U.S. patent application number 10/916972 was filed with the patent office on 2006-02-16 for method of switching internet personas based on url.
This patent application is currently assigned to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Neal Richard Marion, Shawn Patrick Mullen, George F. III Ramsay, James Stanley Tesauro.
Application Number | 20060036951 10/916972 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35801440 |
Filed Date | 2006-02-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060036951 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Marion; Neal Richard ; et
al. |
February 16, 2006 |
Method of switching internet personas based on URL
Abstract
A method of communicating with a remote site on a network by
establishing different user personas respectively associated with
different remote sites on the network, each user persona containing
one or more attributes used in accessing the remote sites, and then
accessing a specific one of the remote sites using the attributes
in a specific one of the user personas that is associated with the
specific remote site. The specific remote site can be associated
with the specific user persona by a universal resource locator
(URL), e.g., for web sites on the Internet, and the accessing is
automatically performed in response to matching of the URL of the
specific remote site to the URL associated with the specific user
persona. A default persona can be used for any remote site having
no specifically associated user persona. The attributes in the user
personas can provide various functions such as indicating whether
Java programming is enabled for the specific remote site or whether
"cookies" are enabled for the specific remote site. The attributes
can also define a username for the specific remote site. A user
persona can be established when a bookmark is created for the
specific remote site.
Inventors: |
Marion; Neal Richard;
(Georgetown, TX) ; Mullen; Shawn Patrick; (Buda,
TX) ; Ramsay; George F. III; (Elgin, TX) ;
Tesauro; James Stanley; (Austin, TX) |
Correspondence
Address: |
IBM CORPORATION (JVM)
C/O LAW OFFICE OF JACK V. MUSGROVE
2911 BRIONS WOOD LANE
CEDAR PARK
TX
78613
US
|
Assignee: |
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
CORPORATION
ARMONK
NY
|
Family ID: |
35801440 |
Appl. No.: |
10/916972 |
Filed: |
August 12, 2004 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
715/733 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 2221/2115 20130101;
H04L 63/102 20130101; H04L 63/083 20130101; G06F 2221/2105
20130101; G06F 21/31 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/733 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/00 20060101
G06F003/00 |
Claims
1. A method of communicating with a remote site on a network,
comprising: establishing a plurality of user personas respectively
associated with a plurality of remote sites on the network, each
user persona containing one or more attributes used in accessing
the remote sites; and accessing a specific one of the remote sites
using the one or more attributes in a specific one of the user
personas associated with the specific remote site.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein: the specific remote site is
associated with the specific user persona by a universal resource
locator (URL) of the remote site; and said accessing is
automatically performed in response to matching of the URL of the
specific remote site to the URL associated with the specific user
persona.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing one of the
user personas as a default persona to be used for any remote site
having no specifically associated user persona.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the attributes in the user
personas indicates whether Java programming is enabled for the
specific remote site.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the attributes in the user
personas indicates whether cookies are enabled for the specific
remote site.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the attributes in the user
personas indicates a username for the specific remote site.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the user personas
is established when a bookmark is created for the specific remote
site.
8. A computer system comprising: means for processing program
instructions; a memory device connected to said processing means;
and program instructions residing in said memory device for
establishing a plurality of user personas respectively associated
with a plurality of remote sites on a network connected to the
computer system, each user persona containing one or more
attributes used in accessing the remote sites, and for accessing a
specific one of the remote sites using the one or more attributes
in a specific one of the user personas associated with the specific
remote site.
9. The computer system of claim 8 wherein: the specific remote site
is associated with the specific user persona by a universal
resource locator (URL) of the remote site; and the accessing is
automatically performed in response to matching of the URL of the
specific remote site to the URL associated with the specific user
persona.
10. The computer system of claim 8 wherein said program
instructions further establish one of the user personas as a
default persona to be used for any remote site having no
specifically associated user persona.
11. The computer system of claim 8 wherein one of the attributes in
the user personas indicates whether Java programming is enabled for
the specific remote site.
12. The computer system of claim 8 wherein one of the attributes in
the user personas indicates whether cookies are enabled for the
specific remote site.
13. The computer system of claim 8 wherein one of the attributes in
the user personas indicates a username for the specific remote
site.
14. The computer system of claim 8 wherein at least one of the user
personas is established when a bookmark is created for the specific
remote site.
