Menu infrastructure apparatus and method

Abstract

A menu infrastructure component, or menu application, which runs as a layer on top of a platform, wherein the platform is used to run various applications. The menu application can service, with menu generating capabilities, any of the applications running on the platform. Based upon the identity (or locale) of the user, a particular set of images will be created to provide the preferred language (for instance) for display in the menus. During runtime, these criteria are used to pick out a version of menus (e.g., Japanese menus or English menus) and thereafter render them for display. Each of the applications can have inter-application links, which jump from one application to another. The applications can also have intra-application links, which jump to different capabilities or functions within the particular application. The Menu Application serves to manage and render the inter- and intra-application hyperlinks for an entire web site.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.