METHOD FOR ENABLING A MOBILE USER EQUIPMENT TO DRAG AND DROP DATA OBJECTS BETWEEN DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS

• US 20110099497A1
• Filed: 06/01/2009
• Published: 04/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Innovations Ltd Hong Kong (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Fok, Frederick Ah Chuen, Delabarre, Nicolas
• Granted Patent: US 8,966,386 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72409 by interfacing with external accessories hands-free H04M1/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

The invention concerns a system and a method for enabling a mobile User Equipment (81) to drag and drop data objects between at least two remote applications (7, 9) or between a local application (2) and a remote application (7, 9), the system including a Drag Source (10), a Drag Target (12), a Drop Source (14), and a Drop Target (16). In the system according to the invention, the Drag Source (10) is configured for negotiating with the Drag Target (12) a transmission protocol (38, 32, 100, 102, 104) for exchanging said data object between said Drop Source (14) and said Drop Target (16).

Claims

1. System for enabling a mobile User Equipment to drag and drop data objects between at least two remote applications and or between a remote application and a local application, the system comprising a Drag Source, a Drag Target, a Drop Source, and a Drop Target, said system characterized in that the Drag Source is configured for negotiating with the Drag Target a transmission protocol for exchanging said data object between said Drop Source and said Drop Target.

2. System according to claim 1 wherein said transmission protocol use either an in-the-band transmission channel or an out-of-the band transmission channel for transmitting data objects from said Drop Source to said Drop Target.

3. System according to claim 2 wherein the mobile User Equipment selects a set of data objects on a Remote Application and drops the selected data objects into a local application which triggers the exchange of said data object from Drop Source to said Drop Target.

4. System according to claim 2 wherein the mobile User Equipment selects a set of objects on a first Remote Application and drops the selected objects into a second Remote Application.

5. System according to claim 2 wherein the mobile User Equipment selects a set of objects on a local application and drops the selected objects into a Remote Desktop Application (RDA) remote application.

6. System according to claim 3 wherein said selected objects are exchanged between entities not necessarily involved in said drag and drop procedure.

7. System according to claim 3 wherein the Drag Source and the Drop Source are located in the mobile User Equipment, while the Drag Target and the Drop Target are either located in a unique remote server or distributed in different remote servers.

8. System according to claim 7 wherein said Drop Source is a Subscriber Identity Module or a peripheral connected to said mobile User Equipment using wireless or fixed communication interface.

9. A method for enabling a mobile User Equipment to drag and drop data objects between at least two remote applications or between a local application and a remote application in a system comprising a Drag Source, a Drag Target, a Drop Source, and a Drop Target, said method characterized in that the Drag Source and the Drag Target exchange drag-and-drop signaling over a first data channel while the Drop Source and the Drop Target exchange the data objects over a second data channel different from said first channel.

10. A method according to claim 9 further comprising the following steps:

the Drag Source transmits to the Drag Target a drag-notification to notify to said Drag Target to handle the drag of a selected data object,

in response to said drag-notification, the Drag Target responds to the Drag Source either by a DRAG-OBJECT-REFUSE if the Drag Target cannot handle the drag-and-drop operation, or by a DROP-OBJECT-REQUEST if the Dragged Data Object is dropped in the Drag Source,

upon reception of said drop-object-request, the Drag Source transmits to said Drag Target a DROP-OBJECT-RESPONSE including either the requested data in-the-band or the data exchange protocol along with associated parameters such as IP addresses and port number,

upon transmission and reception of said DROP-OBJECT-RESPONSE the Drag Source configures the Drop Source based on selected data exchange protocol and the Drag Target configures the Drop Target to receive the selected data,

the Drag Target transmits the Drag Source a DRAG-DROP-END signal to announce the completion of the drag-and-drop operation between Drag Source and Drag Target.

11. A method according to claim 9 wherein said drag-notification comprises a description of the selected data object to enables the Drag Target to register the location information of selected data object and its properties which can further enable automatic selection of application, and a graphical representation of said selected data object to enable the Drag Target to visually render the selected data object with the traditional cursor graphical effect and a description of a set of possible actions supported by the Drag Source.

12. A method according to claim 9 wherein the DROP-OBJECT-REQUEST includes an object identifier, a preferred data transfer mechanism, a description of the action selected by the Drag Target.

13. A method according to claim 11 wherein if no action is specified, the Drag Target undertakes a default action which can be a copy of an object.

14. A method according to claim 11 wherein, the DROP-OBJECT-RESPONSE further comprises a license information associated to the action of “

a stream transmission of an object”

to enable a DRM agent in the Drop Target to play back a video stream from the Drop Source.

15. A method according to claim 10 wherein said set of possible actions supported by the Drag Source comprises:

a stream of a selection action to enable said Drop Target to receive a stream of the selection from said Drop Source,

a copy of a selection action to enable the Drop Source to receive a copy of the selected object,

an alias of a selection to enable the Drop Target to receive a link address to the physical data object from the Drop Source,

a move command of a selection,

a retrieval command of a URI associated to the data object to enable the Drop Source to use said URI and do appropriate procedure using said URI.

16. A method according to claim 11 wherein, the DROP-OBJECT-RESPONSE further comprises a license information associated to said action of a stream transmission of an object to enable a DRM agent in the Drop Target to play back a video stream transmitted by the Drop Source.

17. A method according to claim 9 wherein said drag-and-drop signaling uses a session identification number to enable accurate drag-and-drop session management.

18. A method according to claim 9 wherein said drag-and-drop signaling is implemented based on remote display control protocol such as Remote Frame Buffer (RFB) protocol, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol, and Adaptive Internet Protocol.

19. A method according to claim 9 wherein said drag-and-drop signaling can further be implemented based on WEB message format (html, xml, javascript, . . . ).

20. Computer program stored in a non-transitory computer readable recoding medium adapted, when executed in a computer, for enabling a mobile User Equipment to drag and drop data objects between at least two remote applications between a remote application a local application in a system comprising a Drag Source, a Drag Target, a Drop Source, and a Drop Target, said computer program comprising:

instructions for enabling a mobile User Equipment to drag and drop data objects between at least two remote applications or between a local application and a remote application and to configure itself either as a Drag Source or as a Drag Target,

instructions for enabling the Drag Source to transmits to the Drag Target a drag-notification to notify to said Drag Target to handle the drag of a selected data object,

instructions for enabling the Drag Target to respond to the Drag Source either by a DRAG-OBJECT-REFUSE if the Drag Target cannot handle the drag-and-drop operation, or by a DROP-OBJECT-REQUEST if the Dragged Data Object is dropped in the Drag Target,

instructions for enabling the Drag Source to transmit to said Drag Target a DROP-OBJECT-RESPONSE including either the requested data in-the-band or the data exchange protocol along with associated parameters such as IP addresses and port number,

instructions for enabling the Drag Source to configure the Drop Source based on selected data exchange protocol and the Drag Target to configure the Drop Target to receive the selected data,

instructions for enabling the Drag Target to transmit the Drag Source a DRAG-DROP-END signal to announce the completion of the drag-and-drop operation between Drag Source and Drag Target.