15. A computer program product comprising: a computer-readable
medium; and program instructions residing in said medium for
establishing a plurality of user personas respectively associated
with a plurality of remote sites on a network connected to a
computer system, each user persona containing one or more
attributes used in accessing the remote sites, and for accessing a
specific one of the remote sites using the one or more attributes
in a specific one of the user personas associated with the specific
remote site.
16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein: the specific
remote site is associated with the specific user persona by a
universal resource locator (URL) of the remote site; and the
accessing is automatically performed in response to matching of the
URL of the specific remote site to the URL associated with the
specific user persona.
17. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein said program
instructions further establish one of the user personas as a
default persona to be used for any remote site having no
specifically associated user persona.
18. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein one of the
attributes in the user personas indicates whether Java programming
is enabled for the specific remote site.
19. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein one of the
attributes in the user personas indicates whether cookies are
enabled for the specific remote site.
20. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein one of the
attributes in the user personas indicates a username for the
specific remote site.
21. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein at least one
of the user personas is established when a bookmark is created for
the specific remote site.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention generally relates to computer systems,
and more particularly to a method of accessing remote sites on a
network such as the Internet, where the remote sites utilize user
information such as user names, passwords, etc., for access.
[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0004] A generalized computing network 2 is shown in FIG. 1.
Network 2 has several client workstations 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d which
are interconnected via a communications infrastructure 4. Network 2
additionally has servers 5a, 5b. Each server is essentially a
stand-alone computer system (having one or more processors, memory
devices, and communications devices), but has been adapted to
primarily provide information to individual users at client
workstations 3a-3d. The information provided by a server can be in
the form of programs which run locally on a given client, or in the
form of data such as files used by other programs. Communications
infrastructure 4 may include transmission media such as copper
wires or optical fibers, along with interconnected routers, hubs
and switches.
[0005] Clients 3a-3d can also be stand-alone computer systems (like
personal computers, or PCs), or "dumber" systems adapted for
limited use with network 2 (like network computers, or NCs). As
used herein, "PC" generally refers to any multi-purpose computer
adapted for use by one or more individuals, regardless of the
manufacturer, hardware platform, operating system, etc. Network 2
thus offers client-server communications as well as peer-to-peer
communications between different clients in real-time or by delayed
file delivery. Other nodes can be included in network 2, such as a
storage device 6.
[0006] The network can be local in nature, or can be further
connected to other network systems (not shown). The construction of
network 2 is also generally applicable to the Internet.
Conventional protocols and services have been established for the
Internet which allow the transfer of various types of information,
including electronic mail, simple file transfers via FTP, remote
computing via TELNET, "gopher" searching, Usenet newsgroups, and
hypertext file delivery and multimedia streaming via the World Wide
Web (WWW). A given server can be dedicated to performing one of
these operations, or run multiple services. For example, mail
servers (sending and receiving) can be used to facilitate the
transmission of email. The Internet is becoming increasingly
popular as the primary medium for both personal and commercial
transactions.
[0007] Internet services are typically accessed by specifying a
unique address, or universal resource locator (URL). The URL has
two basic components, the protocol to be used, and the object
pathname. For example, the URL "http://www.uspto.gov" (home page
for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office) specifies a hypertext
transfer protocol ("http") and a pathname of the server
("www.uspto.gov"). The server name is associated with a unique
numeric value (a TCP/IP address/domain). For email ("mailto:"
protocol), the address is composed of two parts, a user name and a
server name separated by the commercial "at" symbol, e.g.,
"johndoe@mailserver.com".
[0008] Various types of electronic documents can be transmitted on
a network like the Internet. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a document
creator at client workstation 3a uses an editor (e.g., an email
composer) to draft a document such as an email 7. This email is
then transmitted across the communications infrastructure 4 to the
document recipient at client workstation 3b who views it with a
document reader (e.g., an email viewer). FIG. 1 also depicts the
delivery of a web page 8 from a remote web site hosted at server 5a
to client workstation 3d. Web page 8 may be created using, e.g., a
hypertext markup language (HTML) editor, and typically includes
hypertext links for other web pages. A hypertext link is an image
that is viewable on the workstation's display which can be selected
by the user (e.g., using a pointing device or "mouse") and which
then automatically instructs the client workstation to request
another page associated with that particular hypertext link (i.e.,
issue another URL). A hypertext link may appear as a picture, or as
a word or sentence, possibly underlined or otherwise accentuated to
indicate that it is an embedded link and not just normal,
informative text. A WWW page may have text, graphic (still) images,
and even multimedia objects such as sound recordings or moving
video clips. A page may be larger than the physical size of the
monitor screen, and techniques such as scroll bars are used by the
viewing software (the web browser) to view different portions of
the page.
