U.S. patent application number 13/448237 was filed with the patent office on 2012-08-09 for xml-based web feed for web access of remote resources.
This patent application is currently assigned to MICROSOFT CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Ido Ben-Shachar, Ersev Samim Erdogan, Travis Howe, Kevin Scott London, Ray Reskusich.
Application Number | 20120203911 13/448237 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 41014015 |
Filed Date | 2012-08-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120203911 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
London; Kevin Scott ; et
al. |
August 9, 2012 |
XML-BASED WEB FEED FOR WEB ACCESS OF REMOTE RESOURCES
Abstract
Techniques for XML (Extensible Markup Language) web feeds for
web access of remote resources are described. In one embodiment, a
method includes obtaining information regarding one or more
available resources from one or more resource hosts, rendering the
information regarding one or more available resources into an
Extensible Markup Language (XML) document, and providing the XML
document to a user device.
Inventors: |
London; Kevin Scott;
(Monroe, WA) ; Ben-Shachar; Ido; (Kirkland,
WA) ; Reskusich; Ray; (Seattle, WA) ; Erdogan;
Ersev Samim; (Seattle, WA) ; Howe; Travis;
(Elsie, MI) |
Assignee: |
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
REDMOND
WA
|
Family ID: |
41014015 |
Appl. No.: |
13/448237 |
Filed: |
April 16, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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12039725 |
Feb 28, 2008 |
8161160 |
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13448237 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
709/226 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 67/26 20130101;
H04L 67/025 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
709/226 |
International
Class: |
G06F 15/173 20060101
G06F015/173 |
Claims
1. A method for managing remote resources, comprising: sending a
request to one or more remote resource hosts requesting information
regarding one or more available remote resources available on each
of the one or more remote resource hosts; receiving the requested
information regarding one or more available remote resources from
one or more remote resource hosts, the one or more available remote
resources including a first available remote resource, the
requested information including launching information for launching
the first available remote resource, and file associations
identifying one or more types of files associated with the first
available remote resource; and rendering the information regarding
the one or more available remote resources into an Extensible
Markup Language (XML) document that describes the one or more
available remote resources in a non-client specific format, the
rendered information regarding the first available remote resource
including at least one icon corresponding to the first available
remote resource, wherein the icon is activatable to launch the
first available remote resource.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the information
regarding the one or more available remote resources into an
Extensible Markup Language (XML) document includes rendering the
information regarding the one or more available remote resources
into an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document in response to
receiving a request for available resources.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the XML
document to a syndication feed.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprises providing to the
Extensible Markup Language (XML) document timestamp information for
each of the one or more available remote resources, the timestamp
information identifying whether each of the one or more available
remote resources have been modified.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the information
regarding one or more available resources into an XML document
includes rendering the information regarding one or more available
resources into an XML document using an XML presentation layer
operating on a web server, the web server operatively communicating
with the one or more remote resource hosts.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the XML presentation layer
includes an XML feed component, and wherein rendering the
information regarding one or more available remote resources into
an XML document includes rendering the information regarding one or
more available remote resources into an XML document using the XML
feed component.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the XML presentation layer
includes an information component, the method further comprising
receiving a request for available remote resources into the
information component, and providing a call for an XML feed from
the information component to the XML feed component.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining whether a
current list of available remote resources is cached and available,
and wherein obtaining information regarding one or more available
remote resources from one or more remote resource hosts includes
obtaining information regarding one or more available remote
resources if the current list of available remote resources is not
cached and available.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the information
regarding one or more available remote resources into an XML
document includes rendering one or more of remote application
files, icons, or RDP files.
