Internet appliance proxy protocol to support location-based services
View Patent ↗A method for providing location and contact information about a user to a location-based service includes sending a request containing substitutable variables via an Internet portal. The Internet portal replaces the variables, en-route to the message's destination, thus eliminating the need for the location-based service to further query the Internet portal for the data, or for the data to be available to the sender when the message is sent.
1. A method of operating an Internet Appliance having a network portal configured to provide a local information of said Appliance to a destination server, said local information being an actual real value to identify said Appliance, comprising:
prior to receiving a request message, storing in a memory of said Appliance at least one value representative of said Appliance local information in association with a respective variable name;
receiving at said Appliance said request message containing a substitutable variable name and addressed to said destination server;
detecting said substitutable variable name in said request message;
matching said substitutable variable name with one of said value representations stored in said memory;
replacing said substitutable variable name in said request message with said matched value representation of said Appliance local information from said memory, thereby creating an amended message; and
sending said amended message to said destination server.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said message and said amended message are formatted to a text-based Internet protocol.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said text-based Internet protocol is Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein said text-based Internet protocol is Session Initiation Protocol.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein said text-based Internet protocol is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
6. An Internet Appliance comprising a network portal configured to provide a local information of said Appliance to a destination server, said local information being an actual real value to identify said Appliance, comprising:
a memory comprising at least one value representative of said Appliance local information in association with a respective variable name and said value representative being stored prior to receipt of a request message;
a receiver for receiving said request message, said request message addressed to said destination server and consisting partly of a substitutable variable name;
means for identifying said substitutable variable name and matching said substitutable variable name with said value representation stored in said memory;
a processor for replacing said substitutable variable name in said request message with the value representative of said Appliance local information from said memory, thereby creating an amended message; and
a transmitter for sending said amended message to said destination server.
7. The network portal of claim 6 wherein said message and said amended message are formatted to a text-based Internet protocol.
8. The network portal of claim 7 , wherein said text-based Internet protocol is Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
9. The network portal of claim 7 , wherein said text-based Internet protocol is Session Initiation Protocol.
10. The network portal of claim 7 , wherein said text-based Internet protocol is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.