Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Network computer configuring – Reconfiguring
Reexamination Certificate
1997-09-11
2001-01-30
Rinehart, Mark H. (Department: 2756)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Network computer configuring
Reconfiguring
C709S205000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06182129
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to data processing apparatus (systems), methods and computer program products, more particularly, to apparatus, methods and computer program products for interfacing with host-based applications.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Internet is a decentralized network of computers that can communicate with one another via a transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCIP/IP). Although the Internet has its origins in a network created by the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) in the 1960's, it has only recently become a worldwide communication medium. To a large extent, the explosive growth in use of the Internet is due to the development in the early 1990's of the worldwide Web (WWW), which is one of several service facilities provided on the Internet. Other facilities include a variety of communication services such as electronic mail, telnet, usenet newsgroups, internet relay chat (IRC), a variety of information search services such as WAIS and Archie, and a variety of information retrieval services such as FTP (file transfer protocol) and Gopher.
The WWW is a client-server-based facility that includes a number of servers (computers connected to the Internet) on which Web pages or files reside, as well as clients (Web browsers) which interface the users with the Web pages. Specifically, Web browsers and software applications such as WebExplorer® (IBM Corporation) or Navigator® (Netscape Communication Corporation) send a request over the WWW to a server requesting a Web page identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which notes both the server where the Web page resides and the file or files on that server which make up the Web page. The server then sends a copy of the requested file(s) to the Web browser, which in turn displays the Web page to the user.
The Web pages on the WWW may be hyper-media documents written in a standardized language called HyperText Markup Language (HTML). A typical Web page includes text together with embedded formatting commands, referred to as tags, which can be used to control font size, font style and the like. A Web browser parses the HTML script in order to display the text in accordance with the specified format.
Although many new computer applications are being developed for distributed processing environments such as the Web, there is still a large installed base of traditional computer systems having an architecture including a central host computer, typically a mainframe, and “dumb” computer terminals which are directly connected to ports of the host computer. Examples of such a configuration include IBM 3270, IBM 5250 and ASCII configurations in which a terminal communicates with a host according to a networking protocol such as TCP/IP. The networking protocol typically provides for structured grouping of data stream transmissions with a series of control characters followed by a block of displayable characters, a typical data stream comprising a plurality of sequentially transmitted control character blocks followed by displayable character blocks.
Because of the continued presence of such host-based applications, there is a need for techniques to integrate host-based content into the Web paradigm. For example, many companies have centralized information databases, services and the like, which are accessible to employees from terminals or personal computers running terminal emulation software. Many companies desire to make this content accessible to customers through the Internet or to employees through an “intranet” which has a Web-like structure and user interface.
Conventional approaches for providing such access typically use conversion/translation techniques that employ emulation software resident at an intermediate Web server. Additional code typically executes on top of the emulation software that is capable of establishing a session from the intermediate server to a host and converting emulation screen output/input into a format understood by the browser, such as HTML files, Java GUI applets, or ActiveX controls. The intermediate code typically employs a private protocol to control the exchange of data between the server and browser in the converted format.
There are several potential problems with this technique. For example, use of an intermediate server may make it difficult to navigate a host session as if it were an integral part of a browser environment. The state of the host session typically is not maintained in real time on the browser, so a user may respond to an inappropriate screen. In addition, when a Web user leaves a session to surf other Web pages and comes back, the session may be disconnected or disrupted; indeed, many conventional Web-based host access solutions restrict users from leaving a session to access other Web pages, and may force a session disconnection if a user does so. Such restriction tends to be disruptive and can limit the potential flexibility offered by a Web-based solution.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In light of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus, methods and computer program products that can provide improved management of sessions with host-based applications.
This and other objects, features and advantages are provided according to the present invention by apparatus (systems), methods and computer program products in which sessions between a remote computer and a host-based application are tracked using link objects embedded in a web page. Preferably, active sessions are identified in a Session Vector, e.g., a static or global data structure, maintained by a Session Vector Object instantiated at the remote terminal. The Session Vector provides a mechanism for linking a Web object, e.g., a field in a Web page, to a process resident at the remote computer. For example, access to a host-based session can be provided from a Web browser by linking a user-selectable HTML field to an active session.
The present invention arises from the realization that although sessions between a remote computer and a host-based application can be established and made persistent, a mechanism for accessing and managing sessions is desirable, especially for a distributed Web environment in which a user may desire to jump between host-based sessions, from a session to another Web page, and the like. The present invention provides such a mechanism in a Session Vector which holds identifiers which can be used to “find” a session at the remote computer and which is linked to link objects embedded in a host-access Web page. The Session Vector can be processed to determine which links need to be placed in the Web page, and can be referenced to find a session when a corresponding link is selected in the Web page. Without losing context in the session, a user can track sessions by referring to the Web page, and access sessions by selecting links in the Web page.
In particular, according to the present invention, access to a session between a remote computer and an application resident at a host computer connected to the remote computer is provided via a link object embedded in a Web page accessible at the remote computer. The Web page may be displayed at the remote computer, the displayed Web page including a user-selectable field, the selection of which activates the embedded link object to thereby provide access to the session.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a session is established between the remote computer and the application, and a link object associated with the established session is embedded in the Web page in response to establishment of the session. To display the link object, the Web page may be refreshed at the remote computer in response to establishment of the session. When the established session is terminated, the link object associated with the terminated session may be removed from the Web page in response to termination of the session.
According to another aspect, user selection of the link object associated with the established session is accepted at the remote comput
Rowe Thomas Owings
Tan Yih-Shin
International Business Machines - Corporation
Myers Bigel & Sibley & Sajovec
Ray-Yarlettes Jeanine S.
Rinehart Mark H.
Vu Thong
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