System and method for reducing bandwidth requirements for remote applications by utilizing client processing power

• US 20040258089A1
• Filed: 06/02/2004
• Published: 12/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: JackBe Corp. (Software AG)
• Original Assignee: JackBe Corp. (Software AG)
• Inventors: Derechin, Jacob, Derechin, Luis
• Application Number:
  US10/859,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20040258089A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/465
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

A method, system and medium for reducing transmitted code for remote application forms. In one embodiment, a client system receives encoded information and performs pattern matching substitutions to expand the encoded information into decoded information for further processing. In one example these operations are performed in a web browser. In one example, a pattern for the pattern matching substitution is specified in a regular expression; a script containing instructions executable in the web browser is evaluated to generate the decode information. In one example, the decoded information includes a script (e.g., a JavaScript) which contains instructions for performing regular expression based substitution or instructions for creating one or more objects in the web browser. In one example, the pattern matching substitution generates tags of a markup language so that the web browser can render the decoded information for display. In one embodiment, a server generates the encoded information in response to the request from the web browser. In one embodiment, the first decoded information is used to decode any further encoded information.

Claims

1. A method for remote access, comprising:

receiving encoded information in a client Digital Processing System (DPS) from a server DPS through a network connection;

performing a pattern matching substitution according to one or more specified patterns of character strings to expand the encoded information into decoded information; and

processing the decoded information in the client DPS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein encoded information is received in a web browser running on the client DPS and the decoded information is processed in the web browser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a pattern for the pattern matching substitution is specified using a regular expression.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the regular expression matches different strings of characters.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the decoded information comprises information in a markup language.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the markup language is one of:

a HyperText Markup Language (HTML); and

an Extensible Markup Language (XML).

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the pattern matching substitution generates one or more tags in the markup language.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the pattern matching substitution is according to a script evaluated in the web browser.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the decoded information comprises a script executable by the web browser.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said processing the decoded information comprises:

executing the script to generate information for processing in the web browser.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein when executed the script causes the web browser to perform a pattern matching substitution to expand information for processing in the web browser.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the web browser receives from the network a web page including the encoded information;

the web page causes the web browser to perform the pattern matching substitution and to process the decoded information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the web page is in a markup language.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the web page rendered in the web browser comprises a user interface for accessing a remote application through the network.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the web page is received in a protocol of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol family.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

retrieving a script from the network, the script comprising instructions to perform the pattern matching substitution.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the web page causes the browser to retrieve the script.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the script is embedded in the web page.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the script is retrieved from a different server DPS.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

retrieving information specifying a set of substitutions to be performed on the encoded information.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of said performing and said processing comprises:

calling a function with at least one parameter, the function creating a set of objects for a user interface, a value for the at least one parameter specifying a set of features of the objects.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein instructions of the function comprise a file separate from the web page;

and the web page specifies the value for the at least one parameter.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of said performing and said processing calls the function a plurality of times.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the function is called recursively.

25. A method for providing remote access, comprising:

transmitting encoded information to a client Digital Processing System (DPS) over a network, the encoded information being expandable in the client DPS through a pattern matching substitution according to one or more specified patterns of character strings into decoded information for rendering in the client DPS.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the decoded information is for rendering in a web browser of the client DPS.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the pattern matching substitution is specified using a regular expression.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the encoded information is embedded in a web page.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the web page is in a markup language.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the decoded information is in a markup language.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the decoded information comprises a script including instructions executable in the web browser to perform a pattern matching substitution to expand information for processing in the web browser.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the script comprises regular expressions.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein the pattern matching substitution generates one or more tags in a markup language.

34. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

transmitting a script file to the web browser, the script file containing instructions to perform the pattern matching substitution.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

transmitting information to the web browser to specify a set of regular expression based substitutions.

36. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

generating the encoded information in response to a request from the web browser.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein said generating the encoded information comprises:

retrieving information requested by the web browser;

converting at least a portion of the information requested by the web browser into the encoded information; and

combining a script with the encoded information as a response to the web browser.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the response in a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is transmitted to the web browser in a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

39. The method of claim 37, wherein said converting comprises:

performing a pattern matching substitution.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said pattern matching substitution is based on a regular expression.

41. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

determining a set of substitutions required to decode the encoded information;

wherein the response further includes information specifying the set of substitutions.

