Method of saving a web page to a local hard drive to enable client-side browsing

A method of saving a Web page to a client local storage for subsequent retrieval, the Web page comprising a base document and a plurality of hypertext references, wherein at least some of the hypertext references are associated with embedded objects, comprising the steps of:

• (a) copying the base document to the client local storage and establishing a pointer to the copied base document;
• (b) for each hypertext reference associated with an embedded object, saving to the client local storage a file copy of the embedded object;
• and
• (c) substituting a fully-qualified URL for each hypertext reference in the base document copied in step (a), wherein the fully-qualified URL for the hypertext reference associated with each file copy of an embedded object is a unique path name to the client local storage.

A computer program product in computer-readable media for use in saving and retrieving a Web page to and from a client local storage, the Web page comprising a base document having a plurality of hypertext references, wherein at least some of the hypertext references are associated with embedded objects, comprising:

• program code means, responsive to generation of a copy of the base document in the client local storage, for establishing a pointer to the copied base document;
• program code means for generating a first data structure of the hypertext references in the copied base document;
• program code means for saving to the client local storage a file copy of each embedded object;
• program code means for storing into a second data structure a fully-qualified URL of each hypertext reference in the copied base document;
• and
• program code means for updating the fully-qualified URLs of the second data structure to point to the client local storage.

A computer connectable to a computer network, comprising:

• a local storage;
• a processor;
• an operating system;
• a browser for retrieving and displaying Web pages from the computer network;
• and
• program code means, responsive to generation of a copy of the base document in the client local storage by the browser, for establishing a pointer to the copied base document;
• program code means for generating a first data structure of the hypertext references in the copied base document;
• program code means for saving to the client local storage a file copy of each embedded object;
• program code means for storing into a second data structure a fully-qualified URL of each hypertext reference in the copied base document;
• and
• program code means for updating the fully-qualified URLs of the second data structure to point to the client local storage.

A data processing system, comprising:

• a remote control unit;
• and
• a base unit connectable to a monitor for providing Internet access under the control of the remote control unit, the base unit comprising:
• a local storage;
• a processor having an operating system;
• a browser application run by the operating system;
• means, responsive to a user request to copy a Web page input from the remote control unit, for displaying a page copy progress indication and concurrently saving the Web page to the local storage by storing a base HTML document and substituting at least one hypertext reference therein with a link to a fully-qualified file on the local storage.

A method of saving a Web page to a client local storage for subsequent retrieval, the Web page comprising a base document having a plurality of hypertext references, wherein at least one of the hypertext references is associated with an embedded object in the base document, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) copying the base document to the client local storage and establishing a pointer to the copied base document;
• (b) for the hypertext reference associated with the embedded object, saving to the client local storage a file copy of the embedded object;
• and
• (c) substituting a fully-qualified URL for each hypertext reference in the base document in step (a), wherein the embedded object is a file selected from the group consisting essentially of image files, audio files and video files and wherein the image file is a file selected from the group consisting essentially of .gif type files, .jpeg type files and .png type files.