Methods and apparatus for obtaining a state of a browser

• US 7,299,403 B1
• Filed: 10/11/2000
• Issued: 11/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cleasby, Andrew R., Cummings, Charles D., Russell, Dana
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): RUTLEDGE, AMELIA L
• Application Number:
  US09/685,716
• Time in Patent Office: 2,596 Days
• Field of Search: 715/500, 715/500.1, 715/501.1, 715/513, 715/738, 715/745
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

Mechanisms and techniques provide the system that allows the server computer system to capture the complete state of the browser process performing on a client computer system in a remote manner. The capture of such state information by a server computer system is useful, for example, to allow participants to a shared collaborative communications session to join such a session prior to initiation of such a session, or at any point in time during the lifetime of the collaboration session. In operation, the system of the invention can be initiated by browser process performing to the client computer system which obtains the capture process, for instance, as an applet. The capture process can extract from the browser process state information associated with the browser containing document contained within the browser. The capture process can store such state information in a content object on the client computer system and can format and transmit the content object from the capture process on the client computer system to a server computer system in order to maintain a state of the browser in the server computer system. By capturing the state of the browser on the client computer system via the capture process on the client computer system, the complete image of the state information of the browser, including any user supplied information, can be obtained and returns to the server computer system, thus allowing the server computer system, for example, to have participants to a collaboration session join the collaboration session prior to its existence or at any point during the lifetime of the collaboration session without having to navigate through the entire collaboration session.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining a state of a browser containing a document on a client computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

extracting, from the browser, via a capture process executed at the client computer system that operates in conjunction with the browser, complete state information associated with the browser and the document contained in the browser, wherein the state information includes a document state, a session state associated with the browser, and at least one of document cookies, application session cookies and communications session cookies;

storing the complete state information in at least one content object on the client computer system;

transmitting the at least one content object from the capture process on the client computer system to a server computer system to maintain a complete state of the browser in the server computer system;

detecting an intent to initiate a collaboration session with a first participant browser;

obtaining the capture process;

operating the capture process to perform the steps of extracting, storing and transmitting such that the capture process captures the complete state information associated with the browser, including state information created before the initiation of the collaboration session related to the document contained in the browser upon initiation of the collaboration session;

transmitting the complete state information to the server computer system such that the server computer system can provide the complete state information to other participants of the collaboration session, and wherein, in response to detecting the intent to initiate a collaboration session, the method performs the step of setting a document domain property of each document contained in the browser to a common value.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of extracting includes the steps of:

opening an application programming interface from the capture process to the browser, the application programming interface providing functions to access the state information associated the browser and the document contained in the browser; and

performing, via the capture process, the functions provided by the application programming interface to access and retrieve the state information on the client computer system.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein:

the functions provided by the application programming interface include document access functions to access the document contained in the browser and browser access functions to access the state information associated with the browser; and

wherein the step of performing, via the capture process, the functions provided by the application programming interface includes the steps of;

accessing the document contained within the browser for document tags existing in the document using at least one of the document access functions;

copying, into a document content object, the content associated with each document tag accessed from the document;

capturing, via at least one browser access function, at least one application session identifier associated with the document contained in the browser; and

copying the at least one application session identifier associated with the document into the document content object.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein:

the document contained in the browser is a hypertext document;

wherein the step of accessing includes the step of calling a hypertext access function provided by the application programming interface to obtain each document tag within document; and

wherein the step of copying into a document content object includes the steps of;

calling a hypertext retrieval function provided by the application programming interface to obtain hypertext content associated with each document tag in the document; and

placing the hypertext content associated with each document tag in the document into the document content object.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the browser contains multiple documents, each associated with a document container, and wherein the step of performing the functions provided by the application programming interface to access and retrieve the state information is performed on each document in each document container to access and retrieve the state information associated with each document in each document container.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the state information includes a document state and a session state associated with a browser, for each document contained in the browser; and