42. The method of claim 28, wherein the encoded information is expandable through calling a function with at least one parameter, the function creating a set of objects for a user interface, a value for the at least one parameter specifying a set of features of the objects.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein instructions of the function comprise a file separate from the web page;

and the web page specifies the value for the at least one parameter.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the encoded information is expandable through calling the function a plurality of times.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the function is called recursively.

46. A machine readable medium containing executable computer program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause said system to perform a method for remote access, the method comprising:

performing a pattern matching substitution according to one or more specified patterns of character strings to expand encoded information into decoded information for rendering in a client Digital Processing System (DPS).

47. The medium of claim 46, wherein the decoded information is for rendering in a web browser running on the client DPS.

48. The medium of claim 46, wherein a pattern for the pattern matching substitution is specified using a regular expression that matches a plurality of different strings of characters.

49. The medium of claim 47, wherein the decoded information comprises at least one of:

information in a markup language; and

a script executable by the web browser.

50. The medium of claim 49, wherein the pattern matching substitution generates at least one of:

tags in the markup language; and

syntax in a scripting language.

51. The medium of claim 46, wherein the encoded information is specified in a web page;

and a location of a script file which contains at least a portion of the computer program instructions is specified in the web page.

52. The medium of claim 46, wherein the encoded information is specified in a web page;

and at least a portion of the computer program instructions are embedded in the web page.

53. The medium of claim 52, wherein the web page further specifies a set of substitutions to be performed on the encoded information.

54. The medium of claim 51, wherein said performing comprises:

calling a function with at least one parameter, the function creating a set of objects for a user interface, a value for the at least one parameter specifying a set of features of the objects.

55. The medium of claim 54, wherein instructions of the function comprise a file separate from the web page;

and the web page specifies the value for the at least one parameter.

56. The medium of claim 54, wherein said performing calls the function a plurality of times.

57. The medium of claim 56, wherein the function is called recursively.

58. A machine readable medium containing executable computer program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause said system to perform a method for providing remote access, the method comprising:

generating encoded information for transmission to a client Digital Processing System (DPS) over a network, the encoded information being expandable in the client DPS through a pattern matching substitution based on specified patterns of character strings into decoded information for rendering in the client DPS.

59. The medium of claim 58, wherein the decoded information is for rendering in a web browser in the client DPS.

60. The medium of claim 58, wherein the pattern matching substitution is specified using a regular expression;

and the encoded information is to be embedded in a web page that is in a markup language.

61. The medium of claim 60, wherein the decoded information is in one of:

a markup language; and

a scripting language.

62. The medium of claim 60, wherein the pattern matching substitution generates one or more tags in a markup language.

63. The medium of claim 60, wherein the method further comprises:

specifying a script file in the web page, the script file containing instructions to perform the pattern matching substitution.

64. The medium of claim 63, wherein the method further comprises:

specifying a set of regular expression based substitutions in the web page.

65. The medium of claim 59, wherein the encoded information is generated in response to a request from the web browser.

66. The medium of claim 65, wherein said generating the encoded information comprises:

retrieving information requested by the web browser;

converting at least a portion of the information requested by the web browser into the encoded information; and

combining a script with the encoded information as a response to the web browser.

67. The medium of claim 66, wherein said converting comprises:

performing regular expression based substitution.

68. The medium of claim 66, wherein the method further comprises:

determining a set of substitutions required to decode the encoded information;

wherein the response further includes information specifying the set of substitutions.

69. The medium of claim 60, wherein the encoded information is expandable through calling a function with at least one parameter, the function creating a set of objects for a user interface, a value for the at least one parameter specifying a set of features of the objects.

70. The medium of claim 69, wherein instructions of the function comprise a file separate from the web page;

and the web page specifies the value for the at least one parameter.

71. The medium of claim 69, wherein the encoded information is expandable through calling the function a plurality of times.

72. The medium of claim 71, wherein the function is called recursively.

73. A data processing system for remote access, the data processing system comprising:

a volatile memory;

a persistent memory;

a communications interface;

a processor coupled with the memory and the communications interface, the communications interface to receive encoded information from a network, the memory to store the encoded information, the processor to expand the encoded information into decoded information through pattern matching substitution according to specified patterns of character strings, and the processor to render the decoded information.

