U.S. patent application number 09/072597 was filed with the patent office on 2001-08-02 for client-server system for maintaining a user desktop consistent with server application user access permissions.
Invention is credited to HAYES JR., KENT FILLMORE, KING, BRETT GRAHAM.
Application Number | 20010011341 09/072597 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 22108634 |
Filed Date | 2001-08-02 |
United States Patent
Application |
20010011341 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
HAYES JR., KENT FILLMORE ;
et al. |
August 2, 2001 |
CLIENT-SERVER SYSTEM FOR MAINTAINING A USER DESKTOP CONSISTENT WITH
SERVER APPLICATION USER ACCESS PERMISSIONS
Abstract
A system with a network interconnecting a server and a plurality
of user stations. The server stores a plurality of user
applications for downloading to user stations and further stores
access permissions for the applications for each user. When a user
attempts to log onto the system, the server uses the user's log-on
identifier to build a list of applications for which the user has
access permission. The server downloads to the station a list of
applications to which the user has access permission. The user
station uses the list to build a folder containing only the
applications from the list to which the user has access permission.
The system further verifies from the list that the user has access
to applications that are represented by objects that the user may
have added to his or her desktop at an earlier time. For each user
desktop preference specified by the user at an earlier time that
corresponds to a user application, the access permission for the
user to the user application is checked from the list, and, if the
application is not included on the list, the desktop object
representing the application is removed from the desktop.
Inventors: |
HAYES JR., KENT FILLMORE;
(CHAPEL HILL, NC) ; KING, BRETT GRAHAM; (APEX,
NC) |
Correspondence
Address: |
JERRY W HERNDON
IBM CORPORATION
T81 062
POST OFFICE BOX 12195
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK
NC
27709
|
Family ID: |
22108634 |
Appl. No.: |
09/072597 |
Filed: |
May 5, 1998 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
712/11 ;
709/203 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 63/102 20130101;
H04L 63/083 20130101; H04L 61/00 20130101; G06F 9/451 20180201;
G06F 21/6218 20130101; H04L 67/01 20220501; H04L 61/45 20220501;
G06F 21/604 20130101; H04L 41/22 20130101; H04L 9/40 20220501; H04L
67/306 20130101; H04L 67/34 20130101; H04L 69/329 20130101; H04L
41/0893 20130101; G06F 21/121 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
712/11 ;
709/203 |
International
Class: |
G06F 015/00 |
Claims
What is claimed:
1. In a network system comprising a network interconnecting a
server and a plurality of user stations, a method of managing
desktops on the user stations from the server, wherein the server
stores a plurality of user applications for downloading to user
stations, and further stores access permissions for the
applications for each user, said method comprising receiving at the
server a log-on request including a user identifier from a user
station, using the identifier to build a list of applications for
which the user has access permission, downloading to the station
the list of applications for which the user has access permissions,
and displaying on a portion of the desktop objects corresponding to
each application in the list, said objects when selected by the
user being operative to request a download of the corresponding
application to the user station.
2. The network system of claim 1 further comprising using the user
identifier to built an icon on the desktop that represents a user
application specified by the user at an earlier time, for each user
desktop icon specified by the user at an earlier time that
corresponds to a user application, checking the access permission
for the user to the user application, and omitting from the desktop
any such user-specified icon corresponding to a user application to
which the user does not have access permission.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The invention relates generally to the fields of personal
computing and networking. Specifically, it relates to the new and
evolving field of network computing, in which desktop computer
users use a personal computer, possibly diskless, connected to a
network such as a corporate intranet, the Internet, or to an
network or Internet Service Provider (ISP) to gain access to
applications which are then executed on the desktop computer. More
specifically, the invention relates to server-based storage of
software preferences (configuration data) for software retrieved
from a server and executing at the desktop computer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The field of network computers is presently in its infancy.
However, it is expected to evolve rapidly, especially in the
corporate environment, for a number of reasons. The expectation is
that as companies and possibly individual users reach hardware and
software upgrade points, it will be more efficient and less
expensive to move to this new field, rather than upgrade in the
traditional way with disk equipped computers and locally stored and
administered software applications. For example, in the corporate
environment, a user can be connected to a corporate intranet,
using, for example, the TCP/IP and HTTP protocols of the Internet,
and download software applications as they are needed directly from
a network server to the desktop computer. An application is
executed on the desktop in the traditional manner by the user to
perform useful work. An advantage of this configuration is that
network computers are substantially less expensive than traditional
disk equipped computers. It might also cost less to purchase the
required number of software licenses for users, rather than
purchase individual copies of software for each user. Certainly,
the software administration problems that attend large numbers of
corporate users will be substantially reduced. At the present time,
each user of a disk equipped computer or workstation often is
effectively his or her own system administrator, a role that often
consumes excessive resources due to lack of expertise. It is
expected to be a great advantage to eliminate this problem by
effectively offloading the problem to a small number of server
administration experts, rather than having many users struggle with
the problems of software installation, upgrades and computer
administration.
[0003] As mentioned above, this vision of the future of personal
computing is presently in its infancy. As a result, there are
presently many problems and deficiencies with existing systems.
[0004] Typically, in network computer systems, an administrator
creates user profiles that are stored on a network server. The
profiles may contain different types of information, such as user
desktop preferences and user permissions for access to different
software applications that might reside on the server. When a user
logs onto the system, the user identifies him or herself to the
server, the server locates the profile for the user and transmits
it to the user computer where it is used to configure the computer
and generate a desktop. The desktop might include a number of icons
representing applications to which the user presumably has access.
The profile likely also contains other attributes of the computer
and desktop, such as for example, the background color of the
desktop, or character fonts and point sizes used on the desktop, or
data file search paths, etc. that are unique to the user. The
profiles may be user modifiable or non-modifiable.
[0005] In an environment in which users can modify their own
profiles, a modified profile is uploaded back to the server at
log-off time, where it is stored for retrieval the next time the
user logs-on. In some prior art systems, to the best of our
knowledge, the users can generate on their desktops any
configuration of application icons they wish, whether or not they
exist on the server, and whether or not a user actually has access
permission to an application on the server. The Lotus Workplace
Desktop (previously called Kona Desktop) system is an example of
this type of operation. In other systems, the server presents a
list to the user of all applications that the server has, from
which the user can pick. In this case, there is no guarantee that
the user actually has access permission to an application that is
selected from the list for inclusion on the desktop. The Sun Hot
Java Views system is an example of this type of system. In other
words, the prior art systems do not correlate between what the user
can configure for the set of desktop application icons and
applications to which the user actually has permission access. In
such a case, when the user clicks on a icon to execute an
application, an error message may occur (such as an unauthorized
access message) if access permission is not present, or in a worse
case, the user's computer may crash.
[0006] Another limitation with existing art is that a flat data
structure is used to model users, user groups, terminals and groups
of terminals. Modeled after a common scheme for managing user
access to computer resources, known network computer
implementations (e.g., Lotus Administration Facility for Desktops,
Microsoft Windows NT Profiles and Policies, and Sun Hot Java Views)
implement a flat "groups" structure on the server for managing
software preferences (or attributes) in various contexts. A
"context", as used here, refers to an individual user, user group,
terminal, or terminal group. Any grouping structure for managing
software preferences on the server allows an administrator to
define preference attributes for different groups of users as well
as for individual users. However, flat systems are inflexible in
many environments, especially in environments having large numbers
of users. It is desirable to provide an administrative tool
supporting the organization of preference information into a
hierarchical structure.