10. A method, comprising: receiving an Extensible Markup Language
(XML) document containing information regarding one or more
available remote resources from one or more remote resource hosts,
the one or more available remote resources including a first
available remote resource and the XML document being configured to
describe the one or more available remote resources in a non-client
specific format, the information including file associations
identifying one or more types of files capable of acting with the
first available remote resource; parsing the XML document to
determine the one or more available remote resources; rendering
information regarding the one or more available remote resources to
provide at least one icon, a first of the at least one icon
corresponding to first available remote resource, wherein the icon
is activatable to launch the first available remote resource;
changing one or more resources of the one or more available remote
resources by removing or adding the one or more resources with
respect to being available; and automatically changing the rendered
information to correspond to the changing of the one or more
resources.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving an XML document
containing information regarding one or more available remote
resources from one or more remote resource hosts includes receiving
an XML document as a syndication feed.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving an XML document
containing information regarding one or more available remote
resources from one or more remote resource hosts includes receiving
an XML document having timestamp information for each of the one or
more available remote resources, the method further comprising
determining whether each of the one or more available remote
resources have been modified from a previously-available resource
version using the timestamp information.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein parsing the XML document to
determine the one or more available remote resources includes
parsing the XML document to identify one or more of remote
application files, icons, or RDP files.
14. The method of claim 10 further comprising issuing a request for
information regarding one or more available remote resources from
one or more remote resource hosts provisioned in an Extensible
Markup Language (XML) document.
15. The method of claim 10 further comprising launching the first
available remote resource using the first of the at least one icon
corresponding to the first available remote resource.
16. A computing system, comprising: a processing unit; a
communication component operatively coupled to the processing unit;
and a memory operatively coupled to the processing unit and having
an Extensible Markup Language (XML) presentation layer stored
thereon, the XML presentation layer being configured to perform
operations that, when executed on the processing unit, perform a
method including: sending a request to one or more remote resource
hosts requesting information regarding one or more available remote
resources available on each of the one or more remote resource
hosts; receiving the requested information regarding one or more
available remote resources from one or more remote resource hosts,
the one or more available remote resources including a first
available remote resource, the requested information including
launching information for launching the first available remote
resource, and file associations identifying one or more types of
files associated with the first available remote resource; and
rendering the information regarding the one or more available
remote resources into an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document
that describes the one or more available remote resources in a
non-client specific format; the rendered information regarding the
first available remote resource including at least one icon
corresponding to the first available remote resource, wherein the
icon is activatable to launch the first available remote
resource.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the XML presentation layer
includes an XML feed component, and wherein the processor renders
the information regarding one or more available remote resources
into an XML document using the XML feed component.
18. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor further provides
the XML document to a syndication feed.
19. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor renders the
information regarding one or more available remote resources into
an XML document having timestamp information for each of the one or
more available remote resources, the timestamp information
identifying whether each of the one or more available remote
resources have been modified from a previously-available resource
version.
20. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor further
determines whether a current list of available remote resources is
cached and available, and obtains information regarding one or more
available remote resources from one or more resource hosts by
obtaining information regarding one or more available remote
resources if the current list of available remote resources is not
cached and available.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 12/039,725 entitled "XML-Based Web Feed for
Web Access of Remote Resources," filed Feb. 28, 2008.
[0002] This patent application is related to co-pending,
commonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/039,732 entitled
"Centralized Publishing of Network Resources," filed Feb. 28,
2008.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Users understand and know how to launch resources on their
local computer. When connected to a domain (e.g. Active Directory
domain), administrators can ease the burden of installing resources
and setting up remote desktops by pushing the resources and
settings out via Group Policy.
[0004] Current methods of "installing" resources to non-managed
desktops over the internet are far from perfect. There are only a
few options such as sending out installation files that the users
have to install, or using technology such as Terminal Services (TS)
Web Access, where an administrator may give users a Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) to visit that allows users to launch remote
programs through the webpage. However, these types of installations
have limitations. For example, anything a user has to install
locally means that the administrator has lost control of patching
the resources or upgrading the application without the help of the
user installing an additional package. Solutions such as TS Web
Access are great for providing the ability to manage the resources,
but they may be limited in other ways, such as the inability to
double click on a file and launch the remote application.
Therefore, methods and systems that reduce or mitigate these
undesirable aspects of the conventional methods would have
considerable utility.