74. The data processing system of claim 73, wherein the processor renders the decoded in a web browser.

75. The data processing system of claim 73, wherein a pattern for the pattern matching substitution is specified using a regular expression that matches different strings of characters.

76. The data processing system of claim 75, wherein the pattern matching substitution generates one of:

one or more tags in the markup language; and

syntax of a scripting language.

77. The data processing system of claim 73, wherein the communications interface receives from the network a web page including the encoded information;

the web page causes the processor to perform the pattern matching substitution and to render the decoded information.

78. The data processing system of claim 77, wherein the processor causes the communications interface to retrieve a script from the network according to a location specified in the web page only if the script file is not already in on the data processing system, the script comprising instructions to perform the pattern matching substitution.

79. The data processing system of claim 77, wherein the processor performs a set of substitutions specified in the web page.

80. The data processing system of claim 77, wherein the processor expands the encoded information through calling a function with at least one parameter, the function creating a set of objects for a user interface, a value for the at least one parameter specifying a set of features of the objects.

81. The data processing system of claim 80, wherein instructions of the function comprise a file separate from the web page;

and the web page specifies the value for the at least one parameter.

82. The data processing system of claim 80, wherein the processor expands the encoded information through calling the function a plurality of times.

83. The data processing system of claim 82, wherein the function is called recursively.

84. A data processing system to provide remote access, the data processing system comprising:

a memory, the memory to store encoded information, the encoded information being expandable in a web browser according to specified patterns of character strings through a pattern matching substitution into decoded information for rendering in the web browser;

a communications interface;

a processor coupled with the memory and the communications interface, the processor to control the communications interface to transmit encoded information to the web browser over a network.

85. The data processing system of claim 84, wherein the pattern matching substitution is specified using a regular expression.

86. The data processing system of claim 84, wherein the processor is further to generate the encoded information in response to a request from the web browser.

87. The data processing system of claim 86, wherein to generate the encoded information:

the communications interface is to retrieve information requested by the web browser;

the processor is to convert at least a portion of the information requested by the web browser into the encoded information; and

the processor is to combine a script with the encoded information as a response to the web browser.

88. The data processing system of claim 87, wherein the processor is to further determine a set of substitutions required to decode the encoded information;

wherein the response further includes information specifying the set of substitutions.

89. The data processing system of claim 84, wherein the encoded information is expandable through calling a function with at least one parameter, the function creating a set of objects for a user interface, a value for the at least one parameter specifying a set of features of the objects.

90. The data processing system of claim 89, wherein a web page includes the encoded information;

instructions of the function comprise a file separate from the web page; and

the web page specifies the value for the at least one parameter.

91. The data processing system of claim 89, wherein the encoded information is expandable through calling the function a plurality of times.

92. The data processing system of claim 91, wherein the function is called recursively.

93. A machine readable medium containing executable computer program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause said system to perform a method, the method comprising:

performing a substitution based on a regular expression to expand the first encoded information into first decoded information;

processing the first decoded information.

94. The medium of claim 93, wherein the method is performed in a web browser running on said system.

95. The medium of claim 93, wherein the computer program instructions comprise a script retrievable from a file at a location specified in the web page.

96. The medium of claim 93, wherein the computer program instructions comprise a script embedded in the web page.

97. The medium of claim 94, wherein the first decoded information comprises a script;

and said rendering the first decoded information comprises;

evaluating the script to generate a user interface object in the web browser.

98. The medium of claim 93, wherein the first decoded information comprises a script;

the web page further contains second encoded information; and

said processing the first decoded information comprises;

evaluating the script to perform a substitution based on a regular expression to expand the second encoded information into second decoded information; and

processing the second decoded information.

99. The medium of claim 93, wherein the substitution converts the first encoded information of the web page into the first decoded information in a standard language.

100. The medium of claim 93, wherein at least one of said performing and said processing comprises:

calling a function with at least one parameter, the function creating a set of objects for a user interface, a value for the at least one parameter specifying a set of features of the objects.

101. The medium of claim 100, wherein a web page comprises the first encoded information;

instructions of the function comprise a file separate from the web page; and

the web page specifies the value for the at least one parameter.

102. The medium of claim 100, wherein at least one of said performing and said processing calls the function a plurality of times.

103. The medium of claim 102, wherein the function is called recursively.