US 8,015,167 B1Granted

Media players and download manager functionality

AssigneeAdobe Systems Incorporated

InventorsBrian Riggs, Daniel J. Cooley

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Abstract

A media player monitors a media feed (e.g., a web feed) for availability of newly published content available over a network. Via the feed, the media player can receive notification that certain retrievable content (e.g., the same content or substantially similar content) is available from multiple different locations over the network. The notification can include multiple pointers for use by the media player to retrieve the content. For example, a first pointer of the multiple pointers can identify a first remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content, a second pointer can identify a second remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content, and so on. The media player can have an associated download manager that selects an appropriate one of the pointers to retrieve the content depending on which of one or more download by applications resides on a computer system.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

based on monitoring a media feed that provides notification of content available for playback:
from the media feed, receiving multiple pointers to content stored at each of multiple different locations over a network, including receiving a first pointer identifying a first remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content and receiving a second pointer identifying a second remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content, and
from the media feed, receiving metadata for each of the multiple pointers, including corresponding metadata associated with the first pointer and metadata associated with the second pointer, the metadata for each respective pointer specifying a type of download application needed to retrieve the content via the respective pointer;
tracking a presence of resident download applications on a computer system that are available to retrieve the content;
identifying, based on metadata associated with the first pointer, that the first pointer requires use of a first particular type of download application on the computer system to retrieve the content from the first remote location via the first pointer;
and
identifying, based on metadata associated with the second pointer that the second pointer requires use of a second particular type of resident download application on the computer system to retrieve the content from the second remote location via the second pointer;
based on metadata associated with the pointers as generated by a publisher of the content, identifying a relative priority associated with the first pointer and the second pointer;
selecting a pointer of the multiple pointers to retrieve the content based on the metadata and presence of the resident download applications on the computer system, wherein selecting the pointer includes selecting the first pointer to retrieve the content in response to detecting that the first pointer has a higher relative priority than the second pointer as indicated by the metadata provided by the publisher of the content;
and
initiating retrieval of the content over the network via use of the selected pointer.

8 more elements

A computer program product including a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for processing data information, such that the instructions, when carried out by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform the operations of:

receiving notification information including:
i) multiple pointers to content stored at multiple different locations over a network, including receiving a first pointer identifying a first remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content and receiving a second pointer identifying a second remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content, and
ii) corresponding metadata provided by a publisher of the content, the metadata including corresponding metadata associated with the first pointer and metadata associated with the second pointer, the metadata indicating a relative priority associated with the multiple pointers for retrieving the content;
tracking a presence of resident download applications on a computer system that are available to retrieve the content;
identifying, based on metadata associated with the first pointer, that the first pointer requires use of a first particular type of download application on the computer system to retrieve the content from the first remote location via the first pointer;
and
identifying, based on metadata associated with the second pointer that the second pointer requires use of a second particular type of resident download application on the computer system to retrieve the content from the second remote location via the second pointer;
based on metadata associated with the pointers as generated by a publisher of the content, identifying the relative priority associated with the first pointer and the second pointer
selecting a pointer of the multiple pointers to retrieve the content depending on the presence of the resident download applications and the relative priority, wherein selecting the pointer includes selecting the first pointer to retrieve the content in response to detecting that the first pointer has a higher relative priority than the second pointer as indicated by the metadata provided by the publisher of the content;
and
initiating retrieval of the content over the network via use of the selected pointer.

8 more elements

A computer system comprising:

a processor;
a memory unit that stores instructions associated with an application executed by the processor;
and
an interconnect coupling the processor and the memory unit, enabling the computer system to execute the application and perform operations of:
receiving notification information including:
i) multiple pointers to content stored at multiple different locations over a network, including receiving a first pointer identifying a first remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content and receiving a second pointer identifying a second remote location over the network in which to retrieve the content, and
ii) corresponding metadata provided by a publisher of the content, the metadata including metadata associated with the first pointer and metadata associated with the second pointer, the metadata indicating a relative priority associated with the multiple pointers for retrieving the content
tracking a presence of resident download applications on a computer system that are available to retrieve the content;
identifying, based on metadata associated with the first pointer, that the first pointer requires use of a first particular type of download application on the computer system to retrieve the content from the first remote location via the first pointer;
and
identifying, based on metadata associated with the second pointer that the second pointer requires use of a second particular type of resident download application on the computer system to retrieve the content from the second remote location via the second pointer;
based on metadata associated with the pointers as generated by a publisher of the content, identifying the relative priority associated with the first pointer and the second pointer
selecting a pointer of the multiple pointers to retrieve the content depending on the presence of the resident download applications and the relative priority, wherein selecting the pointer includes selecting the first pointer to retrieve the content in response to detecting that the first pointer has a higher relative priority than the second pointer as indicated by the metadata provided by the publisher of the content;
and
initiating retrieval of the content over the network via use of the selected pointer.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.