SUMMARY
[0005] Techniques for XML (Extensible Markup Language)-based web
feeds for web access of remote resources are described. Generally,
implementations in accordance with the present disclosure
advantageously allow an administrator to add, remove and update
resources from a non-managed machine, and still allow those
resources to behave like a locally-installed resource, such as
having the ability to take over file extensions.
[0006] In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining information
regarding one or more available resources from one or more resource
hosts, rendering the information regarding one or more available
resources into an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document that
describes the one or more available resources in a non-client
specific format, and providing the XML document to a user device.
In some embodiments, providing the XML document may including
providing the XML document as a syndication feed. In further
embodiments, rendering the information may include providing
timestamp information for each of the one or more available
resources, wherein the timestamp information enables the user
device to determine whether each of the one or more available
resources have been modified from a previously-available resource
version.
[0007] In another embodiment, a method includes receiving an
Extensible Markup Language (XML) document containing information
regarding one or more available resources from one or more remote
resource hosts, parsing the XML document to determine the one or
more available resources, and displaying information regarding the
one or more available resources. The XML document describes the one
or more available resources in a non-client specific format. In
some embodiments, the parsing of the XML document may include
parsing the XML document to provide one or more of remote
application files, icons, or RDP files.
[0008] In yet another embodiment, a computing system includes a
processing unit, a communication component operatively coupled to
the processing unit and configured to operatively communicate with
a user device and with one or more resource hosts, and a memory
operatively coupled to the processing unit. The memory includes an
Extensible Markup Language (XML) presentation layer stored thereon
and configured to perform operations that, when executed on the
processing unit, perform a method including obtaining information
regarding one or more available resources from the one or more
resource hosts, rendering the information regarding one or more
available resources into an XML document that describes the one or
more available resources in a non-client specific format, and
providing the XML document to the user device. In alternate
embodiments, the method further includes determining whether a
current list of available resources is cached and available to
provide to the client device.
[0009] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of
concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in
the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify
key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter,
nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of
the claimed subject matter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] The detailed description is described with reference to the
accompanying figures. In the figures, the use of the same reference
numbers in different figures indicates similar or identical
items.
[0011] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment for implementing
techniques for XML-based web feeds for web access of remote
resources in accordance with the present disclosure.
[0012] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a connection sequence for
fetching an XML feed in accordance with an embodiment of the
present disclosure.
[0013] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process for rendering XML content
in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0014] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for rendering XML content
in accordance with another embodiment of the present
disclosure.
[0015] FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a user computer of the
environment of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the
present disclosure.
[0016] FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a data flow diagram of the
environment of FIG. 1 in accordance with the present
disclosure.
[0017] FIG. 7 illustrates an alternate environment for implementing
techniques for XML-based web feeds for web access of remote
resources in accordance the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0018] Techniques for XML (Extensible Markup Language)-based web
feeds for web access of remote resources are disclosed herein.
Generally, embodiments of systems and methods in accordance with
the present disclosure advantageously provide an ability to launch
remote programs that behave much like a locally-installed program
after it has been launched (e.g. clipboard access, tooltip
integration, etc.). In addition, such embodiments may leverage the
infrastructure of existing web access systems, and may also allow
an administrator to efficiently add, remove and update applications
from a non-managed machine.
[0019] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment 100 for
implementing techniques for XML-based web feeds for web access of
remote resources in accordance with one or more embodiments of the
present disclosure. In this embodiment, the environment 100
includes a user computer 110 operatively communicating with a web
server 130 which, in turn, operatively communicates with a
plurality of resource hosts 140. The resource hosts 140 may
include, for example, terminal servers, directories, directory
services (e.g. Active Directory), centralized publishing sources,
or any other suitable hosts or sources. More specifically, a smart
client 120 installed on the user computer 110 operatively
communicates with an XML presentation layer 132 installed on the
web server 130. The XML presentation layer 132 may include a feed
component 134 and an Internet Information Server (IIS) 136. Each
resource host 140 has one or more resources 142 installed thereon.
Such resources may include, for example, applications, software
programs, desktops, documents, data, or any other suitable
resources.
