INTEGRATING AN APPLET INTO A MULTI-PAGE OR MULTI-TASKING WEB APPLICATION TO ENABLE APPLET STATE TO BE AUTOMATICALLY SAVED AND RESTORED

• US 20100017695A1
• Filed: 07/16/2008
• Published: 01/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ginegar LLC (K.Mizra LLC)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: PALMIERI, DAVID W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,176,411 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web

Abstract

A Web page of a Web application can be identified. The identified Web page can include an applet. A navigation action from the identified Web page to another Web page of the multi-page Web application can be detected. A state of the applet can be automatically saved before the applet terminates and the next Web page is navigated to. A navigation action to return to the identified Web page can be detected. This navigation can cause the previously saved applet state to be automatically retrieved and applied to the identified Web page so that the Web page is presented in a state that it was in when last navigated away from.

Claims

1. A method for saving and restoring state data comprising:

identifying a Web page of at least one of a multi-page and a multi-tasking application, wherein said identified Web page contains an applet;

detecting a navigation action from the identified Web page to another Web page;

automatically saving a state of the applet;

navigating to the another Web page;

navigating back to the identified Web page;

automatically retrieving the saved state of the applet; and

automatically applying the retrieved state to the identified Web page.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining elements of the application containing the identified Web page that if selected cause the applet to terminate before serving a different Web page to a client;

modifying programmatic logic of each determined element of the identified Web page to cause a saving of the applet state before the applet terminates; and

serving the Web page to the client, wherein the identified navigation action is an action triggering the modified programmatic logic.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatic saving and restoring of applet state is performed by a combination of programmatic logic in a SERVLET and in the applet.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein saving the state and restoring the state occur without a user explicitly selecting Web interface controls specific to saving and restoring data and without activities associated with the applet being fully completed before the navigation action is detected.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a navigation action to navigate away from the another Web page, wherein the another Web page contains another applet;

automatically saving a state of the another applet; and

navigating from the another Web page after saving the state of the another applet.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

navigating to the another Web page after having navigated from the another Web page;

automatically retrieving the saved state of the another applet; and

automatically applying the retrieved state to the another Web page.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing an arbitrary number of navigation actions not related to the identified Web page after navigating to the another Web page and before navigating to the identified Web page, wherein the arbitrary number of navigation actions comprise at least one navigation action to a Web page other than the another Web page and other than the identified Web page.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified Web page contains a plurality of applets, wherein said plurality contains said applet, wherein said automatic saving saves the state of the plurality of applets, wherein the automatic retrieving retrieves the saved state of the plurality of applets, wherein the automatic applying applies the retrieved state to each of the plurality of applets of the identified Web page.

9. A method for retaining state of applets comprising:

dynamically modifying Web page code to include logic to automatically save applet state before an applet terminates;

detecting an event causing the applet of the Web page to terminate;

automatically saving a state data for the applet responsive to the event detection by executing the modified logic;

determining a request for the Web page;

automatically retrieving the state data; and

applying the state data when rendering the Web page responsive to the request.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a user interaction to navigate from a Web page containing the applet to a different Web page, wherein said Web page and said different Web page are pages of the same interactive Web application;

firing the event responsive to the received user interaction;

terminating the Web page; and

providing the different Web page.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the automatic saving and restoring of applet state is performed by a combination of programmatic logic in a SERVLET and in the applet.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the Web page is a page of a multi-page Web application, wherein the saving and the retrieving of state data occur within a single interactive session with the multi-page Web application.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the Web page contains a plurality of applets, wherein the logic is configured to automatically save applet state of each of the plurality of applets before terminating instances of the applets, and wherein the retrieving and applying of applet state data applies to each of the plurality of applets of the Web page.

14. A system for automatically saving and restoring applet state comprising:

a Web application digitally encoded in a computing device usable medium, said Web application comprising a plurality of Web pages, wherein at least one of the Web pages contains an applet configured to execute within a client when the Web page is utilized;

a savepoint repository configured to maintain a plurality of savepoints, wherein at least a portion of said savepoints comprise at least one application savepoint for the application;

state saving code digitally encoded in a computing device usable medium, said state saving code comprising a plurality of programmatic instructions causing a computing device to automatically save a state of the applet in the savepoint repository; and

state restoring code digitally encoded in a computing device usable medium, said state restoring code comprising a plurality of programmatic instructions causing a computing device to automatically restore a state of the applet using a savepoint stored in the savepoint repository, wherein the state saving code and the state restoring code is configured to be triggered responsive to user interactions to navigate from one of the plurality of Web pages to other ones of the plurality of Web pages.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein a plurality of different ones of the Web pages each contain at least one applet configured to have state information automatically saved to and restored from the savepoint repository.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the state saving code is configured to be automatically triggered during a navigation action from the Web page containing the applet, and wherein said state restoring code is configured to be triggered during a navigation action to the Web page containing the applet.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the state saving code and the state restoring code are configured to save and restore the state of the applet without requiring a user to explicitly select Web interface controls specific to saving and restoring state data and without activities associated with the applet being fully completed before an action triggering the state saving code occurs.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a page parser configured to parse a Web page before the Web page is served to a client to determine elements of the Web application that if selected cause the applet to terminate, to modify programmatic logic of each determined element of the Web page to cause a saving of the applet state before the applet terminates, wherein the state saving code is automatically executed before an instance of the applet terminates as a result of the modified programmatic logic.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a Web server configured to serve Web pages of the Web application that have been dynamically modified to ensure that the state saving code is automatically executed by a client device whenever a user interactive action occurs that causes instances of applets included in any of the Web pages that include otherwise unsaved data to terminate, wherein execution of the state saving code saves the otherwise unsaved data in the savepoint repository.

20. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a client comprising a browser, wherein said browser renders the Web pages, wherein the applet executes upon the client.