U.S. patent application number 12/980154 was filed with the patent office on 2011-05-19 for method and apparatus for information exchange over a web based environment.
Invention is credited to Sheng Tai (Ted) Tsao.
Application Number | 20110119353 12/980154 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 46332514 |
Filed Date | 2011-05-19 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110119353 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Tsao; Sheng Tai (Ted) |
May 19, 2011 |
Method and Apparatus for information exchange over a web based
environment
Abstract
With the ever increasing size and the explorative growth of
digital document and content, the traditional electronic
information exchanging tool such as email and instant message,
web-meeting etc. can not fully satisfy massive user's needs. With
the development of central controlled distributed scalable virtual
machine (CCDSVM) and the web-based computer user working
(operating) environment (WCUWE), the problems mentioned above can
be easily solved by introduce a common "dynamic work space"
technology of this invention within frame work of CCDSVM and WCUWE.
With "dynamic work space" technology , user can use conventional
browser to instantly post or un-post messages, digital documents or
contents or said resources without install specialized software,
without size limitation, with security, and further to obtain
capability of anywhere and anytime peer-to-peer exchanging
information within organized user-group or in one-to-one fashion.
In addition, WCUWE of CCDSVM provides each user a private work
space and each group a common work space under the dynamic work
space umbrella, therefore, WCUWE provide users of CCDSVM a safe
secure infrastructure hierarchy for users or group of users to
efficiently manage, sharing, and access the right information in
time anywhere on the network.
Inventors: |
Tsao; Sheng Tai (Ted); (San
Jose, CA) |
Family ID: |
46332514 |
Appl. No.: |
12/980154 |
Filed: |
December 28, 2010 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11732496 |
Apr 2, 2007 |
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12980154 |
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10713904 |
Aug 6, 2002 |
7418702 |
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11732496 |
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10713905 |
Aug 12, 2002 |
7379990 |
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10713904 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
709/218 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0484 20130101;
G06F 2009/45595 20130101; H04L 41/0253 20130101; H04L 67/22
20130101; H04L 41/5054 20130101; H04L 63/08 20130101; H04L 41/0806
20130101; G06F 9/45558 20130101; H04L 63/102 20130101; H04L 67/02
20130101; H04L 63/0815 20130101; H04L 41/0879 20130101; H04L 41/22
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
709/218 |
International
Class: |
G06F 15/16 20060101
G06F015/16 |
Claims
1. A computer system supports users to create and manage virtual
directories, which comprises: at least a network interface device
and workspace memories; the computer system communicates to a
plurality of networked systems, collects and organizes information
from each networked system across a communication network, and
provides web services and user interfaces ("UI") for displaying
information of the computer system and the plurality of networked
systems for each of a plurality of users from a web based on the
user's local system accessing said information; wherein the
computer system provides workspaces to one or more privileged
users, authenticates each privileged users accessing said
information and through instant posting said information into
targeted one or more web pages to create one or more virtual
directories, and facilitates and validates the plurality of users
accessing each virtual directory.
2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said computer system
communicates to a plurality of networked systems further comprises:
automatically discovering each networked system going online,
collecting information from each networked system, and organizing
the collected information which includes one or multiple groups of
the networked systems (service pools) across the communication
network that is one of corporate Intranet, Internet, LAN or
WAN.
3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said for a plurality of
users' web based accessing said information further comprises:
facilitating and permitting each user single sign on the computer
system once and further accessing permitted said information.
4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said provides workspaces
to one or more privileged users further comprises: creating each
user's account, assigning the user a private workspace which is
initialized with permitted said information, dynamically loaded
into memory, and displayed into web browser on the user's local
system in response to the user's accessing.
5. The computer system of claim 4 further comprises: assigning user
accessing one or more information on the computer system and on one
or more networked system.
6. The computer system of claim 4 further comprises: creating one
or more group accounts, and assigning each group at least a user
and a group workspace which to be exclusively accessible by the
group member, and displaying information in the group workspace
into web browser in response to each permitted user's
accessing.
7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said through posting
said information into targeted one or more web pages to create one
or more virtual directories further comprises: facilitating the
privileged user inputting one file folder information at a time
from displayed private workspace in the web UI to post the inputted
file folder information through the privileged user assigned group
workspace into a targeted web page, and generating an updated said
targeted web page including information in the group workspace in
response to each said user accessing the virtual directory.
8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said through posting
said information into targeted one or more web pages to create one
or more virtual directories further comprises: facilitating the
privileged user capable of inputting one file information at a time
from displayed private workspace in the web UI to post the inputted
file information through the privileged user assigned group
workspace into a targeted web page, and generating an updated said
targeted web page including information in the group workspace in
response to each said user accessing the virtual directory.
9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said through posting
said information into targeted one or more web pages to create one
or more virtual directories further comprises: facilitating the
privileged user capable of inputting one message at a time from
displayed private workspace in the web UI to post the inputted
message through the privileged user assigned group workspace into a
targeted web page, and generating an updated said targeted web page
including information in the group workspace in response to each
said user accessing the virtual directory.
10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said authenticating one
or more privileged users creating one or more virtual directories
further comprises: facilitating the privileged user capable of
inputting one hardware information at a time from displayed private
workspace in the web UI to post the inputted hardware information
through the privileged user assigned group workspace into a
targeted web page, and generating an updated said targeted web page
including information in the group workspace in response to each
said user accessing the virtual directory.
11. The computer system of claim 8, wherein said post the inputted
file information further comprises: creating an application program
virtual directory through said posting, and facilitating each said
user accessing one or more application programs in the virtual
directory.
12. The computer system of claim 8, wherein said post the inputted
file information further comprises: creating a document virtual
directory through said posting, and facilitating each said user
accessing one or more documents in the virtual directory.
13. The computer system of claim 8, wherein said post the inputted
file information further comprises: creating a video and audio
virtual directory through said posting, and facilitating each said
user accessing one or more streaming video and audio in the virtual
directory.
14. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said through posting
said information into targeted one or more web pages to create one
or more virtual directories further comprises: facilitating the
privileged user inputting one information at a time from displayed
private workspace in the web UI to instantly delete an previously
posted information in a targeted web page that matches the inputted
information through the privileged user assigned group
workspace.
15. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said workspace further
comprises: dividing each workspace into multiple sections , wherein
each section is designated to store a specific type of resource
information that includes message section, file and file-folder
section, and hardware resource hardware information section
16. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said through posting
said information into targeted one or more web pages further
comprises: depositing an inputted information from a specific
section in the user's private workspace into a corresponding
specific section of the user's assigned group workspace with memory
speed in response to the posting operation.
17. the computer system of claim 14, wherein said deleting
information further comprises: finding and deleting an information
with memory speed from a corresponding specific section of the
user's assigned group workspace that matches the user's inputted
information in response to the deleting operation.
18. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said workspaces further
comprises: depositing non-message type of a posted resource
information without actually copying or moving the actual physical
resource into the group workspace in response to the post
operation, and deleting non-message type of resource information
from the group workspace without removing or deleting the actual
physical resource in response to the delete operation.
19. The computer system of claim 18 further comprises: deploying
lock protection over the targeted group workspace for each said
depositing and withdrawing operation.
20. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said creating one or
more virtual directories further comprises: facilitating the user
select a resource node from a web folder tree in the web UI to
input an information for posting information into a targeted web
page or deleting a previously posted information from a targeted
web page, wherein each node of the web folder tree bound with a
operating menu including operating options of posting and
withdrawing.
21. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said creating one or
more virtual directories further comprises: facilitating the user
manual typing an information into a text inputting field in the web
UI to input an information for posting information into a targeted
web page or deleting a previously posted information from a
targeted web page.
22. The computer system of claim 1 further comprises: said computer
system is one of wireless personal communication devices, laptop
system, desktop system, or server system which configured with a
control management organizing the resources on the computer system
and from the network, controlling the user space operation for the
computer system; and a web server operatively coupled to the
control management providing web services and user interfaces
("UI") which includes creating private and group workspace,
transmitting and displaying information in workspace via web UI
including displaying information through web folder tree, and
receiving, executing, and responding to one or more requests
submitted from each web browser.
23. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said networked system
further comprises: a least a network interfaces and a service agent
which comprising at least a service module communicating the
computer system for receiving, executing and responding each
requested task transmitted from the computer system, and comprising
at least a service module providing requested web service directly
to each requested system after receiving a user request transmitted
from the control system.
