Sharing a sign-in among software applications having secured features
First Claim
1. A method for sharing a sign-in operation among two or more software applications, wherein the software applications each have one or more secured features comprising:
- receiving a request to sign-in to a first running software application in order to have access to the secured features of the first running software application;
processing a same credential to enter an access signed-in state within the first running software application to grant access to the secured features of the first running software application and secured features of other software applications wherein processing the same credential comprises;
receiving a credential;
detecting whether the credential is authentic; and
in response to the credential being authentic, receiving and storing authentication information, writing the credential to a shared memory, and sending notification to the other running software applications indicating an access sign-in has occurred without authenticating any secured featured;
in response to entering the access signed-in state within the first running software application, detecting whether one or more of the other software applications with secured features are running; and
in response to the access signed-in state and to one or more other software applications with secured features running, transitioning one or more of the other running software applications to a ready signed-in state with access to the same credential for granting access to the secured features of the other software applications;
wherein the other running software applications comprise software applications in run mode and software applications that are starting.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In the present invention, when one open or running software application having secured features enters an access signed-in or logged-in state, other open or running software applications having secured features enter a ready signed-in state automatically, without prompting user intervention. The same operation that signed-in or logged-in the initial software application will transition other software applications that are presently open, active to run, or that start in run mode to a ready signed-in state. The access signed-in state fully authenticates the user'"'"'s identity and grants access to secured features. The ready signed-in state places the software application in a state of readiness to authenticate and access secured features without prompting user intervention. One feature of the present invention is the sharing of a sign-in or login credential (e.g. username and password) and the processing of the shared credential in order to provide a universal, shared sign-in session between open software applications having secured features. This feature helps provide a user experience that in effect, has only one sign-in or login session for software applications with secured features.
-
Citations
26 Claims
-
1. A method for sharing a sign-in operation among two or more software applications, wherein the software applications each have one or more secured features comprising:
-
receiving a request to sign-in to a first running software application in order to have access to the secured features of the first running software application; processing a same credential to enter an access signed-in state within the first running software application to grant access to the secured features of the first running software application and secured features of other software applications wherein processing the same credential comprises; receiving a credential; detecting whether the credential is authentic; and in response to the credential being authentic, receiving and storing authentication information, writing the credential to a shared memory, and sending notification to the other running software applications indicating an access sign-in has occurred without authenticating any secured featured; in response to entering the access signed-in state within the first running software application, detecting whether one or more of the other software applications with secured features are running; and in response to the access signed-in state and to one or more other software applications with secured features running, transitioning one or more of the other running software applications to a ready signed-in state with access to the same credential for granting access to the secured features of the other software applications; wherein the other running software applications comprise software applications in run mode and software applications that are starting. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A computer program product readable by a computing system and encoding instructions for executing a computer process for logging-in to a software application, wherein the software application has one or more secured features, the computer process comprising:
-
receiving a request to enter a logged-in state within a single software application in order to have access to the secured features of the single application; verifying a credential to enter an access logged-in state within the single software application;
to grant access to the secured features of the single software application and secured features of other software applications;detecting whether one or more other software applications are open; in response to one or more other software applications being open, advancing the open software applications to a ready logged-in state with access to the same credential for granting access to the secured features of the other software applications; receiving a request to access a secured feature within the software application when the software application is in a ready logged-in state; in response to the request, retrieving and transmitting the credential for validation; and in response to the credential being validated, receiveing and storing authentication information and advancing the software application from the ready logged-in state to the access logged-in state. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. A system for sharing a sign-in operation among two or more applications, each application having at least one secured feature, the system comprising:
-
a receipt module receiving a request to sign-in to a first running software application having a secured feature; a credential module validating a sign-in input for the first running software application and changing the state of the first running software application to an access signed-in state indicating access to a secured feature; a transition module responsive to the credential module and detecting that a second software application is running changing the state of a second running software application having a secure feature to a ready signed-in state with access to the sign-in input; a memory unit storing a shared credential in a shared memory; and a processing unit receiving a request to access a secured feature within a software application when the software application is in the ready signed-in state, in response to receiving the request, retrieving the shared credential from the shared memory, detecting whether the sign-in is authentic, and in response to the sign-in input being authentic, receiving and storing authentication information for accessing the secured feature of the second software application whereby the second software application is transitioned from the ready signed-in state to the access signed-in state and the secured feature is accessed. - View Dependent Claims (26)
-
Specification