Systems, methods, and media for managing multiple sessions for a user of a portal

• US 20060059125A1
• Filed: 09/16/2004
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Yan, Shunguo
• Granted Patent: US 7,600,027 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

Systems, methods and media for managing multiple sessions for a user on a portal are disclosed. More particularly, hardware and/or software for managing multiple user sessions with backend applications of a portal are disclosed. Embodiments include a portal having a client interaction module for interacting with a user and a portlet application module for interacting with a backend application on an application server. A further embodiment provides a session manager for retrieving application session data from an application session data cache and inserting it into a user request, and for removing application session data from a content transmission from a backend application. In some embodiments, a session data cache for storing portal session data and application session data is provided. The session data cache may store application session data for each session established by a user with backend applications.

Claims

1. A method for managing sessions, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user for contents of a backend application of a portal;

inserting application session data from a session information cache into the user request, the application session data being related to the backend application for which the request was received; and

forwarding the user request with the inserted application session data to the backend application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a portal session for the user on the portal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising querying the session information cache for the application session data related to the backend application for which the request was received.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a content transmission having application session data from the backend application;

consolidating the received application session data into the session information cache;

removing the user'"'"'s application session data from the content transmission; and

forwarding the content transmission to the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a content transmission from the backend application; and

forwarding the content transmission to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request from the user comprises receiving portal session data from the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the session information cache comprises portal session data and application session data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting application session data from the session information cache comprises querying the session information cache for the application session data related to the application for which the request was received.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the application session data comprises an application session identifier.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the application session data comprises an indication of an application session format.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the application session data comprises an application session string.

12. A machine-accessible medium containing instructions effective, when executing in a data processing system, to cause said data processing system to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request from a user for contents of a backend application of a portal;

inserting application session data from a session information cache into the user request, the application session data being related to the backend application for which the request was received; and

forwarding the user request with the inserted application session data to the backend application.

13. The machine-accessible medium of claim 12, further comprising establishing a portal session for the user on the portal.

14. The machine-accessible medium of claim 12, further comprising querying the session information cache for the application session data related to the application for which the request was received.

15. The machine-accessible medium of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a content transmission having application session data from the backend application;

consolidating the received application session data into the session information cache;

removing the user'"'"'s application session data from the content transmission; and

forwarding the content transmission to the user.

16. A data processing system for managing sessions on a portal, the system comprising:

a client interaction module, the client interaction module being adapted to receive a request from the user for contents of a backend application of a portal, the user request comprising portal session data;

a portlet application module, the portlet application module being adapted to receive a content transmission from the backend application, the content transmission comprising application session data;

a session data cache, the session data cache comprising portal session data and application session data; and

a session manager in communication with the session data cache, the client interaction module, and the portlet application module, the session manager being adapted to insert application session data from the session data cache into a user request received by the client interaction module, the session manager being further adapted to remove application session data from a content transmission received by the portlet interaction module.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a portal display module, the portal display module being adapted to create a portal page to be displayed to the user.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising a consolidation module, the consolidation module being adapted to consolidate received application session data into the session data cache.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the portal session data comprises a portal session identifier.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the backend application is located on an application server.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the session data cache is located on a database.

22. A data processing system for managing sessions, the system comprising:

a portal server adapted to receive the user request for content of a portal, wherein the portal server is further adapted to forward content to the user;

an application server in communication with the portal server via a first network, the application server having a backend application providing content, the application server being further adapted to transmit a content transmission to the portal server;

a client computer system in communication with the portal server via a second network, the client computer system being adapted to display a portal and application content to a user, wherein the client computer system is further adapted to transmit a request by the user to receive content from the backend application;

a session data cache, the session data cache comprising portal session data and application session data; and

wherein the portal server is adapted to insert application session data from the session data cache into the user request, and wherein further the portal server is adapted to remove application session data from a content transmission received from the application server.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising a database, wherein the session data cache is located on the database.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the first network is the Internet.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the second network is the Internet.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the first network and the second network are the same network.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the first network and the second network are the Internet.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the first network and the second network are a corporate intranet.