[0009] Different user attributes or preferences can be utilized
when accessing a remote web site. For example, many web sites now
use small programs, called Java applets, to carry out certain
functions (such as procedures that are local to the client
workstation and do not require additional access to the remote
site). While Java applets can greatly enhance the capabilities of a
web page, they may also introduce security and other issues.
Accordingly, many web browsers are configured to allow the user to
globally enable or disable the use of Java routines. This
capability can, however, create problems. A user may want to
explore some new web sites and, in doing so, disable Java for
security reasons, but when this user visits old, reliable sites
that require Java, the web pages will not be properly presented
unless the user manually edits the configuration to re-enable Java.
If a user repeatedly visits several web sites where Java is to be
disabled, but additionally repeatedly visits web sites requiring
Java, it can become very cumbersome for the user to constantly
change the Java preference back and forth.
[0010] Another attribute used by conventional web browsers is the
so-called "magic cookie." A cookie is an identification number or
character sequence that resides locally on the client workstation
but is used by the remote web site in creating a web page. When a
web page is requested, the remote web site can examine the cookies
to discern the user and employ previously selected options or
preferences in presenting the web page. Cookies can, however, also
raise security issues and may be undesirable in certain cases.
Again, conventional web browsers can allow the user to globally
enable or disable cookies, but the user must repeatedly change this
setting for different web sites where cookies are acceptable or
unacceptable.
[0011] Web browsers also allow the user to create an identity,
e.g., with a username or email address, that is utilized by a
remote site in accessing a web page. If a user wants to have
different usernames or email addresses for different web sites, the
identity information must be manually re-entered before visiting
each site, which again is extremely inconvenient. For example, a
user might prefer a personal email address for use with certain web
sites, while preferring a work email address for other web sites,
and preferring a fictitious email address for web sites that might
abuse (spam) the user's email account.
[0012] In light of the foregoing, it would be desirable to devise
an improved method of accessing remote sites such as web hosts
which does not require the user to manually re-enter different
attributes or preferences. It would be further advantageous if the
method could easily allow the user to exert finer control of the
privileges a remote site has.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0013] It is therefore one object of the present invention to
provide an improved method of communicating with remote network
sites.
[0014] It is another object of the present invention to provide
such a method which allows a user to automatically associate
certain preferences or attributes with specific web sites.
[0015] It is yet another object of the present invention to provide
such a method which is applicable to a variety of electronic
documents including web pages and electronic mail.
[0016] The foregoing objects are achieved in a method of
communicating with a remote site on a network, generally comprising
the steps of establishing a plurality of user personas respectively
associated with a plurality of remote sites on the network, each
user persona containing one or more attributes used in accessing
the remote sites, and accessing a specific one of the remote sites
using the attributes in a specific one of the user personas that is
associated with the specific remote site. The specific remote site
can be associated with the specific user persona by a universal
resource locator (URL) of the remote site, e.g., for web sites on
the Internet, and the accessing is automatically performed in
response to matching of the URL of the specific remote site to the
URL associated with the specific user persona. A default persona
can be used for any remote site having no specifically associated
user persona. The attributes in the user personas can provide
various functions such as indicating whether Java programming is
enabled for the specific remote site or whether "cookies" are
enabled for the specific remote site. The attributes can also
define a username for the specific remote site. A user persona can
be established when a bookmark is created for the specific remote
site.
[0017] The above as well as additional objectives, features, and
advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the
following detailed written description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] The present invention may be better understood, and its
numerous objects, features, and advantages made apparent to those
skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings.
[0019] FIG. 1 is a pictorial representation of electronic document
delivery across a conventional communications network having
various nodes such as client workstations, servers, and storage
devices;
[0020] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computer system programmed to
access remote network sites using associated persona preferences in
accordance with one implementation of the present invention;
[0021] FIG. 3 is a pictorial representation of different persona
preferences which have been selectively associated with different
remote network sites (URLs) in accordance with one implementation
of the present invention;
[0022] FIG. 4 is an elevational view of a web browser application
as displayed on a computer screen, depicting a dialog box for
viewing, entering or editing different persona preferences
selectively associated with different remote network sites in
accordance with one implementation of the present invention;
and
[0023] FIG. 5 is a chart illustrating the logical flow of remote
site access using associated persona preferences in accordance with
one implementation of the present invention.
