COMMUNICATION WITH A WEB COMPARTMENT IN A CLIENT APPLICATION

• US 20130227657A1
• Filed: 08/16/2012
• Published: 08/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zesty.ai, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: D'Aurelio, Ryan James, Leece, Mark John Sawrey, Johnson, Zachariah Glen, Berrett, Douglas Duane
• Granted Patent: US 9,053,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/137 Hierarchical processing, e.g. outlines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• 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 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5683 Storage of data provided by user terminals, i.e. reverse caching

Abstract

A secure communication method between a web compartment and a client application can allow network updates to be used for a client application. For example, a secure communication method can allow predefined operations to be carried out on a client machine. An example web compartment can include an iframe tag and the communication can be a string command, such as by using a postmessage API. Such a structure allows some user interface elements to be supplied from a client device and other user interface elements to be supplied a server computer.

Claims

1. A method of communicating with a web compartment on a client device, comprising:

in a client application, displaying a user interface with a first group of user interface and/or application elements supplied by the client device and a second group of user interface and/or application elements received from a server computer, the second group of user interface and/or application elements being stored in an isolated compartment associated with the client application;

communicating between the isolated compartment and the client device using a predefined protocol so that the server computer supplied second group of user interface and/or application elements can trigger a predetermined set of commands on the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the isolated compartment uses an iframe tag.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating includes receiving a command from the isolated compartment and the method includes parsing the command.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating includes using a message posting API.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second group of user interface and/or application elements are displayed in a separate window, embedded window, dialog box, or overlay than the first group of user interface and/or application elements.

6. The method of claim 1, further including authenticating with a service that is providing the second group of user interface elements prior to opening a window or dialog box associated with the second group of user interface elements.

7. The method of claim 6, further including associating an encrypted user identifier and password with the address and transmitting with the encrypted user identifier to the server computer.

8. The method of claim 1, further including:

in response to user selection, authenticating a URL associated with the second group of user interface and/or application elements;

transmitting the authenticated URL to the server computer;

receiving content from the server computer associated with the URL; and

receiving commands in a local compartment on the client computer from the content in a form of text messages.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first group of user interface elements are associated with a local compartment and wherein communicating includes transmitting messages between the web compartment and the local compartment, wherein at least one message includes a version so that the client computer can inform the server computer of a software version currently supported by the client computer.

10. A computer-readable storage storing instructions thereon for implementing a method, the method comprising:

hosting online content received from a server computer in a user interface of a client application;

communicating between the online content and portions of the client application using a message; and

parsing the message so that commands associated therewith can be passed from the online content to the client application.

11. The computer-readable storage of claim 10, further including authenticating an address associated with the online content and opening an isolated compartment using the authenticated address for displaying the online content in a window.

12. The computer-readable storage of claim 10, wherein the online content is retrieved using a web compartment in the client application.

13. The computer-readable storage of claim 10, wherein the portions of the client application include a local compartment, which has restricted access to a network.

14. The computer-readable storage of claim 10, wherein the online content is hosted using an iframe.

15. The computer-readable storage of claim 10, further including sending a cookie to the server computer including an encrypted user identification and password.

16. The computer-readable storage of claim 10, wherein the online content can be dynamically updated so that the functionality of the client application can be updated after launching of the client application and wherein the updates are for HTML, CSS and/or Javascript files without updating other portions of the client application.

17. The computer-readable storage of claim 16, wherein the user interface of the client application includes user interface elements stored in a file on a client device and user interface elements provided from the server computer.

18. The computer-readable storage of claim 10, wherein the string message includes a version number of the client application that is supported.

19. A client computer, comprising:

a client application including;

a local compartment that has limited access to network documents;

a web compartment that has limited access to data stored on the client computer;

a parser for parsing a representation of a data structure communicated between the local compartment and the web compartment; and

a user interface displaying user interface elements from the local compartment and user interface elements from the web compartment.

20. The client computer of claim 19, wherein the user interface elements from the local compartment and the user interface elements from the web compartment are merged into a single page.