DYNAMICALLY CONFIGURING EXTENSIBLE ROLE BASED MANAGEABLE RESOURCES

• US 20080072316A1
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Published: 03/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: CHANG, DAVID YU, Venkataramappa, Vishwanath, Chang, John Yow-Chung
• Granted Patent: US 7,874,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1458 by checking the subject access rights

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for dynamically altering the capabilities of a software application in response to a request from a user to perform an action in the application. Based on the user'"'"'s security role, the software application is reconfigured by either granting access to the user to an existing component of the application, or if no suitable component is available, adding an external vendor component to the software application which is suitable for performing the requested action.

Claims

10. A computer program product for dynamically configuring software, the computer program product comprising a computer useable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program upon being executed on a computer causes the computer to:

detect a request to perform an action using an existing configuration of the software;

retrieve a security role for a user account associated with the request, said security role defining an extent of access to the existing configuration;

determine that the security role with the existing configuration is insufficient to perform the action; and

indicate additional software for potentially adding to the existing configuration, said additional software being capable of performing the action.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further causing the computer to:

determine whether a vendor software product is available to perform said action.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein determining whether the vendor software product is available comprises connecting to a vendor website via the Internet.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further causing the computer to:

automatically acquiring said vendor software product for performing the action.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein determining whether the vendor software product is available comprises checking a list stored with the existing configuration.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein computer program product results in a plurality of vendor software products being available to perform said action, the computer program product further causing the computer to:

provide a list of the plurality of software products.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the existing configuration is capable of performing the action, the computer program product further causing the computer to:

determine whether a vendor software product is available which is more suitable for performing said action than the existing configuration.

17. A system for dynamically configuring software, the system comprising:

a memory configured to store an existing configuration of the software;

logic for detecting a request to perform an action using the existing configuration;

logic for retrieving a security role for a user account associated with the request, said security role defining an extent of access to the existing configuration;

logic for determining that the security role with the existing configuration is insufficient to perform the action; and

logic for indicating additional software for potentially adding to the existing configuration, said additional software being capable of performing the action.

1. A method for dynamically configuring software, the method comprising:

detecting a request to perform an action using an existing configuration of the software;

retrieving a security role for a user account associated with the request, said security role defining an extent of access to the existing configuration;

determining that the security role with the existing configuration is insufficient to perform the action; and

indicating additional software for potentially adding to the existing configuration, said additional software being capable of performing the action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the existing configuration comprises a software application and the additional software is a component.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the existing configuration is not capable of performing the action.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a vendor software product is available to perform said action.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of determining comprises connecting to a vendor website via the Internet.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

automatically acquiring said vendor software product for performing the action.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of determining comprises checking a list stored with the existing configuration.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of determining results in a plurality of vendor software products being available to perform said action, the method further comprising:

providing a list of the plurality of software products.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the existing configuration is capable of performing the action, the method further comprising:

determining whether a vendor software product is available which is more suitable for performing said action than the existing configuration.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

logic for determining whether a vendor software product is available to perform said action.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

logic for automatically acquiring said vendor software product for performing the action.

18-1. The system of claim 17, wherein the logic for determining comprises means for connecting to a vendor website via the Internet.