Systems and methods for sharing portal configurations

• US 20050065913A1
• Filed: 09/22/2003
• Published: 03/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AI-CORE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation, Inc.
• Inventors: Riviere, Brian Gilbert, Edwards, Jayme C., Lillie, David J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,895,234 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods that provide a portal user with role-based access to components on a network via portlets within the portal. The role-based access can be sharable such that one or more users with a similar role can instantiate instances of a shared portal. Sharable configurations can be stored local to the user'"'"'s portal, local to another portal and/or within a networked storage medium. The access provides a user with an entry-point to components, wherein a user can monitor and control components. The user can additionally configure the portal such that the component access is further based on the user'"'"'s location. Advantages of the present invention include delineation of access and administrative functionality, the ability to combine web and application servers within a similar environment, and the ability to access (e.g., controlling, collecting and analyzing data, etc.) when the user is not utilizing the portal.

Claims

1. A system that employs a shared access profile to interact with a networked device, comprising:

a storage component that is utilized to save one or more access profiles;

a retrieval component that obtains the shared access profile from the storage component, and

a user interface that employs the shared access profile to provide the user with selective access to the networked device.

2. The system of claim 1, the shared access profile associated with a user role.

3. The system of claim 1, the shared access profile is a default or a user customized profile.

4. The system of claim 1, the shared access profile is associated with one or more attributes comprising a read, a write and an execute attribute.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an update component that notifies the user when the shared access profile changes and refreshes the user interface with the changed shared access profile upon a user approval.

6. The system of claim 5, the notification comprising at least one of a text message and an audio message.

7. The system of claim 1, the shared access profile is automatically updated in the user interface when the shared access profile is modified.

8. The system of claim 1, multiple instances of the shared access profile are instantiated within the user interface wherein the user can toggle between instances or partition the user interface to concurrently view more than one instance.

9. The system of claim 1, multiple instances of the shared access profile are instantiated by a plurality of users with the user role within the user interface and/or other user interfaces.

10. The system of claim 1, the user interface is a portal with one or more portlets.

11. The system of claim 1, employed in an industrial environment.

12. A system that provides a user with access to components on a network, comprising:

a loading component that launches a shared portal configuration associated with a user role, and

one or more portlets that are respectively associated with the networked components, the portlets reside within the portal and provide the user with access to the components based on the shared portal configuration.

13. The system of claim 12, the shared portal configuration is concurrently utilized by one or more users associated with the user role.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising a utility to modify and save the shared portal configuration.

15. The system of claim 14, the utility defines an attribute for the shared portal configuration comprising one of a hide and a share attribute.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising intelligence to automatically select and load the shared portal configuration.

17. The system of claim 16, the intelligence utilizes at least one of a statistic, a probability, an inference and a classifier to facilitate selecting the shared portal configuration for the user.

18. The system of claim 16, the intelligence comprises one or more of a Bayesian learning model, a Bayesian classifier, a decision tree learning model, a support vector machines, a linear regression, a non-linear regression and a neural network.

19. The system of claim 12, the shared portal configuration is dynamically refreshed when modified.

20. The system of claim 12, the portal is a graphical user interface including one of a web browser, a web page and a home page.

21. A method for employing a shared portal configuration, comprising:

selecting a shared portal configuration;

loading the shared portal configuration to instantiate one or more portlets within the portal;

associating the one or more portlets with respective networked components, and

employing the one or more portlets to access the networked components.

22. The method of claim 21, the shared portal configuration selected from a set of shared configurations that are associated with a user role.

23. The method of claim 21, the shared portal configuration re-loads within the portal when a change occurs to the shared portal configuration.

24. The system of claim 21, further comprising employing at least one of a statistic, a probability, an inferences and a classifier to facilitate selecting the shared portal configuration.

25. The system of claim 21, further comprising employing one or more of a Bayesian learning model, a Bayesian classifier, a decision tree learning model, a support vector machines, a linear regression, a non-linear regression and a neural network to facilitate selecting the shared portal configuration.

26. A method for customizing and saving a shared portal configuration, comprising:

logging on to a portal;

initializing a portal configuration;

customizing the portal configuration, based on a user role defining the portal configuration as a shared configuration, and

saving the portal configuration.

27. The method of claim 26, the initialized portal configuration is an existing configuration or a new configuration.

28. The method of claim 26, further customizing the configuration by at least one of adding, removing and editing portlets.

29. The method of claim 26, further customizing the configuration by defining at least one of portlet shape, size, color, rotation, location and opacity.

30. The method of claim 26, further customizing the configuration by associating networked components with the portlets.

31. The method of claim 26, saving the shared configuration to at least one of a storage location local to the portal, a common storage location on the network and a storage location associated with another portal.

32. The method of claim 26, further comprising employing at least one of a statistic, a probability, an inference, Bayesian learning, a Bayesian classifier, decision tree learning, a support vector machine, a linear regression, a non-linear regression and a neural network to facilitate customization.

33. A system for employing a shared portal configuration to access components on a network, comprising:

means for selecting a shared portal configuration from one or more configurations associated with a user role;

means for invoking the shared portal configuration, the invocation instantiating portlets and associating networked components with the portlets; and

means for employing the portlets to access the networked components, the networked components associated with the users role.

34. An API that generates a shared portal configuration, comprising:

instantiating a portal configuration;

defining the portal configuration for a user role, and

saving the portal configuration as a shared configuration.

35. The API of claim 34, further comprising utilizing a . NET or SDK API.

36. The API of claim 34, further comprising associating one or more of a read, a write and an execute attribute with the portal configuration.

37. The API of claim 34, further comprising adding, removing and editing a portlet associated with the portal.

38. The API of claim 37, further comprising associating a component with the portlet.

39. The API of claim 34, further comprising defining at least one of portlet shape, size, color, rotation, location and opacity.