Optimized HTML5 Electronic Programming Guide Application

Abstract

An electronic programming guide (EPG) data manager module is provided. The EPG data module provides an event driven infrastructure to provide EPG data to a hypertext markup language 5 (HTML5) applications. The HTML EPG application presents an EPG data window in a user interface on a display device. The EPG data is provided to the EPG application in scriptable data objects generated to be rendered by the HTML5 EPG application based upon the EPG data window to be presented.

1 . A system for presenting an electronic program guide (EPG) user interface (UI) on a display device, the system comprising:
 an EPG application defined in an Hypertext Markup Language 5 (HTML5) based platform, the HTML5 EPG application presenting programming information defined within an EPG data window in the UI on the display device; and   an EPG data manager module for providing EPG data received from one or more EPG data files to the HTML5 EPG application, the EPG data provided by scriptable data objects for the EPG data window, the scriptable data objects provided to the EPG application to render the EPG data window in the user interface on the display device.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the EPG data window is a subset of available EPG data. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  or  2  wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to a navigation event generated by the EPG application changing the EPG data rendered in the EPG data window. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  or  2  wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to an API call from the EPG application. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  or  2  wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to an EPG event associated with a change in the EPG data which results in a change in the EPG data window. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  or  2  wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to an EPG event associated with a change in time resulting in a change in the EPG data window. 
     
     
         7 . The system of any one of  claims 1  to  6  further comprising an event handler for providing EPG events to the EPG data manager module and receiving scriptable data objects from the EPG data manager module and instructing the EPG application to render the EPG using data from the scriptable data objects. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7  wherein the event handler generates navigation events in response to user navigation within the UI, the navigation event provided to the EPG data manager module. 
     
     
         9 . The system of any one of  claims 1  to  8  wherein the EPG data manager module determines an EPG data file from a plurality of EPG data files based upon the EPG data window, each EPG data file containing programming data for one or more content sources for a defined time period. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9  wherein the EPG data manager module decompresses one or more EPG data files from the plurality of EPG data files. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10  wherein the EPG data manager module extracts EPG data larger than the EPG data window from the one or more EPG data files and caches data based upon predictive cache actions based upon event requests received from an event handler. 
     
     
         12 . The system of any one of  claims 1  to  11  wherein the EPG data manager module is a compiled intermediate level language product compiled directly to a hardware instruction set. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12  wherein the EPG data manager module is generated in native code compiled from C or C++. 
     
     
         14 . The system of any one of  claims 1  to  13  wherein the an EPG data manager module retrieves an overview file for rendering the EPG data window prior to retrieving EPG data from the one or more EPG data files the overview file providing high-level EPG data while detailed EPG data is retrieved from the one or more EPG data files. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claims 14  wherein the overview file provides one or more of channel, program title, genre, rating, start time or duration. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claims 15  wherein the one or data files provides one or more of channel, program title, genre, rating, air date, production date, start time, duration, description, actor, icons. 
     
     
         17 . A method of generating an electronic program guide (EPG) by a processor in a user interface presented on a display device, the method comprising:
 determining an EPG data window to be presented in an Hypertext Markup Language 5 (HTML5) EPG application in the user interface presented on the display device;   generating at least one scriptable data object from EPG data based upon the determined EPG data window; and   providing the generated scriptable data object to the HTML5 EPG application to instruct rendering of the EPG data in the user interface presented on the display device.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the EPG data window is determined by receiving EPG configuration parameters from the HTML5 EPG application, the configuration parameters defining the EPG data window to be presented from the EPG data. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17  or  18  wherein the EPG data window is a subset of available EPG data. 
     
     
         20 . The method of any one of  claims 17  to  19  wherein determining the EPG data window further comprises receiving a navigation event generated by the EPG application changing EPG data to be presented in the EPG data window wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to the navigation event. 
     
     
         21 . The method of any one of  claims 17  to  20  wherein determining the EPG data window further comprises receiving an EPG event associated with a change in the EPG data therefore changing the EPG data window wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to the EPG event. 
     
     
         22 . The method of any one of  claims 17  to  21  wherein determining the EPG data window further comprises determining an EPG event based upon a change in time therefore changing the EPG data to be presented in the EPG data window wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to the change in time. 
     
     
         23 . The method in any one of  claims 17  to  22  wherein the EPG data is provided in one or more data files, wherein the EPG data is retrieved by decompressing data from the one or more data files to retrieve the EPG data to generate the scriptable data objects. 
     
     
         24 . The method in  claim 23  wherein generating the at least one scriptable data object from EPG data further comprises:
 determining one or more data files that are associated with the data window; 
 retrieving the determined one or more data files; and 
 decompressing the retrieved one or more data files. 
 
