DE10059931A1 - Method and device for data transmission and remote-controlled generation of output data - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a device for data transmission and remote-controlled generation of output data, which can be used in particular to enable users to view application-specific file formats transparently via a web browser using universal viewers. DOLLAR A The invention saves the user from installing application-specific software or enables the display of document formats for which no free viewer is available. In addition, the display is accelerated considerably since the transmission of the display data requires significantly less bandwidth than the transmission of the actual application data. Another advantage is the simple, intuitive usability. Training is not necessary. DOLLAR A The work steps do not change for the user through the invention. He will click on a desired file as before, but then the file will not be downloaded to his NetDevice and displayed there, but sent to a central server and a viewer will be started from there. This is able to recognize and display all common file types.

Description

The invention relates to a method and device for data transmission and remote controlled generation of Output data, which can be used in particular to This is transparent to users without a web browser download platform-independent and application-independent view application-specific file formats using Allow universal viewer.

When working on the Internet, you are often faced with the Situation that one offers on a web page for Downloading a file finds. Here two occur Problems on: on the one hand it can be a very large amount of data act, and downloading costs a lot of time and money; second, it can be a file in a special, little-used Act format whose execution program is not on the Client computer is present, which has the consequence that the file cannot be viewed.

So far, the user clicks on the file they are viewing want. Is that the browser on the client computer If the file format is known, the file is then downloaded loaded and displayed in the browser. I.e. it will only  the files for which the browser displays a corresponding detection has or is installed. The Browser has the detection for the most common graphic formats. After extra from the user initiated plugin installation for special format z. B. pdf files, these can also be displayed.

The user is prompted for all other file types to choose whether he "Run the file from this location" or "Save the file".

When the user clicks that they save the file he has to select a directory on his NetDevice and then the file is saved there.

If the user clicks "Execute from this location", the file will also be downloaded and as soon as this has happened, the associated program started. For example, he clicks on a * .zip file and Clicking "Execute ... from this location" will open the file downloaded and then started WinZip or at Graphics files that the browser does not know, that appropriately installed graphics program.

That means that every file, even if only viewed should always be downloaded to the user.

The orders of magnitude are briefly to illustrate of the downloads are made clear: with a modem at 33.6 Kbit / s is required to download a file from 500 Kb size between two and three minutes; at an ISDN connection (64 Kbit / s) the process takes about a minute. However, if the file is 10 Mb in size, then the download takes using of a modem already 40-45 minutes, when using ISDN still about 25 minutes.  

You can tell by the order of magnitude that it is sometimes It takes a lot of patience and money to file a 7 Mb file transferred to determine that the content for the user is not interesting.

Another not insignificant problem is that the user can work comfortably on his NetDevice up to 10 viewers, plugins and additional programs must have installed. (Winzip, Adobe pdf viewer, ps- Viewer, Winrar, Office, gs-View,. , , , , .)

This means for the user that he Buy additional programs, viewers and plugins in the same way, Maintain and update like a "normal" program.

Only then can the user view documents from the web consider if this is completely local NetDevice have been downloaded. Only then will it open the corresponding program for the device started to view this document.

The disadvantages with the previous procedure are thus

• - a strong dependence on the transmission rate of internet available connection,
• - the necessary availability of numerous viewers, Pugins and additional programs, which are due to the existing the various formats are necessary,
• - The memory occupied by these additional programs space lost for other applications is
• - the need to regulate these additional programs to update moderately,  
• - The cost of licensed use of this Additional programs are incurred and
• - a lack of effective protection against viruses, Trojans and hackers.

The invention is therefore based on the object To develop a process which the mentioned Overcomes disadvantages and especially the application independent viewing of application-specific File formats made possible by universal viewer. At the same time through the invention Transfer times for documents as well as simultaneously a reduction in transmission costs can be achieved.

This object is achieved by the Features in the characterizing part of claims 1 and 9 in cooperation with the features in the generic term. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are in the Subclaims included.

A particular advantage of the invention is that the data requested by a user via a communication means 1 connected to a first data transmission path 2 and stored on a first computer system 3 is transmitted via a second data transmission path 4 to a second computer system 5 , where the data is transmitted applications associated with the transmitted data are started, the transmitted data are read in and evaluated by these applications, and the results of this evaluation are then transmitted via a third data transmission link 6 to the communication means 1 of the user and reproduced there.

