WEB PAGE TRANSCODING METHOD AND SYSTEM APPLYING QUERIES TO PLAIN TEXT

1 . A method of transcoding a web page of a web site, the method comprising:

receiving a web page comprising plain text; and

applying a signature schema comprising one or more instructions to locate and extract a subset of data from the plain text using one or more signatures previously identified within plain text of one or more web pages of a same web page family of the web site.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the web page comprises code in a markup language; and wherein each of the one or more signatures comprise at least one text string reference for locating within the code.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein at least some of the one or more instructions establish a start limit defined using a start text string reference, whereby characters in the text of the received web page before the start limit are ignored when locating and extracting the subset of data; and wherein at least some of the one or more instructions establish an end limit defined using an end text string reference, whereby characters in the text of the received web page after the end limit are ignored when locating and extracting the subset of data.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the subset of data comprises a plurality of elements for an object and its attributes within the web page, each element comprising text data that is located and extracted by respective one or more instructions.

5 . The method of claim 4 wherein the respective one or more instructions to extract a particular element comprise a respective text reference with which to locate the particular element.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the respective one or more instructions to extract a particular element further comprise:

a directional reference relative to the text reference to direct a search for the text data; and

at least one of: i) a start reference comprising a start text string; or ii) an end reference comprising an end text string, said start reference and end reference respectively indicating a starting location and ending location for the text data.

7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the one or more instructions comprise at least one text manipulation command for manipulating the extracted text data.

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more instructions are interpreted by a transcoding engine component of a computing device configured for transcoding web pages to a target format.

9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the web site comprises an e-commerce web site and the web pages are for conducting a transaction.

10 . The method of claim 9 wherein the target format is suitable for use by a wireless mobile device.

11 . The method of claim 1 comprising transcoding in a target format the subset of data extracted in accordance with the one or more instructions, thereby providing a transcoded web page.

12 . A computing device for transcoding a web page of a web site, the computing device comprising:

a processor and a memory coupled thereto, said memory storing instructions and data configuring the processor to provide a transcoding engine to:

receive a web page comprising plain text; and

apply a signature schema comprising one or more schema instructions to locate and extract a subset of data from the plain text using one or more signatures previously identified within plain text of web pages of a same web page family of the web site.

13 . The computing device of claim 11 wherein the web page comprises code in a markup language; and wherein the one or more signatures comprise text string references for locating within the code.

14 . The computing device of claim 12 wherein at least some of the one or more schema instructions establish a start limit defined using a start text string reference, whereby characters in the text of the received web page before the start limit are ignored when locating and extracting the subset of data; and wherein at least some of the one or more schema instructions establish an end limit defined using an end text string reference, whereby characters in the text of the received web page after the end limit are ignored when locating and extracting the subset of data.

15 . The computing device of claim 11 wherein the subset of data comprises a plurality of elements for an object and its attributes within the web page, each element comprising text data that is located and extracted by respective one or more schema instructions.

16 . The computing device of claim 15 wherein the respective one or more schema instructions to extract a particular element comprise a respective text reference with which to locate the particular element.

17 . The computing device of claim 16 wherein the respective one or more schema instructions to extract a particular element further comprise:

a directional reference relative to the text reference to direct a search for the text data; and

at least one of: i) a start reference comprising a start text string; or ii) an end reference comprising an end text string, said start reference and end reference respectively indicating a starting location and ending location for the text data.

18 . The computing device of claim 17 wherein the one or more schema instructions comprise at least one text manipulation command for manipulating the extracted text data.

19 . The computing device of claim 11 wherein the engine is configured to store in a database said subset of data extracted in accordance with the one or more schema instructions.

20 . The computing device of claim 11 wherein the engine applies the one or more schema instructions to transcode said subset of data to a target format.

21 . The computing device of claim 20 comprising a wireless mobile device.

22 . The computing device of claim 21 wherein the web site is an e-commerce site and wherein the engine is configured to transcode web pages from the e-commerce site thereby to conduct an e-commerce transaction.

23 . A computer program product storing computer readable instructions which when executed by a computer processor configure the computer processor to:

receive a web page comprising plain text; and

apply a signature schema comprising one or more schema instructions to locate, extract and transcode a subset of data from the plain text using one or more signatures previously identified within plain text of web pages of a same web page family of the web site, thereby to transcode the web page.

24 . A system for transcoding web pages of a web site, the system comprising:

a web server serving said web pages;

at least one client machine configured to utilize transcoded web pages;

a gateway coupled between the web server and the at least one client machine via a telecommunication network, said gateway proxying respective requests for web pages from the at least one client machine and responding with transcoded web pages; said gateway configured with a transcoding engine to:

receive a web page comprising plain text; and

apply a signature schema comprising one or more schema instructions to locate and extract a subset of data from the plain text using one or more signatures previously identified within plain text of web pages of a same web page family of the web site.

25 . A method of conducting an e-commerce transaction between a wireless mobile device and an e-commerce web site, said method comprising:

obtaining a signature schema comprising one or more schema instructions to locate, extract and transcode a subset of data from plain text of a web page using one or more signatures previously identified within the plain text of web pages of a same web page family of the e-commerce web site, thereby to transcode the web page;

receiving at least one web page from the e-commerce web site comprising plain text for conducting the transaction; and

transcoding at least some of the web pages received in accordance with the signature schema to conduct the transaction.