Methods and apparatus for providing shared access to an application

• US 6,748,420 B1
• Filed: 10/11/2000
• Issued: 06/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cleasby, Andrew R., Gladstein, Brian S., Anuszczyk, Jeffrey J., Cummings, Charles D., Quatrano, Stephen R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harvey, Jack B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phan, Tam T.
• Application Number:
  US09/685,725
• Time in Patent Office: 1,336 Days
• Field of Search: 709/205, 709/204, 709/227, 709/228, 709/220, 370/260, 370/261, 370/262, 370/270, 370/432, 345/751, 345/753, 711/118, 711/126
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/15 Synchronised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2119 Authenticating web pages, e.g. with suspicious links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2871 Implementation details of single intermediate entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

The system of the invention provides a collaboration adapter which can be integrated into a web server or a web/application server to allow multiple computer user participants to access a single shared session to an application in a collaborative manner. The system of the invention allows a participant to create a shared session and to associate a participant identity to the shared session as the shared session owner. From thereon, participants can join the shared session and submit requests for application response information to the web server containing the collaboration adapter. In cases where the application response information must be obtained from the application, the invention substitutes participant session identification information in an original participant request with shared session identification information to create an altered request and then forwards the altered request to the application.

Claims

1. A method for providing participant access to an application, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a first request from a first participant via a first participant session to access the application via a shared session, the shared session allowing access to the application by at least one participant;

substituting participant session identification information identifying the first participant session within the first request with shared session identification information identifying the shared session to create an altered request; and

forwarding the altered request to the application such that the application operates to produce application response information in accordance with shared session identification information contained in the altered request, independently of participant session identification information contained in the first request.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

receiving application response information from the application in response to operating on the altered request;

caching the application response information in a cache of application response information; and

forwarding the application response information to the first participant via the first participant session to allow the first participant to access the application via the shared session.

3. The method of claim 2 further including the steps of:

identifying a second request received from a second participant via a second participant session as a request to join the shared session to access the application; and

forwarding the application response information that is cached to the second participant via the second participant session such that the application does not need to process the second request.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of forwarding includes substituting shared session identification information in the application response information with participant session identification information, such that the application response information is forwarded to the first participant using a response associated with the first participant session.

5. The method of claim 1 including steps of:

generating shared session identification information that uniquely identifies the shared session;

associating the first participant session to the shared session;

generating shared session participant information for the first participant, the shared session participant information for the first participant uniquely identifying the first participant as a participant in the shared session; and

providing the shared session participant information to the first participant via the first participant session.

6. The method of claim 1 further including the step of:

determining if application response information appropriate to the request is present in a cache of application response information, and if so, forwarding the application response information appropriate to the request from the cache to the participant via the participant session such that the request does not have to be processed by the application via the shared session, and if not, performing the steps of substituting and forwarding to obtain application response information appropriate to the request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first participant uses a web browser to generate the first request and the application is run on a web-based server device that generates and transmits the response information depending on the first request, the application receiving additional requests from other participants of the shared session, the web-based server supporting concurrent access by the other participants to response information generated on behalf of the first participant.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first participant is an agent that controls which response information is generated by the application during the shared session, and the other participants of the shared session selectively obtain different portions of the response information based on the additional requests to the application by the other participants of the shared session.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the application serves appropriate response information to the other participants based on the additional requests, the application at the web-based appearing to receive the additional requests from the agent even though the additional requests are received from the other participants.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the different portions of response information are utilized by the other participants to view different portions of web page information.

11. A method for providing participant access to an application, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a first request from a first participant via a first participant session to access the application via a shared session, the shared session allowing access to the application by at least one participant;

substituting participant session identification information identifying the first participant session within the first request with shared session identification information identifying the shared session to create an altered request;

forwarding the altered request to the application such that the application operates to produce application response information in accordance with shared session identification information contained in the altered request, independently of participant session identification information contained in the first request; and

determining if the first participant is an owner of the shared session, and if so, including any application specific state information within the application response information forwarded to the first participant, and if not, excluding any application specific state information within the application response information forwarded to the first participant.

12. The method of claim 11 further including the step of:

associating the second participant session to the shared session.

13. The method of claim 12 further including the step of:

identifying the first request from the first participant as a request to create a shared session.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the step of generating shared session identification information that uniquely identifies the shared session generates the shared session identification information based on the first request from the first participant which causes the first participant to be the owner of the shared session; and

wherein the shared session identification information includes at least one of;

i;

participant identification information associated with the first participant;

ii;

a name associated with the shared session;

iii;

access control information associated with the first participant that is required to access the application;

iv;

communications response buffer information associated with the first participant session; and

v;

a network address associated with the first participant session.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the step of associating a session of the participant providing the second request includes the steps of:

generating shared session participant identification information for the second participant; and

associating the shared session participant identification information for the second participant to the shared session; and

wherein the step of forwarding the application response information that is received in response to the altered request to the second participant includes the step of providing the shared session participant identification information generated for the second participant to the second participant along with the application response information.

