Methods and devices for facilitating access to a webpage associated with a contact

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9384293-B2
Application number	US-201113583100-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 28, 2011
Priority date	Oct 28, 2011
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

Methods and devices for facilitating access to a webpage associated with a contact are described. In one aspect, a method includes: obtaining a first contact entry; determining if the first contact entry includes a webpage identifier; and if the first contact entry includes a webpage identifier, populating a portion of a web browser with the webpage identifier included in the first contact entry.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method implemented by a processor of an electronic device, comprising:
obtaining a first contact entry;
storing the first contact entry as a record in an address book in memory on the electronic device;
determining if the first contact entry stored as the record in the address book includes a webpage identifier by determining whether the first contact entry includes a webpage identifier field that is populated with a webpage identifier; and
if the first contact entry includes a webpage identifier field that is populated with a webpage identifier, populating a persistent portion of a web browser with a selectable link associated with the webpage identifier included in the first contact entry, the selectable link being identifiable by a name in the first contact entry.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein populating the persistent portion of the web browser with the selectable link comprises storing the webpage identifier in a memory store associated with the web browser.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
obtaining a second contact entry;
determining if the second contact entry includes a second webpage identifier field that is populated with a second webpage identifier; and
if the second contact entry includes a second webpage identifier field that is populated with a second webpage identifier, populating a persistent portion of the web browser with a second selectable link associated with the second webpage identifier included in the second contact entry, the second selectable link being identifiable by a name in the second contact entry.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the webpage identifier identifies a work webpage or a personal webpage associated with a contact.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein populating a persistent portion of the web browser with a selectable link associated with the webpage identifier included in the first contact entry comprises:
determining if the contact entry includes a personal name and, if so, using the personal name as a display name for the link; and
if the contact entry does not include a personal name, determining if the contact entry includes a company name and, if so, using the company name as a display name for the link.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein populating a persistent portion of the web browser with a selectable link associated with the webpage identifier included in the first contact entry comprises:
determining if the contact entry includes a company name and, if so, using the company name as a display name for the link; and
if the contact entry does not include a company name, determining if the contact entry includes a personal name and, if so, using the personal name as a display name for the link.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the web browser comprises a graphical user interface for accessing one or more user-defined links and one or more links created based on contact entries, and wherein populating the portion of the web browser with the webpage identifier comprises configuring the graphical user interface to include a link to a webpage associated with the webpage identifier.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein configuring the graphical user interface to include the link comprises configuring the graphical user interface to identify the link to a webpage associated with a webpage identifier using a name associated with the contact entry which included that webpage identifier.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein configuring the graphical user interface to identify the link comprises:
configuring the web browser to display the name associated with the contact entry and to associate that name with the webpage identifier which is associated with the same contact entry so that selection of the name causes the web browser to open a webpage located at a location specified by the webpage identifier associated with that name.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the name is a name of an individual associated with the contact entry.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the name is a name of a company associated with the contact entry.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining if the first contact entry includes a webpage identifier comprises determining if the first contact entry includes a plurality of webpage identifiers and, if so, populating a portion of the web browser with the plurality of webpage identifiers included in the first contact entry.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic device comprises a communication subsystem and wherein obtaining the contact entry comprises receiving the contact entry via the communication subsystem.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic device further comprises an output interface and an input interface, and wherein the method further comprises, prior to populating:
presenting a prompt via the output interface requesting confirmation to populate the portion of the web browser with the webpage identifier; and
if confirmation is received from the input interface, populating the portion of the web browser with the webpage identifier.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the webpage identifier is an address associated with a webpage.

16. An electronic device comprising:
a memory; and
a processor coupled with the memory, the processor being configured to:
obtain a first contact entry;
store the first contact entry as a record in an address book in the memory on the electronic device;
determine if the first contact entry stored as the record in the address book includes a webpage identifier by determining whether the first contact entry includes a webpage identifier field that is populated with a webpage identifier; and
if the first contact entry includes a webpage identifier field that is populated with a webpage identifier, populate a persistent portion of a web browser with a selectable link associated with the webpage identifier included in the first contact entry, the selectable link being identifiable by a name in the first contact entry.

17. The electronic device of claim 16 , wherein the electronic device is a mobile communications device.

Assignees

• Oliver Robert George
• Kidd Jonathan Cha Bodtker
• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Oliver Robert George
• Kidd Jonathan Cha Bodtker

Classifications

• G06F16/9562 Primary

  Bookmark management · CPC title

• G06F17/30884 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic