According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method includes associating a state identifier with a page of a user interface; associating an element identifier with an element of the page of the user interface; and tracking a state of the element based on the state identifier and the element identifier throughout a user session of the user interface.
The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The forgoing and other features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying.
Turning now to the drawings in greater detail, it will be seen that in
The one or more computers 12, 14 include a processor 18, 20 respectively and one or more data storage devices 22, 24 respectively. The processor 18, 20 can be any custom made or commercially available processor, a central processing unit, an auxiliary processor among several processors associated with the computer 12, 14, a semiconductor based microprocessor, a macroprocessor, or generally any device for executing instructions. The one or more data storage devices 22, 24 can be at least one of the random access memory, read only memory, a cache, a stack, or the like which may temporarily or permanently store electronic data. As shown, the computer 12 is a desktop computer (also referred to as a client) and the computer 14 is a server. As can be appreciated, the computers 12, 14 are not limited to the present example and can include, but are not limited to, a desktop computer, a laptop, a workstation, a portable handheld device, a server, or any device that includes a processor and memory.
As shown, the computer 12 is associated with a display device 25 and one or more input devices 27 that may be used by a user to communicate with the computer 12. As can be appreciated, such input devices 27 may include, but are not limited to, a mouse, a keyboard, and a touchpad.
According to an exemplary embodiment, the server computer 14 includes one or more web applications 26 that are stored in the data storage device 24 and accessed by the desktop computer 12 via the network 16. The web application 26 includes data and software that generates a user interface 28. The desktop computer 12 includes a web browser application 30 that is stored in the data storage device 22 and that communicates with the web application 26 to display the user interface 28 via a web browser 32. In various embodiments, the web browser application 30 includes a state monitoring module 34 and a state repository 36. Generally speaking, the state monitoring module 34 maintains states of the web user interface 28 without the need for custom server side and client side coding. The state repository 36 stores attributes of certain elements of the user interface 28 throughout a session. The attributes are used to track the status of the user interface 28.
Turning now to
For example, as shown in
Turning now to
A more detailed example of the data can be illustrated with regard to
The scope of the observe tag is set to session to preserve the data throughout the session.
Turning now to
In one example, as shown in
If, however, one or more observe tags are found in the page data at process block 220, an attempt is made to retrieve the state ID from the state repository 36 (
If, however, at process block 260 the state ID for that page is not found in the state repository 36 (
Turning now to
However, if the page has a state ID at process block 330, the state ID is looked up in the state repository 36 (
However, if the state ID is found in the state repository 36 (
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in any tangible medium of expression having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.
Any combination of one or more computer usable or computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a transmission media such as those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage device. Note that the computer-useable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer-usable medium may include a propagated data signal with the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. The computer usable program code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc.
Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instruction.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one ore more other features, integers, steps, operations, element components, and/or groups thereof.
The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated
While the preferred embodiment to the invention had been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.
This application is a continuation of and claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/421,102, filed on Apr. 9, 2009, entitled “WEB-BROWSER BASED STATE REPOSITORY”, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The present invention relates to methods and systems for tracking client side states of web interfaces. With the growing utilization of complex web-based graphical user interfaces, the complexity of preserving client side states of those interfaces becomes a challenging task. Using web-based applications involves a certain amount of client-server communication that is handled via stateless Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). However, complex web-based graphical user interfaces need to maintain an internal state across several HTTP requests and page reloads to maintain a consistency and to deliver a desktop like user experience. Typically, the state of a loaded web page that makes up a web-based user interface is maintained in the Document Object Model (DOM). However, the DOM values are discarded on each page change or reload and replaced by the DOM of the newly loaded page. To deliver a consistent and desktop like user experience, the states of a web-based user interface should be maintained through a page change or reload.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12421102 | Apr 2009 | US |
Child | 15483535 | US |