CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application is a Section 371 National Stage Application of International Application No. PCT/FR2017/051257, filed May 22, 2017, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and published as WO 2017/207892 on Dec. 7, 2017, not in English.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention lies in the general field of navigation software or “browsers”, and has a preferred but non-limiting application to the field of web browsers.

It relates more particularly to using application services in a browser.

Such application services are also referred to as on-line services.

Nowadays, browsers enable their users to access application services that are provided by third parties, e.g. businesses.

The main functions of such third parties or businesses comprise hosting, managing, and maintaining software, e.g. within servers, which software serves to provide the services in question to the terminals of users.

Such application services may be accessible in browser pages, with the browsers being installed on the terminals. Access to such a service can require a user subscription and/or user identification.

By way of example, such services may consist in services available on the Internet, services for making connections, e.g. by telephone or by videophone, content translation services, messaging services, antivirus analysis services, etc.

At present, accessing on-line services by a browser presents certain difficulties. Specifically, at present, there do not exist techniques enabling one or more application or on-line services to be accessed in simple, fast, and effective manner from any page of a browser.

The present invention seeks in particular to respond to this problem, and more generally to improve access to a service from a browser.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To this end, the present invention proposes a mechanism making it possible from a data type present in any page in a browser, e.g. a telephone number (contact, after-sale service, directory, etc.), to invoke an application service or an on-line service that takes this data type as input, e.g. a telephone service.

More specifically, and in a first aspect, the invention provides a method of invoking in a terminal at least one application service by a browser, the method comprising:a detection step for detecting an invocation data item in a first loaded page in the browser, the data item complying with an invocation data type registered for the application service; andan invocation step for invoking, in the first loaded page, the service from the detected invocation item.

Correspondingly, the invention provides a terminal enabling an application service to be invoked by a browser, the terminal comprising:a detection module for detecting an invocation data item in a first loaded page in the browser, the data item complying with an invocation data type registered for the application service, e.g. in association with an identifier of the service; andan invocation module for invoking, in the first loaded page, the service from the detected invocation data item.

A browser is software run in a terminal to make it possible to consult and display content coming from a network to which the terminal is connected.

In the particular circumstance of a web browser and a terminal that is connected to the Internet, the content is Internet content.

As an alternative, the terminal could be connected to an Intranet or to a private network.

The browser loads one or more pages and optionally displays them on an interface of the terminal, each of the pages comprising, in the meaning of the invention, a set of page data, which data is provided by the network.

In a particular implementation, the page data comprises:a hypertext markup language (HTML) description serving to structure and format pages when they are loaded into the browser;functions in the “Javascript” programming language that can be called in the HTML description; andother data, e.g. multimedia data, that can also be called in the HTML description, e.g. images for display.

A page is said to be loaded when the browser has finished interpreting the HTML description that is associated with the page.

A browser page may propose an application or on-line service, in other words a service that is accessible via the network to which the terminal is connected.

In other words, in the meaning of the invention, an application service is a service provided directly by a page of the browser and not requiring any specific software to be installed.

An application service may include various functions. For example, a telephone service may propose a call function, however it may also propose other functions, such as for example managing a list of contacts or a calendar.

An application service is characterized by the data type(s) that it is capable of processing or using, i.e. by the data that it can take as input.

In the meaning of the invention, the input data of the service is referred to as “invocation data” since it can be used to invoke the service. Invocation data types are also mentioned.

Invoking an application service corresponds to the moment when the service is made usable for a user. For example, invoking a service may correspond to the instant when the user begins to use one of its functions.

Invoking the service thus corresponds to triggering execution of that service.

Thus, the invention serves advantageously to invoke an application service in any page of the browser by using an invocation data item present in that page and of a type that complies with the data type that the application service can use.

In particular, the invention does not need software to be installed for providing the service, but only knowledge of the data type that can be used by the application or on-line service, together with detecting that data type in a page loaded in the browser.

In a particular implementation, prior to the step of detecting an invocation data item, the method includes a step of registering the invocation data type for the service invoked.

In a particular implementation, prior to the step of detecting an invocation data item, the method includes a step of receiving a first instruction defining a second page providing the service, the first instruction defining the invocation data type associated with the service.