[0007] Another limitation with existing systems is that they are
limited in the ways that administrators and users have to perform
user configuration of workstation desktops. For example,
administrators are presently required to configure user preferences
using configuration programs that are separate from, but associated
with, a user application. It is desirable to allow vendors to
provide only a single application. To require only an end user
application from a vendor necessitates that the central management
facility be able to execute the end user application in a context
of a user or user group. The prior art does not allow this
administrative flexibility of operation. In other words, in the
prior art, to the best of our knowledge, an administrator does not
have the ability to run a user application in the context of a user
to set preferences for that user and application. Further, in the
art, an administrator cannot run a user application to set
preferences in the context of a group of users.
[0008] Still another limitation in the prior art known to the
inventors is the manner in which the prior art partitions server
permanent storage space to guarantee that a unique space is
reserved for storing user preferences related to the different
applications on the server. To the knowledge of the inventors, the
problem of preventing collisions in the storage of preference
information for different applications in object-oriented systems,
in which an object can be queried for its fully qualified class
name which uniquely identifies and differentiates it from other
classes, is solved by having a first central authority assign a
unique designation that applies to a vendor and by then having a
second authority at the vendor assign a second designation relative
to the first designation for each vendor application. For example,
vendor A might be assigned the designation vendorA by the first
authority and that designation is guaranteed to be unique within
the architecture for which the first authority is acting. The
second authority at vendor A then assigns the second designation
for each of its applications within that architecture. For example,
one of vendor A's applications might be designated-vendorA.App1;
another might be designated vendorA.App2. The art maps the unique
designation for each application in a system to a location in
permanent storage of the system to guarantee that preference data
for the different applications do not collide in storage. An
application, when running, informs the network computer server of
its unique storage location and it is the responsibility of the
server to partition an area at the starting location according to a
context (user, user group, terminal or terminal group) for storing
preference information so as not to collide with preference
information in a different context. Clearly, this manner of
administering storage space is awkward and undesirable. It is
desirable to devise a method to automatically generate unique
storage locations for storing preference information for the afore
mentioned object-oriented applications, without resorting to the
requirement of having central authorities assign unique
designations for the purpose of preventing collisions in the
storage of preference information and without coding storage
location information into an application.
[0009] Still another limitation in the art lies in the lack of any
provision to migrate existing applications and hardware into the
new environment of the centrally managed network computing world
without requiring changes to the existing hardware and
applications. Existing hardware, a terminal for example, in a
networked environment, gets its configuration information at
boot-up time from a file in a specific format located on a server.
The terminal is programmed to know how to access its configuration
file. The terminal uses a unique identifier to access the file from
the server. The unique identifier is often the media access control
(MAC) address of the terminal. However, in a new centrally managed
environment involving protocols and API's that are different from
that to which the terminal is designed, the terminal cannot access
preference information in the new environment, the terminal can
only access its configuration file in the way for which it is
designed. This is a serious problem, because there are many such
existing devices in use. The inability to use them in new systems
impedes substantially the incentives for users to migrate to the
new systems.
[0010] Still another limitation in the prior art concerns the
interface between an administrator and the configuration management
system. When configuring software within an administration facility
to configure preference information for various users and user
groups, and terminals and terminal groups, the administration
software launches in the context (user, user group, terminal or
terminal group) set by the Administrator who is running the
facility. When the Administrator changes the context that the
application is running under, the application needs to be
relaunched to load configuration information for the new context.
The process of relaunching software each time a context is changed
is time consuming and inconvenient for an administrator, especially
in systems with many users. In such systems, it is expected that an
administrator will change contexts many times while configuring an
application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] The system described herein provides a common repository for
configuration information for users and applets in a client-server
environment. This is referred to as client profile management. The
system allows users to roam, that is, to log-in from any computer
in the system at any time and have it configured automatically at
run time according to the preferences stored for the user at the
server. The preferred embodiment is a Java (Java is a Trademark of
Sun, Inc.) based system and the client computers use a web browser
interface arranged to execute Java applications. Thus, in the
preferred embodiment, user applets and the desktop applet are
assumed to be Java applets. However, it is not intended to limit
the invention to a Java environment. Preferences for the locally
stored applications might be stored locally in the traditional
manner, while preferences for the server-based applets might be
handled in the way described herein.
[0012] The invention solves the problem whereby a user is able to
configure his or her desktop so as presumably to be able to access
an application on the server when, in fact, the user does not have
system permission to access the application. When the user logs
onto the system, the user identifies him or herself to the server
by means of a system identifier and a password. The server uses
this information to built dynamically a list of applications to
which the user has access permission. That list is transmitted to
the users station. The application list is then used to build a
portion of the desktop, preferably a desktop folder, of
applications to which the user has access permission. Preferably,
the folder is composed of a number of application icons each of
which correspond to a different application and which may be
selected by the user to launch the associated application.
Associated with each application in the list are parameters
necessary for the user to execute the associated application. For
example, one such parameter might be the URL on the server used to
invoke the application. Nothing prevents a user from modifying the
desktop. For example, after the desktop is built, the user
generally can add other application icons to the desktop, even
though they would not be accessible to the user. A more common case
might be where the user copies an application icon that is
dynamically generated from the list from the generated folder to
another part of the desktop and then logs off. When the user logs
off, or otherwise saves his or her preferences for the desktop via
any method the system might provide, the copied icon is saved to
the server and becomes part of the preferences configured for the
user. When the user later logs onto the system, the copied icon is
reproduced on the desktop, not as part of the automatically
generated list of accessible applications, but just as part of the
individual preferences set by the user. Thus, the user can still
wind up with applications configured on the desktop to which the
user does not have access. A related feature of the invention
prevents this occurrence from happening by also testing each
application access preference set by the user against the
application permissions present on the server. If a user has
included an application object on the desktop to which he or she
does not have access permission, then the object is automatically
excluded from the desktop object that is built by the server at log
on time.
[0013] In a preferred embodiment comprising a system with a network
interconnecting a server and a plurality of user stations, the
server stores a plurality of user applications for downloading to
user stations and further stores access permissions for the
applications for each user. When a user attempts to log onto the
system from a user station, the server receives a user log-on
identifier from the user. The server uses the identifier to build a
list of applications for which the user has access permission. A
desktop object is then downloaded to the user station to control
the interface between the user and the user's station. The server
also downloads to the station a list of applications to which the
user has access permission. The user station uses the list to build
a folder containing only the applications from the list to which
the user has access permission. The system further verifies that
the user has access to applications that are represented by icons
that the user may have added to his or her desktop at an earlier
time. For each user desktop preference specified by the user at an
earlier time that corresponds to a user application, the access
permission for the user to the user application is checked from the
list, and, if the application is not included on the list, the
desktop object representing the application is removed from the
desktop.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0014] In the Drawing,
[0015] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative network and user stations,
including an administrator's station, in which the invention might
be practiced;
[0016] FIG. 2 shows an illustrative block diagram form of the
administrator's station in communication with a server, and
components of the administrator's station and the server for
providing the central profile management and preference
administration;
[0017] FIG. 3 shows one illustrative hierarchical organization of
user groups and users of a system. The illustrative hierarchical
organization might also contain individual terminals and terminal
groups; however, these are omitted for simplicity;
[0018] FIG. 4 shows one illustrative listing of individual users
and the group priority order that is used to determine a set of
preferences from the hierarchical organization of FIG. 3 that apply
to a user and a specific application executed by the user;
[0019] FIG. 5 shows a more detailed view of the administrator's
station and server of FIG. 2;
[0020] FIG. 6 shows an illustrative view of the software objects at
a user's terminal, including a user application and the API between
the application and other components, that cooperate to establish
the user preferences during execution of the application as the
user's terminal;
[0021] FIGS. 7 through 8 show illustrative operations at both a
user's terminal and a server for user log-on and initially
establishing the user's desktop, including desktop preferences, at
the user terminal;
[0022] FIGS. 9 through 11 show illustrative operations at both an
administrator's terminal and a server for administrator user
log-on, establishment of the administrator's desktop, and, by way
of example, the selection of an application and a context for
configuration; the example also illustrates a context change during
configuration the user's desktop and the resulting operations;
and
[0023] FIGS. 12 through 24 show a variety of actual administrator
screen snapshots in various phases of application administration,
including building of a hierarchy of which FIG. 3 is a
representation of an example of, the creation and deletion of
users, etc. the establishment of application preferences for
applications, and context changes during preference
establishment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] The system described herein provides a common repository for
configuration information for all users and applets in a
client-server environment. This is referred to as client profile
management. The system allows users to roam, that is, to log-in
from any computer in the system at any time and have it configured
automatically at run time according to the preferences stored at
the server. The preferred embodiment is a Java (Java is a Trademark
of Sun, Inc.) based system and the client computers use a web
browser interface arranged to execute Java programs.