     
     
         25 . The method of any one of  claims 17  to  24  wherein each scriptable data object contains status information NOCHANGED, ADDED, UPDATED or REMOVED to aid to the EPG application in efficiently updating rendering of the EPG data window. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  where each scriptable data object contains one or more CSS selectors that reflect a display state of the scriptable data object. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26  where the CSS selectors are calculated by based on the scriptable data object attributes. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising the retrieving an overview file of EPG data for generating the at least one scriptable data object. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28  further comprising retrieving an overview file of EPG data for generating the at least one scriptable data object before retrieving the one or more data files. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising:
 retrieving an overview file of EPG data for generating the at least one scriptable data object before retrieving the one or more data files, the one or more data file provided additional EPG data; 
 generating at least one scriptable data object from EPG data based upon the determined EPG data window from the overview file; and 
 providing the generated scriptable data object to the HTML5 EPG application to instruct rendering of the EPG data in the user interface presented on the display device before retrieving the one or more data files. 
 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claims 30  wherein the overview file provides one or more of channel, program title, genre, rating, start time or duration. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claims 31  wherein the one or data files provides one or more of channel, program title, genre, rating, air date, production date, start time, duration, description, actor, icons. 
     
     
         33 . A non-transitory computer readable memory containing instructions for generating an electronic program guide (EPG) by a processor in a user interface presented on a display device, the instructions comprising for implementing the method of  claims 17  to  32 . 
     
     
         34 . A method of presenting an electronic programming guide (EPG) the method comprising:
 determining an EPG data window for display in the EPG;   retrieving an overview file that covers a requested EPG data window;   generating a scriptable data object from overview EPG data in the overview file;   rendering the EPG guide using scriptable data object having the overview data;   retrieving one or more data file segments having full data for the requested EPG data window;   generating an updated scriptable data object from EPG data in the one or more data file segments; and   rendering the EPG guide using the updated scriptable data object from the EPG data in the EPG data window.   
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34  further comprising determining if full EPG data for the EPG data window has already been previously cached, if the full EPG data has been cached the EPG guide is rendered using the full EPG data. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 34  or  35  further comprising decompressing the one or more data file segments prior to generating the updated scriptable data object. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 36  wherein the one or data files segments is decompressed in the background. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 37  wherein an EPG application is defined in a Hypertext Markup Language 5 (HTML5) based platform, the HTML5 EPG application presenting programming information defined within an EPG data window in the user interface on a display device. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 38  wherein the EPG data manager provides EPG data received from one or more EPG data files to the HTML5 EPG application, the EPG data provided by scriptable data objects for the EPG data window, the scriptable data objects provided to the EPG application to render the EPG data window in the user interface on the display device. 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 39  wherein the EPG data window is determined by receiving EPG configuration parameters from the HTML5 EPG application, the configuration parameters defining an EPG time period for the EPG data window to be presented from the EPG data. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40  wherein the EPG data window is a subset of available EPG data. 
     
     
         42 . The method of any one of  claim 34  or  41  wherein determining the EPG data window further comprises receiving a navigation event generated by the EPG application changing EPG data to be presented in the EPG data window wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to the navigation event. 
     
     
         43 . The method of any one of  claims 34  to  41  wherein determining the EPG data window further comprises receiving an EPG event associated with a change in the EPG data therefore changing the EPG data window wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to the EPG event. 
     
     
         44 . The method of any one of  claims 34  to  41  wherein determining the EPG data window further comprises determining an EPG event based upon a change in time therefore changing the EPG data to be presented in the EPG data window wherein the scriptable data object is generated in response to the change in time. 
     
     
         45 . The method of any one of  claims 34  to  44  wherein each scriptable data object contain status information NOCHANGED, ADDED, UPDATED or REMOVED to aid to the EPG application in efficiently updating rendering of the EPG. 
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 45  where each scriptable data object contains one or more CSS selectors that reflect a display state of the scriptable data object. 
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 46  where the CSS selectors are calculated based on the scriptable data object attributes. 
     
     
         48 . The method of any one of  claims 34  to  47  wherein the overview file provides one or more of channel, program title, genre, rating, start time or duration. 
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 48  wherein the one or data files provides one or more of channel, program title, genre, rating, air date, production date, start time, duration, description, actor, and icons. 
     
     
         50 . A non-transitory computer readable memory containing instructions for generating an electronic program guide (EPG) by a processor in a user interface presented on a display device, the instructions comprising for implementing the method of  claims 34  to  49 .