Methods and apparatus for incorporating a partial page on a client

• US 7,346,842 B1
• Filed: 11/02/2000
• Issued: 03/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Halls, David, Hayton, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Quoc A.
• Application Number:
  US09/704,896
• Time in Patent Office: 2,693 Days
• Field of Search: 715/523, 715/500.1, 715/500, 715/511, 715/513, 715/516, 345/751, 345/419, 345/735, 345/771, 707/10, 707/104.1, 704/9, 709/217, 434/350
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for regenerating portions of the page that have changed and transmitting only those portions to the client for display. Executing only the necessary parts of the page generation code and transmitting only changes to the client improves the efficiency of using the resources of the network communication channel, the client node and the server node. Performing these operations only when required, when the data has changed, improves the efficiency of use even further. The invention also takes advantage of any portions of the page that are already on the client by reusing them and thus eliminates the need to regenerate or transmit those reusable portions.

In one aspect, the invention relates to a method for incorporating a partial page into a transmitted page displayed on a client. The method includes displaying the transmitted page on a client, receiving by the client a regenerated portion of the transmitted page from a server and incorporating by the client the regenerated portion into the transmitted page displayed on the client. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving by the client a modification list from the server instructing the client on the incorporation of the regenerated page portion into the transmitted page. In another embodiment, the method includes receiving by the client additional code instructing the client on how to interpret commands contained in the modification list.

Claims

1. A method for incorporating a dynamic portion of a transmitted page into a previous version of the transmitted page displayed on a client, the method comprising:

(a) receiving, at a client, a transmitted page comprising a plurality of dynamic portions;

(b) displaying the transmitted page on the client;

(c) receiving, by the client, a modified version of one of the dynamic portions of the page and an identifier specifying one of the plurality of dynamic portions of the transmitted page to be replaced by the modified version of one of the dynamic portions; and

(d) incorporating, by the client, the modified version of one of the dynamic portions into the transmitted page displayed on the client responsive to the modification list.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving, by the client, additional code instructing the client regarding interpretation of the modification list.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

(e) copying a first portion of the transmitted page displayed on the client; and

(f) inserting the copied first portion into a second portion of the transmitted page displayed on the client.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising changing an identification tag associated with the second portion from a first value associated with the copied first portion to a non-identical second value associated with the second portion.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising moving a first portion of the transmitted page to a second portion.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of moving further comprises saving the first portion in a storage buffer.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of moving further comprises moving the first portion of the transmitted page to a second portion within the modified portion.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising changing an identification tag associated with the moved portion from a first value associated with the first portion to a non-identical second value associated with the moved second portion.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein step (d) further comprises replacing one of the plurality of dynamic portions comprising the transmitted page with the received, modified portion.

10. A client for incorporating a dynamic portion of a transmitted page into a previous version of the transmitted page displayed on the client comprising:

a transceiver receiving a transmitted page and a plurality of dynamic portions included in the transmitted page; and

a display alterer in communication with the transceiver, the display alterer receiving a modified version of one of the dynamic portions of the page and an identifier specifying one of the plurality of dynamic portions of the transmitted page to be replaced by the modified version of one of the dynamic portions and incorporating the modified version of one of the dynamic portions into the transmitted page displayed on the client responsive to the modification list.

11. The client of claim 10 wherein the display alterer receives additional code instructing the client regarding interpretation of the modification list.

12. The client of claim 10 further comprising a storage buffer in communication with the display alterer, the storage buffer storing a first portion of the transmitted page displayed on the client for use in updating the transmitted page.

13. A system for incorporating a dynamic portion of a transmitted page responsive to the modification list, the system comprising:

an external page code source;

a client comprising;

a client transceiver, the client transceiver receiving a transmitted page and a plurality of dynamic portions included in the transmitted page; and

a display alterer in communication with the client transceiver, the display alterer receiving a modified version of one of the dynamic portions of the page and an identifier specifying one of the plurality of dynamic portions of the transmitted page to be replaced by the modified version of one of the dynamic portions and incorporating the modified version of one of the dynamic portions into the transmitted page displayed on the client responsive to the modification list; and

a server comprising;

a server transceiver in communication with the client, the server transceiver transmitting the page and a plurality of dynamic portions included in the transmitted page to the client for display; and

a partial page regenerator in communication with the server transceiver and the external page code source, the partial page regenerator receiving from the external page code source page generation code that generates one of the plurality of dynamic portions included in the page and executing an associated code fragment of the code to modify the one of the plurality of dynamic portions included in the page.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the display alterer of the client receives additional code instructing the client regarding interpretation of the modification list.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the client further comprises a storage buffer in communication with the display alterer, the storage buffer storing a first portion of the transmitted page displayed on the client for use in updating the transmitted page.