The method according to the invention is advantageously used on a device which consists of a communication means 1 , two computer systems 3 , 5 and a computer program, the communication means 1 and the computer systems 3 , 5 being connected to one another by means of data transmission, the first computer system 3 is equipped with a data-containing memory and the second computer system 5 is equipped with a number of applications and the computer program is used, in accordance with the instructions of the communication means 1, for the transfer of data from the first to the second computer system, and for the evaluation of this data by those on the second computer system 5 Control applications and the transmission of the results of this evaluation to the communication medium 1 .

The process offers compared to conventional solutions through a direct connection to the backbone and the Transfer of only the graphic information to the User / client a significant reduction in transfers rates and times. By using the invention a user is no longer forced to do any data format the appropriate application software to instal lose. This in turn leads to a reduction in the Memory requirements and to simplify the update Operations. Since the process no longer individual files, just the graphic information transmits, it makes the transmission of viruses impossible.

Another advantage of the invention is that through their use also devices for the display of Documents that can be used so far for this  could not be used, such as. B. Entertainment consoles.

The invention is based on at least one at least partially shown in the figures Example are explained in more detail.

Show it:

Fig. 1 shows the schematic sequence of the procedure,

FIG. 2 system structure of the online viewer,

Fig. 3 Test of the file type.

The sequence in which the steps of the method according to the invention follow one another can be broken down as follows (see FIG. 1):

• 1. a client requests an html page from a server on;
• 2. the client then requests a link to application specific document from this html Side by side;
• 3. The link leads to a content server Provider with embedded URL of the to be displayed Document, e.g. B. http: / /www.mydomain.de/bild.pdf;
• 4. by a program (Java Script) is caused that the file image.pdf on the application server a service provider is copied;
• 5. The document is on the application server temporarily loaded and a viewer for that document to be displayed started;
• 6. The display data of the viewer are via a special protocol sent to the client;  
• 7. on the client is the universal viewer that is a terminal client, initializes and displays the Data from the provider server.

The Java script, which ensures that the The requested document is not related to the client's NetDevice downloaded and displayed there, but to the Application server is sent, can both at Client as well as implemented at the content provider his.

Because the complexity of the application programs is shifted from the user to the service provider, the method which is implemented on the provider server now uses the corresponding viewers in the method, which can display a wide range of document formats. Formats that the provider server should advantageously always provide are, for example:
Text formats: pdf, ps, eps, ps.z, gs;
Microsoft Office: doc, dot, rtf, xls, xlt, ppt;
Help files: hlp;
Program sources: bas, c, cc,. , ,
Fax files: fax, fg3, fg4,. , ,
Other: txt, inf, bak, fon. , ,
Image formats: bmp, dib, rle, jpg, jpeg, jpe, gif, pcd, pcx, tif, tiff, img,. , ,
Graphics: cdr, cch, cmx, cpt,. , ,
Compression formats: zip, arj, arc, gz, tar,. , ,

This is used to display the different formats required programs on an application server of the Provider executed. On this application server the output generation takes place through which  that in an application-specific file format this document converted into the output data becomes. The output data generated in this way are used by the user only by a temporary client, the so-called Universal viewer, displayed so that on the user Complete applications cannot be started have to.

To bring the data to be displayed to the client, usual terminal software is used.

The heart of the online viewer is the preprocessor 7 (see FIG. 2). It is used to analyze the command string 8 passed by the client and to generate the document to be displayed and to select a suitable viewer. The preprocessor 7 prepares the client data 8 so that a special application can be started with defined data. Three subcomponents are used for this: the Validator 9 , the Loader 10 and the Analyzer 11 .

The meaning and purpose of the preprocessor 7 result from the fact that the transferred strings 8 and the documents resulting therefrom do not necessarily contain valid data and preparation is therefore necessary for the subsequent program steps. The application to be loaded and the document to be displayed must be defined in these.

The preprocessor first passes the transfer parameters to the validator 9 . The validator 9 checks the transferred string 8 for syntactical correctness, the loader 10 loads the document to be displayed and the analyzer 11 checks the document type.

The validator 9 checks the transferred string 8 for syntactical correctness. The validator 9 takes the transfer string 8 and checks it for validity:

• - It is a valid, RFC-compliant URL
• - The URL describes an http or ftp document
• - The URL indicates an accessible IP address and domain
• - the URL is not local within the provider - Domain.

