Methods and systems for a remote desktop session utilizing HTTP header

• US 9,395,885 B1
• Filed: 07/24/2012
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Marketing Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wyse Technology L.L.C. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Kominac, Stevan, Stanley, Jeremy Michael, Schwebke, Curtis
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chou, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US13/557,161
• Time in Patent Office: 1,456 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/20 Drawing from basic elements, e.g. lines or circles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Examples of methods, systems, apparatus, and machine-readable storage media are provided to facilitate access and control of a remote desktop of a remote machine by a web browser of a client device through a web server without installing proprietary plug-ins or protocols on the client device. A web server may translate user input requests from a web browser into input calls compatible with a remote desktop display protocol. The web server may receive remote desktop drawing commands from the remote machine and translate the remote desktop drawing commands into web browser drawing updates compatible with the web browser. A web server may communicate with the web browser and the remote machine via HTTP and a remote desktop display protocol, respectively.

Claims

1. A method for a remote desktop session between a web browser of a client device and a remote machine through a web server, utilizing hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) headers for remote desktop session drawing, the method comprising:

receiving, at the web server, a request from the web browser of the client device, the request being either a long polling drawing request or an input request, where an input request is a user input command and the long polling drawing request is a request to update an image of a remote desktop;

handling, at the web server, the request, where a long polling drawing request is handled as an asynchronous request and an input request is handled as a synchronous request;

receiving, at the web server, a remote desktop drawing command from the remote machine using a remote desktop display protocol, wherein the remote desktop drawing command is based on the image of a remote desktop of the remote machine;

translating, at the web server, the remote desktop drawing command into a display image and drawing coordinates for the display image;

placing, at the web server, the drawing coordinates into an HTTP response header; and

in response to the request, providing the display image and the drawing coordinates together to the web browser in a single HTTP response, for drawing the display image of the remote desktop at the web browser, wherein the single HTTP response comprises the HTTP response header,

wherein (i) the remote desktop display protocol is a push protocol, and (ii) HTTP is a pull protocol, and (iii) the web browser comprises a windows web browser.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the web server comprises a windows web server, and wherein the translating comprises:

translating the remote desktop drawing command into a windows graphics drawing command, wherein the web server comprises one or more web applications including one or more HTTP handlers;

updating a portion of a memory bitmap corresponding to the remote desktop in response to the windows graphics drawing command;

generating coordinates for the updated portion of the memory bitmap from the windows graphics drawing command;

generating the display image compatible with the web browser based on the memory bitmap; and

obtaining the drawing coordinates for the display image based on the coordinates for the memory bitmap,

wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates are compatible with hypertext markup language (HTML),

wherein the updated portion of the memory bitmap represents a portion of an image of the remote desktop of the remote machine,

wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates represent the portion of the image of the remote desktop of the remote machine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the web server is an intermediary between the remote machine and the client device, and wherein the web server is physically separate from the remote machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote desktop drawing command comprises coordinates of a region of the remote desktop that has changed relative to a previous remote desktop drawing command, wherein the coordinates specify a redrawing region, and wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates are compatible with windows graphic protocol and HTML5.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the display image comprises at least one of a scaled image of the remote desktop or a display image comprising an offset image of the remote desktop.

6. A method for a remote desktop session between a web browser of a client device and a remote machine through a web server, utilizing asynchronous handling of requests to reduce traffic to the client device, the method comprising:

receiving, at the web server using HTTP, a request from the web browser of the client device, the request being either a long polling drawing request or an input request;

handling, at the web server, the request, where a long polling drawing request is handled as an asynchronous request and an input request is handled as a synchronous request;

receiving, at the web server, a remote desktop drawing command from the remote machine;

translating, at the web server, the remote desktop drawing command into a web browser drawing update, wherein the remote desktop drawing command is compatible with a push protocol, wherein the web browser drawing update is compatible with HTTP; and

providing the web browser drawing update from the web server to the web browser of the client device, utilizing HTTP, as a response to the request from the web browser,

wherein the web server comprises a windows web server and the web browser is a windows web browser.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the handling of an asynchronous request comprises:

determining whether a drawing command is pending at the web server for the web browser;

if there is no pending drawing command, then storing the request in a drawing requests queue as asynchronous requests; and

if there is a pending drawing command, then providing the request to an HTTP handler module in the web server to allow the HTTP handler module to serve the pending drawing command in response to the request.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the remote desktop drawing command represents a portion of an image of a remote desktop of the remote machine,