wherein the step of storing arranges the document state and the session state associated with a browser, for each document contained in the browser, in a format within the at least one content object, such that the at least one content object associates each document state with a session state associated with a document for each document contained in the browser.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting transmits the at least one content object from the capture process to a collaboration application performing on the server computer system for distribution to participant browsers.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining the capture process includes the steps of:

obtaining a version of the browser containing the document; and

determining if the version is a first value, and if so, obtaining a first version of the capture process from a first location, and if not, determining if the version is a second value, and if so, obtaining a second version of the capture process from a second location.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the capture process is an applet stored on a server and wherein the step of obtaining the capture process includes the step of downloading the applet from the server to the client computer system to capture state information associated the browser and the document contained in the browser.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of setting a document property of each document contained in browser to a common value includes the step of performing script logic to alter a document domain property of each document contained in the browser to a common domain.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said state information further includes other state information related to the document besides actual document content.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said state information further includes time sensitive information related to a web page on display within the browser, and participant supplied information used in said collaboration session.

13. A computer system comprising:

a memory configured with a browser containing at least one document;

an input-output mechanism;

a processor; and

an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the input-output mechanism;

wherein the memory is further configured with a capture process, that when performed on the processor, causes the processor to obtain a complete state of the browser containing the at least one document by performing the operations of;

extracting, from the browser, complete state information wherein the complete state information includes a document state, a session state associated with the browser, and at least one of document cookies, application session cookies and communications session cookies;

storing the state information in at least one content object in the memory;

transmitting the at least one content object to a server computer system, via the input-output mechanism, to maintain a complete state of the browser in the server computer system;

detecting an intent to initiate a collaboration session with a first participant browser;

obtaining the capture process; and

operating the capture process to perform the steps of extracting, storing and transmitting such that the capture process captures the complete state information associated with the browser, including state information created before the initiation of the collaboration session related to the document contained in the browser upon initiation of the collaboration session; and

transmitting the complete state information to the server computer system such that the server computer system can provide the complete state information to other participants of the collaboration session, and wherein, in response to detecting the intent to initiate a collaboration session, the method performs the step of setting a document domain property of each document contained in the browser to a common value.

14. The computer system of claim 13 wherein when the processor performs the operation of extracting, the processor performs the operations of:

opening an application programming interface from the capture process to the browser, the application programming interface providing functions that can be performed by the capture process, under control of the processor, to access the state information associated the browser and the document contained in the browser; and

performing the functions provided by the application programming interface to access and retrieve the state information.

15. The computer system of claim 14 wherein:

the functions provided by the application programming interface include document access functions to access the document contained in the browser and browser access functions to access the state information associated with the browser; and

wherein, when the capture process is performed on the processor to perform the functions provided by the application programming interface, the capture process further causes the processor to perform the operations of;

accessing the document contained within the browser in the memory for document tags existing in the document using at least one of the document access functions;

copying, into a document content object in the memory, the content associated with each document tag accessed from the document; and

capturing, via at least one browser access function, at least one application session identifier associated with the document contained in the browser; and

copying the at least application session identifier associated with the document into the document content object.

16. The computer system of claim 15 wherein:

the document contained in the browser in memory is a hypertext document;

wherein the operation of accessing, when performed by the capture process on the processor, further causes the processor to perform the operation of calling a hypertext access function provided by the application programming interface to obtain each document tag within document; and

wherein the operation of copying into a document content object, when performed by the capture process performing on the processor, further causes the processor to perform the operations of;

calling a hypertext retrieval function provided by the application programming interface to obtain hypertext content associated with each document tag in the document in the memory; and

placing the hypertext content associated with each document tag in the document into the document content object in the memory.

17. The computer system of claim 14 wherein:

the browser contains multiple documents in the memory, each document associated with a document container in memory; and

wherein the processor performs the operation of performing, via the capture process, the functions provided by the application programming interface to access and retrieve the state information on each document in each document container in the memory to access and retrieve the state information associated with each document in each document container in the memory.

18. The computer system of claim 13 wherein:

the state information includes a document state and a session state associated with a browser, for each document contained in the browser in the memory; and

wherein when the processor performs the operation of storing, the processor arranges the document state and the session state associated with a browser, for each document contained in the browser, in a format within the at least one content object in the memory, such that the at least one content object associates each document state with a session state associated with a document for each document contained in the browser.

