be used to determine the resize factor X is as follows:
By storing a photograph in the web server 104, the server helps reduce power consumption in the device and bandwidth burdens on the communication network by permitting the mobile device to send media to different CPWs at different times while uploading the media only once through the local area network or wide area network over which the mobile device 102 communicates. Additionally, the web server 104 can adopt the media to the format desired by each CPW, and the mobile device 102 need not know or accommodate these requirements to successfully upload the media.
It is also envisioned that photographs can be downloaded to the mobile devices via the intermediary web server. For example, for RSS news feeds, photos from an RSS content source are pulled by the back end portion from the news feed, along with a news feed summary. When the back end portion 306 detects that such news information is new, or in other words that a change has occurred since the previous RSS news feed was pulled from this CPW by the back end portion, the back end portion of the server 104 will transmit to the front end portion 308 a feed properly formatted for the client mobile device 102. The front end portion 308 will generate a low priority push notification to the client device 102 and the queue for the device 102 will be loaded with the summary and the photograph. When the client device 102 thereafter sends a polling request to the front end portion 308 for content, the front end portion will transmit the contents of the queue including the news feed, which contains the formatted picture and the summary. The client program on the mobile device 102 will display the summary and associated picture on the mobile device 102 display 216. The back end portion 306 thus detects and formats the new picture and summary for the device, and the front end portion 308 notifies the device that content is available and responds to a polling request from the device to download the news feed to the mobile device 102. In addition to the above-described operation, in at least one additional embodiment, if the input 210 includes a touch sensor over the display (commonly referred to as a touch-screen), the user can touch the screen at the summary and picture and the user interface will connect directly through link 110 to the CPW associated with the news feed summary/picture and load additional information regarding the news feed on the display 216 for viewing by the user.
It is further envisioned that the client program in the mobile device 102 will store some definitions regarding the content types and characteristics for each CPW with respect to which the user has a server account. The user interface of the mobile device will vary depending on which accounts the user sets up on the server. For example, assume the user enters Facebook™ and Twitter™ on their web server 104 account. When the user interacts with user interface to construct a message to be uploaded to a CPW, the user interface display presents a choice of “Facebook”, “Twitter” or “ALL” for the target CPW where the message will be sent. Depending on which selection is made, the parameters for the message may be different (e.g., the number of characters). If the user selects all, the length will be the shorter of the two CPW limitations. It is further envisioned that a length count and warning can be provided. As the user enters text, the remaining characters permitted before the limit is reached are displayed. At some threshold, such as 30 characters, a warning will be displayed. When the limit is exceeded, the remaining characters will go to a negative count, or the user will be prevented from inputting additional characters. In the event that the user changes the destination CPW, the limit will change appropriately. For example, if Twitter™ website is added as a destination after the message is created, the limit will be reduced. If Twitter™ website is removed as a destination, the limit increased.
The mobile device 102 generates a user interface display having operating parameters dependent on the one or more CPWs to which the user device set up on the intermediary web server 104. For messages, a generic message entry field is presented on a display for the user to input text, the size upper limit based on the smallest maximum message size permitted by the one or more CPWs selected to be the destination of the message text. The limit can be retained on the client mobile device. The mobile device client program can generate a warning when the message size gets within a predetermined amount of the limit. The limit changes if the one or more CPWs changes. The content from the user interface input populates the message input area, and can generate a warning when the limit is reached. The client program transmits the message to the server front end portion with the identity of the one or more CPWs. The back end portion formats the message for the one or more destination CPWs and uploads the message in the format desired by the CPW. From the above description, it should be evident that a variety of methods employing numerous different operational steps such as those discussed above, are encompassed by the present invention. Additionally, a variety of alternate embodiments are also intended to be encompassed by the present invention in addition to the specific embodiments discussed above, including embodiments employing methods having other operational steps in addition to or instead of those discussed above, as well as embodiments employing methods with steps in a variety of orders and combinations in addition to or instead of the particular orders or combinations of steps discussed above. Further it should be evident that systems in accordance with one or more of the embodiments described above are able to provide enhanced functionality in several regards in terms of facilitating interactions between mobile devices operated by users and social networking websites. Depending upon the embodiment, any one or more of the quality of communications between users and social networking websites, the user-friendliness of social networking websites and associated transactions as experienced by mobile device users, and/or the efficiency of communications between mobile devices and such websites can be enhanced.
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