[0025] The terms "applet" and "servlet" are established terms in
the Java programming language art and will be used herein, since
the terms have meaning to those skilled in this art. "Applet"
refers to an independent software module that runs within a Java
enabled web browser. Servlet refers to a software module that
resides on a Java enabled web server. It is to be understood that
the use of the terms "applet" and "servlet" herein is not intended
to limit the invention in any way. For clarification, the phrase
"configuration applet" is used herein to refer to a software module
used to configure preferences for an end user software application
such as a word processor, a database manager, etc. Since software
applications are also "applets" in the Java environment, the phrase
"user applet" or just "applet" is used herein to refer to an end
user application.
[0026] In the preferred embodiment, user applets and the desktop
applet are assumed to be Java applets. However, it is understood
that the invention is not limited to a Java environment. The
invention can be used in any client-server system. For example, if
desired, the system could be designed to use proprietary
communication protocols and applications written and compiled in
any desired programming language. Further, even in the preferred
Java based environment, disk-based computers might access some
applications locally, and other applets from the server.
Preferences for the locally stored applications might be stored
locally in the traditional manner, while preferences for the
server-based applets might be handled in the way described herein.
Preferably, however, preferences for locally stored applications
are stored on the server using the Profile Management Properties
API in addition to the preferences for server based applets
described herein.
[0027] A simple Application Program Interface (API) allows applets
written to the API to easily store and retrieve preference data
when the applet is executed by a user or administrator. Applet
permissions and user preferences can be defined based on group
memberships and individual identity.
[0028] Client profile management includes the following
services:
[0029] Log-on support--mapping to a user profile;
[0030] User support--the administrative ability to create user
identifications and provide services and preferences directly to
users;
[0031] User groups support--the administrative ability to create
hierarchical groups of users and provide services and preferences
based on group memberships;
[0032] User applet context transparency--automatic determination of
the context of user applet execution. That is, the determination of
the user and/or group profiles that apply to a user applet
execution and the automatic establishment of the profile
environment;
[0033] User applet preferences repository--context-sensitive server
storage for user applet configuration data;
[0034] Dynamic user applet preferences inheritance--hierarchical
load-time coalescence of user applet preferences via the
object-oriented principal of inheritance; and
[0035] User applet access control--control of user applet execution
based on group default membership privileges. The administrator can
override default group privileges and permit or deny additional
access privileges for individual users.
[0036] Profile management provides a framework through which these
tasks are performed. Some tasks are supported by profile management
directly, e.g. user/group management, applet lists, context
switching, preference inheritance, etc., while configuration
services specific to user applets are usually supported by separate
configuration applets invoked by a system administrator within the
client profile management environment. Some end user applets might
provide the configuration capability as part of the end user
applet. If this is the case, the administrator can run the end user
applet (as opposed to a separate configuration applet) in the
context of individual users and groups to set the configuration
preferences for those users and groups.
[0037] FIG. 1 shows one high level view of an intended environment
for practicing the invention. A network 100 is provided for
interconnecting a plurality of user stations, such as desktop
personal computers 102, mobile laptop computers 104, workstations
106 (e.g., RISC computers), an administrator's station 108 and a
server 110. In one embodiment, network 100 might be a local area
network. In another embodiment, network 100 might include wide area
networking for entities such as corporations that have
geographically displaced sites that are still included within the
system. There is no intent to limit the environment in which the
invention might be practiced; indeed, a network of any type that
interconnects many types of stations is envisioned.
[0038] A high-level diagram of the profile management
administrative operating environment is shown in FIG. 2. An
administrator client network computer 200 is represented on the
left of the Fig. and a server 202 for the system is on the right.
The client and server communicate via a network represented as 203.
The particular example of FIG. 2 assumes that the client computer
is a system administrator's computer.
[0039] Profile manager 206 on the client side allows the
administrator to configure user applet preferences at both user and
group levels. The administrator can create new users and group
hierarchies, add users to different groups, specify applet
permissions for each group and for individual users. And the
administrator can configure applets in the context of an individual
user or a group. The administrator can add, delete and reset
passwords for users. Profile management support is transparent to
the general user. The administrator can invoke the profile manager
206 in the context of any user or group. Only the administrator can
change from his/her context to administer clients (users) and
groups. The server will not allow a user without administrative
authority to switch context. When a request comes into the server,
it will query the authenticated ID of the user trying to access
this function. If the user does not possess administrative
authority, (i.e., is not a member of the AllUsers.Administrator
group), the Profile Manager Servlet 214 will reject the
request.
[0040] Profile manager 206 invokes other applets, such as applet1
(208), as shown in FIG. 2. In this example, applet1 might be the
administrative applet for configuring preferences related to user
desktops. Or applet1 could be a configuration utility related to an
end user applet, such as editors, word processors, databases, etc.
It is preferred, but not required, that configuration applets such
as 208 exist as modules separate from their corresponding user
applets. In the context of FIG. 2, Applet1 is typically a
configuration applet for a user applet; the administrator runs the
configuration applet applet1 under a group context to set group
preference and permission defaults, or in a user context to
customize user applet configurations for an individual. By
implementing applet1 as a module separate from its user applet,
performance is enhanced, since the configuration applet1 will
likely be small compared to the user applet. Also, separate
configuration applets allow the administrator to control the end
users ability to configure the user applet.
[0041] Traditional stand-alone computers store user applet
configuration information locally in association with its the user
applet. Traditional stand-alone Java based computers store user
applet configuration information using the format provided by the
java.util.Properties class. Both arrangements require that the user
applet specify the name of a local file in which to store
configuration information related to the user applet. In other
words, a relationship is required between the computer and the user
applet loaded on it. Profile management as described herein
provides the familiar capabilities of a real java.util.Properties
object plus additional facilities supporting user-roaming
capabilities and seamless pluggability into a powerful
administrative framework (the Profile Manager).
[0042] ProfileManagementProperties P 210 is a properties object for
applet1 and provides an API between Applet1 and the server that
allows the server to determine where to store configuration
information for applet1 in the context of users and groups. The
ProfileManagementProperti- es object class provides all of the
functionality of the java.util.properties class with the further
ability to provide create, save, and retrieve the configuration
information for software from permanent storage. Storing such
information in a central location makes management of user and
group configurations possible. When a user is in the role of
administrator, ProfileManagementProperties 210 allows the
administrator to configure the user applet corresponding to
configuration applet1, or to configure applet1 if applet1 is an end
user applet, and store the configuration information in the proper
place on the server in the proper context. This allows the
establishment of a relationship between the user applet and the
user, rather than between user applet and computer as in
traditional systems. ProfileManagementProperties 210 is an
extension of the java.util.Properties class. The extension allows
the key/value pairs of preference information of a Properties
object to be associated with a key, as opposed to a stream, as with
java.util.Properties. This, in turn, allows application developers
to use the key to specify a unique location relative to a context
for preference information, rather than a file name and path.
ProfileManagementPropertie- s 210 determines the key automatically.