This first instruction serves both to offer the service to the user in a page of the browser, and also to define invocation data types that can be used by the service.

This first instruction may be contained in the page data set associated with the second page for providing the service and as described above.

Advantageously, this first instruction may be sent simultaneously with the page data.

It may optionally be subjected to “standardization” among service providers, which then need merely to add this first instruction as “standardized” in this way to the page data set that is sent to the terminal in order to enable any browser performing the invention to register the invocation data types that are usable by their services.

In a particular implementation, the invocation data type is registered in a table of the terminal.

In a particular implementation, the detection step comprises:a step of identifying invocation data present in the first loaded page; anda determination step, for an identified invocation data item, of determining whether the data item complies with a registered invocation data type.

In a particular implementation, during the identification step, the invocation data is identified in response to a user command received by the browser.

Thus, by way of example, the invocation data item may be selected by the user before it is determined whether the data item complies with the invocation data type associated with the application service.

In a particular implementation, the detection step includes any one of the following:a step of semantically analyzing the first loaded page; anda step of detecting a coded marker in the first page in association with the invocation data item.

In a particular implementation, the first instruction defines a network address pointing to a third page, and the invocation step includes a step of triggering loading of the third page from the address, the method includes an execution step of executing the service in the third page.

In advantageous manner, the application service is invoked within the second page, however the service executes in a third page, with loading of that page being triggered at the time of invocation.

The way the network address is defined may be the subject of “standardization” among service providers.

Any service provider can merely add a “standardized” network address defining instruction to the page data set associated with the second page providing the service so as to enable any browser performing the invention to invoke the service in the third page, which is different from the second page.

In a particular implementation, during the detection step, the second page proposing the service is not loaded into the browser.

Advantageously, a user can invoke the application service without needing to load the page proposing the service immediately beforehand.

In a particular implementation,the first instruction defines an invocation function for invoking the service:the invocation step includes a step of invoking the function; andthe execution step for executing the service in the third page includes executing the function.

In a particular implementation, the execution of the function causes a control unit to be displayed in the first loaded page, which control unit is accessible to a user for controlling the service while it is being executed in the third page.

Advantageously, the user can control the service in the first page without needing to access the third page executing the service.

In a particular implementation, the invocation step is performed:automatically in response to the step of detecting an invocation data item in the first loaded page; orin response to a user command.

In a particular implementation, the method includes a triggering step of triggering the provision of a notification in the first page indicating that the application service is accessible.

The user is then notified about the accessibility of the service.

In a particular implementation, during the triggering step, the browser provides the notification.

In a particular implementation, during the triggering step, the browser displays the notification in the first loaded page.

In a particular implementation, the triggering step includes a step of sending a command to a device so as to cause that device to provide the notification.

In a particular implementation, the device may consist in any of the following:the terminal performing the method; anda device that is external to the terminal.

Consequently, the notification may be provided either by the browser, or else on the terminal, but via software other than the browser, or on a device that is connected to the terminal.

In a particular implementation, the invocation data type corresponds to any one of the following:a telephone number;a postal address;an email address;multimedia data; anda uniform resource locator (URL).

In a particular embodiment, the various steps of the method of invoking an application service by a browser are determined by computer program instructions.

Consequently, the invention also provides a computer program on a data medium, the program being suitable for being performed by a computer, the program including instructions adapted to performing the above-mentioned method of invoking an application service by a browser.

The program may use any programming language and be in the form of source code, object code, or code intermediate between source code and object code, such as in a partially compiled form or in any other desirable form.

The invention also provides a computer readable data medium including instructions of a computer program as mentioned above.

The data medium may be any entity or device capable of storing the program. For example, the medium may include storage means such as a read only memory (ROM), e.g. a compact disk (CD) ROM, or a microelectronic circuit ROM, or indeed magnetic recording means, e.g. a floppy disk or a hard disk.

Furthermore, the data medium may be a transmissible medium such as an electrical or optical signal, which may be conveyed via an electrical or optical cable, by radio, or by other means. The program of the invention may in particular be downloaded from an Internet type network.

Alternatively, the data medium may be an integrated circuit in which the program is incorporated, the circuit being adapted to execute or to be used in the execution of the method in question.

