System and method for collaboration using web browsers

• US 8,443,035 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2001
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Op40 Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: OP40 Holding Incorporated
• Inventors: Chen, Shuang, Pace, Charles P., Rubin, William B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Dhairya A
• Application Number:
  US09/947,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20040133639A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,270 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/202, 709/203, 709/204, 709/227, 709/228, 707/755, 707/756, 707/77, 707/809, 707/802, 707/203, 707/791, 707/793, 715/200
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/549 Remote execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/15 Synchronised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 : Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 : Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• 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 67/5682 : Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 : for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 : Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

One or more collaboration computers connected over the network may collaborate using their web browsers. Each collaboration computer may have one or more window locators that uniquely identify a web browser window on the browser. The web browser window can be a window where one or more events occur during the collaboration. One or more document locators may be derived from information describing a document path from the respective web browser window to a document within the respective web browser window. The document path can be a path in a hierarchical structure that includes the document and the respective web browser window. One or more transfer data structures may contain the window locator and the document locator and may be passed to and from the collaboration computer through a network connection to enable a collaboration session.

Claims

1. A collaboration computer system having at least one memory, at least one central processing unit (CPU), at least one web browser, and at least one network connection, comprising:

at least one window locator that uniquely identifies a web browser window of the at least one web browser where an event occurred;

at least one document locator derived from information describing a document path from the web browser window to at least one document within the web browser window, the document path being a path in a hierarchical structure that includes the document and the web browser window; and

a communicable virtual stack storing at least one transfer data structure on a collaboration computer, the at least one transfer data structure containing the at least one window locator and the at least one document locator, the virtual stack and the at least one transfer data structure stored therein is communicable through one or more of the at least one network connections via a collaboration server or a peer-to-peer communication to enable a collaboration session with at least one other collaboration computer having at least one of a different platform, operating system or web browser over a Distributed Internet Services system that comprises one or more networks connected to one or more Enterprise Information System (EIS) tiers, one or more component server tiers and one or more target/client tiers.

2. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one positional reference maintained as the stack of events being applied to a base document.

3. The collaboration computer system of claim 2, wherein the base document is re-established as a re-established base document in the stack of events as a frame with at least one subsequent event recorded on the stack of events.

4. The collaboration computer system of claim 3, wherein the re-established base document is configured to be used to efficiently synchronize any new participant in a collaboration session.

5. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, where the hierarchical structure is based on a Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (DHTML) model.

6. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, further comprising at least one element locator that uniquely defines an element within the document.

7. The collaboration computer system of claim 6, wherein the element belongs to at least one Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) type, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) type being at least one of a hyperlink, an input text field, a text area, a button, a checkbox, a radio button, an anchor, a single-select box, a multiple-select box, a script, and a Java script.

8. The collaboration computer system of claim 6, wherein the element locator includes at least one of a value, a persisted object, an object, a string, a hash value, an index, and a tagName.

9. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the window locator includes at least one of an integer, a number, a persisted object, an object, a name, a value, and a string.

10. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the event includes at least one of a computer input, a key stroke, a mouse click, a touch on a touch screen, a click on a tablet, a drag, a mouse movement, and a voice input.

11. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the document locator is a vector of one of zero document frame indices and more than zero document frame indices, the document frame indices identifying one of zero document frames and more than zero document frames within another document frame associated with the document path.

12. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein a web page including the at least one document is retrieved from at least one web server through at least one network interface.

13. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the at least one document is resident on at least one of the other collaboration computers.

14. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the at least one document includes at least one specific element including at least one of one or more content objects, one or more presentational components, one or more transactional components, and one or more relational data.

15. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the transfer data structure includes an event type.

16. The collaboration computer system of claim 15, wherein the event type includes at least one of a window event type, a document event type, an element event type, a move, a mouse move, a resize, a maximize, a minimize, a restore, a focus, an unfocus, a close, a scroll, a keystroke in a text area, a keystroke in an input text field, a mouse click in an input, a button press, a checkbox select, a radio button press/selection, a mouse click on an anchor, a select on a single-select box, a select on a multiple-select box, a scroll on a text area, a scroll on a content area, a computer input, a touch on a touch screen, a click on a tablet, a drag, and a scroll on a select box.

