| 摘要 |
A method and system are disclosed for providing a uniform multicast messaging service such that a brief message concerning a particular subject is simultaneously issued from a server to multiple clients. The message also includes a reference to further detailed information regarding the subject, e.g., in the form of a Uniform Ressource Locator (URL). The system includes a client (150) and server (110) component. A client application connects to the server (110) via TCP/IP and maintains the connection. An alert report administrator (112) issues an alert by sending an alert report message to the server. This message is then multicast simultaneously to all registered clients. In particular, the multicast and receipt of the messages is performed over the TCP/IP connection that was established during the initial registration. However, a connectionless transport protocol such as UDP is used. At the client (150), the alert report is processed to provide a notification on the user's PC display (170). The alert notification takes the form of a detailed report that is displayed to the user. That report includes a date/time stamp, a brief message subject, and a URL. If the user clicks on, or otherwise selects, the alert report, the client navigates the user's pre-existing web browser application (152) to the URL identified in the alert report message. |