16. A method for providing multiple participant access to an application via a shared session, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a participant via a participant session to access the application via the shared session; and

determining if application response information appropriate to the request is present in a cache of application response information, and if so, forwarding the application response information appropriate to the request from the cache to the participant via the participant session such that the request does not have to be processed by the application via the shared session, and if not, performing the steps of;

substituting participant session identification information identifying the participant session within the request with shared session identification information identifying the shared session to create an altered request; and

forwarding the altered request to the application such that the application operates to produce application response information in accordance with shared session identification information contained in the altered request, independently of participant session identification information contained in the request.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of determining further includes the steps of:

receiving application response information from the application in response to the application operating on the altered request;

caching the application response information in the cache of application response information; and

forwarding the application response information received in response to the application operating on the altered request to the participant via the participant session to allow the participant to access the application via the shared session.

18. The method of claim 17 further including the steps of:

receiving a second request from a second participant via a second participant session to access application response information received in response to the application forwarding the altered request; and

in response to receiving the second request, forwarding the application response information cached in response to the application forwarding the altered request to the second participant via the second participant session to allow the second participant to access the application response information via the shared session without requiring the application to operate on the second request.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein if the second request is received before completion of the step of receiving application response information from the application in response to the application operating on the altered request, the method performs the steps of:

forwarding a predefined response to the second participant via the second participant session indicating that the application response information requested is not yet available; and

deferring processing of the step of forwarding the application response information in response to receiving the second request until the application has operated on the altered request to produce the application response information requested in the first and second requests.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of forwarding the application response information include the step of:

determining if a participant requesting the application response information is the owner of the shared session, and if so, including application specific state information within the application response information before forwarding the application response information, and if not, excluding application specific state information within the application response information before forwarding the application response information.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the steps of forwarding the application response information include the steps of:

determining an identity of a participant requesting the application response information;

altering content of the application response information based on the identity of the participant requesting the application response information; and

forwarding the application response information to the participant requesting the application response information.

22. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of forwarding the altered request includes the steps of:

determining a participant identity of a first participant requesting the application response information; and

including the identity of the first participant in the altered request in addition to shared session identification information to allow the application to conditionally operate on the altered request based on the identity of the participant, independently of shared session identification information contained in the altered request.

23. The method of claim 16 further including the step of:

deciding if the request is valid to access the application via the shared session by consulting an access control list associated with the shared session, and if so, allowing access to the shared session by the first participant as specified in the access control list, and if not, rejecting access to the shared session by the first participant.

24. The method of claim 16 including the steps of:

receiving a subsequent request from a participant to the shared session to access the application response information requested in the first request; and

determining if the application response information is available without forwarding an altered request to the application, and if so, forwarding the application response information to the participant to the shared session originating the subsequent request.

25. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of receiving a first request includes the steps of:

detecting a transfer shared session ownership command within the first request; and

authenticating that the participant is authorized to transfer ownership of the shared session, and if so, substituting a shared session participant identity defined within the shared session identification information with shared session participant identification associated with the participant, such that the participant becomes the owner of the shared session.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the shared session identification information is distributed and accessible by multiple collaborative servers.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein a first participant uses a web browser to generate a first request to create a shared session, and the application is run on a web-based server device that generates and transmits the application response information depending on the first request, the application receiving additional requests from other participants of the shared session, the web-based server supporting concurrent access by the other participants to application response information generated on behalf of the first participant.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the first participant is an agent that controls which application response information is generated by the application during the shared session, and the other participants of the shared session selectively obtain different portions of the application response information based on the additional requests to the application by the other participants of the shared session.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the application serves appropriate application response information to the other participants based on the additional requests, the application at the web-based server device appearing as though to receive the additional requests from the agent even though the additional requests are received from the other participants.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the different portions of response information are utilized by the other participants to view different portions of web page information generated by the web-based server.

31. A computer system providing participant access to an application, the computer system comprising:

an input/output interface

at least one memory system; and

a processor coupled to the input/output interface and the at least one memory system;

the at least one memory system encoded with an application and a server process including a collaboration adapter that, when performed on the processor, causes the computer system to perform the operations of;

receiving, over the input/output interface, a first request from a first participant via a first participant session to access the application via a shared session between the web server and the application, the shared session allowing access to the application by at least one participant;

substituting, in the at least one memory system, participant session identification information identifying the first participant session within the first request with shared session identification information identifying the shared session to create an altered request;

forwarding the altered request to the application such that the application operates to produce application response information in accordance with shared session identification information contained in the altered request, independently of participant session identification information contained in the first request; and

determining if application response information appropriate to the request is present in a cache of application response information, and if so, forwarding the application response information appropriate to the request from the cache to the participant via the participant session such that the request does not have to be processed by the application via the shared session, and if not, performing the steps of substituting and forwarding to obtain application response information appropriate to the request.

