Low-latency transition into embedded web view

A computing device comprising:

• a network interface for communicating data to and from the computing device;
• a user interface;
• a processing unit;
• data storage;
• a web application cached in the data storage, wherein the web application defines a cached web page structure renderable by the processing unit for presentation at the user interface;
• and
• an invoking application stored in the data storage and executable by the processing unit to invoke the web application and, when invoking the web application, to provide preview content to the web application, wherein the cached web page structure comprises general section placement and generic content,
• wherein the web application further defines script logic executable by the processing unit upon the invocation of the web application (i) to receive the preview content provided by the invoking application, (ii) to incorporate the received preview content into the cached web page structure so as to establish a preview page renderable by the processing unit for presentation at the user interface, (iii) to download, via the network interface, instance content for the web application while the preview page is being presented at the user interface, and (iv) upon receipt of the downloaded instance data, to establish, based on the instance data, an updated page renderable by the processing unit for presentation at the user interface.

A method comprising:

• caching a web page in data storage of a computing device, wherein the web page defines a presentation structure and script logic;
• calling by a processing unit a web view control module and providing preview data to the web view control module when calling the web view control module, to trigger presentation of the web page incorporating the provided preview data, wherein the web page as cached defines a web page presentation structure comprising general section placement and generic content, wherein calling the web view control module includes passing to the web view control module a uniform resource identifier (URI) of the web page, to cause the web view control module to retrieve the web page from the data storage and to render the retrieved web page for presentation at a user interface of the computing device, and wherein the processing unit executes the script logic of the web page to incorporate the provided preview data into the presentation of the web page at the user interface;
• and
• executing by the processing unit the script logic of the web page (i) to download, via a network interface of the computing device, instance data for the web page, while the web page with the incorporated preview data is presented at the user interface, and (ii) upon download of the instance data, to incorporate the instance data into the presentation of the web page at the user interface.