17. The collaboration computer system of claim 15, wherein the event type includes an interaction with a browser plug-in.

18. The collaboration computer system of claim 17, wherein the interaction with a browser plug-in includes at least one of a window event type, a document event type, an element event type, a move, a mouse move, a resize, a maximize, a minimize, a restore, a focus, an unfocus, a close, a scroll, a keystroke in a text area, a keystroke in an input text field, a mouse click in an input, a button press, a checkbox select, a radio button press/selection, a mouse click on an anchor, a select on a single-select box, a select on a multiple-select box, a scroll on a text area, a scroll on content, a computer input, a touch on a touch screen, a click on a tablet, a drag, and a scroll on a select box.

19. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, where the transfer data structure further comprises an event data field.

20. The collaboration computer system of claim 19, where one or more event data entries in the event data field includes any one or more of the following:

a horizontal scroll position, a vertical scroll position, a scroll offset, a new value, a new string, a new text, a change of text, a select option, a set of select options, a move position, a horizontal move position, a vertical move position, a horizontal window resize value, and a vertical window resize value.

21. The collaboration computer system of claim 20, where the event data entry transforms any one or more of the scroll data and position data into percentage based information that allow for different display devices to render the correct scroll position for collaborating computer systems.

22. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the transfer data structure comprises a data structure that is an asset distributed by the Distributed Internet Services system.

23. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the transfer data structure comprises a data structure that is an asset discovered by the Distributed Internet Services system.

24. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the transfer data structure comprises a data structure that is an asset exported by the Distributed Internet Services system.

25. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the transfer data structure comprises a data structure that is an asset processed by the Distributed Internet Services system.

26. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the transfer data structure comprises a data structure that is an asset targeted by the Distributed Internet Services system.

27. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the transfer data structure comprises a data structure that is an asset deployed by the Distributed Internet Services system.

28. The collaboration computer system of claim 1, wherein the transfer data structure comprises a data structure that is an asset synchronized by the Distributed Internet Services system.

29. A method for collaboration on a network comprising the steps of:

uniquely identifying a web browser window, an event having occurred at the web browser window, with a window locator;

uniquely identifying at least one document with a document locator, the document locator derived from information describing a document path from the web browser window to the at least one document, the at least one document being within the web browser window, the document path being in a hierarchical structure that includes the at least one document and the web browser window;

creating a communicable virtual stack storing at least one transfer data structure each containing the window locator and the document locator; and

communicating the virtual stack and the transfer data structure(s) stored therein to at least one other collaboration computer having at least one different platform, operating system or web browser through at least one network connection via a collaboration server or a peer-to-peer communication over a Distributed Internet Services system that comprises one or more networks connected to one or more Enterprise Information System (EIS) tiers, one or more component server tiers, and one or more target/client tiers, thereby enabling a collaboration session therewith.

30. A computer system for collaboration comprising:

at least one memory, at least one central processing unit (CPU), at least one web browser, and at least one network connection in a configuration whereby said central processing unit executes collaboration steps to;

uniquely identify a web browser window, an event having occurred at the web browser window, with a window locator;

uniquely identify at least one document with a document locator, the document locator derived from information describing a document path from the web browser window to the document, the at least one document being within the web browser window, the document path being in a hierarchical structure that includes the at least one document and the web browser window;

create a communicable virtual stack storing at least one transfer data structure on one client computer, the transfer data structure(s) each containing the window locator and the document locator; and

communicate the virtual stack with the transfer data structures stored therein to at least one other collaboration computer having at least one different platform, operating system or web browser through at least one network connection via a collaboration server or a peer-to-peer communication over a Distributed Internet Services system that comprises one or more networks connected to one or more Enterprise Information System (EIS) tiers, one or more component server tiers, and one or more target/client tiers, thereby enabling a collaboration session therewith.