[0020] In operation, the smart client 120 may make a request 122 to
the web server 130 for available resources found on remote resource
hosts 140. In some embodiments, the IIS 136 of the XML presentation
layer 132 receives the request 122 and provides a call 138 for an
XML feed to the XML feed component 134. In some embodiments, the
XML presentation layer 132 determines whether a current list of
available resources is already cached and available to provide to
the smart client 120. If a current list of resources is not cached,
the XML presentation layer 132 (e.g. using the XML feed component
134) sends requests 135 to one or more of the resource hosts 140
for a list of resources available on each of the resource hosts
140. The resource hosts 140 return lists 145 of available resources
142 that are available on each respective resource host 140. The
XML feed component 134 renders the lists 145 into an XML feed 125
that is provided back to the smart client 120. Icons 112
corresponding to the resources 142 available on the remote resource
hosts 140 may be displayed on a display component 114 of the user
computer 110. A user (not shown) may launch selected resources 142
by clicking on the corresponding icons 112, allowing the user to
use the resources 142 much like a locally-installed program.
[0021] The XML feed 125 provided by the XML presentation layer 132
may be a tightly-structured XML format for encoding resource data
145 (including, for example, application data). Thus, unlike
conventional web access systems that may use loosely-structured XML
format (e.g. Extensible HyperText Markup Language) that is
presentation-based and generally oriented around describing a user
experience, and is intended for consumption by a web browser (i.e.
is client specific), the XML feed 125 provided by the XML
presentation layer 132 may be structured more rigorously, and may
be used to accomplish a different purpose. The XML feed 125 of the
present disclosure may include additional information that a XML
format that is presentation-based can not make use of, such as file
associations, client configuration data and other data that are
unknown or unforeseen at this time. Furthermore, the XML feed 125
of the present disclosure is non-client specific (i.e. is general),
and describes the available resources without making any
assumptions about the consuming software. The XML feed 125 is
intended to be consumed in a variety of ways, including some ways
that are unknown or unforeseen at this time.
[0022] In some embodiments, an existing web access system for
accessing remote resources, such as the Terminal Services (TS) Web
Access system available from Microsoft Corporation, may incorporate
aspects of the present disclosure to provide improved service to
users of remote resources. Other systems that enable remote access
to resources via a network that may be used include, for example,
PC-Duo Remote Control available from Vector Networks, products
available from Citrix, or any other suitable remote network access
systems. Such web access systems may advantageously include XML
feeds in accordance with the present disclosure to collect resource
data from resource hosts, including terminal servers.
[0023] For example, in some embodiments, an administrator may give
the user a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to point the smart client
120 toward. The URL could be provided through an electronic
communication system (e.g. Exchange.RTM., Everest.RTM., the Zimbra
Collaboration Suite, or other suitable system or method), and
doesn't necessarily preclude that the user has to specifically
configure the smart client 120 with the URL. Once the smart client
is configured and authenticated, the start menu on the client
machine may include remote resources that the administrator has
made available to that user. In addition, file associations may be
made for those programs.
[0024] When an administrator removes or adds resources available to
the user, these changes may be mirrored on the client computer's
start menu and the file associations may be updated accordingly.
From this point on, when a user selects a file, it may open in
either a local or remote resource if one exists that can handle
that file type.
[0025] One of the advantages of publishing network resources, such
as remote resources, through XML documents is the wide range of
standard technologies that support this delivery method.
Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure may also
allow an administrator to easily add, remove and update resources
available to a non-managed machine, and allow those resources to
behave like a locally-installed resource.
[0026] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a connection sequence 200
for fetching an XML feed in accordance with an embodiment of the
present disclosure. In this embodiment, a web-enabled client
application 202 provides a request 204 for available resources to
an XML presentation layer 205. For example, in some embodiments,
the web-enabled client application 202 may be a smart client
installed on a user computer as shown in FIG. 1. Alternately, the
web-enabled client application 202 may be installed on a variety of
suitable platforms such as, for example, a cellular telephone, a
personal data assistant (PDA), a mobile navigational device, a
WiFi-enabled component, or any other suitable platform.