The generation of the key is discussed more in connection with
FIGS. 8 and 9. By modeling ProfileManagementProperties 210 after
the java.util.Properties class, the system can take advantage of
preference inheritance through recursive class-default evaluation.
Thus, this extended class provides a "group default" capability by
accumulating preferences starting at a current context, as
discussed with respect to FIG. 3, and traversing up the contextual
hierarchy for defaults.
[0043] Server 202 includes a database 212 that stores user data and
group data, such as user and group preferences and user applet
access permissions. Webserver 218 represents a typical web server
with support for Java applets. Profile Manager servlet 214 maps
user and group identifications to preference data. It also
maintains an access control list to manage user access to
applications on the server.
[0044] User and group preferences are stored as a tree hierarchy,
as shown in FIG. 3. All users of the system automatically belong to
the top group AllUsers. All users belong to the AllUsers group;
this group contains the default preferences for some or all user
applets on the server. In FIG. 3, it is assumed that the server
contains at least three user applets, identified as App3, App4 and
App5. As indicated in the AllUsers group, the default background
(BG) for App3 is BG=blue. Other illustrative preferences labeled as
x, y and z are shown to have the default values of 1, 2 and 3
respectively. The terms x, y and z are intended to represent any
desired preference and the values 1, 2 and 3 are arbitrary and used
merely to illustrate the point. The x preference might for example
be the screen font for the desktop; the value x=1 might call for a
default font of Times-Roman. Similarly, the default preferences for
App4 for all users are BG=gray, x=2, y=2 and z=2.
[0045] The default values in the AllUsers group can be modified in
any desired way for other contexts, such as for other user groups
and individual users. By way of example, in addition to the context
of AllUsers in FIG. 3, four other groups (GroupX, GroupY, GroupY1
and GroupY2) are shown.
[0046] Additionally, two individuals User1 and UserN are shown.
Users can be members of more than one group. In FIG. 3, User1 is a
member of AllUsers, GroupX and GroupY1; UserN is a member of
AllUsers and GroupY2. If a user is a member of more than one group
(another group in addition to AllUsers), then the groups are
prioritized for the purpose of selecting the preferences for a
given applet for that user. The administrator configures the group
priorities for a user. Group priority is illustrated in FIG. 4. In
FIG. 4, User1 has GroupX (identified by the fully qualified name of
AllUsers.GroupX for his or her highest priority group. User1's next
highest priority group is GroupY1 (AllUsers.GroupY.GroupY1). User1
's lowest priority group is the AllUsers group. When a user, say
User1, requests to run an applet say App3, the preferences are
coalesced from the tree of FIG. 3 according to the group or groups
to which the user belongs and the user applet is configured on the
user desktop accordingly.
[0047] The first step in coalescing preferences for any context is
to get the defaults. The defaults for a user, if there are any, is
the coalesced set of preferences for the applet from the highest
priority group from which preference information for the applet can
be obtained. The defaults for a group, if there are any, is the
coalesced set of preferences for the applet from the groups parent
(i.e., The AllUsers group is the parent of AllUsers.GroupX). If a
group has no parent (i.e., the top level AllUsers group), there are
no defaults for that group. To coalesce the preferences for an
applet at a context, the preferences for the applet explicitly
stored at the context, overwrite the default preferences for the
applet for the context. Thus, to coalesce preferences into the
default set for an applet in a group context, recursive calls are
made from each group node up to the AllUsers group requesting each
parents set of preferences for the applet. Please refer to FIG. 3
to illustrate the following example. For example, if the context is
Allusers.GroupY.GroupY1- , a call is made to the parent of GroupY1,
which is GroupY, requesting its default preferences for the applet.
GroupY1 makes a recursive call to its parent, which is AllUsers.
AllUsers has no parent, so AllUsers returns it set of preferences
for the applet to the call from GroupY. This set of preferences is
modified by the preferences stored in GroupY for the applet, if
any. This is now the default set of preferences for the applet for
the context of GroupY1. This set of default preferences is returned
to GroupY1 as a result of the recursive call from GroupY1 to
GroupY, and are modified by the preferences at GroupY1 for the
applet, if any, to become the actual set of preferences to be used
in this instance. The set of preferences for the context of a user
is built in the same way, except that the highest priority group
from which preference information can be obtained for the user is
used to first establish the group context from which the defaults
will be obtained. Then the recursive procedure described above is
used to build the actual set of preferences for the user and the
applet requested by the user.
[0048] The following examples illustrate the above preference
coalescence and should be read in conjunction with FIG. 3.
EXAMPLE 1
[0049] An Administrator runs a configuration Applet for App3 to Set
Preferences for the Group AllUsers.GroupX.
[0050] To set the preferences for App3 in the context of
Allusers.GroupX, the present set of preferences must be determined.
AllUsers.GroupX requests defaults for its parent AllUsers. Since
AllUsers is the top level group, it returns its preferences for
App3 to GroupX. These are the default preferences for App3 in the
context of GroupX. Since GroupX has no preferences for App3, the
default set from Allusers is the real set of preferences to be
used. In this example, these preferences from the AllUsers group
are: BG=Blue, x=1, y=2, z=3. The administrator can now modify use
the configuration applet to modify the coalesced preferences in any
desired manner.
EXAMPLE 2
[0051] User1 Requests Execution of com.ibm.App3. Preferences Must
be Coalesced for com.ibm.App3 in the Context of User1.
[0052] FIG. 4 shows that the highest priority group for User1 is
AllUsers.GroupX; this branch of the group hierarchy will be checked
first for preference information pertaining to App3. From here on,
the example is essentially the same as example 1 above, except that
the coalesced set of preferences is used to configure App3 on the
user's workstation. The preferences for App3 for User1 are:
BG=Green, x=1, y=2, z=3 since the BG=Green preference stored in the
User1 's context for App3 over rides the default BG=Blue preference
obtained from the AllUsers.GroupX branch of the preference
tree.
EXAMPLE 3
[0053] Coalescing Preferences for com.ibm.App6 in the Context of
User1.
[0054] This example illustrates the situation of the highest
priority group containing no coalesed preferences for the context
of User1. Again, the highest priority group for User1 is GroupX.
This group and its parent AllUsers contain no preferences for App6.
Therefore, the next highest priority group is searched. The next
highest priority group for User1 is GroupY1. A set of preferences
can be obtained from this group for App6. The coalescence of
preferences proceeds as described in example 1. Recursive calls are
made from GroupY1 up the tree to the root AllUsers group and the
preference sets are returned back down the recursive calls and
modified along the way to form the default set. The default set is
then modified with the preferences stored in GroupY1 to form the
coalesced set of preferences that apply to this context. Stated
briefly, Allusers returns a null set of preferences, since it has
no preferences for App6. GroupY modifies this null set with the
values a=1 and b=2 and returns this set to GroupY1 as the default
set. GroupY1 modifies the default set with a=33. This set is
returned to the User1 context for use as its default set. Since
there are no preferences for App6 stored at the User1 context, the
defaults obtained from the GroupY1 branch of the preference tree
represent the fully coalesced set of preferences for App6. The real
set of preferences thus becomes a=33, b=2 for this context.
[0055] The above 3 examples described the gathering of preferences
in response to a load( ) for a particular piece of software. When
preference information is saved for a piece of software, any
preferences that have been explicitly written at the Context being
saved to will be written to the data store (212) at the location
specified by the combination of the Context the software is being
run in and the key for the software whose preferences are being
stored.
[0056] Permissions operate similarly: a new group has access to all
the applet names permitted by the group itself as well as to all
applets permitted by its supergroups. However, just as Java allows
the programmer to override a superclass method, Profile Management
allows the System Administrator the ability to override an
inherited permission. This is called overriding a permission.
