Client intermediation of server applications

摘要

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method and an apparatus for providing a client-side intermediary that communicates with an application (112) on a second server computer system (104). The method operates by receiving a composite message at a client computer system (108) from a first server computer system (102), and examining (304) type information from the composite-message. This type information specifies how the composite message is formatted, and can be used to select an application that is capable of processing the composite message. The method uses the type information to look up (306) a network address of the application residing on the second server computer system. This address is used (308) to forward (310) the composite message to the application on the second server computer system. The above embodiment can be implemented within a browser (114) on the client computer system, or within a separate application (120) on the client computer system. A return communication can be facilitated by receiving a return composite message at the client computer system from the second server computer system, and examining type information from the return composite message. This type information is used to look up an address of a source application on the network (106), and this address is used to forward the return composite message to the source application.