CLIPBOARD FOR APPLICATION SHARING

• US 20090144368A1
• Filed: 12/03/2007
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Andersen, Hans C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,458 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/543 User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE]

Abstract

A software application can be shared by multiple users. A system clipboard of a first computing system is synchronized with a system clipboard of a second computing system when the user of the second computing system is in control of the shared software application. Information contained in the system clipboard of the first computing system is copied to a state buffer and associated with the user who copied the information. The information is returned to the system clipboard when the associated user regains control of the software application.

Claims

1. A computing system for application sharing, the computing system comprising:

a communication device for communicating across a communication network;

a processor communicatively connected to the communication device; and

memory storing program instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the computing system to provide tools when sharing a software application, the tools comprising;

a system clipboard for storing information identified by a user and for subsequently providing the information to the software application;

a clipboard state buffer for extracting the information from the system clipboard, storing the information, and replacing the information on the system clipboard; and

a clipboard synchronizer for synchronizing the system clipboard with a remote system clipboard.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the clipboard state buffer extracts the information from the system clipboard when control of the software application passes from a first user to a second user of a remote system.

3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein storing the information comprises associating the information with the first user.

4. The computing system of claim 3, wherein the clipboard state buffer replaces the information on the system clipboard when control of the software application returns to the first user.

5. The computing system of claim 4, wherein before replacing the information on the system clipboard, the clipboard state buffer locates the stored information associated with the first user.

6. The computing system of claim 5, wherein the clipboard synchronizer synchronizes the system clipboard with a remote system clipboard when the second user is in control of the software application.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein the clipboard synchronizer monitors the system clipboard for a change, and when the change occurs, copies information from the system clipboard and sends it to the remote system to synchronize the remote system clipboard.

8. A method of copying information during application sharing, the method comprising:

communicating from a first computing system to a second computing system to share a software application;

synchronizing a system clipboard of the first computing system with a system clipboard of the second computing system while the second computing system controls the software application;

copying a content of the system clipboard of the first computing system to a state buffer when control of the software application changes from the second computing system to the first computing system; and

copying the content from the state buffer to the system clipboard when the second computing system regains control of the software application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein synchronizing further comprises detecting a change of the content of the system clipboard and communicating the changed content to the second computing system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second computing system receives the changed content and stores the changed content in the system clipboard of the second computing system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein synchronizing further comprises receiving a second changed content from the second computing system and storing the second changed content to the system clipboard of the first computing system.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein copying a content of the system clipboard of the first computing system to a state buffer further comprises storing a user identifier in the state buffer to associate the content with a user identified by the user identifier.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the user identifier identifies the user who caused the content to be placed on the system clipboard of the first computing system.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising pasting the content from the system clipboard to the software application while the second computing system is in control of the software application.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising pasting the content from the system clipboard to a second software application running on the second computing system while the second computing system is in control of the software application.

16. A computer readable storage medium, which when executed by a computer performs a method of copying information during application sharing, the method comprising:

sharing a software application by communicating data from a first computing system to a second computing system across a communication path;

copying information from the system clipboard of the first computing system to a state buffer of the first computing system when control of the software application changes from the first computing system to the second computing system; and

copying the information from the state buffer to the system clipboard when control of the software application changes from the second computing system to the first computing system.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

storing an identifier of a user of the first computing system in the state buffer to associate the information with the user; and

determining whether the state buffer contains information associated with the user before copying the information from the state buffer to the system clipboard.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an input from the user identifying the information;

receiving a second input from a user requesting that an action be performed with the information, the action being one of a copy action or a paste action; and

storing a copy of the information into the system clipboard after receiving the second input and before copying the information from the system clipboard.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a third input from the user requesting a paste action be performed with the information; and

copying the information from the system clipboard to the software application after receiving the third input and after copying the information from the state buffer to the system clipboard.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises sharing the software application by communicating data from the first computing system to a third computing system.