DETECTING AN INACTIVE CLIENT DURING A COMMUNICATION SESSION

• US 20100313078A1
• Filed: 06/03/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shook, Aaron K., Ivory, Andrew J., Burckart, Erik J., Kaplinger, Todd E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,275,890 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/48
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session

Abstract

A communication session is established between a first device and a second device. A message is transmitted from the first device to the second device. In response to the second device failing to actively respond to the message, the first device terminates the communication session with the second device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

establishing, by a first device, a communication session between the first device and a browser on a second device, wherein the communication session initially remains open on a first device-side even if the browser on the second device is subsequently closed;

transmitting a message from the first device to the second device; and

in response to the second device failing to actively respond to the message from the first device, terminating, by the first device, the communication session between the first device and the second device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a server, and wherein the second device is a client device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

in response to the client device failing to actively respond to the message from the first device and returning an error message to the server, removing an identifier of the client device from a server state cache in the server, wherein removal of the identifier of the client device terminates the communication session between the server and the client device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate other browser-based communication sessions between the client device and a set of other computers, wherein the set of other computers excludes the server.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the client device failing to actively respond to the message results in an error message being generated by the server, and wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate the communication session between the client device and the server.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate other browser-based communication sessions between the client device and a set of other computers, wherein the set of other computers excludes the server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a publish/subscribe (pub/sub) server that maintains a persistent communication session between the first device and the second device, wherein the persistent communication session remains open while multiple messages are exchanged between the first device and the second device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the message from the pub/sub server is a publish response to a subscription that was established by the client device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the message from the pub/sub server is prompted by a specific time limit elapsing since the client device responded to a publish message from the pub/sub server.

10. A computer program product for controlling a communication session, said computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, said computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to establish a communication session between a first device and a second device, wherein the communication session initially remains open even if the second device is subsequently disabled;

computer usable program code configured to transmit a message from the first device to the second device; and

computer usable program code configured to, in response to the second device failing to actively respond to the message from the first device, terminate the communication session between the first device and the second device.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the first device is a server, and wherein the second device is a client device.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the client device failing to actively respond to the message results in an error message being sent from the client device to the server, and wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate the communication session between the client device and the server.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate other communication sessions between the client device and a set of other computers, wherein the set of other computers excludes the server.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the client device failing to actively respond to the message results in an error message being generated by the server, and wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate the communication session between the client device and the server.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer usable medium is executed on a session server, and wherein the computer usable program code is delivered to the session server from a software deploying server in an on-demand basis.

16. A system comprising:

a suitably configured hardware device for controlling a communication session by;

establishing a communication session with a browser on a client device, wherein the communication session initially remains open even if the browser on the client device is subsequently closed;

transmitting a message to the client device; and

in response to the client device failing to actively respond to the message, terminating the communication session with the client device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the communication session is between the client device and a server.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the client device failing to actively respond to the message results in an error message being sent from the client device to the server, and wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate the communication session between the client device and the server.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate other browser-based communication sessions between the client device and a set of other computers, wherein the set of other computers excludes the server.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the client device failing to actively respond to the message results in an error message being generated by the server, and wherein the error message prompts the server to terminate the communication session between the client device and the server.