[0057] As with Java's form of inheritance, Profile Management's
form of preferences and permissions inheritance is called single
inheritance. Single inheritance means that each Profile Management
group can have only one supergroup (although any given supergroup
can have multiple subgroups).
[0058] Profile Management users (leaf nodes) may require membership
in multiple groups, so a facility is required to limit preference
inheritance to a single hierarchical group to minimize the chance
of corrupt configurations due to the introduction of incompatible
variable subsets introduced by cross group branch coalescing. By
allowing a user's group memberships to be prioritized, profile
management can follow a search order when looking for preferences
related to a particular applet. In other words, starting with the
group with the highest priority, the search will stop at the first
group found to contain configuration data for the applet attempting
to load its preferences.
[0059] A user inherits software permissions from group memberships.
With careful enterprise modeling, the administrator can assign
software access to many users without having to navigate through
panels, one user at a time. Profile management controls access by
programming the web server to permit/deny access to applets. The
web server enforces the access control. The profile manager servlet
is also protected by the WebServer requiring user ID's and
passwords to be passed to the webserver for authentication
purposes. It is standard browser functionality to prompt for user
passwords as required.
[0060] FIG. 5 shows the system of FIG. 2 in more detail.
Configuration applet Applet1 is invoked by the administrator within
the profile management framework. Applet1 may implement the
application program interface (API) 515 for querying information
about its operational environment (e.g., query context, context
changed events, query access control list for this context, etc.)
to integrate tightly within the profile management framework, but
this is not a requirement for a configuration applet. In any event,
the designer of applet1 need only understand the basic API methods:
enablePersistence( ), load( ), and save( ) in addition to the basic
methods of a java.util.Properties object used to get preference
information into and out of a java.util.Properties object. API 515
additionally provides list( ) and getcontext( ) methods. Applet1
need only register with the ProfileManagementProperties class and
call these methods as appropriate. The load( ) method can be called
to retrieve the present state of preferences for the user applet
being configured in the context of a user or group selected by the
administrator The administrator can then modify the preferences as
desired and store them using the configuration save functionality
provided by the applet (which uses the save( ) method of its
ProfileManagementProperties object. Similarly, if applet1 needs the
list of user applets authorized for access by a user, it can use
the list( ) method to obtain the list from the server. The
getContext( ) method can be used by the applet to display the name
of the context that it is running in or even to ensure that it only
runs in a certain context (i.e., if an applet wanted to configure a
service on the server using the export agent, it might only allow
itself to be run at the AllUsers context since the configuration
being exported is server specific as opposed to user specific. For
applet1 to run in the profile management framework, all that is
required is for the applet to register with
ProfileManagementProperties 410 and implement the
ProfileManagementProper- ties class, an extension of the
java.util.Properties class.
[0061] The profile manager 506 also provides a context change API
516 for configuration applets. Applet1 may implement a context
change event listener 512. The API 516 and the event listener 512
allows the administrator to change contexts (user or group) while
running the configuration applet, without having to stop and
restart it. For example, when configuring applet user preferences,
the administrator will likely change contexts many times during the
configuration. If the configuration applet is registered as a
listener to such events, profile manager 506 will notify it of a
context change via API 516. This allows applet1 to refresh its
preferences from the server for each new context. Without the event
listener API, applet1 would have to be terminated by the
administrator and restarted after a new context has been selected
to reference the existing preference information for the new
context and avoid being stopped and restarted by the Profile
Management applet. To register, applet1 calls a method on its
properties object ProfileManagementProperties 510 i.e.,
addContextChangeListener (API 516) to register itself. When the
administrator sets a new context, profile manager 506 performs a
set context call (API 516) to object 510, which in response calls
the reload method (API 516) on event listener 512. Event listener
512 now performs a load properties call to its properties object
510 to get the new preference data from the server for the new
context, and causes applet1 to updates it GUI and internal
variables to reflect the new preference information.
[0062] The above functionality avoids the possibility of a network
administrator reading data from one context, changing context, and
accidentally overwriting with a save( ) when intending to load( )
before making configuration changes in the new context.
[0063] Applets that do not register as listeners will be stopped,
destroyed, reloaded, and restarted by the profile manager applet
when the administrator forces a context change.
[0064] The profile management also provides a "properties export"
service to allow the easy retrofitting of existing hardware and
software into this profile management environment. The properties
export service allows profile manager 514 to support user
workstations (the physical hardware) as well as users, groups, and
user applications. Since existing workstations do not know about
ProfileManagementProperties 510, the export service allows
workstation vendors to create workstation-configuration applets
that specifies an export agent 520 to be invoked on the server when
the vendor applet saves it preference information. The export tag
causes an instance of a vendor-supplied class (the export agent 520
object) to be created and the export method to be invoked on the
object to specify that workstation configuration information be
saved in whatever proprietary file format and/file location(s) that
are required by the workstation being configured.
[0065] Assume that applet1 is the configuration applet provided by
a vendor for an existing terminal that is incompatible with the
present profile management system. The vendor also supplies export
agent 520. An administrator can configure the terminal for
operation in this system by running profile manager 506, set the
context to the terminal being configured, runs the vendor supplied
configuration applet1 and configures the applet. When the
administrator saves the configuration, part of the information that
is transmitted to the server is a unique identifier that identifies
the terminal being configured. Typically, this is the Media Access
Control (MAC) address of the terminal. Profile manager servlet 514
detects that an export agent is specified on the save. Profile
manager servlet 514 detects this from one of the preferences being
saved that specifies need for the export agent. The preference
specifies the export tag in the form of a key value pair of
[0066] XXXXEXPORT_AGENTXXXX={fully qualified class name of export
agent}
[0067] The Export Agent's export(Context context, config
properties) method is called by the profile manager servlet 514 to
create one or more files 522 on the server from the save
preferences information. The specific file or files are identified
by the unique identifier of the terminal that came with the
properties information from applet1. When the terminal later boots
up, it uses its unique identifier to locate and retrieve its
configuration information from files 522 on the server in the same
manner that it always did, independent of the profile management
system.
[0068] FIG. 6 illustrates an applet2 running on a client computer.
Applet2 might be an end-user applet such as a word processor. In
any event, applet2 has access to some of the same API methods as
shown at 515 of FIG. 5 if it desires. Applet2 uses the load method
to retrieve preferences and the save method to save any preferences
that might be changed by the end user. EnablePersistence
initializes the Profile Management Properties object for applet2
with context equal to the user and generates the unique key for
identifying the preference information storage location on the
server, as described above relative to the administrator.
[0069] FIG. 7 shows the situation of a user bringing up his or her
desktop. The user on the client (700) points his or her web browser
at the URL of the desktop applet on the server and at step 704
sends a message http://server/Desktop.html). Since Desktop.html is
a file that the server protects, a challenge is sent back to the
web browser on the client at 706. The web browser on the client
responds by prompting the user for a user ID and password. The
client then sends the user ID and password information to the
server at 708. The user ID and password are shown in bold at 708 of
FIG. 3 to illustrate that this information is passed by the web
browser itself. This type of nomenclature is used in other places
to illustrate the same thing. Since, presumably, the user has
permission to run the desktop applet, the request will be
honored.