31. A computer program product having a memory, tangibly storing processor-executable instructions to:

uniquely identify a web browser window, where an event occurred, with a window locator;

uniquely identify at least one document with a document locator, the document locator derived from information describing a document path from the web browser window to the at least one document, the at least one document being within the web browser window, the document path being in a hierarchical structure that includes the at least one document and the web browser window;

create a communicable virtual stack storing at least one transfer data structure each containing the window locator and the document locator; and

communicate the virtual stack and the transfer data structure(s) stored therein to at least one other collaboration computer having at least one different platform, operating system or web browser through at least one network connection via a collaboration server or a peer-to-peer communication over a Distributed Internet Services system that comprises one or more networks connected to one or more Enterprise Information System (EIS) tiers, one or more component server tiers, and one or more target/client tiers, thereby enabling a collaboration session therewith.

32. A computer system comprising:

two or more client computers, each of the two or more client computers including at least one memory, at least one central processing unit and at least one network connection;

one or more networks connected to each of the two or more client computers through the respective at least one network connection;

a collaboration process executing on the two or more client computers, the collaboration process comprising the steps of;

uniquely identifying a web browser window, where an event occurred, with a window locator;

uniquely identifying at least one document with a document locator, the document locator derived from information describing a document path from the web browser window to the at least one document, the at least one document being within the web browser window, the document path being in a hierarchical structure that includes the at least one document and the web browser window; and

creating a communicable virtual stack storing at least one transfer data structure on one client computer, the transfer data structure(s) each containing the window locator and the document locator; and

communicating the virtual stack and the transfer data structure(s) stored therein to at least one other collaboration computer having at least one a different platform, operating system or web browser through at least one network connection via a collaboration server or a peer-to-peer communication over a Distributed Internet Services system that comprises one or more networks connected to one or more Enterprise Information System (EIS) tiers, one or more component server tiers, and one or more target/client tiers, thereby enabling a collaboration session therewith.

33. The system of claim 32, further comprising:

at least one network server connected to the network, the virtual stack being communicated from the at least one other client through the at least one network server to at least one other client during the collaboration session.

34. A collaboration computer system that collaborates with at least another collaboration computer system by executing collaboration steps to:

receive over a Distributed Internet Services system a communicable virtual stack storing one or more transfer data structures, each transfer data structure containing a window locator and a document locator;

use the window locator to uniquely identify a web browser, where an event occurred;

use the document locator to uniquely identify at least one document, the document locator derived from information describing a document path from the web browser window to the at least one document, the at least one document being within the web browser window, the document path being a path in a hierarchical structure that includes that least one document and the web browser window; and

communicate the virtual stack and the transfer data structure(s) stored therein to at least one other collaboration computer having at least one of a different platform, operating system or web browser through at least one network connection via a collaboration server or a peer-to-peer communication over a Distributed Internet Services system that comprises one or more networks connected to one or more Enterprise Information System (EIS) tiers, one or more component server tiers, and one or more target/client tiers, thereby enabling a collaboration session therewith.

35. A collaboration method comprising the steps of:

transmitting a communicable virtual stack from a collaboration computer over at least one network of a Distributed Internet Services system that comprises one or more network connected to one or more Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) tiers, one or more component server tiers, and one or more target/client tiers via a collaboration server or a peer-to-peer communication, the virtual stack storing one or more transfer data structures, each transfer data structure containing a window locator and a document locator;

receiving the virtual stack on one or more other collaboration computers having at least one of a different platform, operating system or web browser from the transmitting collaboration computer;

using the window locator to uniquely identify a web browser window where an event occurred; and

using the document locator to uniquely identify at least one document, the document locator derived from information describing a document path from the web browser window to the at least one document, the at least one document being within the web browser window, the document path being a path in a hierarchical structure that includes the at least one document and the web browser window.

36. The collaboration method of claim 35 further comprising the step of:

storing at least one Transfer Data Structures (TOS) in the virtual stack.

37. The collaboration method of claim 36, further comprising the step of:

storing the virtual stack.

38. The collaboration method of claim 35 further comprising the steps of:

receiving the stored virtual stack sent over one or more networks; and

restructuring the stored virtual stack to form a restructured virtual stack.

39. The collaboration method of claim 38, further comprising the step of:

modifying the restructured virtual stack.

40. The collaboration method of claim 39, wherein the restructured virtual stack is modified asynchronously with a creation of another virtual stack.