24. The computer system of claim 1 further comprises: said user's
local system is one of the computer system or a remote system
across the world wide web.
Description
PRIORITY
[0001] This patent application is a divisional application for U.S.
patent application Ser. No. of 11/732,496 filed on Apr. 2, 2007 and
assigned to assignee (Sheng Tai Tsao) of present invention, which
herein is incorporated by reference in its entirety. The
application Ser. No. 11/732,496 has claimed the benefit of the
priority of the U.S. provisional application No. 60/787,653. The
application Ser. No. 11/732,496 is also the continuation-in-part of
U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/713,904 filed on Aug. 6, 2002
and assigned to assignee (Sheng Tai Tsao) of present invention and
entitled "Concurrent Web Based Multi-Task Support for Control
Management System" which is based on U.S. provisional application
No. 60/401,238. The application Ser. No. 11/732,496 is also a
continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/713,905,
filed on Aug. 12, 2002 and assigned to assignee (Sheng Tai Tsao) of
present invention and entitled "Distributed Virtual SAN" which is
based on U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/402,626. The
patent application Ser. No. 10/713,904 now is a U.S. Pat. No.
7,418,702. The patent application Ser. No. 10/713,905 now is a U.S.
Pat. No. 7,373,990. All of the above prior applications are herein
incorporated by reference in each one's entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention generally relates to communications
network. More specifically, the present invention relates to web
based communications system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] With increasing popularity of using the Internet and World
Wide Web ("the Web") for the rapidly changing digital world,
individuals as well as enterprises, exchange (or swap) large
volumes of information through the Web. The demand for larger and
faster information exchange has increasingly grown in recent years.
For example, various business meetings and conferences are
conducted over the Web with attendees scattered around the world.
To enhance the communication between the meeting attendees, not
only voice (and/or image) information is important, but also
information exchange can be critical.
[0004] Fast, volume, and secure information exchange is important
in enhancing the efficiency of a communications network. A problem
associated with a conventional network is limited size and speed.
For example, a typical email system limits the size of each email,
such as 10 megabytes, thereby a reasonable speed of delivery of
such email can be achieved. Another problem associated with a
conventional network is that various hosts require software
installation before a user can use their platform. For example,
Skype.TM. requires users to install its proprietary software on the
user's systems before it allows them to use its platform.
[0005] Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide a faster,
more secure, volume information exchange over the Web.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for
information exchange over a web environment.
[0007] With the development of central controlled distributed
scalable virtual machine (CCDSVM) and the web-based computer user
working (operating) environment (WCUWE), the problems mentioned in
the previous section can easily be solved by introducing a "dynamic
work space" technology of this invention within the frameworks of
CCDSVM and WCUWE.
[0008] With dynamic work space technology, one or more login users
of CCDSVM, each using a browser of any system and from anywhere,
can instantly perform tasks. For example, each user can post or
un-post messages, files, folders, or other resources on systems of
CCDSVM with group-based model or non-group 1-to-1 model to one or
more audiences on the network. This technology will also achieve
larger scales of secure information exchange without size
limitation and the installation of special software.
[0009] The implementation of this invention has provided users with
a web-browser based, 1-click system that is capable of securing
exchanges of messages, files, folders, or other resources on
systems crossing network domains without size limitation.
[0010] Additional features and benefits of the present invention
will become apparent from the detailed description, figures, and
claims set forth below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The present invention will be understood more fully from the
detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings
of various embodiments of the invention, which, however, should not
be taken to limit the invention to the specific embodiments, but
are for explanation and understanding only.
[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a layout of a CCDSVM
with a central control management system and multiple provisioned
systems, client system and console system in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention;
[0013] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a layout of a CCDSVM
with which users from their web-browser of provisioned system can
communicate with each other in accordance with another embodiment
of the present invention;
[0014] FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating a layout of a CCSDVM
with only a single control management system to be accessed by
massive client systems in accordance with another embodiment of the
present invention;
[0015] FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a
software for a CCDSVM in accordance with one embodiment of the
present invention;
[0016] FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a dynamic work space in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;
[0017] FIG. 4B illustrates an example of resources which may be
assigned to a user-group common work space in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention;
[0018] FIG. 4C illustrates an example of a user private work space
and possible assigned system resources in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention;
[0019] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of resource objectives on
systems in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention;
[0020] FIG. 6A illustrates an example of displaying a web-page with
4 sections in web-browser of user X in user-group-1 during an
interactive online meeting in accordance with one embodiment of the
present invention;
[0021] FIG. 6B illustrates an example of displaying a web-page with
4 sections in web-browser of user Y in user-group-1 during
interactive online meeting in accordance with another embodiment of
the present invention;
[0022] FIG. 6C illustrates an example of displaying a web-page with
4 sections in web-browser of user X in user group-1 before
interactive online meeting in accordance with another embodiment of
the present invention;
[0023] FIG. 6D illustrates an example of displaying a web-page with
4 sections in web-browser of user Y in user group-1 before
interactive online meeting in accordance with another embodiment of
the present invention;
[0024] FIG. 6E illustrates an example of a displayed web-page that
each massive online user can access and view from each of their
browser without login to CCDSVM during said user X and user Y in
user-group-1 online meeting in accordance with another embodiment
of the present invention;
[0025] FIG. 7A illustrates one-to-one, peer-to-peer post or un-post
messages and folders of user X in accordance with one embodiment of
the present invention;
[0026] FIG. 7B illustrates one-to-one, peer-to-peer post or un-post
messages and folders of user Y in accordance with another
embodiment of the present invention;
[0027] FIG. 8A is an example of a web-based graphic presentation
view of assigned resources in a user X's private work space in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;
[0028] FIG. 8B is an example of a web-based graphic presentation of
assigned resources in the private work space of user Y in
accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;
[0029] FIG. 8C is an example of a web-based graphic presentation
view of user Y's private work space after user X dynamically posted
and shared "folder 2" in user X's private space in accordance with
another embodiment of the present invention;
[0030] FIG. 9A is an example of a pop-up menu for folder in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;
[0031] FIG. 9B is an example of a pop-up menu for file in
accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;
[0032] FIG. 10A is an example of a non pop-up operation menu for
folder in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention;
[0033] FIG. 10B is an example of a non pop-up operation menu for
folder in accordance with another embodiment of the present
invention;
[0034] FIG. 11 is an example of a center view of a list of posted
files or folders in sharable file & folder area of a common
work space of a user X in accordance with one embodiment of the
present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0035] Embodiments of the present invention are described herein in
the context of a method, system and apparatus for providing a web
based communications network with fast, volume, and secure
information exchange. Those of ordinary skill in the art will
realize that the following detailed description of the present
invention is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way
limiting. Other embodiments of the present invention will readily
suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of
this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to
implementations of the present invention as illustrated in the
accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used
throughout the drawings and the following detailed description to
refer to the same or like parts.
[0036] In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features
of the implementations described herein are shown and described. It
will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such
actual implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions
must be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals,
such as compliance with application- and business-related
constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one
implementation to another and from one developer to another.
Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort
might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a
routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in
the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
[0037] In accordance with the present invention, the components,
process steps, and/or data structures described herein may be
implemented using various types of operating systems, computing
platforms, computer programs, and/or general purpose machines. In
addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that
devices of a less general purpose nature, such as hardwired
devices, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application
specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or the like, may also be used
without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventive
concepts disclosed herein. Where a method comprising a series of
process steps is implemented by a computer or a machine and those
process steps can be stored as a series of instructions readable by
the machine, they may be stored on a tangible medium such as a
computer memory device (e.g., ROM (Read Only Memory), PROM
(Programmable Read Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Eraseable
Programmable Read Only Memory), FLASH Memory, Jump Drive, and the
like), magnetic storage medium (e.g., tape, magnetic disk drive,
and the like), optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, paper
card and paper tape, and the like) and other known types of program
memory.
[0038] Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the
following detailed description of the present invention is
illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting.
Other embodiments of the present invention will readily suggest
themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this
disclosure. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that
these specific details may not be required to practice to present
invention. In other instances, well-known circuits and devices are
shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the present
invention. In the following description of the embodiments,
substantially the same parts are denoted by the same reference
numerals.
[0039] While particular embodiments of the present invention have
been shown and described, it will now be apparent to those skilled
in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many more
modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing
from the inventive concepts disclosed herein. Therefore, the
appended claims are intended to encompass within their scope all
such modifications as are within the spirit and scope of this
invention.
