APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR USING A DIRECTORY SERVICE FOR A USER REGISTRY

• US 20070220015A1
• Filed: 05/22/2007
• Published: 09/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fleming, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 7,653,750 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

An apparatus and method provide an architected way for a web server to access a user registry in a directory service such as LDAP. In the preferred embodiments, the logic for presenting and processing a web page is encapsulated from the logic that interacts with the directory service, making it easy for a programmer to make changes to the a user registration form without having to have a detailed knowledge of the directory service and its interfaces.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a user registration web page residing in the memory;

a page server mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor that renders the user registration web page to a user;

a user registration servlet residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor that receives data from the user registration web page when the user submits the user registration web page and that formats the data into an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document;

a user registry Java bean residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor that receives the XML document and that generates therefrom a Directory Service Markup Language (DSML) document according to information in an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) stylesheet;

a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor that accesses an LDAP directory that has a plurality of entries, the plurality of entries including at least one entry that contains user registry information; and

an LDAP Java bean residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor that receives the DSML document and generates therefrom at least one command to the LDAP server to access the user registry information in the LDAP directory.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein user registration servlet is provided within a web server application.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the data comprises one or more attributes chosen from the group consisting of:

a first name, a last name, a user identifier, a password, an eMail address, and a telephone number.

4. A method for accessing a user registry stored in an LDAP directory, the method comprising the steps of:

(A) displaying a form to a user;

(B) receiving data in the form from the user;

(C) extracting the data from the form;

(D) formatting the extracted data into an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document;

(E) processing the XML document using information in an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) stylesheet to generate a Directory Service Markup Language (DSML) document;

(F) processing the DSML document, and generating therefrom at least one command to access the user registry in the LDAP directory.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the data comprises one or more attributes chosen from the group consisting of:

a first name, a last name, a user identifier, a password, an eMail address, and a telephone number.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the data comprises the user security information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising using the user security information to selectively allow access to a web site.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising customizing the presentation of at least one web page according to the extracted data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one command to access the user registry in the LDAP directory comprises Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) commands.

10. A program product comprising:

(A) a user registration page that includes a user registration web page;

(B) a page server mechanism that renders the user registration web page to a user;

(C) a user registration servlet that receives data from the user registration web page and that formats the data into an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document;

(D) a user registry Java bean that receives the XML document and that generates therefrom a Directory Service Markup Language (DSML) document according to information in an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) stylesheet;

(E) a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server that accesses an LDAP directory that has a plurality of entries, the plurality of entries including at least one entry that contains user registry information;

(F) an LDAP Java bean that receives the DSML document and generates therefrom at least one command to the LDAP server to access the user registry information in the LDAP directory; and

(G) tangible, computer-readable media bearing (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) and (F).

11. The program product of claim 10, wherein the tangible, computer-readable media comprises recordable media.

12. The program product of claim 10, wherein the tangible, computer-readable media comprises transmission media.