Removing cookies from web page response headers and storing the cookies in a repository for later use

• US 6,910,180 B1
• Filed: 05/10/1999
• Issued: 06/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cui, Lawrence, Vishwanath, Mohan, Vo, Phan T., Marchukov, Mark Vladimirovich, Mendhekar, Anurag
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar B
• Application Number:
  US09/309,161
• Time in Patent Office: 2,234 Days
• Field of Search: 715/501.1, 715/513, 715/545, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 345/745, 707/501.1, 707/513
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to handle cookies in a response Web page requested by a client. One method includes the steps of (a) generating a session id to identify a new session, (b) striping off any cookies set by an external web site from the response header of the response Web page, (c) appending the session id to all of the links embedded in the response page, and (d)sending the modified response page, with the new header, to the client.

Claims

1. A method to handle cookies in a response Web page requested by a client, the response Web page having a response header, the method comprising:

generating a session id to identify a new session;

stripping off any cookies set by an external web site from the response header of the response Web page and storing the cookies in a repository;

appending the session id to all of the links embedded in the response page; and

sending the modified response page, with the new header, to the client.

2. A method for handling cookies for a client browser, comprising:

generating a unique session id in response to a request from a client browser;

removing any cookies from a response page for the request and storing information contained in each cookie in a cookie repository; and

appending the unique session id to each URL in the response page before sending the response page to the client browser.

3. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether the client browser can accept cookies.

4. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:

encrypting the session id.

5. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:

checking the request for an existing session id before generating a unique session id.

6. A method according to claim 5, further comprising:

retrieving a cookie from the cookie repository corresponding to the existing session id.

7. A method according to claim 6, further comprising:

generating a cookie header corresponding to the retrieved cookie.

9. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:

sending the request to an external Web site corresponding to the request.

10. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:

setting a lifetime for a session corresponding to the unique session id.

11. A method according to claim 10, further comprising:

storing the information from the cookie repository during the lifetime of the session.

12. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether the client browser accepts cookies.

13. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:

receiving the request from the client browser to a proxy server, the proxy server hosting the cookie repository.

8. A method according to clam 7, further comprising:

appending the cookie header to the request.

14. A method to handle cookies in a response Web page requested by a client, the response Web page having a response header, the method comprising:

generating a session id to identify a new session;

stripping off any cookies set by an external web site from the response header of the response Web page at a proxy server;

appending the session id to all of the links embedded in the response page;

sending the modified response page, with the new header, to the client;

receiving a page request for one of the links from the client;

at the proxy server, using the appended session id to construct a cookie header;

adding the cookies header to the page request.