communication between thin and thick client

Question

I have a web application running on a browser window (thin client).

I want to send some information to this Web App (window already open) from an external application (thick client) without going through the server (client to client).

A solution that I found is the following:

• The thin client is open in a URL : http://xx/index.html
• The thick client opens a new browser window with the url http://xx/send.html?var=val
• the new browser window uses "localStorage" to send var=val to the thin client.
• the new browser window closes itself.

I have the following questions:

• Is there a way to close the temporary window in FF, once it completes its purpose ? window.open('','_parent',''); window.close(); doesn't work anymore in latest FF versions.
• Is there a way to use localStorage events in IE7- ?
• Is there another way to do this ? (communication between the thick client and the browser).

Thank you.

Answer 1

If you do not want to modify the existing server, you could set up another web server that acts as a bridge between thick and thin client.

Think client would send information to the bridge server and thin client would wait for an update from the bridge server.

It is possible for clients to be interacting with more than one server at a time.

What kind of information does the thick client need to push to the thin client? Is it simple text or something more complex?