DISCOVERING AND INSTALLING WEB APPLICATION PLUGINS

• US 20130218954A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 08/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kaegi, Simon Richard
• Granted Patent: US 8,839,233 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44526 Plug-ins; Add-ons
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A method for discovering and installing web application plugins is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method includes initiating a client-side component of a server-based web application. The client side-component hosts a first document. The method opens an inline frame, such as an IFrame or Web Worker, within the first document that hosts a second document. The method uses cross-document messaging to communicate, from the second document to the first document, metadata describing a plugin'"'"'s capabilities and metadata describing an API to access the plugin'"'"'s capabilities via cross-document messaging. The method utilizes the capabilities of the plugin using cross-document messaging in accordance with the API. A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for discovering and installing web application plugins, the method comprising:

initiating a client-side component of a server-based web application, the client side-component hosting a first document;

opening, by the client-side component, an inline frame within the first document, the inline frame hosting a second document different from the first document;

using cross-document messaging to communicate, from the second document to the first document, metadata describing a plugin'"'"'s capabilities, the metadata further providing an API to access the plugin'"'"'s capabilities via cross-document messaging; and

utilizing the capabilities of the plugin using cross-document messaging in accordance with the API.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first document is hosted by a first web site, and the second document is hosted by a second web site different from the first web site.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first web site is hosted on a first server, and the second web site is hosted on a second sever different from the first server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second documents are HTML documents.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising persisting the metadata on a server hosting the server-based web application.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising installing, by the client-side component, the plugin by recording the metadata in a plugin registry.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein using the plugin comprises initially selecting the plugin from a menu.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the menu lists plugins registered in the plugin registry.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising uninstalling, by the client-side component, the plugin by deleting the metadata from the plugin registry.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein opening an inline frame comprises opening one of an HTML IFrame and a Web Worker.