Patent ID: 7024473

Claim:
A web server for facilitating communications with an embedded device through a gateway, the web server comprising: web pages, the web pages being downloadable by web clients and being usable by the web clients; an HTTP server for serving the web pages to the web clients; a user interface component, the user interface component being downloadable by a web client and being usable by the web client to present a user interface element that relates to an embedded device, the user interface element being capable of causing communication with the embedded device; a gateway communications module for communicating with the gateway, wherein the gateway is in electronic communication with the embedded device, and wherein the gateway is programmed to communicate with the embedded device, wherein the user interface element initiates instructions included in the gateway communications module to communicate with the embedded device; and the HTTP server operating to send the user interface component to the web client, the web client receiving and processing the user interface component to present the user interface element, wherein communication with the embedded device is initiated through use of the user interface element by the user interface element sending data to the HTTP server, the HTTP server sending the data to the gateway communications module, and the gateway communications module communicating with the gateway that communicates with the embedded device, wherein the HTTP server is further configured to determine whether third party software is necessary to process a data request sent by the web client, wherein the HTTP server is further configured to determine whether it has sufficient information and functionality to service the device request, and if yes, the HTTP server will service the device request without communicating with the gateway.