Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Accessing a remote server
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-21
2001-04-03
Vu, Viet D. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Accessing a remote server
C709S223000, C709S225000, C709S227000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06212556
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the area of network communications, including heterogeneous networks such as the Internet, World Wide Web (WWW), telephone network, wireless networks, cable television networks, and private enterprise networks. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for configurable value-added network switching and object routing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With the Internet and the World Wide Web (“the Web”) evolving rapidly as a viable consumer medium for electronic commerce, new on-line services are emerging to fill the needs of on-line users. An Internet user today can browse on the Web via the use of a Web browser. Web browsers are software interfaces that run on Web clients to allow access to Web servers via a simple user interface. A Web user's capabilities today from a Web browser are, however, extremely limited. The user can perform one-way, browse-only interactions. Additionally, the user has limited “deferred” transactional capabilities, namely electronic mail (e-mail) capabilities. E-mail capabilities are referred to as “deferred transactions” because the consumer's request is not processed until the e-mail is received, read, and the person or system reading the e-mail executes the transaction. This transaction is thus not performed in real-time.
FIG. 1A
illustrates typical user interactions on the Web today. User
100
sends out a request from Web browser
102
in the form of a universal resource locator (URL)
101
in the following manner: http://www.car.com. URL
101
is processed by Web browser
102
that determines the URL corresponds to car dealer Web page
105
, on car dealer Web server
104
. Web browser
102
then establishes browse link
103
to car dealer Web page
105
. User
100
can browse Web page
105
and select “hot links” to jump to other locations in Web page
105
, or to move to other Web pages on the Web. This interaction is typically a browse-only interaction. Under limited circumstances, the user may be able to fill out a form on car dealer Web page
105
, and e-mail the form to car dealer Web server
104
. This interaction is still strictly a one-way browse mode communications link, with the e-mail providing limited, deferred transactional capabilities.
Under limited circumstances, a user may have access to two-way services on the Web via Common Gateway Interface (CGI) applications. CGI is a standard interface for running external programs on a Web server. It allows Web servers to create documents dynamically when the server receives a request from the Web browser. When the Web server receives a request for a document, the Web server dynamically executes the appropriate CGI script and transmits the output of the execution back to the requesting Web browser. This interaction can thus be termed a “two-way” transaction. It is a severely limited transaction, however, because each CGI application is customized for a particular type of application or service.
For example, as illustrated in
FIG. 1B
, user
100
may access bank
150
's Web server and attempt to perform transactions on checking account
152
and to make a payment on loan account
154
. In order for user
100
to access checking account
152
and loan account
154
on the Web, CGI application scripts must be created for each account, as illustrated in FIG.
1
B. The bank thus has to create individual scripts for each of its services to offer users access to these services. User
100
can then interact in a limited fashion with these individual applications. Creating and managing individual CGI scripts for each service is not a viable solution for merchants with a large number of services.
As the Web expands and electronic commerce becomes more desirable, the need increases for robust, real-time, bidirectional transactional capabilities on the Web. A true real-time, bidirectional transaction would allow a user to connect to a variety of services on the Web, and perform real-time transactions on those services. For example, although user
100
can browse car dealer Web page
105
today, the user cannot purchase the car, negotiate a car loan or perform other types of real-time, two-way transactions that he can perform with a live salesperson at the car dealership. Ideally, user
100
in
FIG. 1A
would be able to access car dealer Web page
105
, select specific transactions that he desires to perform, such as purchase a car, and perform the purchase in real-time, with two-way interaction capabilities. CGI applications provide user
100
with a limited ability for two-way interaction with car dealer Web page
105
, but due to the lack of interaction and management between the car dealer and the bank, he will not be able to obtain a loan and complete the purchase of the car via a CGI application. The ability to complete robust real-time, two-way transactions is thus not truly available on the web today.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing real-time, two-way transactional capabilities on the network, including heterogeneous networks such as the Internet, World Wide Web (WWW), telephone network, wireless networks, cable television networks, and private enterprise networks. Specifically, one embodiment of the present invention discloses a configurable value-added network switch for enabling real-time transactions on a network. The configurable value added network switch comprises means for switching to a transactional application in response to a user specification from a network application, means for transmitting a transaction request from the transactional application, and means for processing the transaction request.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method and apparatus for enabling object routing on a network is disclosed. The method for enabling object routing comprises the steps of creating a virtual information store containing information entries and attributes, associating each of the information entries and the attributes with an object identity, and assigning a unique network address to each of the object identities.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description.
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patent: 5537464 (1996-07-01), Lewis et al.
patent: 5557780 (1996-09-01), Edwards et al.
patent: 5828666 (1998-10-01), Focsaneanu et al.
patent: 5892821 (1999-04-01), Turner
Davidson, Andrew, Coding with HTML forms: HTML goes interactive. (hpertext markup language) (Tutorial); Dr. Dobb's Journal; vol. 20, No. 6, Jun. 1995; 19 pages.
Blakely , Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman LLP
Vu Viet D.
WebXchange, Inc.
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