Method, apparatus, and system for managing commands in a client server environment

• US 7,870,492 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2001
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Katchour, Ernst, Mukundan, Anil, Coker, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh; Ba
• Application Number:
  US09/969,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20070016869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,388 Days
• Field of Search: 715/748, 715/769, 715/810, 715/835, 715/902, 715/962, 715/968, 715/781, 715/749, 715/804, 715/821, 709/202, 709/203, 709/204, 709/205, 709/218, 709/220, 709/225, 709/216, 709/219, 707/103, 707/1, 707/513, 707/515
• US Class Current: 715/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided in which it is determined whether a command item associated with a user-interface control object is enabled. If the respective command item is enabled, indicate to a user that the respective command item can be selected to initiate a particular command to which the respective command item is associated. In response to the user'"'"'s selection of the respective command item, route the particular command to a particular destination for execution, based upon one or more predetermined criteria associated with the particular command.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

implementing a distributed RPC (Remote Procedure Call) application using corresponding RPC stubs and RPC runtime libraries, wherein

said distributed RPC application comprises an application code that contains a plurality of procedures distributed among a plurality of separate data processing systems,

each data processing system-specific portion of said application code is linked with a respective RPC stub and a respective RPC runtime library residing on a corresponding data processing system so as to generate an executable application code,

said executable application code containing said plurality of procedures is executed by said plurality of data processing systems so as to execute said distributed RPC application, and

said plurality of data processing systems comprises at least one client computer and at least one server;

storing one or more cached views for said distributed RPC application in a cache on said client computer, wherein each cached view includes a corresponding view layout and one or more view custom options associated with said cached view;

loading a set of browser-side objects on a browser running on said client computer, wherein

said RPC application facilitates synchronization between said browser-side objects and a set of server-side objects on said server;

configuring said client computer to determine whether a user-requested view of said distributed RPC application is one of said one or more cached views,

wherein

said user-requested view is a panel comprising a particular arrangement of applets;

when said user-requested view is one of said one or more cached views, configuring said client computer to retrieve said one of said one or more cached views from said cache for display via the browser running on said client computer; and

only when said user-requested view is absent from said one or more cached views, configuring said client computer to retrieve a new view layout and one or more new view custom options for said user-requested view from said server prior to displaying said user-requested view via said browser using said new view layout and said one or more new view custom options retrieved from said server, wherein said client computer is configured to use an RPC mechanism and a notification mechanism to retrieve said new view layout and said one or more new view custom options for said user-requested view from said server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring said client computer to store said new view layout and said one or more new view custom options retrieved from said server in said cache as a new cached view as part of said one or more cached views.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein configuring said client computer to store said new view layout includes configuring said client computer to perform the following as part of storing said new cached view in said cache:

if said cache has storage space available, store said new cached view in said cache; and

if said cache is full, flush said cache to create storage space prior to storing said new cached view in said cache.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

further configuring said client computer to retrieve data from said server to populate one or more fields in said user-requested view that is displayed via said browser.

5. A system comprising:

a memory device to store instructions;

a processor coupled to memory device to retrieve instructions from said memory device and in response to said instructions retrieved, said processor being operable;

to implement a distributed RPC (Remote Procedure Call) application using corresponding RPC stubs and RPC runtime libraries,

wherein

said distributed RPC application comprises an application code that contains a plurality of procedures distributed among a plurality of separate data processing systems,

each data processing system-specific portion of said application code is linked with a respective RPC stub and a respective RPC runtime library residing on a corresponding data processing system so as to generate an executable application code,

said executable application code containing said plurality of procedures is executed by said plurality of data processing systems so as to execute said distributed RPC application, and

said plurality of data processing systems comprises at least one client computer and at least one server;

a set of browser-side objects running on a browser residing on said at least one client computer, wherein

said RPC application facilitates synchronization between the browser-side objects and a set of server-side objects running on a server;

said at least one client computer coupled to said processor and operating in a client-server environment, wherein said client computer is configured to display a user-requested view of said distributed RPC application via said browser running on said client computer and said user-requested view is a panel comprising a particular arrangement of applet; and

a cache on said client computer to store a plurality of cached views for said distributed RPC application, wherein each cached view includes a corresponding view layout and one or more view custom options associated with said cached view,

wherein said client computer is configured to determine whether said user-requested view is one of said plurality of cached views and to perform one of the following actions based on said determination;

when said user-requested view is one of said plurality of cached views, retrieve said one of said plurality of cached views from said cache for display via said browser; and

only when said user-requested view is absent from said plurality of cached views, retrieve a new view layout and one or more new view custom options for said user-requested view from said server in said client-server environment prior to displaying said user-requested view via said browser using new view layout and said one or more new view custom options retrieved from said server.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said client computer is further configured to store said new view layout and said one or more new view custom options retrieved from said server in said cache as a new cached view as part of said plurality of cached views.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said client computer is configured to perform the following as part of storing said new cached view in said cache:

if said cache has storage space available, store said new cached view in said cache; and

if said cache is full, flush said cache to create storage space prior to storing said new cached view in said cache.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein said client computer is further configured to retrieve data from said server to populate one or more fields in said user-requested view that is displayed via said browser.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said client computer is configured to use an RPC (Remote Procedure Call) mechanism and a notification mechanism to retrieve said new view layout and said one or more new view custom options for said user-requested view as well as said data to populate said one or more fields in said user-requested view from said server.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein said browser includes a view object running thereon, wherein said view object represents said user-requested view.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein each view layout includes one or more layouts of applets associated with a view corresponding to said view layout.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein a view custom option includes one of the following:

a keyboard accelerator; and

a preference including a font, a font size, a font color, and width of columns and rows.

13. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions tangibly stored therein, which, when executed by a machine, cause said machine to perform operations including:

implementing a distributed RPC (Remote Procedure Call) application using corresponding RPC stubs and RPC runtime libraries, wherein

said distributed RPC application comprises an application code that contains a plurality of procedures distributed among a plurality of separate data processing systems,

each data processing system-specific portion of said application code is linked with a respective RPC stub and a respective RPC runtime library residing on a corresponding data processing system so as to generate an executable application code,

said executable application code containing said plurality of procedures is executed by said plurality of data processing systems so as to execute said distributed RPC application, and

said plurality of data processing systems comprises at least one-client computer and at least one server;

storing one or more cached views for said distributed RPC application in a cache on said client computer, wherein each cached view includes a corresponding view layout and one or more view custom options associated with said cached view;

loading a set of browser-side objects on a browser running on said client computer, wherein

said RPC application facilitates synchronization between said browser-side objects and a set of server-side objects on said server;

determining whether a user-requested view of said distributed RPC application is one of said one or more cached views, wherein

said user-requested view is a panel comprising a particular arrangement of applets;

when said user-requested view is one of said one or more cached views, retrieving said one of said one or more cached views from said cache for display via a browser running on said client computer; and

only when said user-requested view is absent from said one or more cached views, retrieving a new view layout and one or more new view custom options for said user-requested view from a server prior to displaying said user-requested view via said browser using said new view layout and said one or more new view custom options retrieved from said server, wherein said new view layout and said one or more new view custom options are retrieved from said server using an RPC mechanism and a notification mechanism.

14. The machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein said instructions, when executed by said machine, cause said machine to further perform the following:

storing said new view layout and said one or more new view custom options retrieved from said server in said cache as a new cached view as part of said one or more cached views.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein said instructions, when executed by said machine, cause said machine to further perform the following:

retrieving data from server to populate one or more fields in said user-requested view that is displayed via said browser.