Patent ID: 7716302
Filing Date: 2010-05-11
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of accessing at least one digital document available on a communication network linking client devices together, said accessing method being implemented on a recipient client device and comprising the following steps: i) the recipient client device receiving, from a sending client device, a notification indicating the presence of at least one digital document available on the network, said notification comprising one of a page in a markup language to be displayed on a display of the recipient client device, or a notification containing a link to the page in the markup language to be displayed on the display of the recipient client device, the page in the markup language including executable code for detecting whether the recipient client device comprises a local peer-to-peer server application capable of processing requests on digital documents, ii) the recipient client device, upon displaying the page in the markup language, executing the executable code contained in the page in the markup language, the code being executed so as to detect the presence or absence of the local peer-to-peer server application on the recipient client device by detecting the presence of a predetermined program or an extension module forming part of the local peer-to-peer server application, and in a case where the execution results in a detection that the local peer-to-peer server application is present, detecting whether or not the local peer-to-peer server application is in the course of execution in the recipient client device by utilizing the predetermined program or the extension module to retrieve configuration parameters of the local peer-to-peer server application and detecting a predetermined value in the configuration parameters to determine whether or not the application is in the course of execution, and iii) in a case where, as a result of the execution of the code, the local peer-to-peer server application is detected as being present and in the course of execution in the recipient client device, the recipient client device directly accessing the digital document via said local peer-to-peer server application, whereas in a case where, as a result of the execution of the code, an absence of the local peer-to-peer server application is detected, or where the local peer-to-peer server application is detected as being present but is detected as not being in the course of execution, the recipient client device accessing the document via a remote server identified in the received notification.