wherein the translating comprises:

translating the remote desktop drawing command into a windows graphics drawing command;

updating a portion of a memory bitmap of the image of the remote desktop in response to the windows graphics drawing command;

generating coordinates of the updated portion of the memory bitmap based on the windows graphics drawing command;

generating an image file based on the updated portion of the memory bitmap, wherein the image file is compatible with the web browser, wherein the image file comprises a windows image file compatible with the windows web browser; and

obtaining drawing coordinates for the image file based on the coordinates of the updated portion of the memory bitmap,

wherein the web browser drawing update comprises the image file and the drawing coordinates.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the providing the web browser drawing update comprises:

placing, at the HTTP handler module the drawing coordinates into an HTTP header of a single HTTP transmission response to the web browser;

including, at the HTTP handler module, the image file into the single HTTP transmission response to the web browser to provide the image file and the drawing coordinates together to the web browser in the single HTTP transmission response; and

when a drawing commands queue has new coordinates, sending a notification to the drawing requests queue to allow at least one of the requests in the drawing requests queue to be forwarded to the HTTP handler module.

10. The method of claim 6, comprising:

receiving a connection request from the web browser to connect to the remote machine;

providing a client script code to the web browser in response to the connection request to connect to the remote machine,

wherein the receiving the request comprises receiving the request from the client script code,

wherein the providing the web browser drawing update comprises providing the web browser drawing update to the client script code; and

deleting the client script code from the web browser when the remote desktop session is terminated.

11. The method of claim 6, comprising:

receiving, at the web server, a user input request from the web browser for accessing or controlling a remote desktop of the remote machine,

translating, at the web server, the user input request into an input command compatible with the push protocol;

providing the input command to the remote machine utilizing the push protocol,

wherein the receiving the remote desktop drawing command comprises receiving the remote desktop drawing command in response to the input command.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored therein, the instructions executable by one or more processors to perform one or more operations, the instructions comprising:

code for causing one or more processors to receive a request from the web browser of the client device, the request being either a long polling drawing request or an input request, where an input request is a user input command and the long polling drawing request is a request to update an image of a remote desktop;

code for causing one or more processors to handle, at the web server, the request, where a long polling drawing request is handled as an asynchronous request and an input request is handled as a synchronous request;

code for causing one or more processors to receive a remote desktop drawing command from a module of a remote machine using a remote desktop display protocol, wherein the remote desktop drawing command is based on the image of a remote desktop of the remote machine;

code for causing one or more processors to translate the remote desktop drawing command into a display image and drawing coordinates for the display image;

code for causing one or more processors to place the drawing coordinates into a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) response header; and

code for causing one or more processors to provide the display image and the drawing coordinates together to the web browser in a single HTTP response to the request, for drawing the display image of the remote desktop at the web browser, wherein the single HTTP response comprises the HTTP response header,

wherein the remote desktop display protocol is a push protocol, and HTTP is a pull protocol.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the code for causing one or more processors to translate is to be executed at a web server, wherein the web server comprises a windows web server, and wherein the code for causing one or more processors to translate comprises:

code for causing one or more processors to translate the remote desktop drawing command into a windows graphics drawing command;

code for causing one or more processors to update a portion of a memory bitmap of the remote desktop in response to the windows graphics drawing command;

code for causing one or more processors to generate coordinates for the updated portion of the memory bitmap from the windows graphics drawing command;

code for causing one or more processors to generate the display image compatible with the web browser based on the updated portion of the memory bitmap; and

code for causing one or more processors to obtain the drawing coordinates for the display image based on the coordinates for the updated portion of the memory bitmap,

wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates are compatible with hypertext markup language (HTML),

wherein the updated portion of the memory bitmap represents a portion of an image of the remote desktop of the remote machine,

wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates represent the portion of the image of the remote desktop of the remote machine.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the remote desktop drawing command comprises coordinates of a region of the remote desktop that has changed relative to a previous remote desktop drawing command, wherein the coordinates specify a redrawing region, and wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates are compatible with windows graphic protocol and HTML5.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the display image comprises at least one of a scaled image of the remote desktop or a display image comprising an offset image of the remote desktop.

