Method and apparatus for remotely displaying a list by determining a quantity of data to send based on the list size and the display control size

1. A method of displaying a plurality of items at a remote location, the method comprising:

storing a display control dimension which is indicative of a quantity of items which are simultaneously displayable at the remote location;

storing a threshold value which is indicative of a quantity of items which is greater than the quantity of items which are simultaneously displayable at the remote location;

storing the plurality of items;

determining a quantity associated with the plurality of items;

receiving a request for data representing the plurality of items from the remote location;

determining a relationship value indicative of a relationship between the display control dimension and the quantity associated with the plurality of items;

comparing the relationship value to the threshold value;

conditioned on the relationship value exceeding the threshold value, sending the data representing the plurality of items to the remote location for display; and

conditioned on the relationship value not exceeding the threshold value, sending a subset of the data representing the plurality of items to the remote location for display.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relationship value is a first relationship value, the method further comprising:

receiving data indicating a desired change in the quantity associated with the plurality of items and determining a second relationship value indicative of the relationship between the display control dimension and the changed quantity.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the data indicating a desired change in the quantity associated with the plurality of items includes data indicating an addition or a deletion of at least one item.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold value is based, at least in part, on a set of hardware specifications of a machine at the remote location.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the set of hardware specifications includes at least one selected from the group consisting of: a processor speed of the machine, a monitor size of the machine, and an amount of memory of the machine.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold value is based, at least in part, on a network connection speed of a network.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the relationship value includes calculating a ratio between the display control dimension and the quantity associated with the plurality of items.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the display control dimension reflects a quantity of items simultaneously displayable by the display control.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the display control dimension reflects a quantity of pixels of a height of the display control.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quantity associated with the plurality of items indicates a number of the plurality of items.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quantity associated with the plurality of items indicates a storage size of the plurality of items in bytes.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subset of the data is a first subset, the method further comprising:

conditioned on the relationship value not exceeding the threshold, sending a second, different subset of the data upon receiving data indicating a scroll input.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the items is associated with content data, the method further comprising:

conditioned on the relationship value exceeding the threshold value, sending the data representative of the plurality of items and the associated content data to the remote location.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the items is associated with content data, the method further comprising:

conditioned on the relationship value not exceeding the threshold value, sending the subset of the data representing the plurality of items and the content data associated with the items represented by the subset of the data to the remote location.

15. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

receiving the display control dimension from the remote location.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request for data representing the plurality of items includes information about a display control, the information about the display control including information representative of the display control dimension.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold value is entered by an operator of a device at the remote location.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold value is entered by an operator of the server.

19. A method of sending data for display at a destination, the method comprising:

receiving a display control size which is indicative of a quantity of items which are simultaneously displayable at the destination;

receiving from the destination a request for the data;

determining a quantity indicative of the size of the data;

determining a comparison ratio between the quantity indicative of the size of the data and the display control size;

comparing the comparison ratio to a threshold ratio which is indicative of a quantity of items which is greater than the quantity of items which are simultaneously displayable at the destination;

conditioned on the comparison ratio being in a first quantifiable relationship with the threshold ratio, sending a subset of the data to the destination for display; and

conditioned on the comparison ratio being in a second quantifiable relationship with the threshold ratio, sending the data to the destination for display.

20. A system for sending data for display at a destination, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to operate with the at least one memory device to:

receive a display control size which is indicative of a quantity of items which are simultaneously displayable at the destination;

receive from the destination a request for the data;

determine a quantity indicative of the size of the data;

determine a comparison ratio between the quantity indicative of the size of the data and the display control size;

compare the comparison ratio to a threshold ratio which is indicative of a quantity of items which is greater than the quantity of items which are simultaneously displayable at the destination;

conditioned on the comparison ratio being in a first quantifiable relationship with the threshold ratio, send a subset of the data to the destination for display; and

conditioned on the comparison ratio being in a second quantifiable relationship with the threshold ratio, send the data to the destination for display.