Method and apparatus for communicating information over low bandwidth communications networks

Abstract

A system having a distributed web site is described. The web site is distributed between a client, a server and a web server. The client stores a set of predefined applications that correspond to a part of the web site. The applications are formatted according to a first markup language. From the set of predefined applications, the client can generate queries. The server receives the queries and generates new, related queries. The new queries correspond to a second query protocol. The second query protocol is used by the web server. The web server generates responses to the new queries and sends these responses to the server. The responses are formatted according to a second markup language. These responses correspond to the second portion of the web site. The server then converts the responses into new responses that the client can use.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A handheld computer comprising:
 a display;   an antenna;   a memory configured to store a set of data configured for a selected network site; and   a processor configured to:
 access the set of data from the memory to render a form for the selected network site, the form including one or more fields; 
 associate user-input to the one or more fields provided by the form; 
 signal a wireless communication over the antenna for the selected network site, the wireless communication comprising the form with the user-input being associated with the one or more fields, 
 receive a response over the antenna, the response originating from the selected network site; and 
 providing a content comprising one or more selectable pages appearing on the display, a first portion of the content being derived from the set of data for the selected network, a second portion of the content being derived from the response received over the antenna from the selected network site. 
   
     
     
       2. The handheld computer of  claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication is signaled from the antenna in a compressed markup language. 
     
     
       3. The handheld computer of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more pages comprising the content are linked to one another, and wherein at least some of the data for linking the one or more pages to one another is stored with the set of data configured for the selected network site. 
     
     
       4. The handheld computer of  claim 1 , wherein the response originating from the network site is received from the network site in a compressed markup language. 
     
     
       5. The handheld computer of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to access the set of data to structure the form so as to generate a response from the selected network site. 
     
     
       6. The handheld computer of  claim 2 , wherein the compressed markup language corresponds to Compact Markup Language (CML). 
     
     
       7. The handheld computer of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to access the pre-configured data to structure the form in Compact Markup Language (CML) so as to generate a response from the network site in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). 
     
     
       8. The handheld computer of  claim 1 , wherein at least some of the first portion of the content corresponds to the form. 
     
     
       9. A handheld computer comprising:
 a display;   a memory to store a set of data for a selected network site;   a processor configured to:
 execute an application associated with the selected network site, the application accessing the set of data to generate a query form to be signaled across a wireless channel to the network site; 
 execute a browser with the application to signal the query form to the network site, and to render a content comprising one or more pages, at least some of the content being derived from a response received from the network site, the one or more pages of the content being linked using data in the set of data. 
   
     
     
       10. The handheld computer of  claim 9 , wherein the application associated with the network site accesses the set of data to display a portion of one page of the one or more pages in the content concurrently with the browser using the response to display another portion of the one page. 
     
     
       11. The handheld computer of  claim 9 , wherein a portion of the content corresponds to the query form. 
     
     
       12. The handheld computer of  claim 10 , wherein a first portion of the content is static so as to be independent of the response received from the network site, and wherein a second portion of the content is dynamic so as to be determined by the response from the network site. 
     
     
       13. The handheld computer of  claim 10 , further comprising a serial port to exchange communications with another computer, and wherein the set of data for the selected network site is signaled from another computer over the serial port. 
     
     
       14. The handheld computer of  claim 13 , wherein the application associated with the selected network site is signaled from another computer over the serial port. 
     
     
       15. The handheld computer of  claim 9 , wherein the memory is configured to store a plurality of data sets, each data set corresponding to one of a plurality of network sites, and wherein the processor is configured to execute a plurality of applications, each of the plurality of applications being associated with one of the plurality of network sites, and each of the plurality of applications generating a query form configured for the associated one of the plurality of network sites. 
     
     
       16. The handheld computer of  claim 9 , wherein the application associates a plurality of network pages configured for the selected network site. 
     
     
       17. A method of processing queries from wireless client devices with limited processing power on a proximity server, comprising the steps of:
 receiving a query at the proximity server from one of the wireless client devices generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on a web server;   transmitting the query from the proximity server to a web server;   receiving a response to the query from the web server;   transforming the response into a special temporary markup language format with imbedded formatting commands and according to attributes associated with the wireless client device and usable by the wireless client device; and   transmitting the transformed response to the wireless client device.   
     
     
       18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one attribute associated with the wireless client device comprises display size and/or bit depth of the wireless client device. 
     
