System and method for messaging and collaborating in an intranet environment

• US 7,650,380 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2004
• Issued: 01/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Andreev, Dmitrii, Vilshansky, Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin; Kenny S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Najee-Ullah; Tariq S
• Application Number:
  US10/777,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20050182817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,168 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-205, 709/207
• US Class Current: 709/204
• 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 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A messaging system includes a plurality of browsers connected through a common server. The server includes a message engine for receiving from a first user browser a request to enter chat mode with a second user browser; then receiving asynchronously from the second user browser a request to download any content from the common server or any other intranet or Internet server; and responding to the request from the second user browser with content modified to instantiate a chat session between the first and second user browsers.

Claims

1. A method for operating a server for establishing a chat session between two users in a network system, including a first user desiring to establish a chat session with a second user which does not have a chat application open, comprising:

said first user downloading from said server browser executable code for initiating a chat session;

said first user executing said browser executable code to display at a first browser window a chat invitation form including a header field, an instruction field, one or more fields for entering user identifiers, and a message field;

said first user entering to said chat invitation form one or more user identifiers including a user identifier for said second user, and optionally a message to said message field;

receiving at said server from said first user a request to enter chat mode with a second user;

receiving asynchronously at said server from said second user an HTTP request to download content from said server or any other intranet or Intranet server, said second user not currently executing a chat applet instance and being unaware of said request from said first user to enter chat mode;

said server responding to said HTTP request from said second user with an HTTP response including said content modified with a chat user interface to open a second browser window including a header field, a messages field, and a response field, wherein content of said second browser window causes a chat applet instance to download for execution at said second user;

executing said chat applet instance at said second user to instantiate a chat session between said first user and said second user; and

establishing a persistent connection between said second browser and said server to establish a channel for message exchange between said first and second browsers with said server acting as proxy.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating said first user to a message engine at said server to enable unicast messaging capabilities; and

thereafter

serving to said first user, in response to an asynchronous message from said first user requesting server content, a user interface to a collaboration tool for conveying text and/or multimedia messages with respect to said first user and an administration server.