[0027] As further shown in FIG. 2, the XML presentation layer 205
receives the request 204 (e.g. via an information component 206 or
other suitable component). The XML presentation layer 205 is
configured to render XML content 208 (e.g. using an XML feed
component 210 or other suitable component). The XML presentation
layer 205 then requests 212 remote resources from a remote
application publishing (RAP) web service 214, such as the Terminal
Services RAP Web Access service available from Microsoft
Corporation. The RAP web service 214 provides resource information
216, including available resources, to the XML presentation layer
205. The XML presentation layer 205 renders the resource
information 216 into an XML feed 218 which is provided back to the
web-enabled client application 202.
[0028] In a particular embodiment, the XML presentation layer 205
uses an existing Terminal Services Web Access (TSWA) structure for
setup and data transport, but incorporates novel components and
features that transform the list of discoverable resources 216 into
an XML document 218 that may include, for example, the resources,
icons and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) files. Thus, the XML
presentation layer 205 provides an XML document 218 that can then
be transformed into a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) document or
consumed directly by other resources.
[0029] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process 300 for rendering XML
content that may be performed by the XML presentation layer 205 in
accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In this
embodiment, the process 300 includes getting a list of resource
hosts in a web configuration at 302. At 304, the process 300
determines whether there are any servers from the list of servers
that have not yet been processed. If so, then the process 300 gets
remote resources from a web service at 306, and at 308, the process
300 determines whether all of the resources have been fetched from
the unprocessed server. If not, then the process 300 returns to 304
and continues determining unprocessed servers (at 304) and getting
remote resources (at 306) until all remote resources have been
fetched (at 308).
[0030] At 310, the process 300 merges returned resources into a
current resource list, and the process 300 returns to 304 to
determine whether there are any unprocessed servers remaining. Once
there are no more unprocessed servers remaining (at 304), the
process 300 generates an XML document (or feed) of the current
resource list at 312, and returns the XML document of the current
resource list at 314.
[0031] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process 400 for rendering XML
content that may be performed by the XML presentation layer 205 in
accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. In
this embodiment, the process 400 includes identifying a remote
terminal server at 402. At 404, the process 400 gets remote
resources from the remote terminal server via a web service, and
determines whether all resources from the remote terminal server
have been fetched at 406. If not, the process 400 returns to 404
and continues getting remote resources from the web service.
[0032] Once all resources have been fetched (at 406), the process
400 merges returned resources into a current resource list at 408.
An XML document (or feed) of the current resource list is generated
at 410, and the XML document of the current resource list is
returned to a web-enabled client resource at 412.
[0033] The user computer 110 that receives the XML feed of
available resources from the XML presentation layer may be any
suitable computing device or platform. For example, FIG. 5 is a
schematic view of a computing device 500 in accordance with an
embodiment of the present disclosure. In a very basic
configuration, the computing device 500 includes at least one
processing unit 502 and system memory 504. Depending on the exact
configuration and type of computing device 500, the system memory
504 may be volatile (such as RAM), non-volatile (such as ROM and
flash memory) or some combination of the two. The system memory 504
typically includes an operating system 506, one or more program
modules 508, and may include program data 510. As an alternative,
program modules 508, as well as the other modules, may be
implemented as part of the operating system 506, or it may be
installed on the computing device and stored in other memory (e.g.,
non-removable storage 522) separate from the system memory 504.
[0034] As further shown in FIG. 5, the smart client 120 is stored
in the system memory 504. The smart client 120 is configured to
operatively communicate with the XML presentation layer 132 to
provide an ability to launch remote programs that behave much like
a locally-installed program after it has been launched. An
embodiment of the smart client 120 is described more fully below
with respect to FIG. 6.
