Method and apparatus for sharing server resources using a local group

• US 9,419,962 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2014
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Biswas, Sanjeev Kumar, Sadhwani, Dhiraj, Ekka, Pradeep Cyril
• Primary Examiner(s): LEMMA, SAMSON B
• Application Number:
  US14/305,759
• Publication Number:
  US 20150365399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• Field of Search: 726/8, 713/172
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/00 Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units program control for peripheral devices G06F13/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations

Abstract

A computer implemented method and apparatus for sharing server resources. One or more applications are registered to a first local group on a device, and one or more applications are registered to a second local group on the device. If a user and device have been authenticated, and a device token already acquired for obtaining authorization for a first application of the first local group to access resources from a server, the same device token is available for use in obtaining authorization for a second application of the first group to access (share) resources from the server. Thus, the user need not re-submit authentication credentials to the authorization server. When the user signs out of an application of the same group, the sign out procedure is processed locally for all applications of the group. A device token is surrendered when it is not needed by applications of any other group.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for sharing server resources using at least one local group, comprising:

registering a first application to a first local group of applications, wherein each of the applications of the first local group requires access to services of a remote server and wherein the registration is performed at the device and is local to the device;

responsive to launching of the first application from the device, sending user credentials to a remote server to authenticate a user of the device for a plurality of applications on the device requiring server resources;

receiving and locally storing, at the device, a device token from the remote server for the user to authenticate the applications of the first local group;

using the locally stored device token to authenticate the first application;

registering a second application to a second local group at the device, the second application requiring access to services of the remote server and the registration to the second group being local to the device;

receiving, at the device, a request to sign out of the first application; and

locally revoking the device token to disable access to resources of the remote server by all applications registered at the device to the first local group but not any application locally registered to the second local group at the device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the registering of each application to the first or second local group is performed at installation of the application on the device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the registering of each application to the first or second local group comprises invoking, at the device, a library calling an API during installation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising continuing to provide access to resources of the remote server to applications registered to the second local group.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

locally disabling access to resources by all applications registered to the first local group.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein using the locally stored device token to authenticate the first application comprises using the locally stored device token to request and receive an access token from the remote server.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining that no application requiring access to services of the remote server is executing on the device; and

in response to determining that no application requiring access to services of the remote server is executing on the device, providing a notification to the remote server that the access token has been revoked.

6. A computer implemented method for sharing server resources using at least one local group, comprising:

registering, from a plurality of applications requiring access to services of a remote server, a first subset of applications from the plurality of applications to a first local group registry in memory of the computer device;

registering, from a plurality of applications requiring access to services of the remote server, a second subset of applications from the plurality of applications to a second local group registry in memory of the computer device;

responsive to launch of a first application from the first subset of applications registered to the first local group registry, authenticating user credentials and receiving a first device token for automatically authenticating a user associated with the user credentials for any of the applications from the first subset of applications registered to the first local group registry to access the services of the remote server; and

responsive to launch of a second application from the second subset of applications registered to the second local group registry, authenticating the user credentials and receiving a second device token for automatically authenticating the user associated with the user credentials for any of the applications from the second subset of applications registered to the second local group registry to access the services of the remote server.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a request to sign out of the first application; and

revoking, at the computer device, the first device token to disable access to resources on the server by all applications belonging to the first local group registry.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the registering comprises invoking a library from the first application.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the registering is performed at installation of the first and second applications, respectively.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the first application and second application co-reside on the computing device, and wherein the first application and second application share resources on the server.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to launch of another application from the first subset of applications, automatically authenticating the user, wherein automatically authenticating the user comprises;

determining that the user has previously logged into the first application or other application from the first subset of applications; and

responsive to determining that the user has previously logged into the first application or other application from the first subset of applications, retrieving and using the first device token to obtain access to server resources for the another application from the first subset of applications.

18. The method of claim 6, wherein registering comprises invoking, at the computer device, a library calling an API during installation of a given application.

19. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving, at the computer device, a request to sign out of the first application; and

signing out the first application and all applications of the first local group but not any applications of the second local group in response to the request to sign out of the first application.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising revoking the first device token but not the second device token.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium for storing computer instructions that, when executed by at least one processor causes a computing device to perform a method for sharing server resources using a local group comprising:

registering a first application to a first local group of applications, wherein each of the applications of the first local group requires access to services of a remote server and wherein the registration is performed at the device and is local to the device;

responsive to launching the first application from the device, sending user credentials to a remote server to authenticate a user of the device for a plurality of applications on the device requiring server resources;

receiving and locally storing, at the device, a device token from the remote server for the user to authenticate the applications of the first local group;

using the locally stored device token to authenticate the first application; and

responsive to launching of a second application, when the second application is registered to the local group;

automatically retrieving and using the locally stored device token to authenticate the second application without repeating the sending;

registering a third application to a second local group at the device, the third application requiring access to services of the remote server and the registration to the second local group being local to the device;

receiving, at the device, a request to sign out of one of the first and second applications; and

locally revoking the device token to disable access to resources of the remote server by all applications registered at the device to the first local group but not any application locally registered to the second local group at the device.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the registering of each application to the first local group is performed at installation of the application on the device.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the registering of each application to the first local group comprises invoking, at the device, a library calling an API during installation.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 12, further including continuing to provide access to resources of the remote server to applications registered to the second local group.