METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SHARING SERVER RESOURCES USING A LOCAL GROUP

• US 20150365399A1
• Filed: 06/16/2014
• Published: 12/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Biswas, Sanjeev Kumar, Ekka, Pradeep Cyril, Sadhwani, Dhiraj
• Granted Patent: US 9,419,962 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/00 Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units program control for peripheral devices G06F13/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations

Abstract

A computer implemented method and apparatus for sharing server resources. One or more applications are registered to a first local group on a device, and one or more applications are registered to a second local group on the device. If a user and device have been authenticated, and a device token already acquired for obtaining authorization for a first application of the first local group to access resources from a server, the same device token is available for use in obtaining authorization for a second application of the first group to access (share) resources from the server. Thus, the user need not re-submit authentication credentials to the authorization server. When the user signs out of an application of the same group, the sign out procedure is processed locally for all applications of the group. A device token is surrendered when it is not needed by applications of any other group.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for sharing server resources using at least one local group, comprising:

registering a first application to a local group of applications, wherein each of the applications of the local group requires access to services of a remote server and wherein the registration is performed at the device and is local to the device;

responsive to launching of the first application from the device, sending user credentials to a remote server to authenticate a user of the device for a plurality of applications on the device requiring server resources;

receiving and locally storing, at the device, a device token from the remote server for the user to authenticate the applications of the local group;

using the locally stored device token to authenticate the first application;

responsive to launching of a second application, when the second application is registered to the local group, automatically retrieving and using the locally stored device token to authenticate the second application without repeating the sending.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the registering of each application to the local group is performed at installation of the application on the device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the registering of each application to the local group comprises invoking, at the device, a library calling an API during installation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the local group is a first local group, the first and second launched applications being registered to the first local group at the device;

and

wherein the method further includes registering a third application to a second local group at the device, the third application requiring access to services of the remote server and the registration to the second group being local to the device.

5. The method of claim 4, further including:

receiving, at the device, a request to sign out of one of the first and second applications; and

locally revoking an access token to disable access to resources of the remote server by all application registered at the device to the first local group but not by any application locally registered to the second local group at the device.

6. The method of claim 5, further including continuing to provide access to resources of the remote server to applications registered to the second local group.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving, at the device, a request to sign out of one of the first and second applications; and

locally disabling access to resources by all applications registered to the local group.

8. An apparatus for sharing server resources using a local group comprising:

a computer device having one or more processors configured to execute instructions for;

registering a first application and a second application to a first local group registry in memory of the computer device;

registering at least a third application to a second local group registry in memory of the computer device; and

responsive to launch of an application registered to one of the first and second local groups, operating a user agent module to automatically retrieving and using a locally stored device token already obtained and used to authenticate an application of a same local group.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor of the computer device is further configured to execute instructions of a user agent for:

receiving a request to sign out of one of the first application or the second application; and

revoking, at the computer device, an access token to disable access to resources on the server by all applications belonging to a same group as the first and second applications.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the registering performed by operation of the at least one processor comprises invoking a library from the first application.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the registering performed by execution of instructions by the at least one processor is performed at installation of the first, second and third applications, respectively.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the plurality of applications co-reside on a computing device, and wherein the plurality of applications registered with a group share resources on the server.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein automatically sign on comprises:

determining whether a user has previously logged into a currently launched application in a same group as an already launched application and;

if not, accessing and presenting user credentials to the server for the user to acquire and store a local device token, and using the device token together with a unique application identifier for the currently launched application and a device identifier to obtain an access token granting access to server resources; and

if so, retrieving and using the device token acquired in connection with an already launched application of the same group together with a unique application for the currently launched application and a device identifier to obtain an access token granting access to server resources.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the user agent operated by execution of instructions by the at least one processor is further operative to provide access to resources of the remote server to applications registered to the second local group.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium for storing computer instructions that, when executed by at least one processor causes the at least one processor to perform a method for sharing server resources using a local group comprising:

registering a first application to a local group of applications, wherein each of the applications of the local group requires access to services of a remote server and wherein the registration is performed at the device and is local to the device;

responsive to launching the first application from the device, sending user credentials to a remote server to authenticate a user of the device for a plurality of applications on the device requiring server resources;

receiving and locally storing, at the device, a device token from the remote server for the user to authenticate the applications of the local group;

using the locally stored device token to authenticate the first application; and

responsive to launching of a second application, when the second application is registered to the local group;

automatically retrieving and using the locally stored device token to authenticate the second application without repeating the sending.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the registering of each application to the local group is performed at installation of the application on the device.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the registering of each application to the local group comprises invoking, at the device, a library calling an API during installation.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the local group is a first local group, the first and second launched applications being registered to the first local group at the device;

and

wherein the method further includes registering a third application to a second local group at the device, the third application requiring access to services of the remote server and the registration to the second group being local to the device.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, further including:

receiving, at the device, a request to sign out of one of the first and second applications; and

locally revoking an access token to disable access to resources of the remote server by all application registered at the device to the first local group but not by any application locally registered to the second local group at the device.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, further including continuing to provide access to resources of the remote server to applications registered to the second local group.