[0035] The computing device 500 may have additional features or
functionality. For example, the computing device 500 may also
include additional data storage devices (removable and/or
non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks,
or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG. 8 by
removable storage 520 and non-removable storage 522. Computer
storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and
non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for
storage of information, such as computer readable instructions,
data structures, program modules, or other data. The system memory
506, removable storage 520 and non-removable storage 522 are all
examples of computer storage media. Thus, computer storage media
includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or
other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or
other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic
disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium
which can be used to store the desired information and which can be
accessed by computing device 500. Any such computer storage media
may be part of the device 500. Computing device 500 may also have
input device(s) 524 such as keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input
device, and touch input devices. Output device(s) 526 such as a
display, speakers, and printer, may also be included. These devices
are well known in the art and need not be discussed at length.
[0036] The computing device 500 may also contain a communication
connection 528 that allow the device to communicate with other
computing devices 530, such as over a network. Communication
connection(s) 528 is one example of communication media.
Communication media may typically be embodied by computer readable
instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a
modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport
mechanism, and includes any information delivery media.
[0037] Various modules and techniques may be described herein in
the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as
program modules, executed by one or more computers or other
devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,
objects, components, data structures, and so forth for performing
particular tasks or implementing particular abstract data types.
These program modules and the like may be executed as native code
or may be downloaded and executed, such as in a virtual machine or
other just-in-time compilation execution environment. Typically,
the functionality of the program modules may be combined or
distributed as desired in various embodiments. An implementation of
these modules and techniques may be stored on or transmitted across
some form of computer readable media.
[0038] It will be appreciated that the smart client 120 may be
configured in a wide variety of ways to provide the desired
functionalities and capabilities described herein. For example,
FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view of a smart client 620 and various
interactions with other components 610 of a representative
environment 600 in accordance with a particular embodiment of the
present disclosure.
[0039] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the smart client 600
includes a workspace manager 622 that operatively communicates with
a feed configuration 612 of the environment 600. In some
embodiments, the feed configuration 612 represents user input when
connecting to a workspace 614, and may include a Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) and credentials to obtain the resources feed.
[0040] The workspace manager 622 may be the central manager (or
driver) of some or all of the activities associated with the
functions of the smart client 620. In some embodiments, the
workspace manager 622 may be configured to perform one or more of
the following: manage creation and deletion of workspace folders
624, invoke a parser 626 to gather remote resources 628 or
downloaded files 630 (e.g. RDP files) into a specified folder
location, invoke a view manager 632 to display the remote resources
(e.g. by providing a specified folder location 634), manage
multiple remote workspaces 636, or any other suitable
functions.
[0041] For example, in some embodiments, the workspace manager 622
may create a user interface (UI) thread and may set up a window
message loop. The window message loop may be called during creation
of an object. Requests to perform operations on the workspaces 636
may be serialized to the UI thread through the message loop. In
particular embodiments, the serialization of the UI thread may
allow only one configuration process to be ongoing at one time
(i.e. configuring a new workspace). Attempts by a user to perform
more than one operation at a time (e.g. starting a "Connect to
Workspace" operation, then starting it again before the first is
done configuring) may be prevented by bringing to foreground the
ongoing configurations window. The serialization of the UI thread,
however, may not prevent multiple workspace windows to be open at
the same time. Once the configuration process is complete and a
workspace window is displayed, window events may be conveyed to the
window procedure owned by the UI thread. Thus, the serialized UI
thread can handle multiple open windows and also respond to new
workspace management requests. In some embodiments, the UI thread
may not perform any blocking activities such as network requests,
disk access, etc. Instead, such blocking activities may be handed
off to a separate worker thread spawned by the UI thread, and the
worker thread may invoke the parser 626 to handle the blocking
activity. The UI thread may also give the user the option to cancel
out of any blocking activity.
[0042] The parser 626 may be responsible for invoking a feed
retriever 638 to fetch a feed of remote resources specified in XML.
In particular embodiments, the parser 626 may also perform one or
more of the following: parse the XML files 630 to extract
information about RDP files and icons for each remote resource, and
invoke the feed retriever to download RDP files and icons into a
specified folder 640.
