Automatic data display formatting with a networking application

Abstract

Data requests (e.g., for a hyper text markup language document) made from a client application on a client computer connected to a computer network (e.g., the Internet) are often large. The data received by a client application is often received at a very slow rate due to network congestion and other factors. In addition, the data received may have references to embedded graphical images. If the data received does not contain the display dimensions of the embedded graphical images, then the data cannot be properly displayed until the dimensions of the embedded graphical images are known. When a data request is made, the data transfer rate is monitored. When the receive data transfer rate is slow, and the data contains an embedded graphical image of unknown dimensions, a small placeholder image is automatically displayed for the user instead of the actual data. The small placeholder image holds a place on a display device for the data or the embedded graphical image until the data or embedded graphical image is received. When embedded graphical image is received, the placeholder image is removed, and the display device is reformatted to display the embedded graphical image.