[0040] The present invention can be implemented by a web based
system operated in a network infrastructure, such as a central
controlled distributed scalable virtual machine ("CCDSVM"). FIG. 1
illustrates a CCDSVM in accordance with an embodiment of the
present invention. A CCDSVM includes a group of provisioned systems
3, a control management system 2, console systems 1, and client
systems 10. The control management system ("control system") 2 is
configured to control a group of systems ("provisioned system") 3.
The console systems ("console systems") 1 provide management while
client systems 10 ("client systems") initiate accessing provisioned
systems 3 or the control system 2 via a web-browser over a network
infrastructure, such as the Intranet, an Internet, and/or a
LAN.
[0041] The network infrastructure ("network") includes all
necessary hardware and software that facilitate various users from
different geographic locations to communicate through the Internet,
an Intranet, and/or a LAN. The hardware of the network includes
network connection media, wireless media, circuitry components, and
communication equipments. The network connection media includes
various cables such as Ethernet and/or optical fiber. The wireless
media is capable of establishing wireless communication links
through air. The circuitry components include processor, data bus,
memory devices, and/or circuit board. The communication equipments,
such as switches, routers, gateways, and/or adapters, are used to
provide a communications network. It should be noted that there are
other possible elements of communication equipment that may be
needed to form a communication link, but they are not necessary to
understand the present invention.
[0042] The software infrastructure includes Internet Protocol
("IP") addresses and system name identification software such as
Domain Name System ("DNS"), firewall software, IP gateway set-up
software, IP broadcast, and so forth. The communication protocols
over the network could be IP-based standard or non-standard
proprietary protocols such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol ("HTTP")
over Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol ("TCP/IP") or
Simple Object Access Protocol ("SOAP") over TCP/IP. It should be
further noted that some IP based protocols are proprietary
protocols and some are non-IP based protocols.
[0043] A web-browser is an application program that allows a user
to access information over the Web, such as Windows Internet
Explorer ("IE"), FireFox, Netscape, and/or Mozillar. A web-browser
could also be any proprietary software, which uses web-protocols
such as HTTP, WAP, SOAP for communication over the network. The
web-browser can be implemented with any suitable programming
languages such as C, C++, Java, or XML, or a combination of the
suitable languages.
[0044] A web page, on the other hand, is a displayable information
resource that is accessible through web-browser. The web page may
be hosted by a web server via a web server system and can be
transmitted (or retrieved) by a web-browser.
[0045] Provisioned systems 3, client systems 10, console systems 1,
and control management system 2 are computational systems, which
could be server system, desktop or laptop system, handheld devices
such as PDA, wireless phone, and so forth. The computational
systems include CPUs, storage devices, and memory controller. The
storage devices include internal memory such as read-only memory
("ROM") and/or random access memory ("RAM"). The storage devices
may further include external storage devices such as magnetic disks
or tapes, which include redundant array of inexpensive drives
("RAID"), just bunch of disk drive ("JBOD") and memory stick. The
associated storage controller can be Integrated Drive Electronics
("IDE"), Small Computer System Interface ("SCSI"), Fiber optical
controller, or a combination of above-mentioned devices.
[0046] The computational systems also include a native non-embedded
or real-time embedded OS running, which could be Linux, or Windows,
Unix, or proprietary OS. It should be noted that the present
invention may include multiple control systems at different layers
of system configuration topology wherein each of the control
systems is capable of communicating with each other through a
network. The control systems at middle layers play dual roles as
both control system and provisioned system in the system
configuration topology.
[0047] FIG. 1 illustrates a CCDSVM platform with multiple clients
in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The
CCDSVM includes console systems 1, control management system 2,
provisioned systems 3, and networks 11-12, wherein the networks
11-12 are used inter-connecting with all systems of CCDSVM and
client systems 10.
[0048] The Console system 1 is a computational system having a
web-browser or web-console 9 wherein the web-browser 9 is used by
privileged users for accessing the CCDSVM platform. The Web browser
9, which could be on any system, permits a user to access
information from the CCDSVM by following a web URL link. For
example, a privileged user enters a web URL of
"https://69.107.28.123/stt/sttwebos" on a command line of web
browser 9 and once the link is established, the user can obtain
information hosted by the web-based computer user work/operation
environment ("WCUWE"). The Console system 1, in one embodiment,
further includes software modules 13, wherein the software modules
13 may be used to facilitate communication between the console
system 1 and the control management system 2.
[0049] The Control system 2, in one embodiment, is a server system,
a desktop or a laptop system with memory and storage capabilities.
The Control system 2 includes web server software 7 and console
supporting software 6. The Console supporting software 6 includes
web server interface software modules 5 and control management
software modules 4. The control management system 2 may also have
web-browser 9 used as a web-console 9 of the control system 2. The
Web server software 7 sends/receives data to/from web-console 9 of
the console system 1 or client system 10 or control system 2. The
Web server software 7 is configured to provide secure sockets layer
("SSL") encryption to encrypting the data before transmission to
enhance the security. The Web server software 7 could be
commercially available software such as Apache.TM. from open
source, or IIS from Microsoft or a proprietary software. The Web
server software modules 7 and console support software 6 modules
can be implemented by any suitable or a combination of any suitable
programming languages such as C, C++, Java, JavaScript, HTML, or
XML.
[0050] The console supporting software 6 communicates with service
software modules 8 of provisioned systems 3. The Web server
interface 5 of the console support software 6 is capable of
providing special functions that are otherwise performed by web
server 7. If no provisioned system 3 is coupled to the CCDSVM
platform, control management system 2, in one embodiment, is
reconfigured to continue monitoring systems over the network while
the CCDSVM platform is also reconfigured to a single stand-alone
system, as shown in FIG. 2B. Users can access and/or obtain data
objects or system resources via the web-browser 9, which can be
resided at any client system 10 or console system 1.
[0051] The Provisioned system 3, in one embodiment, is a
computational system, wherein the system may contain suitable
native operating system ("OS"). The Provisioned systems 3 can be
automatically provisioned by the control system 2 through an
automatic system service pool construction protocol. The Provision
process, also known as pooling process, is a method allowing the
control system 2 to control one or more network systems by
reconfiguring the network systems. For example, when a provisioned
system boots up via a communication protocol, the control system 2
obtains provisioned system's name, IP address, and system
information wherein the system information includes network
information, storage information, file system information and so
forth. Each provisioned system 3 can be monitored, accessed, and/or
operated by a user(s) on a web-browser 9 of the console system 1.
In an alternative embodiment, provisional system 3 is controlled by
users through the client systems 10 via the control system 2 with
proper users' authentication. Each provisioned system 3 contains
service software modules 8, which is used to communicate with
servers across a network. For example, the service software modules
8 of the provisioned system 3 can communicate with the control
management software 4 of the control system 2 to carry out tasks
for viewing or operating on resources of the provisioned system 3.
The Service software 8 can communicate with the web-browser 9 of
the client system 10 or console system 1 to transfer data between
them or deliver service to them, or to communicate with another
provisioned system 3 to send or receive data.
[0052] The Service software modules 8 may include special software
modules having compatible functionalities of the web-server
software 7 of the control system 2 and to dedicate handling HTTP
protocol or other web protocols if there is needs for web-based
communication with the client 10 or with other provisioned system 3
or with the control system 2. The Software modules 8 could be
commercially available web server software 7 or any proprietary
software. The service software modules 8 could be implemented with
any suitable programming languages such as C, C++, Java, or
JavaScript.
[0053] Net 11 and Net 12 are network infrastructures that are
capable of providing communication links between the control
management system 2, console system 1, client system 10, and/or
provisioned systems 3.
[0054] The Client systems 10 may not be a part of the CCDSVM, but
with the permission and authorization, users from the web-browser 9
of the client system 10 can login to the CCDSVM and access the
permitted resources of the CCDSVM using web-browser 9 by following
a web URL link of CCDSVM. While privileged users can obtain,
manage, access, and/or operate system resources on the CCDSVM
through the WCUWE, regular (non-privileged) users at the client
systems 10 may be permitted to access only limited system resources
of the CCDSVM.
