US 8,819,560 B2Granted

Dispatching events to multiple browser windows/tabs using a single connection

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsAndrew M. Ortwein, William M. Quinn, Christopher A. Hyland

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Abstract

An initial browser window establishes itself as a “master” window for an associated server. A master window “cookie” data structure is created by the master window to share state among the windows for the server. Through the initially created master window cookie, all subsequently created browser windows detect that a master window is currently active, determine the master window's window name, and then establish themselves as slave windows through the master window. Slave windows call into the master window to request server updates/events, and provide the master window with their respective window names for future reference, e.g. when the master window distributes updates/events received from the server to the slave windows. The master window uses only a single HTTP GET command to fetch and dispatch updates/events associated with itself and all slave windows for the server.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

determining, at least in part by executing program code contained within a first Web page on a client system in response to loading said first Web page from a remote server into a first new browser window of a Web browser executing on said client system, whether a master window has previously been opened for said remote server, at least in part by attempting to retrieve a master window cookie containing identifiers for all open windows providing a service from said remote server;
in response to determining that no master window cookie has previously been opened for said remote server, creating, within said Web browser executing on said client computer system, a master window associated with a remote server, said master window comprising said first new browser window, wherein said creating said master window includes creating a master window cookie for said remote server and storing an identifier of said master window into a name of said master window cookie within a memory of said client computer system;
determining, at least in part by executing program code contained within a second Web page on said client system in response to loading said second Web page from said remote server into a second new browser window of said Web browser executing on said client system, that a master window containing identifiers for all open windows providing a service from said remote server has previously been opened, at least in part by retrieving said master window cookie for said remote server;
in response to said retrieving said master window cookie for said remote server, creating, within said Web browser executing on said client computer system, a slave window associated with said remote server, said slave window comprising said second new browser window, wherein said creating said at least one slave window includes identifying said master window using said identifier of said master window stored in said name of said master window cookie, using said identifier of said master window to obtain a reference to said master window by calling a window open method on a master window object corresponding to the previously opened master window, and registering said slave window with said master window to receive updates;
and
issuing, by said master window, a single request to said remote server to obtain, by said master window, all available updates from said remote server for both said master window and said slave window.

3 more elements

A system including at least one processor and a non-transient computer readable memory storing program code executable on said at least one processor, said program code comprising:

program code for determining, at least in part by executing program code contained within a first Web page on a client system in response to loading said first Web page from a remote server into a first new browser window of a Web browser executing on said client system, whether a master window has previously been opened for said remote server, at least in part by attempting to retrieve a master window cookie containing identifiers for all open windows providing a service from said remote server;
program code for, in response to determining that no master window cookie has previously been opened for said remote server, creating, within said Web browser executing on said client computer system, a master window associated with a remote server, said master window comprising said first new browser window, wherein said creating said master window includes creating a master window cookie for said remote server and storing an identifier of said master window into a name of said master window cookie within a memory of said client computer system;
program code for determining, at least in part by executing program code contained within a second Web page on said client system in response to loading said second Web page from said remote server into a second new browser window of said Web browser executing on said client system, that a master window containing identifiers for all open windows providing a service from said remote server has previously been opened, at least in part by retrieving said master window cookie for said remote server;
program code for, in response to said retrieving said master window cookie for said remote server, creating, within said Web browser executing on said client computer system, a slave window associated with said remote server, said slave window comprising said second new browser window, wherein said creating said at least one slave window includes identifying said master window using said identifier of said master window stored in said name of said master window cookie, using said identifier of said master window to obtain a reference to said master window by calling a window open method on a master window object corresponding to the previously opened master window, and registering each slave window for said remote server with said master window for said remote server to receive updates;
and
wherein said master window issues a single request to said remote server to obtain, by said master window, all available updates from said remote server for both said master window and said slave window.

3 more elements

A computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium;
and
program code stored on said non-transitory computer readable medium for distributing events to multiple windows by
determining, at least in part by executing program code contained within a first Web page on a client system in response to loading said first Web page from a remote server into a first new browser window of a Web browser executing on said client ystem, whether a master window has previously been opened for said remote server, at least in part by attempting to retrieve a master window cookie containing identifiers for all open windows providing a service from said remote server;
in response to determining that no master window cookie has previously been opened for said remote server, creating, within said Web browser executing on said client computer system, a master window associated with a remote server, said master window comprising said first new browser window, wherein said creating said master window includes creating a master window cookie for said remote server and storing an identifier of said master window into a name of said master window cookie within a memory of said client computer system;
determining, at least in part by executing program code contained within a second Web page on said client system in response to loading said second Web page from said remote server into a second new browser window of said Web browser executing on said client system, that a master window containing identifiers for all open windows providing a service from said remote server has previously been opened, at least in part by retrieving said master window cookie for said remote server;
in response to said retrieving said master window cookie for said remote server, creating, within said Web browser executing on said client computer system, a slave window associated with said remote server, said slave window comprising said second browser window, wherein said creating said at least one slave window includes identifying said master window using said identifier of said master window stored in said name of said master window cookie data, using said identifier of said master window to obtain a reference to said master window by calling a window open method on a master window object corresponding to the previously opened master window, and registering said slave window with said master window for said remote server to receive updates;
and
issuing, by said master window, a single request to said remote server to obtain, by said master window, all available updates from said remote server for both said master window and said slave window.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.