[0043] The feed retriever 638 may manage the connection with a
resource server 616 (such as the web server 130 of FIG. 1). More
specifically, the feed retriever 638 may be configured to download
information 642 (XML files, RDP files, icons, etc.) from the
resource server 614.
[0044] The view manager 632 may be configured to handle the display
of remote resources. The view manager 632 may also be configured to
perform one or more of the following: create and configure an
explorer browser control to host the RDP files downloaded by the
components of the smart client 620, and to act as a Shell Extension
Handler for RDP file types 644 to customize the look and feel (e.g.
view window, location, etc.) 646 of RDP files in a displayed
folder.
[0045] In a particular embodiment, the functions of the view
manager 626 may be performed in different contexts. For example, in
a first context, the Windows Explorer.RTM. 618 (by the Microsoft
Corporation) may invoke the shell extension handler for RDP files
(e.g. via COM) prior to displaying the files in an explorer browser
control. In alternate contexts, other methods for handling RDP
files prior to display may be used.
[0046] In operation, the components of the smart client 620 may
cooperatively obtain the data (resources) regarding the workspace
including communicating with the server 616 to obtain a list of
resources, and presenting the data in a user interface (e.g.
displaying the icons and/or RDP files). The smart client 620 may
communicate with the resource server 616 to obtain a list of
resources. The resources may be ultimately represented on the
client computer 110 as RDP files. When the smart client 620
presents the data in a user interface (UI), it may involve one or
more of the following: presenting the RDP files in a UI that
encapsulates the explorer browser control, or customizing the
behavior and appearance of RDP files using Shell extension
handlers.
[0047] It will be appreciated that, based on the teachings of the
present disclosure, a variety of alternate embodiments may be
conceived, and that the present disclosure is not limited to the
particular embodiments described herein and shown in the
accompanying figures. For example, FIG. 7 illustrates an alternate
environment 700 for implementing techniques for XML-based web feeds
in accordance with the present disclosure. In this embodiment, the
environment 700 includes a user computer 110 having a smart client
120. A back end 750 operatively communicates with the smart client
120 and with a central server 760 via Application Programming
Interfaces 752, 762 and one or more networks 770. The back end 750
includes an XML presentation layer 732 having a feed component 134
and an Internet information server (IIS) 136.
[0048] The central server 760 operatively communicates with one or
more remote resource hosts 140 having one or more resources (or
software programs) 142 installed thereon. In the embodiment shown
in FIG. 7, for example, the resource hosts 140 include a directory
service 140B, such as the directory service known as Active
Directory developed by Microsoft Corporation. As noted above, the
resource hosts 140 may include terminal servers, directories,
directory services (e.g. Active Directory), centralized publishing
sources, or any other suitable hosts or sources.
[0049] In operation, the smart client 120 makes a request 122 to
the back end 750 for available resources found on remote resource
hosts 140. In some embodiments, the IIS 136 of the XML presentation
layer 732 receives the request 122 and provides a call 138 for an
XML feed to the XML feed component 134. In some embodiments, the
XML presentation layer 732 determines whether a current list of
available resources is already cached and available to provide to
the smart client 120, and if so, then the cached list is provided
to the smart client 120. If a current list of resources is not
cached, the XML presentation layer 732 (e.g. using the XML feed
component 134) communicates a request for current resources to the
central server 760, which sends requests 135 to the resource hosts
140 for a list of resources available on each of the resource hosts
140. The resource hosts 140 return lists 145 of available resources
142 that are available on each respective terminal server 140, and
the central server 760 provides the available resources information
back to the back end 750. As described above, the XML feed
component 134 renders the lists 145 into an XML feed 125 that is
provided back to the smart client 120. Icons 112 corresponding to
the resources 142 may be displayed on a display component 114 of
the user computer 110, allowing the user to use the resources 142
much like a locally-installed program.
[0050] In further embodiments, the XML feed 125 may be used in a
variety of alternate ways, and may not be limited to delivery to
the user computer 110. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the XML
feed 125 may be fed-back 725 via the network 770 to the central
server 760, or to the resource hosts 140. The fed-back XML feed 725
may, for example, be used by the resource hosts 140 to determine
which resources to host, or for any other suitable use. In still
other embodiments, the XML feed 125 may be provided 735 to a web
server 740 which may consume the XML feed 125 for various purposes,
such as, for example, transforming it (e.g. through technologies
such as Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT)) into
an HTML web page 742.
