Method and system for updating/reloading the content of pages browsed over a network

• US 20050108418A1
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bedi, Bharat V., Stanford-Clark, Andrew J.
• Application Number:
  US10/814,735
• Publication Number:
  US 20050108418A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

The present invention provides a real-time means of automatically updating the content of a user pre-selected set of web pages without any activity required on the part of the user to initiate each web page updating procedure. This is achieved by incorporating into a browser of a user'"'"'s computing device software code that is responsive to real-time web page content change notification messages to cause the browser to reload a URL identified in the change notification message. Alternatively, the software code may comprise a Java applet or the like embedded in a downloaded web page that is responsive to change notification messages to cause the browser to reload a web page whose URL is identified in the message or to reload a currently displayed web page. The change notification messages are generated by applications whose web page content has changed and the messages are relayed in real-time to push client agents comprising said software code by a message broker agent. The invention offers many advantages including reducing unnecessary web page reload operations and thus reducing network traffic.

Claims

1. A method of automatically reloading a page on a client computing device, characterised in that it comprises the steps of

storing a page on a server;

transmitting a copy of the page to a browser of the client computing device in response to a request from said browser received at said server, said copy of the page being transmitted to the browser over a network connecting the client computing device to the server;

updating the content of the page stored on the server;

simultaneously transmitting a message to said browser notifying it of a change in the content of the page; and

on receipt of said change content message, causing said browser to automatically request a copy of the updated page.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the change message is generated by an application implementable by the server.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the server is an application server.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, characterised in that the change message is relayed to the browser of the client computing device by a message broker server.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, characterised in that the message broker server comprises a publish/subscribe engine and in that the change message. is communicated to the browser using a socket transport protocol.

6. A method as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that it includes the steps of the client computing device browser registering with the message broker agent/server the network address of a page and the message broker agent/server determining on the basis of said registered network page address whether a received change message is to be communicated to the browser.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, characterised in that the browser registers with the message broker agent/server a plurality of network addresses for pages which are used by the message broker agent/server to determine if a received change message is to be communicated to the browser.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, characterised in that the network addresses registered by the browser with the message broker agent/server comprise a bookmark list of the browser.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7, characterised in that the network addresses registered by the browser with the message broker agent/server comprise a user selected list of network addresses.

10. A method as claimed in claim 8, characterised in that the network addresses registered by the browser with the message broker agent/server comprise a user selected subset of the browser bookmark list.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the program code for causing said browser to automatically request a copy of the updated page upon receipt of a change message forms part of the browser software.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, characterised in that the program code for causing said browser to automatically request a copy of the updated page upon receipt of a change message is downloaded from the message broker agent/server.

13. A method as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the program code for causing said browser to automatically request a copy of the updated page upon receipt of a change message comprises a Java applet embedded in a downloaded page.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, characterised in that the browser embeds the Java applet into subsequently downloaded pages from the same website.

20. A client computing device for implementing the method of claim 1.

21. A message broker server for implementing the method of claim 1.

22. Software code for implementing the method of claim 1.

23. A computer program on a machine readable medium for implementing a browser for a client computing device as claimed in claim 20.

15. A system for automatically reloading a page on a client computing device, characterised in that it comprises:

a server for storing a page;

a client computing device having a browser;

a network connecting the server to the client computing device, the arrangement being such that a copy of the page stored on the server is transmitted over the network to the browser of the client computing device in response to a request received at the server from the browser;

a message broker agent for receiving a message that the content of the page has been changed and for transmitting in real-time a message to the browser to notify it that said content has been changed;

wherein said browser is arranged, upon receipt of the change message, to request an updated copy of the page from the server.

16. A system as claimed in claim 15, characterised in that the server comprises an application server for implementing applications.

17. A system as claimed in claim 15, characterised in that the message broker agent comprises a publish/subscribe engine and in that the message broker agent and a push client agent of the browser are connected by a Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) socket connection.

18. A system as claimed in claim 15, characterised in that a push client agent of the browser comprises a plug-in part of the browser software.

19. A system as claimed in claim 15, characterised in that a push client agent of the browser comprises a Java applet or the like embedded in a page downloaded by the browser.