Persistant Client State in a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Based Client-Server System

Abstract

A method and apparatus for transferring state information between a server computer system and a client computer system. In one embodiment of the method, an http client requests a file, such as an HTML document, on an http server, and the http server transmits the file to the http client. In addition, the http server transmits a state object, which describes certain state information, to the http client. The http client stores the state object, and will typically send the state object back to the http server when making later requests for files on the http server. In a typical embodiment, the state object includes a domain attribute which specifies a domain or network address, and the state object is transmitted from the http client to a server only when the http client makes an http request to the server and the server is within the domain. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a processor and memory and a computer readable medium which stores program instructions. In the case of the client system, the instructions specify operations such as receiving and storing the state information; in the case of the server system, the instructions specify operations such as sending the state information to a client system.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 272,896 filed Oct. 17, 2002, which is a reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,592 granted Oct. 17, 2000 (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08 / 918,977 filed Aug. 27, 1997) which is a divisional of U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,670 granted Jun. 30, 1998 (U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 08 / 540,342 filed Oct. 6, 1995), each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference thereto.FIELD OF INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to communication in a client-server computer systems. Specifically, the invention relates to client-server computer systems in which a server can send state information to a client and the client stores the state information for later retransmissions back to the server. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] An important use of computers is the transfer of information over a network. Currently, the largest computer network in existence is the InterN...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention is a system for a network where a server can send state information to a client and the client stores it. This allows the client to maintain the state information even if there is no state in the system. One embodiment of the invention is a network system for communicating documents containing information such as text and images. The server sends the documents to the client, and the client displays them. The server uses a hypertext transfer protocol (http) to communicate over the network with clients, and the client uses the http to receive the state information and store it. The state object includes a name attribute. Another embodiment is an online shopping system where the customer can browse information from a merchant server and select products to be placed in a virtual shopping basket. The server sends the state information related to the selected products to the client for storage. The client sends the state information to a check-out Web page for processing. Another embodiment is an information service where the user can browse different publications without having to re-enter the necessary subscription information. The technical effects of the invention include improved data communication and storage, better user experience, and efficient information sharing."

Problems solved by technology

There was no easily available tool which allows a technically untrained person to access the Web.

The communication model under the conventional Web environment provides a very limited level of interaction between clients and servers.

In many systems, increasing the level of interaction between components in the systems often makes the systems more robust, but increasing the interaction increases the complexity of the interaction and typically slows the rate of the interaction.

In the conventional Web environment, clients do not retain information of a session after the session is closed.

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