[0055] The CCDSVM configuration, in one embodiment, includes four
data flow paths. First data path is a communication link between
the web browser 9 of the client host 10 (or console host 1 or
control management system 2) and web handling software on the
control system 2 (such as the web-server 7 and/or console support
software 6). With this path of data flow, whenever a user sends a
request from the web-browser 9 to the web-server 7 and further
passed to the console support software 6, the console support
software 6 collects required information from each target systems
and converts them into standard structured information (web-format)
for web communication. The targeted system could be one of the
provisioned systems 3 or the control system 2. The information
collected by the console support software 6 of the control system 2
could be the system status, or the storage information, or the
network information, or the user authentication profile, or the
file system information, or files & folders information on
control system 2, or any targeted provisioned system 3. The Console
support software 6 then passes this converted structured
information to web server software 7 and further transmits it to
the web-browser 9 through communication link Net 11 and/or Net 12
so that the collected information can be displayed and viewed by a
conventional web browser 9, as shown in FIG. 1.
[0056] The communication protocol used between the web-browser 9 of
the client system 10 (or console system 1 or control system 2) and
the web server 7 of the control system 2 could be HTTP, HTTPS (SSL
encrypted HTTP protocol) or any suitable web protocols for web
communication, which could successfully transmit the data across
the world wide web, or could also be other standard or proprietary
IP-based on non-IP-based protocols. This data path may be referred
to as the console support software 6 transmits data to/from the
web-browser 9.
[0057] The second data path is the data flow through communication
links between the control system 2 and provisioned systems 3.
Requests targeted to a provisioned system 3 are passed from the
console support software 6 of the control system 2 to the service
modules 8 of the provisioned systems 3 through communication link
network 12. When those requests are received by the targeted
provisioned system, the service modules 8 of the provisioned system
3 carry out the requested tasks, and then send a response back to
the console support software 6 of the control system 2. The
implementation of the actual products of this invention on the
second data path may use proprietary TCP/UDP/IP based protocols for
the communication between the provisioned systems 3 and the control
system 2. However, other standards or proprietary IP-based or any
suitable non-IP-based protocol are also possible. The communication
protocols used between the console support software 6 of the
control system 2 and the service modules 8 of the provisioned
system 3 can be any suitable IP based or non-IP based protocols,
whichever is suitable to transmit data between them. The typical
data flow through this path could be the boot message, system
status, network information, or storage information of the
provisioned system 3, as shown in FIG. 1.
[0058] The third data path is the data flow between the provisioned
systems 3 and the client system 10 or console system 1 via
communication link 11-12. Referring back to FIG. 1, the console
support software 6 of the control system 2 may present a web link,
which points to an object on a provisioned system 3, to a user
working on a web-browser 9 of the client system 10 or console
system 1 or control system 2. The object pointed by the web link on
the provisioned system 3 could be a text file, MPEG video, PDF
document, MS Power Point, Word documentation, etc. It also could be
a link of another web service program. From the web browser 9, a
user can directly access the information on a provisioned system 3
pointed by the web link without go through the control system 2
again. In this case, the service modules 8 of the provisioned
system 3 also include web server software modules 7 or equivalent
one to directly support the web browser 9 as mentioned before. The
communication protocols with the third path could be the web
protocols such as HTTP or WAP. Alternatively, the communication
protocols can be other standards or proprietary IP-based or
non-IP-based protocols. To simplify the discussion, the data
transmitted on this path will be mentioned as the service software
module 8 that send data to or receive data from the web-browser 9
and vice versa.
[0059] The fourth data path is data flow through the communication
link between the provisioned system 3 and another provisioned
system 3. With this path, the service modules 8 of one provisioned
system 3 can directly transmit data or information to the service
modules 8 of another provisioned system 3 via a communication link
Net 12 without going through the control system 2. The
implementation of the actual products of this invention, for
example, uses a proprietary IP-based protocol for communications
between the two provisioned systems 3. The principle of this
invention, however, does not rely on or limit to proprietary
protocol. It should be noted that other standard or proprietary
IP-based or any suitable non-IP-based protocol may also be
possible. The data and information transmitted through the fourth
data path can be various types of data. For example, a user on
web-browser 9 may open a file folder on a provisioned system 3 and
further the user can also instruct to transfer a file from a
current target provisioned system 3 to another provisioned system 3
by a mouse click. The data file will then be transferred directly
between the two provisioned systems 3 without going through the
control system 2.
[0060] FIG. 2 illustrates a variation of the CCDSVM platform for
web browser-based communication in accordance with one embodiment
of the present invention. The CCDSVM platform illustrated in FIG. 2
is similar to the platform illustrated in FIG. 1 except every
provisioned systems 3 includes a web-browser 9. Thus, with proper
authentication process, each user of the provisioned systems 3 may
access, manage their own provisioned system 3 from a web-browser 9
either on their own local provisioned system 3 or on any client
system anywhere on the network. It should be noted that when a user
is registered with a provisioned system 3, the user is authorized
to access provisioned system 3 locally but not access the CCDSVM.
On the other hand, when a user is registered with the CCDSVM, the
user may be then authorized to access one or multiple provisioned
systems 3 and the control system 2 of the CCSDVM.
[0061] FIG. 2B illustrates another example of a variation of the
CCDSVM, in which there is no provisioned systems 3 in the CCDSVM.
Thus the Control system 2 can run on its own and the CCDSVM has
degenerated into a single stand-alone system (FIG. 2B), and users
through the web-browser 9 on any client system 3 (or on console
system 1, or on stand-alone control system 2) are allowed to access
and operate the permitted data objects and system resources on the
stand-alone control system 2.
[0062] Unless specifically specified, the console support software
modules 6 of the control system 2, the provisioned systems 3, the
service software modules 8 of provisioned system 3, and the
web-browser 9 of control system 2, client system 10, and console
system 1 are referred to the CCDSVM platform illustrated in FIG.
1.
[0063] A web-based computer user work/operation environment
("WCUWE") of the CCDSVM is a software infrastructure, as
illustrated in FIG. 3 The WCUWE provides each permitted user to log
into the CCDSVM, and further provide each login user a private
web-browser based user operating environment, which is a private
work space including the assigned and permitted resources on the
control system 2 or on the provisioned system 3 across a network.
The WCUWE further provides each user from a single web-browser to
perform various permitted tasks and operations over various system
resources (as show in FIG. 5), wherein the tasks can be performed
concurrently from a single login web-browser.
[0064] The mentioned tasks include allowing privileged users to
create users, groups, assign users to each group, to assign initial
associated system resources to each user or group, and to save the
information of created users and groups into a database stored on a
storage media of the control system. The information needed for
creating users or groups include user names, user IDs, assigned
security permissions, passwords, access points, group names, group
IDs, maximum members in a group, and so forth. The tasks also
include various system operations such as manage network, storage,
file system, folder, files, messages, user security, and so
forth.
[0065] The database is organized as one or more lists of tables,
wherein each of the lists contains various resources. For example,
the resources could be one or multiple users information, one or
multiple systems information, one or more network cards, and one or
more disk drives information. The storage media could be a system's
internal storage or disk drive, for example.
[0066] The WCUWE of the CCDSVM includes the software modules of
present invention. For example, the software includes the console
support modules 6 of the control system 2, service software modules
8 of provisioned system 3, other service software 13 of console
system 1. The current implementation of the WCUWE is based on a
proprietary design of this invention. However, the nature and
spirit of this invention does not limit to proprietary designed
software. The WCUWE of the CCDSVM also includes other proprietary
software modules or conventional software such as the web-server
modules 7 of the control system 2, and the web-browser 9 of the
control system 2, the client system 10, and console system 1.
[0067] The WCUWE of CCDSVM can be implemented with any suitable or
combination of various suitable programming languages such C, C++,
Java, JavaScripts, HTML, XML, and so on. To simplify the
discussion, the WCUWE will be used to represent software modules in
CCDSVM described above.
[0068] Users of the CCDSVM may be created by the CCDSVM though a
given process. Also, any users on the Internet, Intranet, or LAN
without registering with the CCDSVM may also access the CCDSVM. The
WCUWE of the CCDSVM provides user to access various resources and
perform various tasks, for example, through a preferred model of
mouse clicking on graphically represented resource objects
displayed in the web browser 9.
[0069] The WCUWE is designed to be operated on a CCDSVM platform,
and specially is designed to provide dynamic work space (FIG. 4A)
to each user associated with various CCDSVM. The WCUWE further
supports tasks of instantly posting or un-posting user's private
resources information to peer members in a group or to each peer
user of the CCDSVM not in a group or not in same group, or to
massive public users on the network, where the massive public users
do not have accounts with the CCDSVM platform.
