Control unit operations in a real-time collaboration server

• US 8,028,020 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Issued: 09/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Huck, Paul, Skurikhin, Aleksey, Teplov, Ilya
• Primary Examiner(s): BATES, KEVIN T
• Application Number:
  US11/784,156
• Publication Number:
  US 20070185959A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,637 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/223, 709/224, 709/231, 710/52, 710/54
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

In a real-time collaboration server, a control unit manages a collaboration mode. The control unit operates a virtual client that maintains a virtual screen reflecting the status of the collaboration (e.g., the contents of a shared desktop or whiteboard). The virtual client renders collaboration data within the virtual screen. New clients are synchronized with an ongoing collaboration by packing and sending them a copy of the virtual screen. The control unit maintains a queue of collaboration data to be sent to participating clients. Each client may have a pointer identifying the queued data it is processing. The queue may be collapsed (e.g., when it reaches a maximum size) by sending a copy of the virtual screen to one or more clients that have not yet consumed old data in the queue; those clients are then updated to skip the queue entries embodied in the virtual screen.

Claims

1. In a real-time collaboration among multiple collaboration clients, a method of tracking the status of the collaboration, the method comprising:

receiving, at a real-time collaboration server from a first collaboration client, data submitted as part of a real-time collaboration involving multiple collaboration clients;

queuing the data at a control unit of the collaboration server for dissemination to the other collaboration clients;

operating a virtual client at the control unit of the collaboration server, wherein the virtual client acts as a collaboration client and receives the same queued data from the control unit as the other collaboration clients;

maintaining, by the virtual client, a collaboration status in a virtual screen that comprises a representation of the real-time collaboration;

updating the representation within the virtual screen to include the received data and to track the collaboration status of the real-time collaboration;

establishing a connection with a new collaboration client;

generating a copy of said representation of the real-time collaboration which tracks the updated status of the real-time collaboration; and

transmitting said copy to the new collaboration client to facilitate synchronization of the new collaboration client with the real-time collaboration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving further comprises:

passing said data to a virtual client executing within the real-time collaboration server;

wherein said virtual client is configured to maintain said representation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said representation comprises the virtual screen configured to track the appearance of a desktop of the first collaboration client.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said updating comprises:

adding the data to a collection of data, wherein a current state of the real-time collaboration can be recreated by applying said collection of data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said updating comprises:

rendering the data within said representation to reflect a current visual appearance of the real-time collaboration.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating comprises:

packing said representation of the status of the real-time collaboration into a form that can be applied by the new collaboration client to reproduce said status.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said status comprises graphical content of a shared client desktop.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

queuing the data as an entry in a queue of collaboration data released to collaboration clients; and

for each collaboration client, maintaining a reference to the queue entry comprising data currently being processed by the collaboration client.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting said copy to a first collaboration client; and

updating said reference for said first collaboration client to refer to the newest data included in said copy.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of tracking the status of a real-time collaboration involving multiple collaboration clients, the method comprising:

receiving, at a real-time collaboration server from a first collaboration client, data submitted as part of the collaboration;

queuing said data at the control unit of the collaboration server for dissemination to the other collaboration clients;

operating a virtual client at the control unit of the collaboration server, wherein the virtual client acts as a collaboration client and receives the same queued data from the control unit as the other collaboration clients;

maintaining, by the virtual client, a collaboration status in a virtual screen that comprises a representation of the real-time collaboration;

updating the representation within the virtual screen to include the received data and to track the collaboration status of the real-time collaboration;

establishing a connection with a new collaboration client;

generating a copy of said representation of the real-time collaboration which tracks the updated status of the real-time collaboration; and

transmitting said copy to the new collaboration client to facilitate synchronization of the new collaboration client with the real-time collaboration.

11. A method of monitoring the status of a real-time collaboration in which a presenter'"'"'s desktop is shared with multiple clients, comprising:

operating a virtual client at a control unit of a real-time collaboration server configured to manage a real-time collaboration in which a presenter'"'"'s desktop is shared with other collaboration clients, wherein the virtual client acts as a collaboration client and receives the same queued data from the control unit as the other collaboration clients;

receiving a first set of data from the presenter at the virtual client, wherein said a first set of data comprises one or more media streams;

queuing the first set of data at the control unit of the collaboration server;

maintaining, by the virtual client, a collaboration status in a virtual screen within which the first set of data is rendered to mimic the presenter'"'"'s desktop;

receiving a media sync modifier configured to trigger a reset of said media streams; and

in response to said media sync modifier, packing said virtual screen for transmission to the other collaboration clients.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said packing comprises:

generating a communication configured to facilitate reproduction of the virtual screen on a client.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

forwarding said packed virtual screen to a new client joining the real-time collaboration.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

forwarding said packed virtual screen to one or more of the multiple clients.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein said virtual client is configured to maintain said virtual screen as a copy of content displayed on the presenter'"'"'s desktop.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the first set of data comprises graphical data representing a change in the appearance of the presenter'"'"'s desktop.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising rendering said change in said virtual screen.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said rendering comprises updating a cache of graphical objects cached by the presenter.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the first set of data comprises one or more of audio data and video data.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

maintaining a queue in said real-time collaboration server, wherein each entry in said queue comprises collaboration data distributed to the multiple clients;

maintaining, for each of the multiple clients, a reference identifying the queue entry comprising data currently being processed by the client; and

adding the first set of data to a first entry in said queue.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising, if the queue reaches a maximum size:

identifying a slow client referencing the oldest entry in the queue;

sending said packed virtual screen to the slow client; and

updating the slow client'"'"'s reference to identify the first entry in the queue.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving a request from a slow client for the data in a next entry in the queue;

comparing a size of said packed virtual screen to a total size of all data in the queue from said next entry to said first entry; and

if said total size exceeds said size of said packed virtual screen;

sending said packed virtual screen to the slow client; and

updating the slow client'"'"'s reference to identify the first entry.

23. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

operating a virtual client at a control unit of a real-time collaboration server configured to manage the real-time collaboration in which a presenter'"'"'s desktop is shared with other collaboration clients, wherein the virtual client acts as a collaboration client and receives the same queued data from the control unit as the other collaboration clients;

receiving a first set of data from the presenter at the virtual client, wherein said a first set of data comprises one or more media streams;

queuing the first set of data at the control unit of the collaboration server;

maintaining, by the virtual client, a collaboration status in a virtual screen within which the first set of data is rendered to mimic the presenter'"'"'s desktop;

receiving a media sync modifier configured to trigger a reset of said media streams; and

in response to said media sync modifier, packing said virtual screen for transmission to the other collaboration clients.