Remote control of a client's off-screen surface

• US 20020035596A1
• Filed: 05/25/2001
• Published: 03/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Collins, Henry, Yang, Ruiguo
• Granted Patent: US 7,490,166 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• 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: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2876 Pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The performance of distributed systems can be improved when a server remotely controls off-screen surfaces at a client coupled to the server via a communications network. The server instructs the client to form an off-screen surface exhibiting a number of particular attributes. The client selects and allocates a particular memory region and forms the off-screen surface therein, as instructed by the server. The server subsequently provides the client with an indicia of graphical data and instructs the client to locate the graphical data and to copy the data into the off-screen surface. In response to an error condition, the server transmits a duplicate of the off-screen surface to the client with instructions to update the client'"'"'s on-screen surface using this duplicate surface.

Claims

1. A method of remotely controlling, by a server, the formation of an off-screen surface at a client coupled to the server via a communications network, the method being performed at the server and comprising the steps of:

instructing the client to select a first memory region for allocation to the off-screen surface, the first memory region corresponding to a memory coupled to the client;

transmitting indicia of a graphical data to the client; and

instructing the client to copy the graphical data associated with the indicia to a particular location within the first memory region.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

specifying a plurality of attributes associated with the off-screen surface.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicia of the graphical data corresponds to a fuzzy key, the fuzzy key identifying a location of the graphical data within a persistent storage memory coupled to the client.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicia of the graphical data corresponds to an index, the index identifying a location of the graphical data within a cache memory coupled to the client.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

instructing the client to update an on-screen surface associated with the client using the copied graphical data in the off-screen surface.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

storing a duplicate of the off-screen surface in a memory coupled to the server.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

upon receiving an indication of an error condition, transmitting at least one portion of the duplicate off-screen surface to the client; and

instructing the client to copy the at least one portion of the duplicate off-screen surface to an on-screen surface associated with the client.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

a) instructing the client to select a second memory region; and

b) instructing the client to copy the graphical data to a particular location within the second memory region,

wherein step a) is performed in response to receiving an indication of an error condition.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical data corresponds to a bitmnap.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical data corresponds to a glyph.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical data corresponds to a strip.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the indicia of the graphical data corresponds to a fuzzy key, the fuzzy key identifying a location of the graphical data within a persistent storage memory coupled to the client.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the indicia of the graphical data corresponds to an index, the index identifying a location of the graphical data within a cache memory coupled to the client.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein attributes of the off-screen surface are specified by the server agent.

16. The system of claim 12 further comprising a duplicate of the off-screen surface stored in a memory coupled to the server agent.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising:

an on-screen surface coupled to the client agent, the client agent updating the on-screen surface using the duplicate off-screen surface and discarding the off-screen surface stored within the first memory region upon the occurrence of an error condition.

18. The system of claim 12 wherein the graphical data corresponds to a bitmap.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein the graphical data corresponds to a glyph.

20. The system of claim 12 wherein the graphical data corresponds to a strip.

12. A system for remotely controlling, by a server, the formation of an off-screen surface at a client coupled to the server via a communications network, the system comprising:

a client agent executing on the client;

a first memory region coupled to the client agent;

an off-screen surface stored within the first memory region;

a server agent executing on the server and coupled to the client agent; and

a graphical data, the graphical data having associated indicia and being stored by the client,

wherein the server agent

transmits indicia of the graphical data to the client agent, and

instructs the client agent to copy the graphical data associated with the indicia to a particular location within the first memory region.