System and method for controlling a websphere portal without the requirement of having the administrator credential ID and password

• US 7,992,191 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2008
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: DeJana, Ryan G., Portilla, Jesus I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Song; Hosuk
• Application Number:
  US12/054,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20090249450A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: 726 2- 7, 726 16- 21, 713/168, 713/183, 713193-194
• US Class Current: 726/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application

Abstract

A system and method for securely controlling (e.g., “starting” and “stopping”) a WebSphere Portal (WP) in a production environment without the requirement of having knowledge of (and using) the administrator credentials (ID and password). The system and method, as implemented in a Java application, receives from requesting users and determines whether the requesting users are authorized to control (start/stop) the portal by comparing each requesting user'"'"'s ID and PW against a list of authorized user IDs and PWs and, if there is a match, passing on the authorized user ID and PW to the portal for controlling (starting/stopping) the WebSphere Portal. The system and method further conveys portal control request authorized user acceptances or portal control request unauthorized user rejections—depending upon whether the requesting user'"'"'s ID and PW matches any of the list of authorized user IDs and PWs.

Claims

1. A method, in a Java application executing on a computer device, the Java application having Java application code which has a Java code interface, for receiving control requests from requesting users and determining whether the requesting users are authorized to control a portal, the portal having portal control application code which has a portal control code interface, the method comprising the steps of:

a. receiving, on the computer device at the Java code interface, a request to control the portal;

b. parsing, on the computer device by the Java application, the portal control request for obtaining the requesting user identification (ID) and associated password (PW);

c. comparing, on the computer device by the Java application, the requesting user ID and PW with a list which are authorized to control the portal;

d. determining whether the requesting user ID and associated PW match any of the user IDs and associated PWs in the list of authorized user IDs and associated PWs;

e. if not, skipping to step g;

f. if so, conveying the authorized user ID and PW to the Java code interface and conveying the authorized user ID and PW, from the Java code interface, to the Java application as an authorized requesting user; and

g. ending the method.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the portal is a WebSphere portal.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the request to control the portal is a “

start”

request.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the request to control the portal is a “

stop”

request.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein step e, prior to the skipping to the step g step, further comprises the step of conveying to the requesting user an unauthorized user rejection notification.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein step f further comprises the step of conveying to the requesting user an authorized user acceptance notification performed concurrently with the steps of conveying the authorized user ID and PW to the Java code interface and conveying the authorized user ID and PW, from the Java code interface, to the Java application as an authorized requesting user.

7. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium including computer usable program code comprising Java application code which has a Java code interface for implementing a method for receiving control requests from requesting users and determining whether the requesting users are authorized to control a portal, the portal having portal control application code which has a portal control code interface, the method comprising the steps of:

a. at the Java code interface, receiving a request to control the portal;

b. parsing, by the Java application, the portal control request for obtaining the requesting user identification (ID) and associated password (PW);

c. comparing, by the Java application, the requesting user ID and PW with a list which are authorized to control the portal;

d. determining whether the requesting user ID and associated PW match any of the user IDs and associated PWs in the list of authorized user IDs and associated PWs;

e. if not, skipping to step g;

f. if so, conveying the authorized user ID and PW to the Java code interface and conveying the authorized user ID and PW, from the Java code interface, to the Java application as an authorized requesting user; and

g. ending the method.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the portal is a WebSphere portal.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the request to control the portal is a “

start”

request.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the request to control the portal is a “

stop”

request.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein, in the method, step e, prior to the skipping to the step g step, further comprises the step of conveying to the requesting user an unauthorized user rejection notification.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein, in the method, step f further comprises the step of conveying to the requesting user an authorized user acceptance notification performed concurrently with the steps of conveying the authorized user ID and PW to the Java code interface and conveying the authorized user ID and PW, from the Java code interface, to the Java application as an authorized requesting user.

13. A system for receiving control requests from requesting users and determining whether the requesting users are authorized to control a portal, the portal having portal control application code which has a portal control code interface, the system comprising at least one computer device, having a Java application having Java application code and a Java code interface, the Java application code having a table having list of authorized user identifications (IDs) and associated passwords (PWs), the Java code interface having code for receiving control requests from requesting users from a portal control request channel, for parsing those requests to obtain the requesting user IDs and PWs and for passing to the Java application code, the Java application code having code for comparing those requesting user IDs and PWs with the list of authorized user IDs and associated PWs in the table and for passing the requesting user ID and PW to the portal control application code and the portal control code interface via an authorized user portal control request channel if it matches an authorized user ID and associated PW in the table.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the portal is a WebSphere Portal.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the Java application code further has code for conveying a portal control request authorized user acceptance to the requesting user if there is a match.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the portal control request authorized user acceptance is conveyed to the requesting user via the portal control request response channel.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the Java application code further has code for conveying a portal control request unauthorized user rejection to the requesting user if there is no match.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the portal control request unauthorized user rejection is conveyed to the requesting user via the portal control request response channel.