22. A computing machine comprising the machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the computing machine is a web server.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored therein, the instructions executable by one or more processors to perform one or more operations, the instructions comprising:

code for causing one or more processors to receive a request from the web browser of the client device using HTTP, the request being either a long polling drawing request or an input request, using a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP);

code for causing one or more processors to handle the request, where a long polling drawing request is handled as an asynchronous request and an input request is handled as a synchronous request;

code for causing one or more processors to receive a remote desktop drawing command from a module of a remote machine;

code for causing one or more processors to translate the remote desktop drawing command into a web browser drawing update, wherein the remote desktop drawing command is compatible with a push protocol, wherein the web browser drawing update is compatible with HTTP; and

code for causing one or more processors to provide the web browser drawing update to the web browser of the client device, utilizing HTTP, as a response to the request from the web browser.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the code for causing one or more processors to handle comprises:

code for causing one or more processors to determine whether a drawing command is pending at a web server for the web browser;

if there is no pending drawing command, then code for causing one or more processors to store the request in a drawing requests queue as asynchronous requests; and

if there is a pending drawing command, then code for causing one or more processors to provide the request to an HTTP handler module in the web server to allow the HTTP handler module to serve the pending drawing command in response to the request.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the remote desktop drawing command represents a portion of an image of a remote desktop of the remote machine,

wherein the code for causing one or more processors to translate comprises:

code for causing one or more processors to translate the remote desktop drawing command into a windows graphics drawing command;

code for causing one or more processors to update a portion of a memory bitmap of the image of the remote desktop in response to the windows graphics drawing command;

code for causing one or more processors to generate coordinates of the updated portion of the memory bitmap based on the windows graphics drawing command;

code for causing one or more processors to generate an image file based on the updated portion of the memory bitmap, wherein the image file is compatible with the web browser; and

code for causing one or more processors to obtain drawing coordinates for the image file based on the coordinates of the updated portion of the memory bitmap,

wherein the web browser drawing update comprises the image file and the drawing coordinates.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the code for causing one or more processors to provide comprises:

code for causing one or more processors to place, at the HTTP handler module, the drawing coordinates into an HTTP header of a single HTTP transmission response to the web browser;

code for causing one or more processors to include, at the HTTP handler module, the image file into the single HTTP transmission response to the web browser to provide the image file and the drawing coordinates together to the web browser in the single HTTP transmission response; and

code for causing one or more processors to, when a drawing commands queue has new coordinates, send a notification to the drawing requests queue to allow at least one of the requests in the drawing requests queue to be forwarded to the HTTP handler module.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions comprise:

code for causing one or more processors to receive a connection request from the web browser to connect to the remote machine;

code for causing one or more processors to provide a client script code to the web browser in response to the connection request to connect to the remote machine,

wherein the code for causing one or more processors to receive the request comprises code for causing one or more processors to receive the request from the client script code,

wherein the code for causing one or more processors to provide the web browser drawing update comprises code for causing one or more processors to provide the web browser drawing update to the client script code; and

code for causing one or more processors to delete the client script code from the web browser when the remote desktop session is terminated.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions comprises:

code for causing one or more processors to receive, at a web server, a user input request from the web browser for accessing or controlling a remote desktop of the remote machine,

code for causing one or more processors to translate, at the web server, the user input request into an input command compatible with the push protocol;

code for causing one or more processors to provide the input command to the remote machine utilizing the push protocol,

wherein the code for causing one or more processors to receive the remote desktop drawing command comprises code for causing one or more processors to receive the remote desktop drawing command in response to the input command.

23. An apparatus for a remote desktop session between a web browser of a client device and a remote machine through a web server, utilizing hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) headers of HTTP for remote desktop session drawing, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a request from the web browser of the client device, the request being either a long polling drawing request or an input request, where an input request is a user input command and the long polling drawing request is a request to update an image of a remote desktop;

means for handling, at the web server, the request, where a long polling drawing request is handled as an asynchronous request and an input request is handled as a synchronous request;

means for receiving a remote desktop drawing command from the remote machine using a remote desktop display protocol, wherein the remote desktop drawing command is based on the image of a remote desktop of the remote machine;

means for translating the remote desktop drawing command into a display image and drawing coordinates for the display image;

means for placing the drawing coordinates into an HTTP response header; and

means for, in response to the request, providing the display image and the drawing coordinates together to the web browser in a single HTTP response, for drawing the display image of the remote desktop at the web browser, wherein the single HTTP response comprises the HTTP response header,

