Management of and access to information and other material via the world wide web in an LDAP environment

• US 6,209,036 B1
• Filed: 06/06/1997
• Issued: 03/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Aldred, Barry Keith, Brown, Charles Spencer, Hahn, Timothy J., Stokes, Ellen Jean
• Primary Examiner(s): Geckil, Mehmet B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr., William C.
• Application Number:
  US08/870,718
• Time in Patent Office: 1,390 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/203, 709/206, 709/217, 709/219, 709/227, 709/229, 709/105, 709/202, 707/103, 707/513, 707/514, 707/907
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Provided is a method and apparatus for improved access to material via the World Wide Web Internet service. Web page URLs are stored as attribute-values of directory objects and Web page hyperlinks to those directory objects are provided together with access logic responsive to the hyperlinks for retrieving the URLs for use by a client. This indirect access to Web pages via hyperlinks to directories has significant advantages for Web page organization and facilitates more flexible methods of Web page access than the known use of hyperlinks which include URLs pointing directly to the target Web pages.

Claims

1. A set of components for accessing material via the World Wide Web Internet service, wherein Web pages stored at Web server computers include hyperlinks for use in accessing associated Web pages, wherein some of said hyperlinks comprise directory-reference hyperlinks pointing indirectly to a Web page by providing a link to one or more directory objects of a directory on a directory server computer, said directory objects containing one or more URLs for accessing particular Web pages, and said directory comprising a repository for said directory objects;

and

wherein the set of components includes;

access logic, responsive to user selection at a Web client system of a directory-reference hyperlink which provides directory object locator information for linking to one or more of said directory objects containing one or more URLs, to perform the following steps;

initiating a request to access said one or more directory objects using said directory object locator information provided by said directory-reference hyperlink and performing a directory retrieval operation to retrieve one or more URLs from one of said one or more directory objects, for accessing a respective Web page stored at a Web server computer; and

responding to retrieval of said one or more URLs by initiating a request for retrieval of the respective Web page from the Web server computer using a retrieved URL.

2. A set of components according to claim 1, wherein the access logic comprises:

a first software component for running on the Web client system, the first component being responsive to user selection at the client system of a hyperlink comprising a link to a directory on a directory server computer to initiate sending a request to said directory server computer to perform a directory retrieval operation to retrieve said one or more URLs, and being responsive to receipt from the directory server computer of said retrieved URLs to pass at least one of said URLs to a Web Browser on the Web client system and to invoke the Web Browser to retrieve at least one of said particular Web pages using said URL; and

a second software component for running on the directory server computer for performing said directory retrieval operation in response to said request initiated by said first software component.

3. A set of components according to claim 1, including a Web Browser program, wherein said access logic is adapted to trigger said Web Browser program to access a respective Web page in response to said retrieval of said one or more URLs.

4. A set of components according to claim 1, wherein said access logic comprises an applet for execution on the Web client system, the applet being responsive to user selection at the client system of a hyperlink comprising a link to a directory on a directory server computer to send a request to said directory server computer for retrieval of said one or more URLs, and being responsive to receipt from the directory server computer of said retrieved URLs to pass at least one of said URLs to a Web Browser on the Web client system and to invoke the Web Browser to access at least one of said particular Web pages using said URL.

5. A set of components according to claim 1, wherein the access logic is responsive to selection of a directory-reference hyperlink comprising a link to a directory object within a directory, which hyperlink includes a directory-reference (URL) object locator specifying a named directory object, to request the named directory object or related directory objects from a directory in which stored directory objects have particular URLs as attribute values, and on receipt of a directory object having one or more URLs as attribute values to process the directory object to obtain a URL.

6. A set of components according to claim 5, wherein individual directory objects contain a first URL and one or more FallbackURLs identifying alternative Web pages which are obtained for use in a client request when a first Web page identified by the first URL is unavailable.

7. A set of components according to claim 5, wherein individual directory objects contain a first URL and one or more FailureURLs identifying Web pages having content information relating to Web page access failure, which failure information is relevant to the respective directory object.

8. A set of components according to claim 1, wherein the access logic is responsive to selection of a hyperlink comprising a link to an LDAP directory and specifying a directory object Distinguished Name, and optionally specifying additional directory search criteria, to request one or more directory objects from the LDAP directory and, on receipt of a directory object having one or more Web page URLs as attribute values, to process the directory object to obtain a URL.

9. A set of components according to claim 1, wherein the retrieval of URLs from the directory or provision of retrieved URLs to a client system is conditional on the identity of the client system or of an end user at the client system as specified in the client request.

