Internet web page sharing

• US 6,240,444 B1
• Filed: 09/27/1996
• Issued: 05/29/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Makoto, Fin, Tong-Haing, Fujisaki, Tetsunosuke, Shinozaki, Masahide
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Dung C.
• Application Number:
  US08/722,287
• Time in Patent Office: 1,705 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.38, 395/200.39, 395/200.4, 395/200.41, 395/200.34, 395/200.35, 395/200.48, 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/207, 709/320
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/15 Synchronised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The web sharing manager of a receiving sharing client receives duplicated events (e.g. browser requests) and messages from the web sharing manager of a source sharing client that causes the browser of the receiving sharing client to execute the duplicate event/message so that the browsers of the source and receiving sharing client computer system(s) process the same events/messages. Because events/messages, that include control and information locations (addresses), are shared between the source and receiving and sharing client(s), the same web page is simultaneously displayed and controlled, i.e. shared, on all of the sharing client(s).

Claims

1. A client computer having one or more memories, one or more central processing units, one or more displays, one or more user input devices, an operating system, and a network interface with a network protocol for communicating to a network, the network connected to one or more servers and one or more shared client computers, the client computer further comprising:

a browser for requesting one or more pages from one or more of the servers by sending one or more browser requests though the network interface and over the network to the server and the browser receiving from the server one or more of the requested pages sent over the network through the network interface;

one or more redirectors capable of recreating one or more of the browser requests, being redirected browser requests, the redirected browser requests recreated from one or more of the browser requests necessary to create a web page on the display; and

a web sharing manager connected to the one or more redirectors and to the network interface, receiving the redirected browser request, and sending the browser request over the network to one or more of the shared client computers.

3. A system, as in claim 1, where one or more of the messages include any one of the following:

an operating system message, an application message, a input device message, and a message produced by one or more of the shared computers.

2. A client computer having one or more memories, one or more central processing units, one or more displays, one or more user input devices, an operating system, and a network interface with a network protocol for communicating to a network, the network connected to one or more servers and one or more shared client computers, the client computer further comprising:

a browser capable of generating and processing one or more events;

an operating system for processing one or more messages;

a queue for stacking one or more queued entries, one or more of the queued entries each containing one of the messages, and one or more of the queued entries containing one of the events;

one or more redirectors capable of monitoring and recreating one or more of the queued entries, being directed queued entries; and

a web sharing manager connected to the one or more redirectors and to the network interface and receiving the directed queued events from the redirector, the web sharing manager incorporating each of the directed queued events in a sent packet conforming to a network protocol, the web sharing manager further sending the sent packets through the network interface and over the network to one or more of the shared client computers.

4. A system, as in claim 2, where one or more of the events is a browser request.

5. A system, as in claim 4, where the browser request is a request for one or more web pages from one or more of the servers.

6. A system, as in claim 5, where the server is an HTML server and one or more of the pages is an HTML page.

7. A system, as in claim 2, where the user input device includes any one or more of the following:

a pen, an handwriting annotation driver, a pen overlay, a remote pointer, a mouse, a keyboard, a virtual reality input, and a speech recognition system.

8. A system, as in claim 2, where the network includes any one of the following:

the internet, a local area network, and a wide area network.

9. A system, as in claim 2, where the network protocol is TCP/IP.

10. A system, as in claim 2, where one or more of the queued events are common client interface (CCI) events created by the browser.

11. A system, as in claim 10, where the CCI event is converted into an operating system protocol.

12. A system, as in claim 11, where the operating system protocol is Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).

13. A system, as in claim 10, where the CCI event includes any one or more of the following:

a request for opening a page, a request to change a window size, a request to register a protocol, a request to unregister a protocol, a request to get window information, a request to be notified when a new page is open, and a request to be notified when a window size is changed.

14. A system, as in claim 2, where one or more of the messages are created by one or more of the following:

keystrokes from a keyboard, mouse clicks and movements, pen input, speech signals from a speech recognition system, and operating system messages.

15. A system, as in claim 2, where the sent and received packets have a communication header with information used by the network protocol and one or more Web Sharing Manager Headers, each Web Sharing Manager Header having a Receiver ID field and a Packet Length field, the Receiver ID field having a receiver value that identifies the redirector and the Packet Length field having the length value specifying the length of a Web Sharing Manager Data having a Data Type field that identifies the type of the event and a Parameter field that identified the parameters associated with the event.

16. A client computer having one or more memories, one or more central processing units, one or more displays, one or more user input devices, an operating system, and a network interface with a network protocol for communicating to a network, the network connected to one or more servers and one or more shared client computers, the client computer further comprising:

a browser for requesting one or more pages from one or more of the servers by sending one or more browser requests though the network interface and over the network to the server and the browser receiving from the server one or more of the requested pages sent over the network through the network interface, the browser displaying one or more of the pages on the display with one or more messages of information from the user input device;

one or more redirectors capable of recreating one or more of the browser requests, being redirected browser requests, the redirected browser requests recreated from one or more of the browser requests necessary to create a page on the display, the redirectors further capable of recreating one or more of the messages being redirected messages; and

a web sharing manager connected to the one or more redirectors and to the network interface, receiving the redirected browser requests and redirected messages, and sending the browser requests and redirected messages over the network to one or more of the shared client computers so that the shared client computer displays a copy of the page on a shared display.

17. A computer, as in claim 16, where the computer is an agent computer used by an agent, the page is a document, and the shared computer is a client computer used by a client.

18. A computer, as in claim 17, where zero or more input devices on the client computer and zero or more input devices on the agent computer includes any one or more of the following:

a pen, an handwriting annotation driver, a pen overlay, a remote pointer, a mouse, a keyboard, a virtual reality input, and a speech recognition system.

19. A computer, as in claim 17, where the input device is a pen capable of producing a signature and the document has one or more windows where the signature is placed.

20. A computer, as in claim 17, where the document is any document generally used in commerce.

21. A computer, as in claim 20, where the document can be any one or more of the following:

a contract, a rental car agreement, a credit card statement, a bank statement, an application, a form, a tax form, an order form, a menu, a design drawing, a listing of software code, a patent application, and a bill of laden.

22. A computer, as in claim 17, where the agent can be any one or more of the following:

a sales person, a service provider, a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, a designer, a rental agent, an engineer, an architect, a banker, a stock broker, a programmer, a teacher, and an employee.

23. A computer, as in claim 17, where the client can be any one or more of the following:

a customer, a student, and a manager.

24. A client computer having one or more memories, one or more central processing units, one or more displays, one or more user input devices, an operating system, and a network interface with a network protocol for communicating to a network, the network connected to one or more servers and one or more shared client computers, the client computer further comprising:

a browser means for requesting one or more pages from one or more of the servers by sending one or more browser requests through network interface and over the network to the server and the browser receiving from the server one or more of the requested pages sent over the network through the network interface, the browser displaying one or more of the pages on the display with one or more messages of information from the user input device;

one or more redirectors means for recreating one or more of the browser requests, being redirected browser requests, the redirected browser requests recreated from one or more of the browser requests necessary to create a web page on the display, the redirectors further capable of recreating one or more of the messages being redirected messages; and

a web sharing manager means, connected to the one or more redirectors for connecting to the network interface, receiving the redirected browser requests and redirected messages, and sending the browser requests and redirected messages over the network to one or more of the shared client computers so that the shared client computer displays a copy of the page on a shared display.