[0070] There are a series of interactions between the client and
the server (not shown) where the code for the desktop applet is
loaded to the client from the server. The desktop object is created
and begins to execute at 712. The desktop object needs its
preference information (i.e., configuration information) so it can
tailor the desktop for the end user who is invoking it. To this
end, as part of the desktop object's initialization process, the
desktop creates a ProfileManagementProperties object P at 714,
which is used to load, get, cache, set, and save a copy of the
user's preference information from the server for the desktop
applet. The desktop object then performs an API call
P.enablePersistence(desktopObject (applet)) at 716, which, at step
1) of 716, initializes the ProfileManagementProperties object P
with the URL of the profile manager servlet 214. This URL is
derived from the URL of the desktop applet that was loaded from the
server previously. The ProfileManagementProperties object P sends a
request 718 to the profile manager servlet 214 to get the context
for the user running the desktop applet. In this case, the context
consists of two components, a context name which is the ID of the
user, and a context type which in this case is User. The profile
manager servlet gets the ID of the user from the request 718 and
returns the user context at 719. At step 2 of 716, the
ProfileManagementProperties object P is initialized with the
context of the user running the desktop. At step 3 of 716, the
ProfileManagementProperties object P generates a unique key for the
desktop software by asking the Java desktop object P for its fully
qualified class name. All Java objects know their class name. This
unique key is combined with the user's context information to
provide a parameter that specifies a unique location in the
database 212 for storing the user specific preference information
for the desktop applet. Any desired method can be used for mapping
the string consisting of the fully qualified class name and the
user context information into the data store location. Next, a
request 720 is sent to the profile manager servlet 214 to get the
preference information, tailored for the user, for the Desktop
applet. The context and key are passed as part of the request 720
to identify the requested preference information. The profile
manager servlet 214 responds with the requested preference
information at 722, which is cached in the
ProfileManagementProperties object P 604.
[0071] Continuing on at FIG. 8, at 800 the Desktop object reads
it's preference information out of its ProfileManagementProperties
object P, and begins to update the desktop accordingly (i.e., it
might set the screen color to blue, get information about the
position of icons, etc.). The desktop object calls a method on its
ProfileManagementProperties object P to get a list of the software
to which the user has access permission. The
ProfileManagmentProperties object P requests the information at 802
from the profile manager servlet 214, which generates a response
with the requested information at 804. For each such applet to
which the user has access, the information includes a user friendly
name, the applet's URL, the URL of an icon for the applet, etc.
(information that is required for the desktop to represent the
applet on the desktop and to load and launch it). and other
optional material which is not relevant to the invention. This
information is stored in the ProfileManagmentProperties object P,
and returned to the desktop object. At 806, the desktop object uses
the applet information to build a folder for the applets and to
generate a window displaying the icons and the user friendly name
for each applet to which the user has access.
[0072] Assume that in a previous run of the desktop by the user,
the user dragged and dropped the icons for some of the software
displayed in the folder that was just described. It is possible
that at this time the user no longer has access to the applets that
were dragged and dropped from the folder to the desktop. However,
these desktop objects normally would be a part of the users
preferences that were saved during the last run and would still be
displayed on the desktop. To avoid this situation, the desktop
examines its preferences from it's ProfileManagmentProperties
object P to check for applets that are configured to appear outside
of the window that is generated to display all applets to which the
user has access. FIG. 8 assumes that there is only one applet
outside of the applet window that is generated. If there were more
than one such applet outside of the applet window, the following
procedure would be looped for each such applet. At step 810 the
desktop checks each of these applets appearing outside of the
applet window against the list of applets from the server to which
the user has access. If the applet appears in the list, the icon
for the applet is placed on the desktop at 810 in the same position
as before. If the user no longer has access to the applet, the
applet is removed from the desktop's preferences at step 814 and
removed from the ProfileManagmentProperties object P. If any
applets are removed as part of this process, the desktop tells the
ProfileManagmentProperties object P to save the preferences at step
816. The ProfileManagmentPropert- ies object P sends a request 818
with the preference, key, and context information to the profile
manager servlet 214 to save the new preferences information in the
Database 212. The server sends a response 820 to the
ProfileManagmentProperties object P informing the
ProfileManagmentProperties object P that the request was
successfully completed.
[0073] FIG. 9 illustrates the situation of an administrator running
a configuration applet to configure preferences for an applet for
other users or groups of users. It is understood that the
principles discussed here also apply generally to the configuration
of terminals or groups of terminals. The administrator on the
client 900 points his or her web browser to the URL of the profile
manager applet 214 on the server, which is to be run. The URL is
sent to the server at 904. Since ProfileManager.html is a file that
the server protects, a challenge 906 is sent back to the web
browser on the client. The web browser responds by prompting the
administrator for a user ID and password. The request to get
ProfileManager.html is then repeated at 908 to the server with the
user ID and password information included in the message. Since
presumably the administrator has permission to run the profile
manager, the request is honored and a profile manager applet is
downloaded to the administrators terminal at 910. There are a
series of interactions between the client and the server (not
shown) where the code for the profile manager applet is loaded to
the client from the server. The profile manager object is created
and begins to execute at step 912.
[0074] A ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloating is used by
the profile manager instead of a normal ProfileManagementProperties
object. It has the same behavior as a ProfileManagementProperties
object with one exception: when preferences are loaded and saved,
they are loaded and saved to and from the context of the
administrator who is running the profile manager, as opposed to
loading and saving to and from the context (i.e., user or user
group) for which the administrator is configuring.
[0075] The profile manager object needs its preference information
(i.e., configuration information) so it can tailor the profile
manager for the administrator is invoking it. To this end, as part
of the profile manager object's initialization process, the profile
manager creates a ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloating
object P_NCF at step 914, which is used to load, get, cache, set,
and save a copy of the administrator's preference information from
the server for the profile manager applet. The profile manager
object then calls P_NCF.enablePersistence(profileManagerObject
(applet)), which in step 1 of 916 initializes the
ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloating object P_NCF with
the URL of the profile manager servlet 214. This URL is derived
from the URL of the profile manager applet. The
ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloating object P_NCF sends a
request 918 to the profile manager servlet 214 to get the context
name (ID) of the administrator and the context type (USER). The
profile manager servlet gets the ID of the administrator from the
request (918). The web browser passes the administrator ID and
password in the message along with the information sent by the
ProfileManagementProperties_nonCon- textFloating object P_NCF. The
ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloat- ing object P_NCF is
initialized with the context of the administrator running the
applet at step 2 of 916. At step 3 of 916, the
ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloating object P_NCF
generates a unique key for the profile manager applet by asking the
Java profileManagerObject object (passed as a parameter in the
enablePersistence call) for its fully qualified class name (i.e.,
profileManagerObject.getClass( ).getName( )). This unique key,
combined with the administrator's context information, is mapped to
specify a unique location in the database 212 for the
administrator's specific preference information for the profile
manager applet.
[0076] A request (922) is sent to the profile manager servlet 214
to get the preference information tailored for the profile manager
applet as configured for the administrator. The request (922)
includes the appropriate context name and type and key information
to identify the appropriate preference information. The profile
manager servlet 214 responds with the requested preference
information (924), which is cached in the
ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloating object P_NCF. The
profile manager reads its preference information out of the
ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloating and updates itself
accordingly (i.e., sets its background color to blue for
example).
[0077] Operation continues at FIG. 10. The profile manager requests
the information about existing users, user groups, and software
from the profile manager servlet 214 and builds the tree in the
left panel of the profile managers configuration window at 1002.
See FIGS. 13 through 24 for examples of the administrator's left
panel. At this point 1004, the administrator selects a desired
context for configuring by clicking on a user or group from the
left panel tree. The profile manager sets the context for
ProfileManagementProperties objects by calling
P_NCF.setContext(selected context). See FIG. 13 for a selected
context of "User Groups", which refers to the group of all system
users, or to FIG. 18, where a group context of "Development" is
selected, or to FIG. 21 where a user context "colleend" is
selected. Next, at step 1006, the administrator selects an applet
to be configured from a list of all the applets on the server. See
FIG. 17 for an example of selecting an applet. At step 1008, the
administrator then clicks a Run/Customize button to run the applet
selected for configuration. This applet might be a separate
configuration applet for an end user applet, or it might be the end
user applet itself. The selected applet is requested and loaded
from the Server at 1009 and 1011. At step 1010, the configuration
applet object is created and begins to execute and to generate its
ProfileManagementProper- ties object P.
