Exposure of remotely invokable method through a webpage to an application outside web browser

• US 8,806,515 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2012
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Turski, Andrzej
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Qing
• Application Number:
  US13/669,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20130067503A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 719/330
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/541 Client-server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/548 Object oriented; Remote method invocation [RMI] non-remote method invocation G06F9/449

Abstract

Web browsing environments are commonly used to facilitate user interaction with data over the Internet. A web browser is a tool used to view and interact with a webpage. A webpage may interface with a web service to provide remote functionality that the webpage does not locally provide. An effective method for specifying and consuming remote functionality that an application invokes outside of the web browser is disclosed herein. A webpage exposes remote functionality (e.g., web service) that a web browser and/or browser extensions may discover through browsing the webpage. A browser extension associated with an application determines whether the application is compatible with the remote functionality. Once a compatible application is determined, it may be executed so as to connect to and invoke the remote functionality outside of the web browser. The application may provide a more robust experience with the remote functionality compared to the web browsing environment.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting to a web browser a webpage specifying a remotely invokable method invokable by an application configured to execute outside the web browser, the remotely invokable method associated with at least one of;

a method notification of the remotely invokable method;

or

a compatibility notification of at least one application that is compatible with the remotely invokable method.

2. The method of claim 1, the application configured to provide a result of an invocation of the remotely invokable method.

3. The method of claim 1, the specifying comprising at least one of:

specifying a web service comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a webpage address comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a server comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a security parameter for invoking the remotely invokable method;

specifying a configuration parameter for invoking the remotely invokable method;

specifying an actual data type provided by the remotely invokable method;

specifying the remotely invokable method within HTML;

specifying the remotely invokable method within a programming language file;

or

specifying the remotely invokable method within an XML file.

4. The method of claim 3, the specifying the remotely invokable method within HTML comprising:

specifying within an HTML header tag.

5. The method of claim 3, the specifying the remotely invokable method within HTML comprising:

specifying within an HTML body tag.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

specifying a functionality of the remotely invokable method.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising:

determining the at least one application based upon the functionality.

8. A system, comprising:

one or more processing units; and

memory comprising instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processing units perform actions comprising;

transmitting to a web browser a webpage specifying a remotely invokable method invokable by an application configured to execute outside the web browser, the web browser and the application associated with a browser extension that, responsive to receipt of a compatibility confirmation indicating that the application is compatible with the remotely invokable method, invokes the application.

9. The system of claim 8, the application configured to provide a result of an invocation of the remotely invokable method.

10. The system of claim 8, the specifying comprising at least one of:

specifying a web service comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a webpage address comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a server comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a security parameter for invoking the remotely invokable method;

specifying a configuration parameter for invoking the remotely invokable method;

specifying an actual data type provided by the remotely invokable method;

specifying the remotely invokable method within HTML;

specifying the remotely invokable method within a programming language file;

or

specifying the remotely invokable method within an XML file.

11. The system of claim 10, the specifying the remotely invokable method within HTML comprising one or more of:

specifying within an HTML header tag;

or

specifying within an HTML body tag.

12. The system of claim 8, the actions comprising:

specifying a compatible applications list corresponding to the remotely invokable method.

13. The system of claim 8, the actions comprising:

specifying a functionality of the remotely invokable method.

14. The system of claim 13, the actions comprising:

determining whether one or more applications outside the web browser are compatible with the functionality of the remotely invokable method.

15. A computer-readable storage medium configured to perform a method comprising:

transmitting to a web browser a webpage specifying a remotely invokable method invokable by an application configured to execute outside the web browser, the application invoked responsive to a determination that the application is specified within a compatible application list.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the application configured to provide a result of an invocation of the remotely invokable method.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the specifying comprising at least one of:

specifying a web service comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a webpage address comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a server comprising the remotely invokable method;

specifying a security parameter for invoking the remotely invokable method;

specifying a configuration parameter for invoking the remotely invokable method;

specifying an actual data type provided by the remotely invokable method;

specifying the remotely invokable method within HTML;

specifying the remotely invokable method within a programming language file;

or

specifying the remotely invokable method within an XML file.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, the specifying the remotely invokable method within HTML comprising:

specifying within an HTML header tag.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, the specifying the remotely invokable method within HTML comprising:

specifying within an HTML body tag.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the method comprising:

specifying a functionality of the remotely invokable method.