Portlets having different portlet specific enablement states

• US 20070240063A1
• Filed: 04/11/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Thomas, Mathews, Fitzpatrick, Gregory, Cheng, Tsz, Hassell, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,882 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/741
• 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

Abstract

A method for selectively securing portlets can include a step of providing a portal that includes multiple portlets. A portlet enablement event associated with a set of at least one of the portlets can be determined. The set include a number of portlets less than a total number of portlets in the portal. Responsive to the portlet enablement event, portlet enablement states can be changed for each portlet in the set without changing portlet enablement states of portlets not included in the set. Different portlet enablement states can include enabled, disabled, and access restricted states.

Claims

1. A method for selectively enabling portlets comprising:

providing a portal including a plurality of portlets;

determining a portlet enablement event associated with at a set of at least one of the portlets, wherein said set is less than a total number of portlets in the plurality; and

responsive to the portlet enablement event, changing portlet enablement states of each portlet in the set without changing portlet enablement states of portlets in the plurality that are not part of the set.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the changing step changes the portlet enablement state to a disabled state, wherein at least one of the plurality of portlets is in an enabled state.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the changing step changes the portlet enablement state to a restricted access state, wherein at least one of the plurality of portlets is in an enabled state.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the portlet enablement event is a manually triggered event based upon a user selection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the portlet enablement event is an automatically triggered event, wherein said enablement event is based upon an automatically detected change of location of a location beacon.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the portlet enablement event is automatically triggered by an expiration of a time-out counter.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the set comprises at least two portlets.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving an enablement authorization for one portlet of the at least two portlets; and

responsive to the enablement authorization adjusting the enablement state of the one portlet to an enabled state, wherein an enablement state for each other portlet of the set remains unchanged.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving an enablement authorization for the set of portlets; and

responsive to the enablement authorization adjusting the enablement state of each portlet in the set to an enabled state.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initially logging onto the portal, wherein the logging step includes providing user identification and authorization data;

authorizing access to the portal based upon the user identification and authorization data; and

responsive to the authorizing step, enabling each of the plurality of portlets.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein content of at least one of the portals in the set is obscured by a visual overlay.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a communication connection to a Web site associated with a disabled one of the portlets is severed while the portlet is in a disabled state, and wherein a communication connection to a different Web site associated with an enabled one of the portlets is simultaneously maintained.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the portlets of the portal includes customized data for a user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each portlet in the set includes confidential user information, and wherein the portlets of the plurality not included in the set lack confidential user information.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of claim 1 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are performed by at least one of a service agent and a computing device manipulated by the service agent, the steps being performed in response to a service request.

17. A software interface comprising:

a Web portal containing a plurality of portal segments, wherein each portal segment is associated with a segment specific enablement state, wherein enablement states for each of the portal segments include an enabled state and a disabled state.

18. The software interface of claim 17, further comprising:

a plurality of user selectable controls for manually changing the enablement state of each of the portal segments.

19. The software interface of claim 17, wherein at least one of the portal segments includes a portlet.

20. A system for displaying Web content comprising:

a portal server associated with a Web portal comprising a plurality of portlets, wherein each of the portlets is associated with a portlet specific enablement state, wherein the enablement states for each of the portlets are independent of enablement states of the other portlets, wherein the enablement states for each portlet include an enabled state and a disabled state; and

a Web browser configured to render the portal and the included portlets, wherein at least one rendered portlet is in an enabled state, wherein at least one rendered portlet is in a disabled state, wherein content is displayed within rendered portlets having an enabled state, wherein content is not available within rendered portlets having a disabled state, and wherein the Web browser includes a user selectable control for altering an enablement state of the rendered portlets.