Bidirectional mapping between applications and network content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9256697-B2
Application number	US-201213470236-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2012
Priority date	May 11, 2012
Publication date	Feb 9, 2016
Grant date	Feb 9, 2016

Abstract

A bidirectional mapping is established between network content and application programs, based on declarations at both the network content and at the application. Additionally, bidirectional mapping can provide for deep links, which can associate specific network content with a specific presentation of data in an application program. The identification format for such deep links can conform to a predetermined standard or it can be custom implemented according to a format declared either as part of the network content or the application program. The bidirectional mapping is then utilized by a lookup service to provide functionality to a third-party entity. The lookup service can identify, to the entity, application programs associated with network content specified by that entity and network content associated with application programs specified by that entity.

First claim

We claim:

1. A computing device comprising:
one or more processing units; and
one or more computer-readable storage media comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the processing units, cause the computing device to:
obtain, from network content, an application mapping document identifying one or more applications;
obtain, from one or more applications, a manifest identifying one or more collections of network content;
generate a first mapping between a first collection of network content and a first application if both the first application comprises a manifest identifying the first collection of network content and if the first collection of network content comprises an application mapping document identifying the first application; and
periodically repeating the obtaining the application mapping document and the obtaining the manifest.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable storage media comprise further computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to: obtain, from individual pages of the network content, an identification of one or more specific screens of the one or more applications specified by the application mapping document; and generate a second mapping between a first individual page of the first collection of network content and a first screen of the first application if the first individual page of the network content comprises an identification of the first screen.

3. The computing device of claim 2 , wherein the first screen of the first application is identified by a first screen URI that is identical to a first individual page URI except for differences in a protocol identifier.

4. The computing device of claim 2 , wherein the first screen of the first application is identified by a first screen URI that conforms to a URI convention identified by at least one of the application mapping document identifying the first application and the manifest identifying the first collection of network content.

5. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable storage media comprise further computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the ting device to: obtain, from one or more specific screens of the one or more applications specified by the application mapping document, an identification of individual pages of the network content; and generate a second mapping between a first individual page of the first collection of network content and a first screen of the first application if the first individual page of the network content comprises an identification of the first screen.

6. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining the manifest identifying the one or more collections of network content from the one or more application is performed in response to a notification identifying the one or more applications as applications that have been uploaded since a prior obtaining was performed.

7. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable storage media comprise further computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to: rank the first mapping among other mappings of the first collection of network content or the first application based on at least one of: a quantity of inbound links directed to the first collection of network content or the first application and a quantity of clicks directed to the first collection of network content or the first application.

8. A computing device comprising:
one or more processing units; and
one or more computer-readable storage media comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to:
search a local mapping database, if network content was received as input, for mappings specifying one or more applications associated with the network content that was received as input;
search a central mapping database for the mappings specifying one or more applications associated with the network content that was received as input, if the network content was received as input and if no mappings were found by the searching the local mapping database or if the mappings found by the searching the local mapping database had expired;
provide an identification of at least one of the one or more applications associated with the network content that was received as input, if any mappings were found by the searching the local mapping database or the searching the central mapping database;
search a local mapping database, if an application was received as input, for mappings specifying one or more collections of network content associated with the application that was received as input;
search a central mapping database for the mappings specifying one or more collections of network content associated with the application that was received as input, if the application was received as input and if no mappings were found by the searching the local mapping database or if the mappings found by the searching the local mapping database had expired; and
provide an identification of at least one of the one or more collections of network content associated with the application that was received as input, if any mappings were found by the searching the local mapping database or the searching the central mapping database.

9. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the computer-readable storage media comprise further computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to: provide an identification of one or more screens of the at least one of the one or more applications if the network content that was received as input was a single page; and provide an identification of one or more pages of the at least one of the one or more collections of network content if the application that was received as input was a single screen.

10. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein a screen and a single page are identified by URIs that only differ in a protocol identifier.

11. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the computer-executable instructions which, when executed, cause the computing device to provide the identification of the at least one of the one or more applications associated with the network content that was received as input, comprise computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to: determine a most highly ranked one of the one or more applications associated with the network content that was received as input and provide an identification of the most highly ranked one of the one or more applications; and wherein further the computer-executable instructions which, when executed, cause the computing device to provide the identification of the at least one of the one or more collections of network content associated with the application that was received as input, comprise computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to: determine a most highly ranked one of the one or more collections of network content associated with the application that was received as input and provide an identification of the most highly ranked one of the one or collections of network content.

12. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the computer-readable storage media comprise further computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to: invok

Assignees

• Jiang Zhaowei Charlie
• Macbeth Steven William
• Hasan Syed Muhammad Mujahid
• Sabulsky Jacob
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Jiang Zhaowei Charlie
• Macbeth Steven William
• Hasan Syed Muhammad Mujahid
• Sabulsky Jacob

Classifications

• G06F17/30905 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/9577 Primary

  Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents · CPC title

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• G06F16/9558

  Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations · CPC title

• G06F16/84

  Mapping; Conversion · CPC title