[0051] As noted above, one of the advantages of publishing network
resources, such as remote resources 142, through XML documents 125
is the wide range of standard technologies that support this
delivery method. One such technology is generally referred to as
web syndication, which simplifies the process of notifying
end-users about changes to published network resources.
[0052] For example, it may be of interest to the end-user that
their personal client computer should constantly grant them
seamless access to all available network resources (such as remote
resources 142). In accordance with the teachings of the present
disclosure, such resources may be published in a single XML
document 125. As changes in this XML document 125 occur, the
end-user would like them to be reflected on their user computer (or
other platform) 110. A synchronization mechanism may be implemented
to automatically accomplish this synchronization between the user
computer 110 configuration and the published resource data. For
example, in some embodiments, a process on the user computer 110
may periodically download the full XML file 125, compare it to the
configuration on the user computer 110, and update the
configuration of the user computer 110 (or client configuration) to
incorporate any recent changes.
[0053] Because the XML document may describe dozens or even
hundreds of available resources, such an auto-synchronization
mechanism may require significant resource overhead for both client
and web server. Since it may be anticipated that most published
resources will remain the same for long periods of time, it may be
possible to significantly reduce the overhead burden associated
with such synchronization activities by providing timestamp
information be included in each resource node of the XML document
125.
[0054] More specifically, with reference to FIGS. 1 and 7, the
rendering of the information 145 regarding one or more available
resources into an XML document 125 could include providing
timestamp information for each of the one or more available
resources, the timestamp information enabling the user computer 110
to determine whether each of the one or more available resources
have been modified from a previously-available resource version
This would allow the smart client 120 to analyze the timestamp
information and only download supplementary files (such as RDP
files and icons) for such resources that have changed. Such a
synchronization mechanism may require each resource (or
application) to undergo some processing at each synchronization,
and may require the client-side state to retain some data for each
remote resource (e.g. in the form of a "last updated" time
value).
[0055] In further embodiments, web syndication technologies (such
as Really Simple Syndication or Atom) may provide an alternate
solution to the need to reduce synchronization overhead (see, e.g.,
http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification;
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287). These technologies may
supplement a primary web resource with time-based information about
changes to that resource. This is implemented in a "syndication
feed," a web document at a well-known location that describes, in a
machine-readable, standard XML language, what recent changes have
occurred to that primary resource. For example, the web site of
such publications as the New York Times may provide syndication
feeds for several kinds of content. When, for example, a news
article is added to the web site, an entry is also added to the
associated syndication feed to notify users of the change.
Syndication clients periodically retrieve this feed document from a
URL, and by parsing this feed document, a syndication client can
notify the user about recently added articles. Embodiments of XML
feeds in accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure
may similarly use web syndication technologies in the context of
updating clients about changes to remote resources that may be
installed on their user computers.
[0056] Although the computing device 500 of FIG. 5 is described as
being representative of a user device (e.g. the user computer 110
of FIG. 1), it will be appreciated that in alternate embodiments,
the computing device 500 may also be representative of other
hardware devices of systems and methods disclosed herein. For
example, if the smart client 120 of the computing device 500 is
replaced with an XML presentation layer (e.g. XML presentation
layer 132 of FIG. 1, XML presentation layer 205 of FIG. 2, or XML
presentation layer 732 of FIG. 7), then the computing device 500
may represent an embodiment of the web server 130 of FIG. 1, or the
back end 750 of FIG. 7. Similarly, by omission of the smart client
120, the computing device 500 may be representative of an
embodiment of the central server 760 or the resource hosts 140 of
FIG. 7.
CONCLUSION
[0057] Although the subject matter has been described in language
specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is
to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended
claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts
described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as
exemplary forms of implementing the claims.
* * * * *
References