[0070] The dynamic work space of the WCUWE is a centrally
controlled collection of each group's work space and/or user's work
space. The Console support software 6 of the control system 2 of
the CCDSVM will assign each user a private work space and each
group a common work space when each user or group account is
created by a privileged user after the corresponding WCUWE software
modules on the control system 2 and on the provisioned system 3
enter into an operational mode. When a user or a group account is
created, each user or group is assigned with specific security
scopes and permissions. An important aspect of the WCUWE of the
CCDSVM is that it assigns each user and/or each user-group a
working space based on user and group security permission.
[0071] A work space is an organized information structure, which
can be saved on storage media of memory or disk drives or both of
the memory and disk drives by the console support software 6. A
work space is created during a privileged user performing the tasks
of creating user or group. The work space will be initiated and
assigned with system resources of the CCDSVM as shown in FIG. 5.
Various system resources on either provisioned system 3 and/or on
control system 2 include respective memory, system-groups, systems
in system-group, file systems, file folders, files, storage media,
network media and so on without limits. The common work space 15,
as shown in FIG. 4B of each group may be initially assigned with
information of system resources (illustrated in FIG. 5) such as
users in this group, message area, file systems, folders and files
on a specific provisioned system 3 or on the control system 2, and
so on without limits. The resources of the common work space may
also be dynamically assigned or allocated by permitted user after
creating group account. For example, during an online interactive
meeting, a user posts a file to the common work space, so that a
new entry of a file node is added to a file and a folder tree area
of common work space. In addition, each group may be assigned with
one or multiple users, wherein each user can also be assigned with
a private work space 16 as shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4C during user
account creation time. The private work space may also be initially
assigned with system resources of the CCDSVM during user account
creation time. Alternatively, the private work space is dynamically
assigned with the resources of the CCDSVM after the account being
created.
[0072] For example, a privileged user can dynamically permit or
deny a general user to access a list of storage devices. During the
operation, at one second, a user may see a list from the user's
web-browser, and at another second, the general-user can no longer
see the list. Also, if an authorized user permitted to access a
list of storage devices on a provisioned system and further taking
one of devices offline so that the device list on the provisioned
system will have one less devices to be displayed.
[0073] In another example, at one second, a privileged user allows
a general user to access a file J in a folder N on a system M of
the CCDSVM, and at another second, the privileged user resets
previously granted permission, thereby, the general user can view
and access the file J in the folder N on the system M of the CCDSVM
at one time, and a second later, the general user can no longer
view and access the file J. The actual implementation of console
support software 6 of control system 2 has achieved this
capability.
[0074] In addition, each type of resources in the work space is
organized as a list of tables and can be stored in storage media on
the control system 2. The integrity of security of each group is
protected by limiting different resources to different groups. As
such, each group is authorized to have a limited view over assigned
system resources on the provisioned system 3 as well as on the
control system 2. The same security integrity at user level can be
achieved by assigning different system resources of the provisioned
system 3 and/or the control system 2 to different individual user
based on assigned security permissions. Therefore, each user is
authorized to access and view the assigned resources.
[0075] FIG. 4B has shown an example of assigned resources including
users 17, message area 18, and folders and files area 19, and
others 20 in the common work space 15 of a user group. The messages
from each user in the user-group's common message area18, and the
information of the folders and files in the common files and folder
area 19 can be shared by all users in a same user-group. All
resources in each group's common work space can be selectively
displayed in the web-browser 9 on each login user's local system,
who belongs.sup.-to a same user group after the resources in said
group workspace being converted to presentable web-format
(web-page) by the console support software 6 on the control system
2 of the CCDSVM.
[0076] FIG. 4C has shown an example of assigned resources in the
private work space (16) for a individual user, which includes
resources in private message area 21, private file, folder area 22,
and private network or storage or other information area 23. The
assigned resources only can be exclusively viewed and accessed by
the designated user unless he/she agrees to share with peer user
crossing group boundary or with peer user in same group. The folder
(directory) is a data structure which can hold one more files and
sub-folders at logical file system level and at physical level on
storage media.
[0077] FIG. 8A has shown an example of displaying an actually
implemented portion of a web-page encoded with assigned resources
in the private work space 16 of an user X, which includes a
system-group-A 33 on said network, multiple provisioned systems 3
under the system-group-A, private folders 32 and 34 of the user X
on a system, and files under folders 32 in a displayed private work
space 16 of the user X.
[0078] FIG. 8B has shown another example of displaying an actually
implemented portion of a web-page encoded with assigned resources
in the private work space 16 of an user Y, which includes a control
system 2, private folder and files 35 that belong to the user Y in
the private work space 16 of the user Y.
[0079] The private work spaces of user X and user Y may also
include private message area 21 and other resources, which are not
displayed in FIG. 8A & FIG. 8B because the WCUWE is designed to
dynamically display part of each user's private work space 16
whenever there is needs.
[0080] It is notable that said user X and user Y, may be in same
user-group such as said group-1. However, each of them could have a
significant different scope of each one's private work space 16
assigned by the console support software 6 of control system 2 due
to they have been assigned with very different resources on the
systems depending on each user's roles and security permissions,
which are setup by said privileged user of the CCDSVM through
web-based user interfaces that are provided by the console support
software 6. This is the beauty of the invention of WCUWE for
CCDSVM.
[0081] The FIG. 6C and FIG. 6D are examples of web-page displaying
in the web-browser 9 of the user X and user Y in a user-group-1
before an interactive online meeting. As shown in FIG. 6C and FIG.
6D, the user X or user Y or other users (who's web-page/browser did
not depicted) in the same user-group-1 have entered a group online
meeting after each of their login to the CCDSVM from a web browser
on the user's local system across said network. Further, all users
can get an identical web-page provided by the console support
software 6 of the control system 2 except with different contents
in the displayed private work space section of the web-page due to
each user has been assigned with different resources. The web-page
screen layout provided by said console support software 6 contains
four sections: [0082] 1) a private user message input area
(section-1), [0083] 2) a message displaying section for common
message area 18 illustrated in FIG. 4B that all users in the
user-group-1 (section-2) can access, [0084] 3) a file and/or folder
display section for the group common file and folder area 19
illustrated in FIG. 4B that all users in the same user-group-1
(section-3) can access, and [0085] 4) a file and folder tree
displaying and management section (section-4) for the folder and
file tree in the private file and folder area 22 of a user's
private work space illustrated in FIG. 4C.
[0086] Initially, the section-1, section-2, and section-3 are all
empty due to no one has post any file or message yet. The console
support software 6 obtains each login user's a portion of assigned
folders and files for online meeting from the private file and
folder area 22 of the private work space 16 of each user which
stored on said storage media as illustrated in FIG. 4C, and further
convert said file or folder information into the presentable
web-format (web-page) to be displayed in said section-4 of a
web-page of the web-browser 9 on each user's local system. The
choice of total four sections of web-page layout and the order of
each section on the browser screen is irrelevant to this invention
since other choices are also possible, and further, this invention
does not have limitation on what web-screen layout shall be. The
information of file or folder includes the system name where the
file or folder resided, the named and path of the file or folder,
the owner of file or folder, the time stamps, the size of the file
and so on without limitation.
[0087] During the interactive online meeting, the console support
software 6 provides each user to post or un-post files or folders
targeting to said section-3 of a web page for displaying group's
common documents and contents management section with several
steps. First, for example, providing said user X to click on a
targeted file "Doc 1" 24 or a folder one at a time in section-4 of
a web page for displaying said file and folder management area of
said user private work space 16. Second, select the operation of
either post or un-post from an operation menu (see FIG. 9A, FIG.
9B, FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B). Finally click on the selected operation
to submit the task of either post or un-post the selected file or
folder.
[0088] Each user with permission may perform un-post operation if
such user has at least a previously posted file or folder, which
has already displayed in the section-3 of the common document and
content management section of the web-browser 9 for all login users
of the same user-group, see FIG. 6A or FIG. 6B for example.
[0089] If a file is selected, said file operation menu is used and
if a folder is selected, said folder operation menu is used
respectively. It is also possible to only provide one menu for both
file and folder operation by the console support software 6. The
operation menu either can be pop-up menu for folder as shown in
FIG. 9A or pop-up menu for file as shown in FIG. 9B, or non-pop-up
menu for folder as shown in FIG. 10A or non-pop-up menu for file as
shown in FIG. 10B. The choice of the operation menu is irrelevant
to this invention although the actual implementation of this part
of invention has used pop-up menu, and as matter of the facts that
there is no limitation on how the operation menu is to be designed
in this invention.
