EP 1105786 A2 20010613 - SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXCHANGING INFORMATION RELATING TO A TARGET CLIENT APPLICATION
Title (en)
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXCHANGING INFORMATION RELATING TO A TARGET CLIENT APPLICATION
Title (de)
VERFAHREN UND VORRICHTUNG ZUM AUSTAUSCH VON INFORMATIONEN IN BEZUG AUF EINE ZIELKUNDENANWENDUNG
Title (fr)
SYSTEME ET PROCEDE D'ECHANGE D'INFORMATION RELATIVES A UNE APPLICATION CLIENT CIBLE
Publication
Application
Priority
- US 9918547 W 19990817
- US 13840398 A 19980824
Abstract (en)
[origin: WO0014617A2] The present invention, generally speaking, provides a transparent software monitoring/advisory mechanism, allowing for intelligent interaction with a software user. A software agent installed on a user machine causes hooks to be embedded into target client applications. Messages relating to user feature selection are hooked within the target client applications and sent to a hook monitor process including multiple threads including a receiver thread and a primary thread. The receiver thread receives hooked messages and performs "asynchronous message reflection" of these messages to the primary thread. The primary thread catalogs messages and updates feature usage counts based on the messages for future upload to a server. The primary thread also determines whether a particular message has an advisory associated with it, e.g., an advertisement, a survey, etc. If so, the primary thread calls a helper process to deliver the advisory. The software agent establishes communication with a remote server at intervals using a "virtual connection", i.e., an Internet connection that is imperceptible to the user. In the downlink direction, the server sends the agent command files that govern the behavior of the agent. The agent retrieves from the server resources, e.g., advertisements, surveys, software updates, etc., required to carry out commands contained within the command files. In the uplink direction, the agent uploads selected information such as usage count information to the server in accordance with the command files. The "virtual" Internet connection may be a LAN connection or a dial-up connection. In the case of a dial-up connection, precautions are taken to avoid mistakenly causing dial-out. A transfer mechanism minimizes resource use and impact on primary traffic using the connection.
[origin: WO0014617A2] The present invention provides a transparent software monitoring/advisory mechanism, allowing for intelligent interaction with a user. A software agent causes hooks to be embedded into target client applications. Messages relating to user feature selection are hooked and sent to a monitoring process including a receiver and a primary thread. The receiver thread receives hooked messages and performs "asynchronous message reflection" of these messages to the primary thread, which catalogs messages and updates feature usage counts. The agent established communication with a remote server via a "virtual" Internet connection that is imperceptible to the user such as a LAN or dial-up connection. the server sends the agent command files that govern the agent's behavior. The agent retrieves resources from the server required to carry out commands contained within the command files and uploads selected information such as usage count information to the server in accordance with the command files.
IPC 1-7
IPC 8 full level
G06F 11/34 (2006.01); G06F 13/00 (2006.01)
CPC (source: EP)
G06F 11/3495 (2013.01); G06F 11/3438 (2013.01)
Designated contracting state (EPC)
DE FR GB
DOCDB simple family (publication)
WO 0014617 A2 20000316; WO 0014617 A3 20001123; CA 2341428 A1 20000316; EP 1105786 A2 20010613; EP 1105786 A4 20040804; JP 2002524788 A 20020806
DOCDB simple family (application)
US 9918547 W 19990817; CA 2341428 A 19990817; EP 99942206 A 19990817; JP 2000569297 A 19990817