32. The computer system of claim 31 wherein the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to further perform the operations of:

receiving application response information from the application in response to operating on the altered request;

caching the application response information in a cache of application response information in the at least one memory system; and

forwarding the application response information to the first participant over the input/output interface via the first participant session to allow the first participant to access the application via the shared session.

33. The computer system of claim 32 wherein when the processor performs the step of forwarding, the processor performs operations including substituting shared session identification information in the application response information with participant session identification information, such that the application response information is forwarded to the first participant using a response associated with the first participant session.

34. The computer system of claim 31 wherein when the processor performs the operation of associating a session of the participant providing second request, the processor further causes the computer system to perform the operations of:

generating shared session participant identification information for the second participant;

associating the shared session participant identification information for the second participant to the shared session; and

wherein the operation of forwarding the application response information that is received in response to the altered request to the second participant includes an operation of providing the shared session participant identification information generated for the second participant to the second participant over the input/output interface along with the application response information.

35. The computer system of claim 31 wherein the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to further perform the operations of:

identifying the first request from the first participant as a request to create a shared session;

generating shared session identification information that uniquely identifies the shared session;

associating the first participant session to the shared session;

generating shared session participant information for the first participant, the shared session participant information for the first participant uniquely identifying the first participant as a participant in the shared session; and

providing the shared session participant information to the first participant via the first participant session.

36. The computer system of claim 35 wherein the processor further performs operation of:

identifying the first request from the first participant as a request to create a shared session.

37. The computer system of claim 35 wherein when the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to perform the operation of generating shared session identification information that uniquely identifies the shared session, the processor further performs the operation of generating the shared session identification information based on the first request from the first participant which causes the first participant to be the owner of the shared session;

and

wherein the shared session identification information includes at least one of;

i;

participant identification information associated with the first participant;

ii;

a name associated with the shared session;

iii;

access control information associated with the first participant that is required to access the application;

iv;

communications response buffer information associated with the first participant session; and

v;

a network address associated with the first participant session.

38. The computer system of claim 31 wherein the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to further perform the operations of:

determining if application response information appropriate to the request is present in a cache of application response information, and if so, forwarding the application response information appropriate to the request from the cache to the participant via the participant session such that the request does not have to be processed by the application via the shared session, and if not, performing the steps of substituting and forwarding to obtain application response information appropriate to the request.

39. The computer system of claim 31 wherein the server operates as a web server computing system and wherein the application operates as an application server computing system that is different than the web server computing system.

40. A computer system providing participant access to an application, the computer system comprising:

an input/output interface

at least one memory system; and

a processor coupled to the input/output interface and the at least one memory system;

the at least one memory system encoded with an application and a server process including a collaboration adapter that, when performed on the processor, causes the computer system to perform the operations of;

receiving, over the input/output interface, a first request from a first participant via a first participant session to access the application via a shared session between the web server and the application, the shared session allowing access to the application by at least one participant;

substituting, in the at least one memory system, participant session identification information identifying the first participant session within the first request with shared session identification information identifying the shared session to create an altered request; and

forwarding the altered request to the application such that the application operates to produce application response information in accordance with shared session identification information contained in the altered request, independently of participant session identification information contained in the first request; and

determining if the first participant is an owner of the shared session, and if so, including any application specific state information within the application response information forwarded to the first participant, and if not, excluding any application specific state information within the application response information forwarded to the first participant.

41. The computer system of claim 40 wherein the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to further perform the operations of:

identifying a second request received over the input/output interface from a second participant via a second participant session as a request to join the shared session to access the application; and

forwarding the application response information that is cached over the input/output interface to the second participant via the second participant session such that the application does not need to process the second request.

42. The computer system arrangement of claim 41 wherein the processor further performs the operation of associating the second participant session to the shared session.

43. A computer system for providing multiple participant access to an application via a shared session, the computer system including:

an input/output interface

at least one memory system; and

a processor coupled to the input/output interface and the at least one memory system;

the at least one memory system encoded with an application and a web server process including a collaboration adapter that, when performed on the processor, causes the computer system to perform the operations of;

receiving a first request from a first participant via a first participant session to access the application via the shared session; and

determining if application response information appropriate to the request is present in a cache of application response information, and if so, forwarding the application response information specified in the request from the cache to the participant via the participant session such that the request does not have to be processed by the application via the shared session, and if not, performing the steps of;

substituting participant session identification information identifying the participant session within the request with shared session identification information identifying the shared session to create an altered request; and

forwarding the altered request to the application such that the application operates to produce application response information in accordance with shared session identification information contained in the altered request, independently of participant session identification information contained in the request.