The data transferred from the preprocessor 7 to the validator 9 consist of the URL which indicates the location of the document to be loaded; The validator 9 returns information to the preprocessor 7, which provides information about the URL syntax, the protocol used, the location of the document and any errors that may have occurred.

The loader 10 has the task of temporarily loading the document with the transferred URL. After the first 4k of the document (or less if the document is shorter) it continues the loading operation in the background and returns with the path of the previously loaded fragment. Further communication takes place via a socket. After the timeout or another error condition during loading, the success flag FALSE is returned, otherwise TRUE.

The data transferred from the preprocessor 7 to the loader 10 consist of the URL which specifies the location of the document to be loaded and an address specification of a socket which is used for further communication; Information is returned from the validator 9 to the preprocessor 7 or a socket, which provides information about the validity of the specified path and about errors that occurred when the document was loaded.

He creates a separate, distinct one for the document Directory below Temp. Therefore, the enough free memory with the place marked with Temp space for the documents to be created.

The analyzer 11 then tries to determine the unique document type <DType <of the transferred document.

This is done by a triple test ( Fig. 3):

• 1. Test: With the first 4k of the file, the operating system tools (e.g. file) are used to determine the document type <DTyp <<using the Magic Number Test and a configuration file, if possible, but at least the document type class <DTypklasse <.
  Document types include: WinWord file, Excel file, Adobe PDF file,. , . The document type <DTyp <is determined with standardized names, which if possible correspond to the main suffix used (doc, exc, pdf,...).
  The document type class <DType class <describes superordinate types that combine several document types: z. B. summarizes msoffice doc-, exc-, ppt-,. , , Documents together.
• 2. Test: Provided a file system type in the URL has been transmitted, from this is a another file, the Analyzer configuration file the <DType <determined.
• 3rd test: The <DType <is removed by sending the document the analyzer configuration file.

Test one only returns a <DType class <and test one and two or test one contradict each other and three, the failure is reported back and the returned <DType <is invalid.

An acceptance test is performed during these steps. The test conditions result from the "Acceptance Test Information" of the subcomponents Validator 9 , Loader 10 , Analyzer 11 . Every error condition there must return an error status to the client.

The session manager 16 initializes the viewer session via the data transmission software. The application with the document to be displayed is mapped onto the display generated in this way. Closing the client application ends the session. The session manager 16 then deletes the document file.

The application called by Session Manager 16 must run under an unprivileged UID. The entire application also runs in a chroot environment in the temporary directory of the document to be displayed.

The loader editor 14 is used to create and manage the loader configuration file. This configuration file can e.g. B. created and managed using operating system tools. A normal text editor is sufficient for this.

The analyzer editor 15 is used to create and manage the analyzer configuration file. This configuration file can e.g. B. created and managed using operating system tools. A normal text editor is also sufficient for this.

Every step that does not lead to success gives you one Return parameters return with an error message application sends an error status to the client and the session ended.

If all subcomponents were successful, the preprocessor 7 composes a loading string for the session manager 16 :
First, the preprocessor 7 uses the analyzer configuration file 13 to determine which application is suitable for displaying the type of document. Then, depending on the type of document variable% <DV <, the process continues as follows:
if the document variable has a URL, the URL and the determined application are transferred to the session manager 16 and the loader 10 is ended. Refers the document variable to a fragment, e.g. B. on a path to a document, the determined application and the path are passed to the session manager 16 . In the event that a file is identified by the document variable, the parser waits for the loader 10 to finish until the timeout and, if successful, passes the application to the session manager with parameters and path.

This distinction is necessary because some Applications can load files directly as URL and some applications can already display files, if they are not yet fully loaded.

The hardware platform for the process is in Depending on the expected number of accesses one  Server farm of small to medium configuration required Lich. The actual requirements are from one depending on extensive benchmarking.

By using products, standard software and standard procedures become high maintainability reached.

The individual sessions should be secured Environment consisting of special UID and chrooted Environment expire. More precise specifications will be arise from the benchmarking and are dependent on the software environment used.

An explicit extensibility almost relates exclusively for additional viewers Backends. By using simpler and more logical Interfaces and configuration files become one here optimal expandability achieved. This is also through ensures the use of standard software. Likewise, compatibility with future ones Product versions ensured. This results in a high investment protection and the security of new ones To be able to participate in developments.

