IMPLEMENTING BROWSER BASED HYPERTEXT TRANSFER PROTOCOL SESSION STORAGE

• US 20120227116A1
• Filed: 05/08/2012
• Published: 09/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Huang, Shiling, Sundberg, Sean Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,459,888 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for managing session data. The process determines whether preexisting session data associated with a request for content is present in response to receiving the request. Responsive to an absence of the preexisting session data being associated with the request, the process generates session data associated with the request. The process then generates a response page having a set of forms including a set of hidden fields. The set of hidden fields include the session data. Thereafter, the process sends the response page to a client browser.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of managing session data, the computer implemented method comprising:

responsive to receiving a request for content, determining whether preexisting session data associated with the request is present;

responsive to the preexisting session data not being present, generating session data associated with the request;

generating a response page having a set of forms including a set of hidden fields, wherein the set of hidden fields comprise the session data; and

sending the response page to a client browser.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a presence of the preexisting session data being associated with the request, wherein the preexisting session data is in a set of hidden fields, de-serializing the preexisting session data to form de-serialized session data;

storing the de-serialized session data in a session object; and

processing the request using the de-serialized session data.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

responsive to the set of hidden fields having security data, authenticating the preexisting session data in the set of hidden fields before de-serializing the preexisting session data.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the security data comprises at least one of a timestamp and a message authentication code.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a message authentication code, wherein the message authentication code is calculated using a timestamp, the session data, and a security key; and

including the timestamp and the message authentication code in the set of hidden fields.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the response page having hidden fields further comprises:

serializing the session data to form serialized session data;

converting the serialized session data to text to form textual session data;

locating the set of forms of the response page; and

populating the set of forms with hidden fields comprising the textual session data.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the response page having hidden fields further comprises:

generating hidden field objects storing the session data; and

inserting the hidden field objects into the set of forms of the response page.

8. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium including computer program code for managing session data, the computer program product comprising;

computer usable program code for determining whether preexisting session data associated with a request for content is present in response to receiving the request;

computer usable program code for generating session data associated with the request in response to the preexisting session data not being present;

computer usable program code for generating a response page having a set of forms including a set of hidden fields, wherein the set of hidden fields include the session data; and

computer usable program code for sending the response page to a client browser.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

computer usable program code for de-serializing the preexisting session data to form de-serialized session data in response to a presence of the preexisting session data being associated with the request, wherein the preexisting session data is in the set of hidden fields;

computer usable program code for storing the de-serialized session data in a session object; and

computer usable program code for processing the request using the de-serialized session data.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising:

computer usable program code for authenticating the preexisting session data in the set of hidden fields before de-serializing the preexisting session data in response to the set of hidden fields having security data.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

computer usable program code for calculating a message authentication code, wherein the message authentication code is calculated from using from a timestamp, the session data, and a security key; and

computer usable program code for including the timestamp and the message authentication code in the set of hidden fields.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer usable program code for generating the response page having hidden fields further comprises:

computer usable program code for serializing the session data to form serialized session data;

computer usable program code for converting the serialized session data to text to form textual session data;

computer usable program code for locating the set of forms of the response page; and

computer usable program code for populating the set of forms with hidden fields comprising the textual session data.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer usable program code for generating the response page having hidden fields further comprises:

computer usable program code for generating the hidden field objects storing the session data; and

computer usable program code for inserting the hidden field objects into the set of forms of the response page.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a bus system;

a communications system connected to the bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes computer usable program code; and

a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code to determine whether preexisting session data associated with a request for content is present in response to receiving the request;

generate session data associated with the request in response to the preexisting session data not being present;

generate a response page having a set of forms including a set of hidden fields, wherein the set of hidden fields includes the session data; and

sending the response page to a client browser.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processing unit further executes the computer usable program code to de-serialize the preexisting session data to form de-serialized session data in response a presence of the preexisting session data being associated with the request, wherein the preexisting session data is in a set of hidden fields;

store the de-serialized session data in a session object; and

process the request using the de-serialized session data.

16. The apparatus claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code for generating the response page having hidden fields further comprises:

computer usable program code for serializing the session data to form serialized session data;

converting the serialized session data to text to form textual session data;

locating the set of forms of the response page; and

populating the set of forms with hidden fields comprising the textual session data.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code for generating the response page having hidden fields further comprises:

computer usable program code for generating hidden field objects storing the session data; and

computer usable program code for inserting the hidden field objects into the set of forms of the response page.

18. An apparatus for managing session data, the apparatus comprising:

a web application, wherein the web application generates session data associated with a request for content in response to an absence of preexisting session data being associated with the request;

a data object session component, wherein the data object session component populates hidden fields with the session data;

a servlet container, wherein the servlet container generates a response page having the hidden fields, and wherein the servlet container sends the response page to a browser.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising:

a session reconstruction component, wherein the session reconstruction component de-serializes the preexisting session data to form de-serialized session data in response to a presence of the preexisting session data being associated with the request, and wherein the preexisting session data is in a set of hidden fields.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising:

a client, wherein the client hosts the browser for generating the request for content and receives a response page in response to submitting the request for content