Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-06
2002-05-28
Wiley, David (Department: 2155)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
C709S217000, C709S203000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06397253
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Use
The present invention relates to Internet applications and more specifically, to methods and systems for providing efficient communications between Web browser and server systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Significant changes are being made by companies in how they communicate with their customers and the types of services offered due to Web technology. One such change has been the use of a Web browser as a common front end to a mainframe or an enterprise system. In the case of IBM hosts, two basic methods have been utilized to give browsers access to such systems. These methods have been generically called native 3270 and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) conversion. In the native 3270 method, a special browser is utilized that contains some form of built-in 3270 terminal emulator software and Java applets that know what to do with the 3270 data streams once they reach the desktop system. In the conversion method, 3270 formatted screens are converted into HTML format and posted to a Web server. The converted screens can then be viewed using any browser. These approaches are discussed in greater detail in an article entitled “How To Put Mainframes on the Web” by Salvatore Salamone published in the June 1996 issue of Byte Magazine.
A disadvantage of the conversion approach is that it may not offer acceptable performance, throughput and response time in a high volume transaction environment. The reason is that the message is translated in a Web server extension and possibly in an intermediate application. Additionally, the message is forced to be routed through several applications and through intermediate applications. To overcome these disadvantages, one system employs an applet that supports mapping screen images associated with a transaction processing application to a modem, intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI). This eliminates the need for intermediate message translation by having the browser application applet generate and process messages that are understood by the mainframe application. The applet also translates replies received from the application screen image format into a format that can be presented to and understood by the user. This approach is described in the copending patent application entitled “Method for Reducing Message Translation and Traffic Through Intermediate Applications and Systems in an Internet Application”, Ser. No. 08/868,178, filed on Jun. 3, 1997 and assigned to the same assignee as named herein.
While the above approach improves performance by eliminating the need for intermediate message translation, it is specifically designed to operate with IBM mainframe hosts. Further, since the approach utilizes applets, it requires that the applet and HTML page be downloaded from a server over a non-persistent connection. The applet when executed within the browser is required to open a persistent connection back to the server. Hence, this approach necessitates the establishment of both persistent and non-persistent connections. Further, this approach still is quite time consuming and only performant when the ratio of persistent (applet to server) to non-persistent (HTML page and applet loading) traffic is high. However, even in those cases, the approach still requires that time be expended in establishing additional connections.
As well known in the art, in the classical client/server model, connections between client and application servers remain open until the client logs off the system. By contrast, in the Web environment, there is no mechanism provided for keeping the client-to-server connection open. Each time a new page is requested, the user, Web server and additional processing must reidentified or reinitialized. The reason is that the Web browser is “stateless”. This “statelessness” makes it difficult to create Web-based applications requiring multiform client-to-server interactions.
In Web-enabled client/server tools, state and session is usually stored in client-side “cookie” files or hidden fields in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) forms. In Java application server environments, state and session management information is typically stored and managed on the server. Some server products make use of a “context” pool. When transactions are begun, the Web server generates a unique process identifier that is maintained with state information on the server in a “context” pool. Additionally, the process ID (or context ID) is embedded in the HTML passed along to the client, along with other state information. While state information may change during the course of a session, the process ID remains constant until the session terminates and the ID is discarded or returned to the context pool for reuse. These approaches can be viewed as server based approaches.
Another server based approach provides for retaining mainframe connection information on a web server that locates a user's session when the browser reconnects and delivers the input to the mainframe application being run on the associated mainframe or legacy system. An example of this approach is the GWEB product developed by Gallagher & Robertson described at their website at http://www.gar.no/gweb/.
The combination of process IDs and storage of state information in a context pool is described in such server based approaches as allowing the execution environment of Java application servers to track the states of numerous clients connected to the Web server. In addition, it allows users to return to Web pages and view them in the state in which they left them. Further, it also ensures that a session is active during the user's entire interaction with the application and keeps track of the state of the client's interaction, as well as any transactions that are in progress, making it possible to commit and roll back operations. For a further discussion of Java application servers, reference may be made to the article entitled “Selecting Java App Servers” by Dan Kara published in the June 1998 issue of Object Magazine.
The above approaches place the burden on the server system to generate and manage the use of such state information. More importantly, since the use of such state information does not control the establishment of connections, it does not necessarily reduce the traffic on the particular internetwork over which client and server systems communicate.
To reduce traffic, another prior art system makes an on-line transaction processing system accessible to Web browsers by establishing a predetermined plurality of transaction gateway clients to receive HTTP requests that are received by a Web server from the Web browsers. Concurrent processing of multiple transaction requests from the Web browsers is performed by the plurality of transaction gateway clients. Each transaction gateway client pre-establishes a static connection with the on-line transaction processing system. The pre-established connection allows requests from the Web browsers to be quickly routed to the transaction processing system. The gateway client translates between HTTP formatted requests from the Web browsers and the request format expected by the on-line transaction processing system. This system is described in further detail, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,772 that issued on May 19, 1998.
While the system provides access to a mainframe host, the system has to be able to pre-allocate the required number of static connections and gateway clients beforehand making it more difficult for the system to respond to dynamic changes in operations. Further, the system must expend time in translating requests into the format expected by the on-line transaction processing system.
Another relevant prior art approach utilizes a server and a web browser terminal emulator for providing a persistent connection to a legacy host system. A computer network environment allows connection of a client system to a legacy host system using such a server system. The server system executes a client thread under a server. The client thread is operable to communicate with the legacy
Giroux Michael L.
Quinlan Cian M.
Bull HN Information Systems Inc.
Driscoll Faith F.
Solakian John S.
Tran Philip B.
Wiley David
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