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Integrating business tools in a social networking environment

  • US 9,231,939 B1
  • Filed: 10/09/2012
  • Issued: 01/05/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

  • receiving, with one or more processors, a request for allowing a user with a personal account on a social network to also access a business account on the social network, the request including user information, the user information including a user name, an association type, and an access level;

    transmitting, with the one or more processors, a registration request to an application server for associating the user with permission settings for accessing the business tool account and a subset of applications that are integrated into the business tool account,wherein the application server generates an access token indicating the permission settings, registers the user, and stores the access token;

    generating, with the one or more processors, an association between the user'"'"'s personal account and the business tool account on the social network, wherein generating the association comprises receiving the access token from the application server and associating the access token with the user information;

    receiving, with the one or more processors, a request from the user to access the business tool account in response to the user clicking on a tools icon that is integrated into a graphical user interface associated with the personal account of the user;

    providing the user with single sign-in access to the business tool account on the social network directly from the graphical user interface associated with the personal account of the user through a portal by engaging an icon in the graphical user interface associated with the personal account of the user;

    providing the user with access to the subset of applications integrated into the business tool account based on the association type and the access level directly from the graphical user interface associated with the personal account of the user through the portal;

    transmitting, with the one or more processors, an access request to the application server for accessing application information associated with one of the subset of applications, the access request comprising authentication information including the access token,wherein the application server determines whether the user has permission to access the application information by comparing the received access token to the previously stored access token, and generates graphical data for displaying the application information if the user has permission; and

    receiving a response from the application server that indicates successful authentication and includes the graphical data for displaying the requested application information to the user.

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