System and method for retrieving and editing the data structure of an HTML UI Control

• US 6,944,828 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2001
• Issued: 09/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Appeon Corporation (hk) Limited
• Original Assignee: Appeon Corporation (hk) Limited
• Inventors: Gao, Shun, Shi, Zheng John, Gao, Yang, Mazda, Armeen
• Primary Examiner(s): Cabeca, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pillai, Namitha
• Application Number:
  US10/014,139
• Publication Number:
  US 20030112274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,370 Days
• Field of Search: 345/760, 345/779, 345/733, 345/744, 705/14, 707/104.1, 715/513, 715/739, 715/760, 715/779, 715/900, 715/968, 709/203
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for retrieving and editing the data structure of a HTML UI Control, such as a treeview. The system and method have the capability to synchronize the data structure of a displayed HTML UI Control in a Web page with its corresponding data structure stored in an information system at a server, without refreshing said Web page. The present invention utilizes JavaScript to temporarily store the data structure of a displayed HTML UI Control. The JavaScript also has the capability to search and modify a corresponding information system at a server. One way to achieve this capability is by utilizing a browser-based Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and specialized business logic at the server to carry out server-side tasks on said information system.

Claims

1. A method for retrieving and editing the data structure of a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) UI (User Interface) Control in a Client-Server networked environment, the method comprising the steps of:

loading at least one Web page at a client Web browser, said Web browser provided with a Client-Side Data Manager and a Client-Side Proxy;

displaying, a HTML UI Control in the Web page within an application window at a client device;

upon detecting an event at the browser, invoking the Client-Side Data Manager to evaluate the event;

responsive to the event, generating a first request by making a first remote procedure call from the Client-Side Data Manager to the Client-Side Proxy to generate a first universal resource locator (URL);

building an Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request for the first URL using the browser;

transmitting, to a first server, the HTTP request directed to a Server-Side Proxy;

invoking, at said first server at a Server-Side Data Query Engine, program code based on said HTTP request to query an information system;

receiving, at said application window from said Server-Side Proxy, an HTTP response containing the results of said query;

unpacking said HTTP response at said browser using said Client-Side Proxy;

executing a callback function at the Client-Side Proxy to make said HTTP response available to the Client-Side Data Manager; and

causing the Client-Side Data Manager to interact with the HTML UI Control based on the results of said query contained in the HTTP response;

wherein said transmitting and said receiving actions are accomplished without refreshing said Web page displaying said HTML UI Control.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said HTML UI Control is a form.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said HTML UI Control is a grid.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said HTML UI Control is a listview.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said HTML UI Control is a menu.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said HTML UI Control is a treeview.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said HTML UI Control displays at least a portion of a list of items.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said Web page is contained in a HTML frame.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said Web page contains a HTML inline frame.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said application window is a Web browser window.

11. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said Web page has means for storing the data structure of said HTML UI Control in a JavaScript object.

12. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein said JavaScript object is a multidimensional array.

13. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said transmitting and said receiving actions are accomplished without the use of Web browser plugins.

14. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the transmission of said HTTP request and response is accomplished through a non-persistent HTTP connection.

15. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said information system is a database.

16. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said information system is a network domain.

17. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said information system is a file system.

18. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said results are evaluated by a JavaScript function accessible by said Web page.

19. A method as defined in claim 18, wherein the evaluation of said JavaScript function results in a visual alteration of the displayed HTML UI Control.

20. A method for retrieving and editing the data structure associated with a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) UI (User Interface) in a Client-Server networked environment comprising the steps of:

displaying, an HTML UI Control with an associated data structure in a Web page within an application window at a client Web browser, said Web browser provided with a Client-Side Date Manager and a Client-Side Proxy, said Web page having means for storing the data associated with the data structure of said HTML UI Control;

upon detecting an event at the browser, invoking the Client-Side Data Manager to evaluate the event;

on said event being directed to editing the data structure, sending a first request to execute a remote procedure call (RPC) from said Client-Side Data Manager to said Client-Side Proxy;

executing said RPC over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to generate an HTTP request, said RPC being executed by one of an HTTP “