wherein (i) the remote desktop display protocol is a push protocol, and (ii) HTTP is a pull protocol, and (iii) the web browser comprises a windows web browser.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the means for translating comprises:

means for translating the remote desktop drawing command into a windows graphics drawing command, wherein the web server comprises one or more web applications including one or more HTTP handlers;

means for updating a portion of a memory bitmap of the remote desktop in response to the windows graphics drawing command;

means for generating coordinates for the updated portion of the memory bitmap from the windows graphics drawing command;

means for generating the display image compatible with the web browser based on the updated portion of the memory bitmap; and

means for obtaining the drawing coordinates for the display image based on the coordinates for the updated portion of the memory bitmap,

wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates are compatible with HTML,

wherein the updated portion of the memory bitmap represents a portion of an image of the remote desktop of the remote machine,

wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates represent the portion of the image of the remote desktop of the remote machine.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the remote desktop drawing command comprises coordinates of a region of the remote desktop that has changed relative to a previous remote desktop drawing command, wherein the coordinates specify a redrawing region, and wherein the display image and the drawing coordinates are compatible with windows graphic protocol and HTML5.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the display image comprises at least one of a scaled image of the remote desktop or a display image comprising an offset image of the remote desktop.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the web server is an intermediary between the remote machine and the client device, and wherein the web server is physically separate from the remote machine.

28. An apparatus for a remote desktop session between a web browser of a client device and a remote machine through a web server, utilizing asynchronous handling of requests to reduce traffic to the client device, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a request from the web browser of the client device using HTTP, the request being either a long polling drawing request or an input request;

means for handling the request, where a long polling drawing request is handled as an asynchronous request and an input request is handled as a synchronous request;

means for receiving a remote desktop drawing command from the remote machine;

means for translating the remote desktop drawing command into a web browser drawing update, wherein the remote desktop drawing command is compatible with a push protocol, wherein the web browser drawing update is compatible with HTTP; and

means for providing the web browser drawing update from the web server to the web browser of the client device, utilizing HTTP, as a response to the request from the web browser,

wherein the web server comprises a windows web server and the web browser is a windows web browser.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the means for handling comprises:

means for determining whether a drawing command is pending at the web server for the web browser;

means for storing the request in a drawing requests queue as asynchronous requests, if there is no pending drawing command; and

means for providing the request to an HTTP handler module in the web server to allow the HTTP handler module to serve the pending drawing command

in response to the request, if there is a pending drawing command.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the remote desktop drawing command represents a portion of an image of a remote desktop of the remote machine,

wherein the means for translating comprises:

means for translating the remote desktop drawing command into a windows graphics drawing command;

means for updating a portion of a memory bitmap of the image of the remote desktop in response to the windows graphics drawing command;

means for generating coordinates of the updated portion of the memory bitmap based on the windows graphics drawing command;

means for generating an image file based on the updated portion of the memory bitmap, wherein the image file is compatible with the web browser, wherein the image file includes a windows image file compatible with windows web browser; and

means for obtaining drawing coordinates for the image file based on the coordinates of the updated portion of the memory bitmap,

wherein the web browser drawing update comprises the image file and the drawing coordinates.

31. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the means for providing comprises:

means for placing the drawing coordinates into an HTTP header of a single HTTP transmission response to the web browser;

means for including the image file into the single HTTP transmission response to the web browser to provide the image file and the drawing coordinates together to the web browser in the single HTTP transmission response; and

means for sending a notification to the drawing requests queue to allow at least one of the requests in the drawing requests queue to be forwarded to the HTTP handler module, when a drawing commands queue has new coordinates.

32. The apparatus of claim 28, comprising:

means for receiving a connection request from the web browser to connect to the remote machine;

means for providing a client script code to the web browser in response to the connection request to connect to the remote machine,

wherein the means for receiving the request comprises means for receiving the request from the client script code,

wherein the means for providing the web browser drawing update comprises means for providing the web browser drawing update to the client script code; and

means for deleting the client script code from the web browser when the remote desktop session is terminated.

33. The apparatus of claim 28, comprising:

means for receiving a user input request from the web browser for accessing or controlling a remote desktop of the remote machine,

means for translating the user input request into an input command compatible with the push protocol;

means for providing the input command to the remote machine utilizing the push protocol,

wherein the means for receiving the remote desktop drawing command comprises means for receiving the remote desktop drawing command in response to the input command.

34. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the apparatus is the web server.

35. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the apparatus comprises a processing system and a memory.