BROWSER-BASED PROXY SERVER FOR CUSTOMIZATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF EXISTING APPLICATIONS

• US 20090182844A1
• Filed: 05/31/2008
• Published: 07/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nichols, Jeffrey William, Barton, John Joseph, Hua, Zhigang
• Granted Patent: US 8,078,694 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product for executing at least one client computer software application by embedding a web browser in a proxy server, thereby forming a proxy browser. The proxy browser is used to execute the application inside the proxy server. In one embodiment of the invention, each client browser that connects to the proxy server is assigned an instance of the proxy browser and session information is maintained for the client browser. When the client browser makes a request to the proxy server, the request is linked to the instance of the proxy browser.

Claims

1. A method of executing at least one client computer software application comprising:

embedding a web browser in a proxy server, thereby forming a proxy browser; and

using said proxy browser to execute said application inside said proxy server.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said using comprises:

assigning each client browser that connects to said proxy server an instance of said proxy browser;

maintaining session information for said client browser; and

if said client browser makes a request to said proxy server, linking said request to said instance of said proxy browser.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said linking comprises, if said request is a first request by said client browser:

opening a web page via said proxy browser;

executing said client application on said web page; and

returning a portion of the contents of said page resulting from said executing to said client browser.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said executing comprises, if said request is not a first request by said client browser, translating said request into operations to perform on said web page.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein said returning comprises creating a modified web page.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said creating comprises:

extracting elements from said web page; and

combining said elements into said modified web page.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said creating comprises inserting new content in said modified web page.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein said executing comprises interpreting said request to determine a set of operations apply to the proxy browser to generate a next modified web page.

9. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

scanning the content of said web page; and

determining a next modified web page.

10. A method of embedding a web browser in a proxy server comprising:

placing said web browser in said proxy server, thereby forming a proxy browser;

logically connecting within said proxy server an event translator to said proxy browser; and

logically interfacing a transcoder within said proxy server to said proxy browser and to said event translator.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said placing comprises:

having said web browser implement code embedded within a web page to be displayed; and

making said web browser implement an application program interface to control said web page.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein said connecting comprises having said event translator translate at least one request from a client browser into operations to be applied to a web page contained within said proxy browser.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein said interfacing comprises:

having said transcoder determine when said proxy browser has finished loading its new content;

making said transcoder extract relevant portions of said content from said proxy browser; and

enabling said transcoder to send output to said client browser.

14. A method of providing access to web applications comprising:

receiving a request from a client browser by a proxy browser contained within a proxy server;

translating said request into an operation;

applying said operation to a web page within said proxy browser;

extracting relevant portions of said web page; and

generating an output using said extracted relevant portions of said web page, said output being readable by said client browser.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said generating comprises generating an HTML page with embedded script adapted to the capabilities of said client browser.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising creating an application description specifying how a set of existing web pages are modified for said client browser and for specifying the means which are available in said client browser for navigating between web pages.

17. A proxy server comprising:

a proxy browser coupled to an external web server;

an event translator for receiving requests from a client browser; and

a transcoder for extracting relevant portions of content received from said external web server by said proxy browser and generating an output that is sent to said client browser.

18. The proxy server of claim 17 further comprising an application description component for specifying how a set of existing web pages are modified for said client browser and for specifying the means which are available in said client browser for navigating between web pages.

19. The proxy server of claim 17 further comprising an event script component for parsing requests from said client browser into operations to execute in said proxy browser.

20. The proxy server of claim 18 further comprising a load script component for scanning the content of said existing web pages loaded in said proxy browser and determining a modified web page.

21. The proxy server of claim 20 further comprising a clip script component for specifying how to create the content of said modified web page that will be sent to said client browser.

22. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program, wherein said computer readable program when executed on a computer causes said computer to:

embed a web browser in a proxy server, thereby forming a proxy browser; and

use said proxy browser to execute a client application inside said proxy server.

23. The computer program product of claim 22 wherein said computer readable program further causes said computer to:

assign each client browser that connects to said proxy server an instance of said proxy browser;

maintain session information for said client browser; and

if said client browser makes a request to said proxy server, link said request to said instance of said proxy browser.

24. The computer program product of claim 23 wherein if said request is a first request by said client browser, said computer readable program further causes said computer to:

open a web page via said proxy browser;

execute said client application on said web page; and

return a portion of the contents of said page resulting from said executing to said client browser.

25. The computer program product of claim 24 wherein if said request is not a first request by said client browser, said computer readable program further causes said computer to translate said request into operations to perform on said web page.