GET”

request through the HTML <

script>

tag and an HTTP “

POST”

request through the HTML <

form>

tag;

transmitting, from said Client-Side Proxy to Server-Side Proxy, said HTTP request containing at least one function name and at least one parameter, wherein a program code of said at least one function name resides at a Server-Side Data Query Engine;

causing said Server-Side Proxy to invoke said program code at said Server-Side Data Query Engine to query an information system based on the evaluation of said at least one function name and said at least one parameter and send an HTTP response to said Server-Side Proxy;

receiving, at said Client-Side Proxy in said application window, the HTTP response containing results of the execution of said query upon said information system, said HTTP response received through one of an HTML <

script>

tag and an HTML <

iframe>

tag corresponding to said HTML “

GET” and

said HTML “

POST”

request, respectively;

unpacking the HTTP response at said Client-Side Proxy and passing said results to said Client-Side Data Manager; and

editing said data structure using said results;

wherein the said transmitting and said receiving actions are accomplished without refreshing said Web page displaying said HTML UI Control with the data structure.

21. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said HTML UI Control is a form.

22. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said HTML UI Control is a grid.

23. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said HTML UI Control is a listview.

24. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said HTML UI Control is a menu.

25. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said HTML UI Control is a treeview.

26. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said HTML UI Control displays at least a portion of a list of items.

27. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said Web page is contained in an HTML frame.

28. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said Web page contains an HTML inline frame.

29. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said application window is a Web browser window.

30. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said data structure is stored in a JavaScript object.

31. A method as defined in claim 30, wherein said JavaScript object is a multidimensional array.

32. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said transmitting and said receiving actions are accomplished without the us of Web browser plugins.

33. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein the transmission of said HTTP request and response is accomplished through a non-persistent HTTP connection.

34. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said information system is a database.

35. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said information system is a network domain.

36. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said information system is a file system.

37. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein said results are evaluated by a JavaScript function accessible by said Web page.

38. A method as defined in claim 37, wherein the evaluation of said JavaScript function results in a visual alteration of the displayed HTML UI Control.

39. A system for retrieving and editing the data structure of a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) UI (User Interface) Control comprising:

means for displaying, at least one HTML UI Control with an associated data structure in at least one Web page within an application window at a client Web browser, said Web browser provided with a Client-Side Date Manager and a Client-Side Proxy;

means for storing the data structure associated with the at least one HTML UI Control of the at least one Web page in a memory;

means for invoking the Client-Side Data Manager to evaluate event detected at browser;

means for sending a first request to execute a remote procedure call (RPC) from said Client-Side Data Manager to said Client-Side Proxy in response to said event;

means for executing a said RPC over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to generate an HTTP request;

means for transmitting from said Client-Side Proxy to a Server-Side Proxy, said HTTP request containing at least one function name and at least one parameter, wherein a program code of said function names resides at a Server-Side Data Query Engine;

means for executing said program code at said Server-Side Data Query Engine to a query to a remote information system from said Web pages based on the evaluation of said at least one function name and, said at least one parameter;

means for receiving an HTTP response containing the results of the execution of said query at said Client-Side Proxy in said Web pages, said HTTP response received through one of an HTML <

script>

tag and an HTML <

iframe>

tag corresponding to said HTML “

GET” and

said HTML “

POST”

request, respectively;

means for processing said results a said Web pages by unpacking the HTTP response at said Client-Side Proxy and passing said results to said Client-Side Data Manager; and

means for editing said data structure using said results;

wherein said transmitting and said receiving actions are accomplished without refreshing said Web page displaying said HTML UI Control with the data structure.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein said means for storing the data structure associated with at least one HTML UI Control of a least one Web page in a memory comprises:

means for appending data to said data structure stored in said memory.

41. The system of claim 39, wherein said means for storing the data structure associated with at least one HTML UI Control of at least one Web page in a memory comprises:

means for searching said data structure stored in said memory; and

means for replacing the data of said data structure stored in said memory.

42. The system of claim 39, wherein said means for executing a query to a remote information system from said Web pages comprises:

means for preparing the necessary parameters of said RPC to a specified function at a server;

means for packaging said RPC as an HTTP request; and

means for executing said specified function at said server.

43. The system of claim 39, wherein said means for returning the results of said query to said Web pages comprises:

means for preparing said results as at least one parameter of a function call; and

means for packaging said results as said HTTP response; and

means for returning said HTTP response to said Web pages.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein means for preparing said results as at least one parameter of a function call comprises:

means for packaging said results as at least one delimited string.

45. The system of claim 39, wherein means for processing said results at said Web pages comprises:

means for passing said results to at least one function of said Web pages; and

means for executing said at least one function to process said results.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein means for executing said functions to process said results comprises:

means for parsing at least one delimited string containing said results.