[0090] In the example of FIG. 6A, the user X can post a file named
"Doc 1" 24 to said section-3 of the common document and content
display section of the web page in said web-browser 9, In the
example of FIG. 6B, the user Y can also post a file named "picture
1" 25 to the common document and content display section of the web
page in said web-browser 9. In addition, another not depicted user
Z posted a file of "project code". The files or folders posted
could be the one located on said control system 2 or on provisioned
any provisioned system 3 of the CCDSVM.
[0091] In addition, during the interactive online meeting, the
console support software 6 of the control system 2 also facilitates
each user to be able to post message to massive users in the same
group from said section-1 of the web page via private user message
input section by typing a message and click on the "send" button.
In the example of FIG. 6A, the user X posted a message of "Msg1 of
user X" 26. In the example of FIG. 6B, the user Y also posted a
message of "Msg2 of user Y" 27. In addition, another non depicted
user posted a message of "Msg3 of user Z". As a result, all of
three messages were displayed in the same said section-2 of a web
page in each user's browser.
[0092] In a specific situation, the console support software 6 also
provides permitted user to un-post the previously posted message.
Just for example, in FIG. 6A, said console support software 6
provides the permitted user X to select a previously posted "Msg2
of user Y" 27 from said section-2 of the common message display
section of a web page in said web-browser 9 of the user X, and
select un-post operation from said operation menu and submit the
selected un-post task.
[0093] The detailed information of how the post or un-post task to
be implemented will be discussed in next two paragraphs. In
addition, with this invention, the action of the "post" information
such as posting information of files or folders or messages or
other resources is equivalent to the action of "share" information.
The action of "un-post" information is equivalent to the action of
"un-share" previously posted or shared information, in other words,
"remove" previously posted or shared information.
[0094] After submitting and transmitting information of the post or
un-post task from the web-browser 9 of the console system 1 or
client system 10 or control system 2 to the control system 2, the
console support software 6 of the control system 2 obtains and
parses the requested task to determine: who is the original user
initiating the task; what is the type of the task; what is the type
of the associated resources for the task to work on; who is the
targeted user; and what is the time stamp, and may also include
other information without limitation. The Console support software
6 further determines that if the task is to post a file or folder
from said original user, the console support software 6 picks up
the corresponding file or folder information from the file and
folder area 22 of private work space 16 of the original user as
illustrated in FIG. 4C and deposits such information to the file
and folder area 19 of the common work space 15 of said group as
illustrated in FIG. 4B in this case.
[0095] If the task is to un-post a previously posted file or
folder, which posted from a specific user, in said common work
space of said group, the said console support software 6 search for
the corresponding information of file or folder, in the file folder
area of said common work space of said group and further remove the
entry of matched information from said common work space of said
group after it is found.
[0096] If the task is to post a message to users in said group, the
parsed message will be stored into private message area 21 of the
original user's private work space 16 illustrated in FIG. 4A and 4C
and also is copied to message area 18 of the common work space 15
of said user group by the console support software 6 as illustrated
in FIG. 4A and 4B.
[0097] If a task is to un-post (delete/remove) a previously posted
message, the console support software 6 searches for a matching
message in said common message area 18 of said common work space 15
illustrated in FIG. 4B of said user group and remove such message
entry if it is found based on the message and the original user's
identification and other associated information such as time stamp,
security permission and so on without limitation.
[0098] It shall be noticed that the task of un-posting a file or
folder of this invention does not actually delete the physical file
and folder from original user's private work space 16. In addition,
a lock protection mechanism is deployed whenever a message or
information of a file or folder is written, stored, or deposited to
either said private space 16 or said common work space 15, or to
said disk drives or other storage media. Throughout the rest of
discuss, the lock protection is assume to be a default action
without further mentioning whenever a write/store/deposit action
take place. As matter the fact, each task of posting file, folder,
and message as well as task of un-posting the previously posted
file or folder, or message performed by multiple users in multiple
groups with this invention can be executed by the console support
software 6 instantly with memory speed.
[0099] FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B illustrate that after the console
support software 6 of the control system 2 successfully executing
the tasks for each user in each group, any user in a user-group can
get a fresh view of said section-2 of the common messages display
area of the user-group-1, and a fresh view of said section-3 of the
common documents & contents display area of the user-group-1
from each user's web-browser 9 on the client system 10 or on
control system 2 or on console system 1 of FIG. 1.
[0100] The user can manually click on a refresh-button, which does
not show on FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B, to refresh the corresponding part
of screen of either said section-2 or section-3. Also said
corresponding part of browser screen of said section-2 or section-3
can be automatically refreshed via updated web page. As mater of
the fact, optionally, the console support software 6 can encode a
run-time script into said web-page, which is encoded with said
presentable web-format and to be displayed in said web-browser 9
after each user login to the CCDSVM and start a group online
meeting.
[0101] Thereafter the run-time script will automatically and
periodically perform the tasks of refreshing said section-2 and
section-3 of the web browser 9 screen. The frequency of the
periodic refreshing can be adjusted by said console support
software 6 of the CCDSVM depending on the needs of the meeting,
which typically can range from 1 to 3 seconds and there is no
limitation on this aspect. Also, with the preferred example, said
run-time script provided by the WCUWE is a JavaScript, however,
other type of programming scripts or methods are also possible and
there is no limitation on what kind of run-time program shall be
used in this invention. In addition, the console support software 6
can provide each user the choices of either automatic or manual
refreshing said web-browser 9.
[0102] Upon performing the task of refreshing said section-2 or
section-3 in a web page of said web-browser 9 screen, a request of
updating such screen will be generated and sent from said
web-browser 9 to the control system 2. Further, the console support
software 6 obtains and parses each request to determine what
user-group, and which part of said common work space 15 of said
user-group need to be updated.
[0103] Based on the information of each parsed request, the console
support software 6 of the control system 2 retrieves the updated
resources and objectives from said common work space 15 of said
user-group illustrated in FIG. 4A and 4B, which includes recent
posted files, folders, or messages from each user in said group,
and also includes the updated list of files and folders or messages
after un-post one or more files or folders, or messages by users in
the same group. Finally, the console support software 6 of the
control system 2 converts retrieved information of resources and
objects to presentable web-format (web-page).
[0104] If the request is to update the group messages, the
converted information is sent to the section-2 of group common
message display area via the updated corresponding web-page for the
web browser 9. If the request is to update the group common files
and folders display area, the converted information is sent to the
section-3 of said web-browser 9 via the updated web page.
Therefore, after refreshing said section-2 and section-3 in said
web-browser 9, each user can have an identical view of all posted
files and folders for the ection-3 of the group common document
display area of said browser 9, and can have an identical view of
all messages in the section-2 of group common message display area
on said web-browser 9, which posted by all other users in the same
user-group. Meanwhile said console support software 6 still allow
each user kept most of resources and objects in their own private
work space 16 un-exposed to other users in the same group during
the online interactive meeting.
[0105] For example, as illustrated in of FIG. 6A, the user X at
his/her said web-browser 9 can see "picture 1" 25 posted by the
user Y in the group common file and folder display area but not
other information in the user Y's private work space 16 area, and
plus the "Doc 1" posted by the user X himself. Also, as illustrated
in of FIG. 6B, the user Y at his/her said web-browser 9 can see
"Doc 1" 24 posted by the user X in the group common file and folder
display area but not other information in the user X's private file
and folder display area of the user X's private workspace 16, and
plus the "picture 1" posted by the user Y himself.
[0106] A difference between a conventional Internet group
communication model and the group based communication model
described in the present invention is that the console support
software 6 of the control system 2 provides each user to control
post or un-post said resources from user's own private work space
while the conventional Internet communication model are not capable
of performing posting/un-posting task. Also, for example,
un-posting a previous posted folder with the WCUWE of the CCDSVM
does not delete the materials in user's private work space 16 while
the delete operation with said existing Internet group
communication model will completely delete the posted folder. The
dynamic work space of this invention represents a true beauty of
the combined security protection for the information and
flexibility and efficiency for the online meeting provided by the
WCUWE of the CCDSVM to each users and groups.