[0078] If it is assumed that the applet is a separate configuration
applet for an end user applet, then at step 1012, the applet calls
p.enablePersistence(configAppletObject,
fullyQualifiedClassNameOfAppletBe- ingConfigured). On the other
hand, if the applet is a user applet, rather than a separate
configuration applet, the call would be
p.enablePersistence(endUserAppletObject) since it wants to
configure its own preference information as opposed to the
preference information for another applet. The current Context is
already known by the ProfileManagementProperties object P since it
was previously set by the administrator via the administrator's
ProfileManagementProperties_nonCont- extFloating object PM_NCF. The
location of the profile manager servlet 214 was previously
generated when enablePersistence was called on the Profile Managers
ProfileManagementProperties_nonContextFloating object PM_NCF. In
the case of a configuration applet, the unique key for the applet
does not need to be generated because it is passed by the
configuration applet to the ProfileManagementProperties object P in
the enablepersistence call.
[0079] At step 1014, the configuration applet registers itself with
its ProfileManagementProperties object P as a context change
listener. As discussed earlier, this allows the applet's
ProfileManagentProperties object P to notify the applet if the
administrator makes a context change so that the applet can load
the preference information for the new context and update its
Graphical User Interface to reflect the new configuration
information, without requiring that the applet be terminated and
relaunched in the new context.
[0080] Operation continues at FIG. 11. At step 1104, the
configuration applet tells the ProfileManagementProperties object P
to load the preferences from the current context for the applet
being configured. A request 1105 is sent to the profile manager
servlet 214 to get the preference information, tailored for the
context previously selected by the administrator, for the applet
being configured. The request 1105 includes the appropriate context
name (the context the administrator has selected) and the context
type (USER, USER_GROUP, or ALL_USERS_GROUP as appropriate) and key
information to specify the location of the appropriate preference
information. The profile manager servlet 214 responds with the
requested preference information at 1106, which is cached in the
ProfileManagementProperties object P. The configuration applet gets
preferences from the ProfileManagementProperties object P and
updates its Graphical User Interface accordingly.
[0081] The administrator configures the applet at 1107 and saves
the modified preferences, for example by clicking a SAVE button
provided by the applet. As a result of this operation, the
configuration applet calls the save( ) method on its
ProfileManagementProperties object p. The
ProfileManagementProperties object P sends the preferences and the
unique key for the applet being configured and the information
specifying the current context to the profile manager servlet 214.
The profile manager servlet stores the preference information in
the database 212 in the location specified by the Context and the
key.
[0082] Step 1108 is an example of the administrator now changing
context, while the configuration applet is still running. The
administrator selects a new context by clicking on a user or user
group (see FIG. 18 for examples of new contexts in the
administrators left screen panel). As a result of the context
change, profile manager 506 sends a set context message to
ProfileMangementProperties object P (510) by calling
P_NCF.setContext(selected NEW context), which in turn causes object
P to notify event listener 512 of the context change via the reload
properties API 515. This occurs at step 1110. At step 1112, the
event listener 512 performs a load( ) call to retrieve the
preferences for the new context and the object P is updated with
the new preferences at step 1118. The administrator can now proceed
to modify the new preferences for the new context, if desired, and
to save them if required, and then to proceed on with a new context
change if necessary as described above.
[0083] The remaining FIGS. 12 through 24 show actual screen
snapshots of an administrator's workstation while running portions
of the profile manager 206.
[0084] The main configuration window 1200 is shown in FIG. 12. The
tree view panel 1202 on the left of the window depicts profile
management 1204 as one of several services available on the server.
When this item 1204 is selected as shown in FIG. 12, the right
panel 1205 of the main window displays a welcome message for the
profile management service. Expand and contract icons such as 1208
are used to control the appearance of sub-items under an item in
the left panel, if any exist. The "+" in 1208 is called an "expand
icon" and indicates that there are sub-items beneath "Profile
management". The administrator can display these sub-items by
clicking on the expand icon 1208, which will then become a
"contract icon" ("-").
[0085] FIG. 13 illustrates an expansion of the Profile management
item 1208 in FIG. 12, which results in the display of three default
sub-items in FIG. 13--"Applets" 1300, "User Groups" 1302 and
"Users" 1304. Expansion icons indicate that these items can also be
expanded. "Applets" 1300 allows the administrator to define the
user applets available on server 202, "User groups" 1302 allows the
administrator to create and populate the user group tree of FIG. 3
and to set group preferences. "Users" 1304 allows the administrator
to create new users and to set their preferences or to change
preferences for existing users. In the example of FIG. 13 "Applets"
1300 is selected. When this item is selected, panel 1305 on the
right of the window displays a list 1306 of user applets that have
already been defined to the system. Attributes of the application
that is selected in 1306 are shown at 1308. The administrator
defines a new applet by selecting <NEW> in 1306 and entering
the name and location information requested in 1308. An existing
applet "Database Explorer" is shown selected in 1306. At 1308, the
"Applet name" field displays this applet name. The "URL" (Universal
Resource Locator) field displays the Intranet or Internet web
address of this applet on server 202. The field "Complete path of
html file" displays the directory path and file name of the applet
in the disk directory structure of server 202. The field "Fully
qualified class name" displays the fully qualified class name of
the applet. The field "Icon URL" displays a web address of the
image file used to generate an icon for the applet on a users
desktop. The remaining fields are for optional information that may
be required by the software upon invocation. A command button 1310,
"Import Applet List from File", allows the administrator to append
definitions of applets to the existing list 1306 from an existing
text file. When button 1310 is clicked, the window shown in FIG. 14
pops-up and allows the administrator to enter the path and file
name of the text file containing the applet definitions to be
appended. To save all pending changes, the administrator clicks on
File 1312 and then Save (not shown).
[0086] In the left panel, the User Groups item 1302 corresponds to
the AllUsers group of FIG. 3 ("User Groups" and "AllUsers" are used
interchangeably herein). FIG. 15 shows the right panel of the
administrators station when the "User Groups" item 1302 is
selected. In FIG. 15, a notebook panel is displayed on the right
that contains three tabs--a Members tab 1514, a Subgroups tab 1516
and an Applet Permissions tab 1518. The Members tab is selected in
FIG. 15. The Members panel contains a list 1520 of the log-on
identifications of all members that have been defined to the
system. To create a new user (who will automatically gain
membership into the presently selected group context--"User
Group"), the administrator selects <NEW> from the list 1520,
enters the appropriate information in the entry fields 1522 to the
right of the list, and then clicks on the Create button 1522. When
an existing member is selected from the list 1520, the attributes
previously saved for that user are displayed at 1522. These
attributes include the full name of the selected member, the
member's system ID, password and any desired comments. The
attributes, except ID, may be edited and the changes committed (but
not Saved) by clicking the Modify button 1524, or the user may be
removed from the system entirely by clicking the Delete button
1526. Any pending change may be removed by selecting the entry in
the list 1520 and clicking the Undo button 1528.
[0087] FIG. 16 shows the administrator's right panel that is
displayed when the Subgroups tab 1516 is selected. Subgroup list
1620 shows existing groups that are subgroups of the item selected
in the left panel, which is "User Group" in this example.
Therefore, list 1620 displays all immediate subgroups of the
"AllUsers" group. In the left panel, "User Groups" is expanded. The
subgroups shown in list 1620 are also the expanded items under
"User Groups" in left panel. In list 1620, a status field shows the
present status of each subgroup, such as "! delete", "! Modify",
and "! Create". An empty Status field in list 1620 indicates that
the subgroup exists and no actions are pending to be saved. The "!"
symbol indicates that the status is pending (not yet saved).
Attributes for the subgroup selected in list 1620 appear in 1622.