     
       19. A system for processing queries from a plurality of wireless client devices for a web server, the system comprising a proxy server communicating with the plurality of wireless client devices and the web server, the proxy server performing the steps:
 receiving a query at the proxy server from one of the wireless client devices, from a wireless client device generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on a web server;   transmitting the query from the proxy server to a web server;   receiving a response to the query from the web server;   transforming the response into a special temporary markup language format according to attributes associated with the wireless client device, and usable by the wireless client device; and   transmitting the transformed response to the wireless client device.   
     
     
       20. A method of communicating data between a wireless computing device and a web server, the method comprising:
 presenting at least one user-selectable option on a wireless computing device to a user using an application executed on the wireless computing device associated with a website operating on a web server;   receiving user input to the wireless computing device per the at least one user-selectable option;   transmitting a query to a proxy server via a first transport protocol, the query corresponding to the user input;   
       and on a proxy server:
 transmitting the query to a web server using a second transport protocol; 
 receiving a response from the web server comprising data encoded in a first markup language; 
 transforming the data encoded in the first markup language into a second special temporary markup language based on attributes associated with the wireless computing device; and 
 transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless computing device, wherein the wireless computing device displays a representation of the response comprising the transformed data. 
 
     
     
       21. The method of claim 20, wherein the attributes associated with the wireless computing device further comprise display size and/or bit depth. 
     
     
       22. A method of communicating data between a wireless computing device and a web server, the method comprising:
 presenting at least one user-selectable option on a wireless computing device to a user using an application executed on the wireless computing device associated with a website operating on a web server;   receiving user input to the wireless computing device per the at least one user-selectable option;   transmitting a query to a proxy server via a first transport protocol, the query corresponding to the user input;   transmitting the query to a web server using a second transport protocol;   receiving a response from the web server comprising data encoded in a first markup language;   transforming the data encoded in the first markup language into a special temporary second markup language based on attributes associated with a wireless network communication with the wireless computing device; and   transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless computing device, wherein the wireless computing device displays a representation of the response comprising the transformed data.   
     
     
       23. A proxy server for communicating data between a website and a plurality of wireless client devices, the proxy server comprising:
 means for receiving a query from a wireless client device generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on the web server and using a first transport protocol;   means for transmitting the received query to a web server using a second transport protocol;   means for receiving a response comprising data from the web server to the received query using a first markup language;   means for transforming the data in the response from the web server from the first markup language to a special temporary markup language format usable by the wireless client device; and   means for transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless client device for display on the wireless client device,   wherein:   the format usable by the wireless client device is a compact markup language with embedded formatting commands and relates to a screen size and/or bit depth of the wireless client device.   
     
     
       24. A proxy server for communicating data between a website and a plurality of wireless client devices, the proxy server comprising:
 means for receiving a query from a wireless client device generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on the web server and using a first transport protocol;   means for transmitting the received query to a web server using a second transport protocol;   means for receiving a response comprising data from the web server to the received query using a first markup language;   means for transforming the data encoded from the first markup language to a special temporary markup language format usable by the wireless client device, the special temporary format relating to attributes of a wireless network communication with the wireless client device; and   means for transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless client device for display on the wireless client device.   
     
     
       25. A proxy server for communicating data between a website and a plurality of wireless client devices, the proxy server comprising:
 means for receiving a query from a wireless client device generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on the web server using a first transport protocol;   means for transmitting the received query to a web server using a second transport protocol;   means for receiving a response comprising data from the web server using a first markup language;   means for transforming the data encoded in the first markup language to a special temporary markup language format usable by the wireless client device according to attributes associated with the respective wireless client device that generated the query; and   means for transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless client device for display on the wireless client device.   
     
     
       26. A method for operation of a proxy server with wireless client devices that transmits queries to, and receive responses from a web server, the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving a query, upon the event of a client providing input to a wireless client device to generate the query using an application that is associated with the content of the web server, and is in a first transfer protocol;   transmitting the query in the second transfer protocol to the web server;   receiving a response comprising data from the web server in a hypertext markup language;   transforming the received data to a special temporary markup language format usable by the wireless client device according to attributes of the wireless client device; and   transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless client device.   
     
     
       27. A method according to claim 17 wherein the step of transforming the received response includes, transforming the data in a hypertext markup language into a reduced version of the hypertext markup language usable by the wireless client device, the transforming further comprising the step of:
 generating the reduced version of the hypertext markup language according to at least one attribute of the wireless client device by reducing content in the response received from the web server.