[0107] In addition, with a preferred example, since the posted
information of each files are encoded by said console support
software 6 with a web link and displayed in said section-3 of the
web-browser 9, therefore, each user in a user-group can click on
said link to download the files, which located in the private file
and folder area of the private work space 16 of their peer users in
the user-group, from a system where the file is actually located.
For example, the user X can download said "picture 1" of the user
Y, where the "picture 1" may reside either on the control system 2
or any provisioned system 3; and the user Y can also download said
"Doc 1" of the user X, where the "Doc 1" may also reside either on
the control system 2 or any provisioned system 3. This achieves a
true peer-to-peer exchanging files on permitted system between
permitted users in a same user-group. In addition, there is no size
limitation on the file size for file to be downloaded, which is a
gifted benefit from Internet technology. Besides the exampled and
understandable method of download, other methods of retrieving peer
users' digital documents or contents are also possible by deploying
a more efficient proprietary file transfer mechanism to achieve the
same results of said exchanging file. It shall be noted that the
said method of download is only applicable to said files and does
not apply to folder and other said resource information. To obtain
a targeted peer user's entire folder and the underneath files and
sub folders, as mentioned a special files and folder transfer
method is required.
[0108] As shown in FIG. 9A & 9B, and FIG. 10A & 10B, the
console support software 6 of the control system 2 also provides
each user to perform many other tasks during online meeting through
said operation menu such as upload, rename, delete, copy/paste for
file and file-folders and so on without limitation. The upload
operation allows each user to dynamically upload files one a time
through the web-browser 9 from the local storage of the client
system 10 or console system 1 into said user's private work space
on the control system 2 during the meeting, and further to be
posted into said common work space of an user-group which each user
belong to.
[0109] The mouse click driven copy/past operation allows the files
and folders from the permitted folders of the permitted provisioned
system 3 to be dynamically and physically copied to each users'
private work space on the control system 2, and the information of
said files and folders could further to be displayed in said
web-page of the web browser 9 on each user's local system and to be
further posted into the common work space 15 of the user-group that
each user belongs in addition to directly posting these files or
folders on the provisional systems as described in previous
paragraph of without physically copying over. As matter of the
fact, operations provided by the console support software 6 of the
control system 2 have added efficiency to posting or un-posting
files and folders for each user depending on the real needs.
[0110] Additionally, said console support software 6 provides each
user of each user-group with capability of saving the posted
messages in the common message area 18 of said common work space 15
of said each user-group into a file in the common file & folder
area of said common work space 15 of the user-group. Further, the
saved file can be viewed, and downloaded by each user in the
user-group after it is posted. Besides whenever there is needs,
said console support software 6 provides users to reset message
area to be empty by removing all message entries in the message
area of said user-group's common work space 15.
[0111] The important fact is that the designed WCUWE of the CCDSVM
has provided concurrent users each from a single web browser on the
user's local system anywhere on the network to securely perform
permitted various tasks, which could be run concurrent within a
single web-browser. Because of the console support software modules
6 of the control system 2 facilitate each users have exclusive view
for resource objects in their private work space 16 and in said
common work space 15 of a user-group which each user belongs to,
and facilitate each user to manage resource objects in their own
private space, the multiple users in multiple groups can
concurrently post or un-post files, folders, messages, or other
resource objects without interfere users in other user-groups.
Thus, the work spaces of each user and each group are well
protected.
[0112] Hence, the console support software 6 of the control system
2 provides privileged users to perform tasks of creating multiple
users and user-groups on the control system, and each group can be
assigned with variable size of users for online interactive
meeting. The total number of the users and the total number of the
user-groups, and the maximum number of the users per groups that
the WCUWE of the CCDSVM can support is an implementation issue and
depends on the capacity of the control system 2. The WCUWE of the
CCDSVM and CCDSVM has been designed with unlimited scalability for
both users and provisioned systems 3. On the other hand, the spirit
of this invention does not limit to with the boundary issues of the
WCUWE and the CCDSVM.
[0113] FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B illustrate that each user-X and user-Y
has a different private work space 16 than others, and each user
has assigned with different system resources. Without joining any
group or participating any group meeting, the console support
software 6 of the control system 2 can also provide user X and user
Y with peer-to-peer model to instantly post files or folders one a
time to each other, or instantly un-post the previous posted files
and folders through similar steps as the posting or un-posting
materials in group online meeting model: [0114] 1) facilitate each
user from web UI capable of selecting a resource object to submit a
task such as via mouse clicking on a source for a file or folder
for performing post or un-post; [0115] 2) facilitate the user
selecting post operation task if user want to post any file or
folder through operation menu; or facilitate user selecting un-post
operation task from operation menu if said user like to un-post a
previously posted file or folder; [0116] 3) upon submitting said
task, facilitating each user to provide a response to a prompt of
"who is a targeted user?" which provided by said console support
software 6, and further submit the selected task; [0117] 4)
Thereafter, the console support software 6 obtains and parses task
information including the information of the original user, the
source of file or folder, type of operation, targeted user and
other information; [0118] 5) If the type of operation is to post a
file or folder, said console support software modules 6 deposit the
source information of said file or folder to the private file and
folder area of the private work space 16 of a targeted user. If
said operation type is un-post a file or folder, the console
support software 6 search a previously posted file or folder
information from the private file and folder area of the private
work space 16 of said targeted user that matches the said source
information of the file or folder, if a match is found, the
corresponding entry of the file or folder is removed from the
private file and folder area of the private work space of the
targeted user; and [0119] 6) Upon refreshing the web-page in the
web-browser 9 on each user's local system, the console support
software modules 6 retrieve and convert the updated information in
the private file and folder area of the private work space 16 of
the targeted user into presentable web-format (web-page) and
transmit said web-page to the web-browser 9 on each user's local
system for displaying and viewing.
[0120] For example, as illustrated and shown in FIG. 8A, the user X
from a web browser 9 can follow said steps 1) to 3) to post his
"folder 2" 32 in the displayed files and folders area of the
private work space 16 of the user X's web-browser 9 to into the
user Y's web UI. As shown in FIG. 8B, upon the user Y refreshing
his/her web-browser 9 on the user Y's local system by walking on
any system node or folder node on the displayed resource tree, the
user Y will see said "folder 2" 32 in his/her displayed private
file and folder tree in the private work space 16 of the user Y
such as illustrated and shown in FIG. 8C. As matter of the fact,
when walking on a system node, and file or folder node on a folder
tree in the web-browser 9, a refreshing web-page screen request is
generated and to be handled as described previously and in the
steps described above.
[0121] In addition to post messages in the group-based
communication involving parties with two or more users, the WCUWE
of the CCDSVM also provide each user to post message to each other
user in non-group based 1-to-1 model. The FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B have
shown an example of the user X and user Y, who may not be in a same
user-group, however, the console support software 6 of the control
system 2 provides each user to share and exchange messages with
each other from a three-section web-page displayed in said web
browser 9.
[0122] The section-3 of the web-page in said web browser 9
facilitates each user to work with same said steps for non-group
based 1-to-1 posting files and folders or un-posting previously
posted files or folders as described previously. The section-3
included in FIG. 7A and 7B just for a demonstration of how flexible
of this invention is for displaying information of the private work
space 16 of each user. Further, the number of sections in the
screen layout and the order of each section in the web-page display
really is not a limitation to this invention.
[0123] The section-1 is a user message input area together with an
additional input field of "To who" due to unlike in group online
meeting, the console support software modules 6 have no knowledge
of who is the targeted user in this case. The User can posting a
message with similar said steps as previous discussed previously of
this invention. Nevertheless, unlike with group meeting messaging
model, after obtaining and parsing information of the messages from
each user, the console support software 6 of the control system 2
will deposit the message to both targeted peer user and the
original user's message areas of the private work space 16.
Further, with same steps that described previously for displaying
messages in each user's browser each user can view both own message
and messages from peer user in section-2 of browser.
[0124] For example, as shown in FIG. 7A, the user X input a message
of "msg4 of user X" 30 and type "user Y" in input field of "To
who", and then submit the message by clicking on "Send" button.
Similar as shown in FIG. 7B, the user Y can input a message of
"Msg3 of user Y" 31, and type "user X" in input field of "To who",
and then submit the message. Upon the refreshing web-page at
web-browser 9 of each user, the user X will see the message 30
he/she sent and the message 31 from the user Y. Also the user Y
will see both messages 30 and 31 at same time.
