Method and system for improving client-servlet communication

Abstract

A method comprises providing a one way communication path that initiates a request by a client for retrieving information from a Servlet, and sending a response by the Servlet containing at least one return code specifying success or failure of the request, and including the result of the request if available. If the Servlet identifies missing information not included in the initial request, the method includes providing a complete response to automatically open an other communication path from the Servlet via the client's web-browser to the Servlet and providing the missing information to a Servlet by making use of the response functionality of the initial request. The other communication path is supported by a further Servlet functionality component.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the right to foreign priority benefits under Title 35, United States Code Section 119 to European Patent Application No. 05108239.4, filed Sep. 8, 2005. This application also claims the benefit of PCT Patent Publication No. WO / 2007 / 028670 A1, filed Jul. 26, 2006 as International Patent Application No. PCT / EP2006 / 064658, all of which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE PRESENT INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates in general to Client-Server communication, and in particular to improving the Client-Servlet communication on a public network without changing the existing communication protocol and without changing the client.BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION[0003]The term “Client-Server” refers to a network application architecture which comprises client and servers communicating with each other via a communication protocol (e.g. HTTP).[0004]Web refers an information space in which the items of in...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method for retrieving information from a Servlet using a one-way communication path. The method includes sending a response with a return code indicating the success or failure of the request. If there is a failure, the method automatically opens an other communication path to provide the missing information. The technical effect of this method is to improve the efficiency and accuracy of retrieving information from Servlets.

Problems solved by technology

Without Servlets, it would be impossible to create interactive Web applications where the user interacts from his / her client's web-browser with the server.

However Servlets have one limitation: after a request is received, they have no way to ask the client's web-browser for missing information.

But with traditional Servlets, all parameters necessary to treat the request on the server have to be contained in the initial request sent by the client's web-browser: if the Servlet notices during the processing of a request that some additional information is not provided by the client's web-browser in the initial request, there is no way to suspend the processing, ask the client's web-browser for the missing information and resume the processing from the point where it was interrupted.

Traditional Servlets cannot handle unexpected situations requiring more information than provided by the client's web-browser request.

This is not a very good method to handle missing information, because it may not be simple to slop a request processing in one Servlet invocation, and continue the transaction in another Servlet invocation.

Also, it may confuse the user, since quite often, the same page is displayed again with a small annotation informing the user about what information is missing—this is problematic from a usability standpoint.

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