19. The computer system of claim 13 wherein when the processor performs the operation of transmitting, the processor transmits the at least one content object from the input-output mechanism to a collaboration application performing on the server computer system for distribution to participant browsers.

20. The computer system of claim 13 wherein when the processor performs the operation of obtaining the capture process, the processor performs the operations of:

obtaining a version of the browser containing the document; and

determining if the version is a first value, and if so, obtaining a first version of the capture process from a first location, and if not, determining if the version is a second value, and if so, obtaining a second version of the capture process from a second location.

21. The computer system of claim 13, wherein, in response to detecting an intent to initiate a collaboration session, the processor performs the operation of setting a document property of each document contained in the browser in the memory to a common value.

22. The computer system of claim 13 wherein said state information further includes other state information related to the document besides actual document content.

23. The computer system of claim 13 wherein said state information further includes time sensitive information related to a web page on display within the browser, and participant supplied information used in said collaboration session.

24. A computer program product having a computer-readable medium including capture process computer program logic encoded thereon for obtaining a complete state of a browser containing a document on a client computer system, such that the computer program logic, when performed on at least one processor within a computer system, causes the at least one processor to perform the operations of:

extracting, from the browser, complete state information associated the browser and the document contained in the browser, wherein the complete state information includes a document state, a session state associated with the browser, and at least one of document cookies, application session cookies and communications session cookies;

storing the complete state information in at least one content object on the client computer system;

transmitting the at least one content object from the client computer system to a server computer system to maintain a complete state of the browser in the server computer system;

detecting an intent to initiate a collaboration session with a first participant browser;

obtaining the capture process; and

operating the capture process to perform the steps of extracting, storing and transmitting such that the capture process captures the complete state information associated with the browser, including state information created before the initiation of the collaboration session related to the document contained in the browser upon initiation of the collaboration session; and

transmitting the complete state information to the server computer system such that the server computer system can provide the complete state information to other participants of the collaboration session, and wherein, in response to detecting the intent to initiate a collaboration session, the method performs the step of setting a document domain property of each document contained in the browser to a common value.

25. The computer program product of claim 24 wherein the computer program logic that causes the processor to perform the operation of extracting further causes the processor to perform the operations of:

opening an application programming interface from the capture process to the browser, the application programming interface providing functions to access the state information associated the browser and the document contained in the browser; and

performing the functions provided by the application programming interface to access and retrieve the state information on the client computer system.

26. The computer program product of claim 24 wherein the capture process computer program logic is an applet that can be served by the server computer system to the client computer system and that can be performed on the client computer system to capture state information related to the browser on the client computer system.

27. The computer program product of claim 24 wherein said state information further includes other state information related to the document besides actual document content.

28. A method for performing collaboration between participant browsers, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining complete state information from a browser process performing on a first client computer system, from within the first client computer system, wherein the complete state information includes a document state, a session state associated with the browser, and at least one of document cookies, application session cookies and communications session cookies and state information created before the initiation of the collaboration session related to;

transmitting the complete state information from the client computer system to a server computer system;

distributing the complete state information from the server computer system to at least one participant browser on a second client computer system to allow the participant browser on the second client computer system to re-create the state of the browser process performing on the first client computer system and to enable the participant browser on the second client computer system to enter a collaboration session with the browser process of the first client computer system at a point in the collaboration session defined by the complete state information, wherein a document domain property of each document contained in the browser is set to a common value.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the steps of obtaining, transmitting and distributing are performed prior to the initiation of the collaboration session between the browser process performing on the first client computer system and a collaboration server.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein:

the steps of obtaining, transmitting and distributing are performed after the initiation of the collaboration session between the browser process performing on the first client computer system and a collaboration server; and

wherein the state information is interim state information that conveys a complete state of the browser process on the first client computer system as it exists during the existence of the collaboration session.

31. The method of claim 28 wherein said state information further includes other state information related to the document besides actual document content.