Patent ID: 8009619

Claim:
A server-based method for, comprising: receiving, at a server and via a communications network, a request for a communications link from a client communications component executing on a handheld device; establishing the communications link with the handheld device using a server communications interface executing on the server; automatically implementing, at a first time, a first protocol between the client communications component and the server based on a type of the communications link and a type of the handheld device, the first protocol being implemented while maintaining a standardized application programming interface (API) for the server communications interface, the communications link being established via the client communications component functioning with a device API component to configure hardware of the handheld device; and automatically implementing, at a second time after the first time, a second protocol, different from the first protocol, between the client communications component and the server based on a quality of the communications link at the second time, the first protocol and the second protocol being different ones of a socket full-duplex connection protocol, a socket half duplex connection protocol, an HTTP tunneling protocol, and an HTTP polling protocol.