An advantage of the online viewer is the simple, intuitive usability. There is no training effort necessary. Likewise, the customer does not need one further documents on the use of the system read.

The online viewer does not provide any to the user advanced PC experience. After loading the Browser plugins from the referring website is the Use the application like any PC application. The Session can be terminated at any time without disadvantages become.  

The work and the work steps will go through do not change the procedure for the user. He'll like so far click on a file that he is looking at would like to. Then the file does not become his NetDevice downloaded and displayed there, but the file is sent to a central server and a viewer is started from there. This is in the Able to recognize and recognize all common file types (approx. 100) display.

The server then transmits the pure image information to the requesting client.

This interprets the image information and provides this on his display.

This gives the user the following advantages:

• 1. the user does not have to have all viewers, plugins and Have installed additional programs
• 2. the user no longer needs new versions, To seek updates and patches
• 3. the user must read the file or its content (at packed files), which he no longer consider download and thereby achieved an enormous Speed advantage.
• 4. In addition to the previously usable, the user can Internet-compatible display devices now also devices for use the display of documents previously used for this could not be used, such as. B. Enter tainment-Conslen.

The invention is not limited to the Darge here presented embodiments. Rather, it is possible by combining and modifying the means mentioned and features to realize other design variants ren without departing from the scope of the invention.  

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

NetDevice (user)

2

Click on file; Request a document that requires a special application on the user's computer

3

Computer system e.g. B. a content provider that contains web pages with file links

4

Backbone for transferring the file to the provider server

5

Computer system on which the viewer belonging to the transferred file is started, the document is loaded and displayed

6

Transmission of the view of the document to the user's computer

7

preprocessor

8th

http client string

9

Validator

10

Loader

11

Analyzer

12

Loader configuration file

13

Analyzer configuration file

14

Loader Editor

15

Analyzer Editor

16

Session manager

Claims (15)

1. experienced for data transmission and remote-controlled generation of output data, characterized in that requested by a user via a to a first data transmission link ( 2 ) communication means ( 1 ), on a first computer system ( 3 ) stored data via a second data transmission link ( 4 ) transferred to a second computer system ( 5 ), there the applications associated with the transferred data started, the transferred data read in and evaluated by these applications, then the results of this evaluation via a third data transmission link ( 6 ) to the communication means ( 1 ) transmitted by the user and reproduced there. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the user accesses the data via a link Internet site and / or from an ftp server requests. 3. The method according to any one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that
the data transmission routes
Cable networks and / or
wireless networks
are. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the second data transmission path ( 4 ) is designed as a backbone with a high transmission rate. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the communication means ( 1 ) is a stationary and / or mobile communication means. 6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that
the stationary means of communication
a computer and / or
a phone and / or
a set top box and / or
an entertainment console and / or
a multimedia console
is. 7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that
the mobile means of communication
a computer and / or
a radio telephone and / or
a palm top and / or
a handheld
is. 8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the playback on the communication means ( 1 ) of the user is visual and / or audiel. 9. Device for data transmission and remote-controlled generation of output data, characterized in that it consists of a communication means ( 1 ), two computer systems ( 3 , 5 ) and a computer program, the communication means ( 1 ) and the computer systems ( 3 , 5 ) are connected to one another by means of data transmission, the first computer system ( 3 ) with a data-containing memory and the second computer system ( 5 ) with a number of applications and the computer program is used according to the instructions of the communication means ( 1 ) Transfer of data from the first to the second computer system, the evaluation of this data by applications located on the second computer system ( 5 ) and the transmission of the results of this evaluation to the communication means ( 1 ). 10. The device according to claim 9, characterized in that
the data transmission routes
Cable networks and / or
wireless networks
are. 11. Device according to one of claims 9 or 10, characterized in that the second data transmission path ( 4 ) is designed as a backbone with a high transmission rate. 12. Device according to one of claims 9 to 11, characterized in that the communication means ( 1 ) is a stationary and / or mobile communication means. 13. The device according to one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that
the stationary means of communication
a computer and / or
a phone and / or
a set top box and / or
an entertainment console and / or
a multimedia console
is. 14. Device according to one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that
the mobile means of communication
a computer and / or
a radio telephone and / or
a palm top and / or
a handheld
is. 15. The device according to one of claims 9 to 14, characterized in that the first computer system ( 3 ) and / or the second computer system ( 5 ) consist of one and / or more computers.