44. The computer system of claim 43 wherein the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to further perform the operations of:

receiving application response information from the application in response to the application operating on the altered request;

caching the application response information in the cache of application response information; and

forwarding the application response information received in response to the application operating on the altered request to the participant via the participant session to allow the participant to access the application via the shared session.

45. The computer system of claim 43 wherein the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to further perform the operations of:

receiving a second request from a second participant via a second participant session to access application response information received in response to the application operating on the altered request; and

in response to receiving the second request, forwarding the application response information cached in response to the application operating on the altered request to the second participant via the second participant session to allow the second participant to access the application response information via the shared session without requiring the application to operate on the second request.

46. The computer system of claim 45, wherein when the processor performs the steps of forwarding the application response information, the processor further causes the computer system to perform the operation of:

determining if a participant requesting the application response information is the owner of the shared session, and if so, including application specific state information within the application response information before forwarding the application response information over the input/output interface, and if not, excluding application specific state information within the application response information before forwarding the application response information over the input/output interface.

47. The computer system of claim 45, wherein when the processor performs the steps of forwarding the application response information, the processor further causes the computer system to perform the operations of:

determining an identity of a participant requesting the application response information;

altering content of the application response information based on the identity of the participant requesting the application response information; and

forwarding the application response information to the participant requesting the application response information.

48. The computer system of claim 45 wherein if the second request is received over the input/output interface before completion of the step of receiving application response information from the application in response to the application operating on the altered request, the processor further causes the computer system to perform the operations of:

forwarding a predefined response to the second participant over the input/output interface via the second participant session indicating that the application response information requested is not yet available; and

deferring processing of the step of forwarding the application response information in response to receiving the second request until the application has operated on the altered request to produce the application response information requested in the first and second requests.

49. The computer system of claim 43 wherein when the processor performs the steps of forwarding the altered request, the processor further causes the computer system to perform the operations of:

determining a participant identity of a first participant requesting the application response information; and

including the identity of the first participant in the altered request in addition to shared session identification information to allow the application to conditionally operate on the altered request based on the identity of the participant, independently of shared session identification information contained in the altered request.

50. The computer system of claim 43 wherein the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to further perform the operation of:

deciding if the request is valid to access the application via the shared session by consulting an access control list associated with the shared session, and if so, allowing access to the shared session by the first participant as specified in the access control list, and if not, rejecting access to the shared session by the first participant.

51. The computer system of claim 43 wherein the processor performs the web server process including the collaboration adapter to cause the computer system to further perform the operations of:

receiving, over the input/output interface, a subsequent request from a participant to the shared session to access the application response information requested in the first request; and

determining if the application response information is available without forwarding an altered request to the application, and if so, forwarding the application response information to the participant to the shared session originating the subsequent request.

52. The computer system of claim 43 wherein when the processor performs the operation of receiving a first request, the processor causes the computer system to further perform the operations of:

detecting a transfer shared session ownership command within the first request; and

authenticating that the participant is authorized to transfer ownership of the shared session, and if so, substituting a shared session participant identity defined within the shared session identification information with shared session participant identification associated with the participant, such that the participant becomes the owner of the shared session.

53. The computer system of claim 43, wherein the shared session identification information is distributed and accessible by multiple collaborative servers included within the computer system arrangement.

54. A computer program product having a computer-readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon for providing multiple participant access to an application via a shared session, such that the computer program logic, when executed on at least one processing unit within the computerized device, causes the at least one processing unit to perform the steps of:

receiving a request from a participant via a participant session to access the application via the shared session; and

determining if application response information appropriate to the request is present in a cache of application response information, and if so, forwarding the application response information appropriate to the request from the cache to the participant via the participant session such that the request does not have to be processed by the application via the shared session, and if not, performing the steps of;

substituting participant session identification information identifying the participant session within the request with shared session identification information identifying the shared session to create an altered request; and

forwarding the altered request to the application such that the application operates to produce application response information in accordance with shared session identification information contained in the altered request, independently of participant session identification information contained in the request.

55. The computer program product of claim 54 wherein the computer program logic, when executed on the at least one processing unit, further causes the processing unit to perform the steps of:

receiving application response information from the application in response to the application operating on the altered request;

caching the application response information in the cache of application response information; and

forwarding the application response information received in response to the application operating on the altered request to the participant via the participant session to allow the participant to access the application via the shared session.

56. The computer program product of claim 54 wherein the computer program logic, when executed on the at least one processing unit, further causes the processing unit to perform the steps of:

receiving a second request from a second participant via a second participant session to access application response information received in response to the application operating on the altered request; and

in response to receiving the second request, forwarding the application response information cached in response to the application operating on the altered request to the second participant via the second participant session to allow the second participant to access the application response information via the shared session without requiring the application to operate on the second request.