10. A set of components according to claim 1, wherein the access logic is responsive to index data stored in a directory together with Web page URLs for invoking directory access search operations using said index data.

11. A computer program product for accessing material via the World Wide Web Internet service, wherein Web pages stored at Web server computers include hyperlinks for use in accessing associated Web pages, the computer program product comprising computer readable program code on a computer readable recording medium, wherein some of said hyperlinks comprise directory-reference hyperlinks pointing indirectly to a Web page by providing a link to one or more directory objects of a directory on a directory server computer, said directory objects containing one or more URLs for accessing particular Web pages, and said directory comprising a repository for said directory objects, wherein the program code includes:

program code which is responsive to user selection at a Web client system of a directory-reference hyperlink which provides directory object locator information for linking to one or more of said directory objects containing one or more URLs, to control the operation of a system on which it runs to perform the following steps;

initiating a request to access said one or more directory objects using said directory object location information povided by said directory-reference hyperlink and performing a directory retrieval operation to retrieve one or more URLs from said one or more directory objects, for accessing a respective Web page stored at a Web server computer; and

in response to retrieval of said one or more URLs, initiating a request for retrieval of the respective Web page from the Web server computer using a retrieved URL.

12. A method for accessing material via the World Wide Web Internet service, wherein Web pages stored at Web server computers include hyperlinks for use in accessing associated Web pages, the method comprising the following steps:

in response to user selection at a Web client system of a hyperlink which comprises a directory-reference hyperlink providing directory object locator information for linking to one or more directory objects of a directory on a directory server computer, said directory comprising a repository for directory objects which contain URLs for accessing particular Web pages, performing the following steps;

initiating a request to access said one or more directory objects using said directory object locator information provided by said directory-reference hyperlink; and

performing a directory retrieval operation to retrieve one or more URLs from one of said one or more directory objects, for accessing a respective Web page stored at a Web server computer; and

responding to retrieval of said one or more URLs by automatically initiating a request for retrieval of the respective Web page from the Web server computer using a retrieved URL.

13. A data processing system comprising:

at least one client computer having a Web Browser installed thereon;

at least one server computer storing Web pages identified by Web page URLs, certain of said Web pages including hyperlinks for accessing associated Web pages; and

a directory comprising at least one server computer storing a directory database in which directory objects have Web page URLs as attribute-values;

wherein certain of said hyperlinks comprise directory-reference hyperlinks pointing indirectly to a Web page by providing directory object locator information for linking to one or more directory objects of the directory, said directory objects containing one or more URLs for accessing particular Web pages, and said directory comprising a repository for said directory objects; and

wherein the system includes access logic, responsive to user selection at a client computer of a directory-reference hyperlink which provides directory object locator information for linking to one or more of said directory objects containing one or more URLs, for performing the following steps;

initiating a request to access said one or more directory objects using said directory object locator information provided by said directory-reference hyperlink; and

performing a directory retrieval operation to retrieve from the directory a particular directory object, for processing the directory object to retrieve a Web page URL; and

in response to retrieval of said Web page URL, initiating a request for retrieval of the respective Web page identified by said Web page URL.

14. A data processing system according to claim 13, wherein the access logic comprises an applet stored at a server computer and available for transfer to a client computer in response to a request from the client system for execution at the client computer.

15. A method of providing an access mechanism for accessing material via the World Wide Web Internet service, wherein Web pages include hyperlinks for accessing material stored in associated Web pages, the method including the steps of:

creating one or more directory objects within a directory, the directory objects having attribute-values including URLs for accessing particular Web pages; and

establishing hyperlinks within Web pages comprising directory-reference hyperlinks pointing indirectly to Web pages by providing directory object locator information for linking to one or more directory objects of the directory, said directory objects containing one or more URLs for accessing particular Web pages, and said directory comprising a repository for said directory objects; and

providing access logic, responsive to user selection at a Web client system of a directory-reference hyperlink which provides directory object locator information for linking to one or more of said directory objects containing one or more URLs, for initiating a request to access said one or more directory objects using said directory object locator information provided by said directory-reference hyperlink.

16. A method according to claim 15, including:

providing access logic for initiating a request to access a directory object using said directory object locator information provided by a directory-reference hyperlink and for retrieving a URL from the identified directory object in response to user selection at a Web client system of a directory-reference hyperlink which references the particular directory object within said directory, and, in response to retrieval of said URL, for initiating a request for retrieval of a Web page corresponding to said retrieved URL.