[0125] Again, the design choice of three sections of a web-page
display and the order of each section are illustrating a preferred
example of implementation for non-group based peer user
communication. This invention does not limited by web-screen
display layout, for example, a screen display only with said
section-1 and section-2 are also possible and so on without
limitation.
[0126] The WCUWE of the CCDSVM has provided a security hierarchy
for members of any team to work together cross multiple locations.
With said security hierarchy and said steps of posting or
un-posting message, file and folder, the console support software 6
of the control system 2 can facilitate only team leader with
capability of posting folder or file to be viewed, shared, and
accessed by all team members or by an individual member in
non-group meeting based environment. In addition, the console
support software modules 6 also facilitates each team member to
post or un-post his/her files or folders to only a specific peer
user one a time in non-group-meeting based environment. Again the
files or folders could be on said control system 2 or on any
provisioned system 3.
[0127] It is relatively straightforward for the WCUWE of the
CCDSVM, more specifically the console support software modules 6,
to support massive online users, who do not have account with the
CCDSVM and can not log into the CCDSVM to view the dynamically
posted files, folders, or messages by the users with user account
of the CCDSVM.
[0128] In a preferred example, such as shown in FIG. 6E, the
console support software 6 of the control system 2 provides a
web-page to massive online users, who do not have to login the
CCDSVM. The web-page could be layout with two major sections with
section-1 to display messages in the sharable message area in a
designated user-group's common work space 15 while the section-2
for displaying files or folders in the sharable file or folder area
in said designated user-group's common work space 15.
[0129] For users belong to same said designated user-group, each
user from a web-browser on the user's local system on said network
is able to login to the CCDSVM and obtain the group online meeting
web-page as shown in FIG. 6A for the user X and in FIG. 6B for the
user Y. Further as described previously, each user in said group
can instantly post message to said message area of a designated
user-group's common work space 15, or post file or folder to the
sharable file and folder area in the designated user-group's common
work space 15. Also, each user in the user-group can instantly
un-post the previously posted files or folders by removing the
corresponding file or folder entry in the file and folder area of
the designated user-group's common work space 15, or un-post the
previously posted messages from the common message area of the
common work space 15 of said user-group as described in
previous.
[0130] Meanwhile as previously described and as shown in FIG. 6E,
said web-page in the web browser 9 for massive online users, who
have no account with CCDSVM, can be dynamically updated, displayed,
and viewed by said massive users anywhere through their own web
browser on each one's local system accordingly with the same pace
as dynamically displaying in said section-2 and section-3 of the
web-page in the web browser 9 as shown in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B.
Again, said two sections of the web-page display layout is a
preferred example and it does not limit this invention because with
this invention other layout is also possible, for example, it may
be desired to have web-page layout only contains one section, which
is either for messages or file or folder's display depending on the
application's need.
[0131] As shown in FIG. 8A, FIG. 8B, and FIG. 8C, with non-group
based peer-to-peer post or un-post files and folders model, people
may often do not remember how many files and folders has been
posted for sharing. For example, as shown in FIG. 8A, the user X
can select "folder 2" 32, then select a post operation from a
operation menu, and provide a target "user Y" to share the "folder
2" 32. As show in FIG. 8C, the user Y can see "Folder 2" 32 posted
by the user X in the web-browser 9 of the user Y after the user X
posted "Folder 2" 32. If the user X selects and posts various files
or folders to other dozen people, the user X will have difficult
time to remember what has been shared and who are targeted users.
As shown in FIG. 11, the console support software modules 6 of the
control system 2 can provide each user, the user X for example, a
summarized view of a control list of how many files or folders
being posted by him or her and to which users (who).
[0132] As illustrated and shown in FIG. 11 for the personal sharing
management, in view from the user X's web-browser 9, an entry of
posted "Folder 2" 30 is listed at bottom of said control list and
it is posted/shared to the user Y. Further, said console support
software 6 can provide each user selectively un-post the previously
posted files and folders by clicking on the "delete shared?"
operation menu for a corresponding entries in the displayed share
control list of a web-page and further to generate a un-post
operation task. For example, the user X clicks on "delete share?"
to un-post "Folder 2" 32. Thereafter, as described before, said
console support software 6 of the control system 2 will execute the
un-post task. Further upon refreshing the targeted user Y's
web-page in the web-browser 9, in stead of seeing "Folder 2" 32 as
shown in FIG. 8C, the user Y will see an updated display of an
updated web-page as shown in FIG. 8B, where the "Folder 2" 30 has
been removed. The operation menu for "delete share?" depicted here
just for example and it could be displayed in any other form.
[0133] In addition to let original user in a group to control the
un-posting file or folder in the group based communication, the
console support software 6 of the control system2) may also provide
a privileged user to un-post the previously posted files or files
in said displayed file and folder section of said web-page. To
support this capability, the console support software modules 6
will provide an operation menu to associate with said displayed
files and folders in said display section, further to allow
privileged user to perform similar un-post operation. After
receiving the un-post operation, the console support software
modules 6 will perform similar said searching for selected file or
folder in the group file and folder area 19 of the group common
work space 15 of said group as illustrated in FIG. 4B, if there is
a match, the corresponding entry will be deleted. Also, the file
and folder section of the web-page in the web-browser 9 can be
refreshed accordingly as described before.
[0134] Having briefly described embodiments of the web based
network environment in which the present invention operates, FIG.
12 illustrates an example of a computer system 200, which is an
exemplary client system 10, provisioned system 3, control system 2,
or console system 1 in which the features of the present invention
may be implemented. Process of the web based information exchange
can be implemented in any processor-based computer system, such as
a PC, a workstation, or a mainframe computer. It will be apparent
to those of ordinary skill in the art that other alternative
computer system architectures may also be employed.
[0135] Referring back to FIG. 12, computer system 200 includes a
processing unit 201, an interface bus 211, and an input/output
(10'') unit 220. Processing unit 201 includes a processor 202, a
main memory 204, a system bus 211, a static memory device 206, a
bus control unit 205, a mass storage memory 207, and a web
information exchange module 230. Bus 211 is used to transmit
information between various components and processor 202 for data
processing. Processor 202 may be any of a wide variety of
general-purpose processors or microprocessors such as Pentium.TM.
microprocessor, Motorola.TM.68040, or Power PC.TM.
microprocessor.
[0136] Main memory 204, which may include multiple levels of cache
memories, stores frequently used data and instructions. Main memory
204 may be RAM (random access memory), MRAM (magnetic RAM), or
flash memory. Static memory 206 may be a ROM (read-only memory),
which is coupled to bus 211, for storing static information and/or
instructions. Bus control unit 205 is coupled to buses 211-212 and
controls which component, such as main memory 204 or processor 202,
can use the bus. Bus control unit 205 manages the communications
between bus 211 and bus 212. Mass storage memory 207, which may be
a magnetic disk, an optical disk, hard disk drive, floppy disk,
CD-ROM, and/or flash memories for storing large amounts of data.
Web based information exchange 230, in one embodiment, is a network
control component for facilitating information exchange over the
Web. It should be noted that web based information exchange 230
could be software or hardware or a combination of software and
hardware components.
[0137] I/0 unit 220, in one embodiment, includes a display 221,
keyboard 222, cursor control device 223, and communication device
225. Display device 221 may be a liquid crystal device, cathode ray
tube ("CRT"), touch-screen display, or other suitable display
device. Display 221 projects or displays images of a graphical
planning board. Keyboard 222 may be a conventional alphanumeric
input device for communicating information between computer system
200 and computer operator(s). Another type of user input device is
cursor control device 223, such as a conventional mouse, touch
mouse, trackball, or other type of cursor for communicating
information between system 200 and user(s).
[0138] Communication device 225 is coupled to bus 211 for accessing
information from remote computers or servers, such as server or
other computers as illustrated in FIG. 1, through network 11 or 12
as illustrated in FIG. 1. Communication device 225 may include a
modem or a network interface device, or other similar devices that
facilitate communication between computer 200 and the network.
Computer system 200 may be coupled to a number of servers via a
network infrastructure such as the infrastructure illustrated in
FIG. 1.
[0139] The present invention has been described in considerable
details with reference to certain examples. However, other versions
and examples are also possible, therefore, the spirit of this
invention shall not be limited to these examples and/or
embodiments. Also, the claims of this invention will label with
numbering and in most cases, the numbering does not represent any
sequence or order unless specifically described as the steps of a
method.
* * * * *
References