Methods and apparatus for efficiently transmitting interactive application data between a client and server using markup language

• US 20020116455A1
• Filed: 11/02/2001
• Published: 08/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Mitchell, David C., Walters, Ben, Mitchell, Dale
• Granted Patent: US 6,920,480 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services

Abstract

A method for efficiently transferring data between a client and a server includes the steps of: providing an application program; providing an application-independent client process effecting a plurality of client states; providing an application-independent server process effecting a plurality of server states; transferring data from the server process to the client process in response to an application program; and updating at least one client state in response to the transferred data. A related apparatus is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for transferring data between a control object of a user interface and an application component of an application program without direct communication between the user interface and the application program, the method comprising:

accessing, by an application-independent process, from a description file associated with the application program one of (i) a layout description of the control object that is displayed on the user interface and (ii) a connection description associating the control object with the application component of the application program; and

transferring data representative of a change to one of the application component and the control object.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising translating content of the description file, by the application-independent processes, to generate the control object and to associate changes represented by the transferred data with one of the control object and the application component.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a communication channel between the application-independent client process and the application-independent server process.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the communication channel is asynchronous.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the description file is in XML format.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating an instance of the control object.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the application component comprises a member representative of an attribute of the application component alterable by a user or displayable to the user, further comprising generating an instance of management code, the management code instance mapping the correspondence between the control object and the application component member.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a container object for each application component and control object.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the application component comprises a member representative of an attribute of the application component alterable by a user or displayable to the user, further comprising:

monitoring the application component member and the control object; and

transferring data in response to a change of state of one of the application component member and the control object.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the application component comprises a member representative of an attribute of the application component alterable by a user or displayable to the user, further comprising:

generating a unique identifier for one of the application component member and the control object; and

referencing the unique identifier in a proxy layer.

11. A server node to enable the update of a user interface element of a user interface without direct interaction between an application program and the user interface, the server node comprising:

a description file associated with the application program, the description file including one of (i) a layout description of the user interface element and (ii) a connection description associating a control object of the user interface with an application component of the application program; and

an application-independent process in communication with the application program, the application-independent process accessing the description file, detecting a change of state to the application component and transferring data in response to a detected change of state of the application component.

12. The server node of claim 11 wherein the application-independent process is further configured to update the application component in response to received data, the received data representing a change of a state of the associated control object of the user interface on a client.

13. The server node of claim 11 wherein the description file is in XML format.

14. The server node of claim 12 wherein the application component comprises a member representative of an attribute of the application component alterable by a user or displayable to the user;

and wherein the application-independent process further comprises an instance of management code, the management code instance mapping the correspondence between the application component member and a control object located on a client.

15. The server node of claim 11 further comprising a container object for each application component.

16. The server node of claim 11 wherein the application component comprises a member representative of an attribute of the application component alterable by a user or displayable to the user;

and wherein the application-independent process further comprises a container object monitoring the application component member associated with that container object and initiating data transfer in response to a change of state of the associated application component member.

17. The server node of claim 11 wherein the application component comprises a member representative of an attribute of the application component alterable by a user or displayable to the user;

and wherein the server node further comprises a proxy layer referencing a unique identifier for the application component member.

19. The client node of claim 18 wherein the application-independent process is further configured to detect a change of state of the user interface and to transfer data to the application-independent server process in response to the detected change.

20. The client node of claim 18 wherein the description file is in XML format.

21. The client node of claim 18 wherein the application-independent process further comprises an instance of a control object for each of a plurality of user interface elements, the control object instance representing a corresponding user interface element.

22. The client node of claim 18 further comprising a container object for the control object.

23. The client node of claim 18 further comprising a container object monitoring the control object associated with the container object and initiating data transfer in response to a change of state of the associated control object.

24. The client node of claim 18 further comprising a proxy layer referencing a unique identifier for the control object.

18. A client node to enable the update of a user interface element of a user interface without direct interaction between an application program and the user interface, the client node comprising:

a description file associated with the application program, the description file including one of (i) a layout description of the user interface element and (ii) a connection description associating a control object of the user interface with an application component of the application program; and

an application-independent process in communication with a server, the application-independent process accessing the description file, generating a control object associated with the application component based on the description file and updating the user interface in response to receiving data representing a detected change of state of the application component.