The Internet is composed of content distributed in the World Wide Web and various intranets. While a large fraction of the content is static, the truly interesting content is the one that a user can interact with dynamically. This content is of various types including, but not limited to (i) the content stored in various databases, (ii) e-commerce web-pages, (iii) directories, (iv) intranet pages, (v) data warehouses, etc.
The interaction with this dynamic content is accomplished through (i) queries/submissions to databases, (ii) buying/selling/interacting through e-commerce, (iii) running queries and lookups in directories, (iv) accessing and interacting with content resident on intranet pages (including on individual computers), and/or (v) accessing, interacting with, adding, subtracting or modifying content resident in data warehouses.
The access to or interaction with this dynamic content is done in a variety of ways. For example, such interaction may be accomplished through direct access to the databases by running specific commands or through form submissions on the Internet that run specific queries or perform specific actions. This interaction requires the submission of necessary parameters or information to complete a query or interaction (addition, modification, subtraction) with the dynamic content. This information may need to be submitted in multiple steps. Once the submission of information is finished, the results of the interaction/query/e-commerce are sent back to the user.
Each time a user wishes to interact in the foregoing manner, the user is required to carry out each and every one of the steps associated with the submission of necessary parameters or information. If a same type of transaction is to be carried out in a repeated manner, this may be very time consuming and problematic.
Accordingly, accessing web content is more complicated than simply making individual HTTP requests. The prior art has yet to enable fetching of the same content as the user and rendering it the same way the user saw it. To do this, the appropriate content must first be fetched across the network. It must then be rendered correctly.
When fetching the content, the user may first be required to log in or run a search for a certain term. More generally, the content of interest could be generated by an arbitrary web transaction. Logging in and running a search are all examples of web transactions. Thus, fetching content requires support for various authentication and network protocols, management of client-side state information as well as support for the appropriate cipher strength.
It should be noted that fetching any interactive web content requires the ability to be able to execute web transactions. In the case of non-interactive content (e.g. the top headlines from a news site), no transaction is required to retrieve the content. One simply has to request the page from the remote server. However, if any interaction is required to access that content (e.g. weather report for a particular zip code), the transaction must be executed before the content can be retrieved.
Web transactions vary in their complexity. They may be as simple as entering a zip code to receive a customized weather report. On the other hand, they may be complex enough to involve logging in to a secure stock trading site, browsing to a particular page on the site, submitting a query and then browsing to a specific section in the report to obtain the current credit rating of a company.
Rendering the content is also a challenging problem. To start with, there is no well-defined standard for how web pages should display. Identical HTML is often rendered differently by competing browsers. Secondly, even apart from standards disputes and ambiguities, one can never be entirely sure that one has rendered a page as intended by the page designer. The designer may not have intended it for display on certain resolutions. Furthermore, not all browsers and clients are equally capable.
The aforementioned problems are compounded when attempting to access and navigate websites using wireless devices. Most websites are not wireless enabled. Nor can most wireless devices access and retrieve content from the websites directly.
There is therefore a need for a process that allows mobilization of any website to allow output of desired content on a mobile device in a format amenable to display on the mobile device. There is also a need for a method to render active content into a format amenable to display on a device that does not support active content. There is a further need for an interface that allows creation and manipulation of transaction patterns that automate interactions with content and applications.