Lightweight browser monitoring and viewing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9363134-B1
Application number	US-21012808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 12, 2008
Priority date	Sep 12, 2008
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

Troubleshooting, training, and other services that can be provided remotely to a user of an application, Web page, or similar component can take advantage of a lightweight approach to monitoring, viewing, and/or control. A page being viewed by a user can have client executable code contained therein, wherein actions of the user with respect to the page can generate events that can be sent to a remote queue, service, server, etc. A local copy of the page can be created that can be viewed and/or operated by a person providing the service to the user. A listener component can be configured to retrieve events from the queue, etc., and send those events to the local device such that the local copy can be updated, causing the local copy to accurately reflect what the user is seeing and doing with respect to the page.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of monitoring a remote interface, the method comprising:
under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,
in response to a request from a client application of a client device that is not in direct communication with a remote monitoring device, causing a page to be transmitted for display on a screen of the client device, the page including executable code configured to;
with at least a portion of the executable code executed on the client device,
store an object model for the page in a storage service;
send a link pointing to the object model to a queue service;
create at least one event message associated with the client application in response to an interaction with the page on the client device, the interaction including access of at least one page element and resulting in a modified appearance of the page when displayed on the screen of the client device; and
send the created at least one event message associated with the client application to the queue service, the event message including a screen location of a pointer that accesses the at least one page element and a screen location of the at least one page element;

causing the remote monitoring device to render a copy of the page to be displayed on a screen of the remote monitoring device by retrieving the object model for the page from the storage service using the link stored to the queue service;
causing display of the rendered copy of the page to be displayed on the screen of the remote monitoring device; and
in response to detecting the at least one event message in the queue service, causing the remote monitoring device to update the copy of the page to be displayed based on the detected event message by visually simulating the interaction with the page on the client device so that the rendered copy of the page displayed on the screen of the remote monitoring device reproduces the modified appearance of the page as a result of the interaction with the page by displaying the modified appearance of the page to be rendered on the screen of the remote monitoring device.

2. A computer-implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein:
the object model is a Document Object Model (DOM).

3. A computer-implemented method of monitoring a remote interface on a monitoring device, the method comprising:
under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,
in response to a request from a client application of a remote computing device that is not in direct communication with the monitoring device, causing a page to be transmitted for display on a screen of the remote computing device, at least a portion of the page to be displayed on a screen of the remote computing device, the page including executable code configured to create page data associated with the client application and to create an event message associated with the client application created in response to an interaction with the page on the remote computing device, the interaction with the page resulting in a modified appearance of the page when displayed on the screen of the remote computing device;
generating a copy of the page to be displayed on a screen of the monitoring device using the page data created by the executable code;
receiving the event message associated with the client application created on the remote computing device in response to the interaction with the page rendered on the remote computing device, the interaction including interaction with at least one page element with a pointer, the event message including at least a screen location of the pointer that interacts with the page;
causing display of the generated copy of the page to be displayed on the screen of the monitoring device; and
updating the copy of the page to be displayed on the screen of the monitoring device in accordance with the received event message associated with the client application by visually simulating the interaction with the page on the remote computing device so that the copy of the page displayed on the screen of the monitoring device reproduces the modified appearance of the page as a result of the interaction with the page by displaying the modified appearance of the page on the screen of the monitoring device.

4. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , wherein:
the page is one of an application page and a Web page.

5. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , wherein:
the executable code is embedded in the page and configured to capture interactions with the page and generate event messages in response thereto.

6. A computer-implemented method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
enabling a selection of a selectable element of the page to activate the embedded executable code.

7. A computer-implemented method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
enabling a page to be refreshed in order to activate the embedded executable code, wherein the embedded executable code is activated by the monitoring device.

8. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , wherein:
the page is obtained from a Web service.

9. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , wherein:
the monitoring device is configured to be used by a service representative to assist the remote computing device.

10. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving coordinate information for the page on the remote computing device; and
causing the copy of the page on the monitoring device to be rendered such that the monitoring device is able to determine the active view of the page on the remote computing device.

11. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , further comprising:
causing to be captured interaction with the copy of the page on the monitoring device;
causing to be generated event information from the monitoring device in response to an interaction with the copy of the page on the monitoring device; and
causing to be transmitted the event information to the remote computing device, wherein the page displayed on the screen of the remote computing device is able to be updated to reflect the interaction on the monitoring device.

12. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , wherein the executable code is included in the page based on identifying information associated with the remote computing device.

13. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , wherein the interaction with the page on the remote computing device includes interaction with at least one of a button, a hover box, a mouseover, a checkbox, a radio button, a menu, a scroll bar, a text input, and a file select.

14. A computer-implemented method according to claim 3 , wherein event messages are received from the remote computing device in batches.

15. A system for monitoring a remote interface, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory device storing instructions executable on the processor, the instructions comprising:
a page generation component that, when executed in response to a request from a client application of a client device that is not in direct communication with a remote monitoring device, causes the processor to initiate transmission of a page to the client device, at least a portion of the page to be displayed on a screen of the client device, the page including an embedded executable code component, the executable code component being configured to cause the client device to, when executed on the client device:
store an object model for the page in a storage service;
create at least

Assignees

• Goodspeed Joshua M
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Goodspeed Joshua M

Classifications

• H04L43/10

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• G06F1/1618

  the display being foldable up to the back of the other housing with a single degree of freedom, e.g. by 360° rotation over the axis defined by the rear edge of the base enclosure · CPC title

• G06F16/958

  Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• G06F16/954

  Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing · CPC title