These attributes include the subgroup name and desired comments
about the subgroup. To create a new subgroup, the administrator
selects <NEW> from list 1620, enters the subgroup name and
desired comments in 1622, and clicks the Create button 1628. An
entry of "! create <subgroup name>" then appears in list 1620
as a pending action. To save all pending changes, the administrator
clicks the File button in the top menu bar and then Save (not
shown).
[0088] FIG. 17 shows the right panel that is displayed when the
Applet Permissions tab 1518 is selected. List 1720 shows all names
of all applets that have been defined to the system and the
permission status (permit or deny access) that is assigned to each
applet for the group or subgroup (the current "context") that is
selected in the left panel. As with other notebook pages described,
an exclamation point indicates that the status depicted is a change
that is pending a Save. In FIG. 17, the group "User Groups" is
selected in the tree shown in the left panel, which corresponds to
the "AllUsers" group shown in FIG. 3. Since all users of the system
have membership in the "User Groups" group, list 1720 shows the
global default permissions for all system users for each applet
defined to the system. For example, the default permission status
for applet "Database Explorer" is "permit" (meaning access is
permitted) for the "AllUsers" group; similarly, the default
permission status for all users to applet TFTP is "deny" (access is
denied). The administrator can change the permission status of an
applet by selecting it in list 1720 and clicking the "Permit group
access" button 1730 or the "Deny group access" button 1732.
Furthermore, regardless of an applet's permission status for the
selected context, an administrator can select an applet from 1720
and click the "Run/Customize" button 1734 to execute the user
applet under the selected context. The panel region previously
showing the notebook for the current context then becomes occupied
by the executing user applet. If the user applet happens to be a
configuration applet for other software, the administrator can then
save software preferences (through the configuration applets unique
facilities provided for this function) which will then be saved as
the software's default preferences for the selected context. If the
applet is an end user applet, the functions are the same, except
the end user applet loads and saves it own preferences rather than
preferences for a separate piece of software.
[0089] FIG. 18 shows the complete expansion of the administrators
left panel subgroup tree beneath "User Groups". Immediately beneath
"User Groups", there are two subgroups "Administrators", a default
subgroup that cannot be removed, and "IBM", a subgroup defined by
the administrator. The "IBM" subgroup has also been expanded and
contains three subgroups "Hardware", "Services" and "Software". The
"Software" subgroup has been expanded and contains at least one
subgroup called "Development". The "Development" subgroup contains
at least one subgroup called NCoD. Subgroup "NCoD" contains a
number of subgroups, such as ConfigFW 58, which have no children.
Also in this example, subgroup "Development" is selected in the
expansion tree. Since "Development" is not at the top of the tree
hierarchy (the "All Users" group), the notebook shown in the right
panel is somewhat different from that of FIG. 15 when "User Groups"
was selected, because all users are not automatically a member of
"Development", as they are of "User Groups". The list 1820 displays
the log-on system IDs of all system members. The status beside each
user ID in list 1820 shows whether the user owns a membership in
the "Development" subgroup. A status of "yes" indicates that the
user is a member of the "Development" subgroup, "no" indicates that
the user is not a member of the "Development" subgroup, and
"inherited" indicates that the user inherits membership within the
"Development" group by belonging to at least one of Development's
subgroups further down the tree. A user's membership status for a
subgroup is modified by the administrator by selecting the user in
list 1820 and then clicking on the "Add to Group" button 1836 or
"Remove from group" button 1838. If the administrator wishes to
create a new system user, or modify or delete an existing member,
the administrator clicks on the "Create/Modify/Delete Users" button
1840. This action brings up the notebook page shown in FIG. 19. The
right panel of FIG. 19 is similar to that of FIG. 15 and allows the
administrator to create a new system user by selecting NEW in list
1920 and then clicking the "Create" button. Similarly, the
administrator can modify or delete an existing system user by
selecting the appropriate user in list 1920 and clicking the
appropriate button "Modify" or "Delete". Users created at any
subgroup context (e.g., "Development") not only gain the required
membership in "User Groups", but are automatically made members of
the selected subgroup. Changes to the system user list are saved by
clicking on "File" in the top menu bar of the right panel and then
clicking "Save" (not shown).
[0090] FIG. 20 shows a direct way to get to the system user list
for editing, rather than through the group and subgroup route shown
in FIG. 19. To get to FIG. 20, the administrator selects "Users"
1304 in the left panel of FIG. 13, for example. Then in the right
panel shown in FIG. 20, the administrator can create new users and
modify and delete existing users, as already discussed., without
being in the context of a group or subgroup.
[0091] In FIG. 21, the administrator wishes to work directly on
information corresponding to a user whose ID is "colleend". To do
this the administrator expands "Users" in the left panel of FIG.
21, for example, and then selects "colleend", as shown. The right
panel then appears, which is devoted to colleend's system
information. The right panel contains three tabs. The first tab
"User Information" is selected by default. In this tab, the
administrator can modify the name, ID, password and comments
pertaining to colleend.
[0092] FIG. 22 shows the right panel when the administrator selects
the second tab "Group Memberships". List 2220 shows all subgroups
of which colleend is a member. The subgroups are shown in this list
in the order of subgroup priority for colleend. The administrator
can change colleend's subgroup priority by selecting a subgroup and
using the up and down arrows to the right of list 2220 to move the
selected subgroup up or down the list as desired. If the
administrator clicks the "Add/Remode Group Memberships" button 2242
in FIG. 22, the right panel then shows the contents of FIG. 23. The
FIG. 23 right panel allows the administrator to modify the
subgroups of which colleend is a member. The administrator does
this by clicking on an appropriate box corresponding to a desired
subgroup. If the box is clear (meaning that colleend is not
presently a member), then a check mark is added to the box to
include colleend in the subgroup. Conversely, if a subgroup box is
already checked, then clicking on the box clears the check mark and
removes colleend from the subgroup.
[0093] FIG. 24 shows the right panel when the Applet Permissions
tab of FIG. 22 is selected by the administrator. In this right
panel, list 2420 displays all applets that are defined in the
system. The administrator can permit access by colleend to an
applet by selecting the applet in list 2420 and then clicking the
"Permit user access" button 2430; or access can be denied to
colleend by clicking the "Deny user access button" 2432. The
administrator can also launch an applet in the context of colleend
by clicking the "Run/Customize" button 2434. When this is done, the
applet selected in list 2420 is launched in the right panel. The
administrator can then modify any preferences that the applet
allows and save the preferences in the manner provided by the
applet. A typical scenario here is for the administrator to launch
a configuration applet then to fill in a variety of preference
fields. However, if a separate configuration is not provided for a
user applet, the administrator can launch the user applet in the
context of a user and set preferences from the user applet. A
typical scenario here is for the administrator to select a group or
user context and then to launch the user applet as described above.
The administrator can then typically modify preferences from an
options menu and save them in any manner provided by the user
applet. For example, typically, the user preferences are saved when
the options dialogue is closed, or the user applet may provide
other methods of saving the preferences. In any event, since the
administrator is running the applet in the context of colleend in
this example, the preferences set up by the administrator through
the user applet are saved on the server as if colleend had entered
them directly herself by running the applet.
[0094] Not shown in the figures is a scenario whereby a user can
modify some preferences that pertain to a user applet. For example,
a user applet may allow a user to select a window background color
or fonts and font sizes, so that each system user can individualize
the applet to some extent when the user applet executes on the
users desktop. In this case, the user modified preferences are
saved in the same way as they are when the administrator runs the
user applet. One difference, however, is that the administrator can
run user applets to set preferences in group contexts, whereas
users can only affect preferences for their individual context.
[0095] It is to be understood that the above described arrangements
are merely illustrative of the application of principles of the
invention and that other arrangements may be devised by workers
skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of
the invention.
* * * * *
References