Per-user application rendering in the presence of application sharing

• US 7,991,916 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2006
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nichols, David, Meek, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Chankong; Dohm
• Application Number:
  US11/637,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20070156689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,694 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/203, 715/209, 715/733, 715/751, 715/753, 715/759, 709/248, 709/208, 709/227, 709/229, 709/204
• US Class Current: 709/248
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

Architecture that allows users in an application sharing environment to separately view portions of data that are not part of the current shared view. An enhanced application sharing component is provided that facilitates rendering the application data multiple times for a correspondingly similar number of simultaneous users, and sending the additional renderings to the other users for interaction. Each user client includes an application sharing viewer that composites the per-user renderings onto the base shared image of the user client to create a per-user view of the shared document. The enhanced sharing component renders the portion of the data that is requested by the remote user as a bitmap and passes the bitmap along with coordinate information to the client rendering program presentation with the shared data view. The coordinate information indicates where on the shared screen of the remote client the bitmap is overlayed to produce a seamless experience.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of managing an application, the method comprising:

initiating application sharing between a sharing client and remote clients, the remote clients comprising at least one buffering remote client;

transmitting a shared view of application data from the sharing client to the remote clients;

rendering the shared view at the remote clients via remote client applications executing at the remote clients;

displaying the shared view at the remote clients;

receiving, at the sharing client, a request from a requesting remote client for accessing non-displayed application data, the requesting remote client comprising one of the remote clients and the non-displayed application data corresponding to application data that is not being displayed at the sharing client or the remote clients;

rendering, at the sharing client, rendered data corresponding to the non-displayed application data;

packaging, at the sharing client, the rendered data as bitmap data;

transmitting the bitmap data and positioning coordinate data to the requesting remote client, the positioning coordinate data indicating where to display the bitmap data on a requesting remote client display;

receiving a global view change request from the requesting remote client, the global view change request comprising a request to change the shared view visible on the remote clients to a view comprising the shared data and the non-displayed application data data as displayed at the requesting remote client;

transmitting the bitmap data and the positioning coordinate data to the remote clients and the buffering remote client and displaying the bitmap data and the shared data on the sharing client;

transmitting the non-displayed application data to the buffering remote client for rendering and display at the buffering remote client;

displaying the bitmap data and the shared data at the remote clients; and

rendering and displaying the non-displayed application data at the buffering remote client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting enhanced navigation controls on the remote clients, the enhanced navigation controls for requesting the not-displayed application data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the remote clients to obtain control over the shared data of the sharing client via the application sharing component to edit the shared data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising resetting rendering of the not-displayed application data in response to receiving a reset command from at least one of the remote clients.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

re-rendering the not-displayed data; and

transmitting the re-rendered not-displayed application data and the shared data to the remote clients based upon a change to the shared data received from one of the remote clients.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a control at the requesting remote client; and

receiving the request from the requesting remote client in response to interaction with the control at the requesting remote client.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising overlaying the bitmap data on the shared view rendered at the requesting remote client.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising re-rendering the not-displayed application data based on a change in the shared view.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising buffering the application data and updating the buffered application data in response to a change in the shared view.