[0024] The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings
indicates similar or identical items.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)
[0025] The present invention provides a method of switching between
several internet "personas" which allows the computer user to
effortlessly and transparently utilize different preferences
depending upon the URL visited. Each persona contains a range of
user preferences such as email addresses, cookie creation, Java
permissions, etc. The invention utilizes a program application such
as an enhanced web browser to store these preferences in
association with the different URLs, as explained further below.
The web browser is executed on a data processing system or
computer. FIG. 2 depicts one embodiment 10 of a computer system
programmed to automatically switch between different user personas
in accordance with one implementation of the present invention.
[0026] System 10 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 12 which
carries out program instructions, firmware or read-only memory
(ROM) 14 which stores the system's basic input/output logic, and a
dynamic random access memory (DRAM) 16 which temporarily stores
program instructions and operand data used by CPU 12. CPU 12, ROM
14 and DRAM 16 are all connected to a system bus 18. There may be
additional structures in the memory hierarchy which are not
depicted, such as on-board (L1) and second-level (L2) caches.
[0027] CPU 12, ROM 14 and DRAM 16 are also coupled to a peripheral
component interconnect (PCI) local bus 20 using a PCI host bridge
22. PCI host bridge 22 provides a low latency path through which
processor 12 may access PCI devices mapped anywhere within bus
memory or I/O address spaces. PCI host bridge 22 also provides a
high bandwidth path to allow the PCI devices to access DRAM 16.
Attached to PCI local bus 20 are a network adapter 24, a small
computer system interface (SCSI) adapter 26, an expansion bus
bridge 28, an audio adapter 30, and a graphics adapter 32. Network
adapter 24 may be used to connect computer system 10 to an external
computer network 34, such as a local area network (LAN) or the
Internet. Small computer system interface (SCSI) adapter 26 is used
to control high-speed SCSI disk drive 36. Disk drive 36 stores the
program instructions and data in a more permanent state, including
the program which embodies the present invention as explained
further below. Expansion bus bridge 28 is used to couple an
industry standard architecture (ISA) expansion bus 38 to PCI local
bus 20. As shown, several user input devices are connected to ISA
bus 38, including a keyboard 40, a microphone 42, and a graphical
pointing device (mouse) 44. Other devices may also be attached to
ISA bus 38, such as a CD-ROM drive 46. Audio adapter 30 controls
audio output to a speaker 48, and graphics adapter 32 controls
visual output to a display monitor 50, to allow the user to control
the document creation process as taught herein.
[0028] While the illustrative implementation provides the program
instructions embodying the present invention on disk drive 36,
those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention can be
embodied in a program product utilizing other computer-readable
media, including transmission media.
[0029] Computer system 10 carries out program instructions for
switching between different user personas when accessing web sites
in accordance with one or more of the implementations discussed in
detail below. Accordingly, practice of the invention may include
the use of conventional web browser application features in
addition to the inventive concept disclosed herein. The details of
such applications will become readily apparent to those skilled in
the art upon reference to this disclosure.
[0030] FIG. 3 is a pictorial representation of various user
personas that are stored on computer 10 in association with
respective URLs. The user preferences may be stored for example
when a URL is first bookmarked. Then when a page is revisited, the
page is matched against previously stored personas/URLs, and the
appropriate user persona is automatically loaded by the web
browser. FIG. 3 illustrates four such user personas. For the ABC
Company web site (URL "http://www.abc.com"), the user has
established a persona which includes a username "johndoe", a
password "123456", and enables Java routines. For the XYZ
government web site (URL "http://www.xyz.gov"), the user has
established a persona which includes a username "jdoe", a password
"654321", and disables Java routines. For the FTP download web site
(URL "ftp://downloads.net"), the user has established a persona
which includes a username "guest", a password "anon", and disables
Java routines. For email sent to the administrator of the web site
at the user's place of work (URL "mailto://admin@work.com"), the
user has established a persona which includes a username (email
address) "me@work.com", a password "123456", and disables Java
routines (the mail server is the remote site in this case).
[0031] All four of these personas are accessible by the web browser
running on computer system 10. In this manner, when the user
initiates communication, e.g., by clicking on a web site bookmark
or selecting an addressee for an email, the web browser can
automatically locate and load the appropriate user persona without
any additional effort on the part of the user.
[0032] With further reference to FIG. 4, there is depicted one
embodiment of a user interface 60 of the web browser that is
displayed on monitor 50 as the electronic communication process is
carried out by computer system 10 under control of the user. User
interface 60 may include general features familiar to computer
users such as a title bar 62, a menu bar 64 having various commands
which can be executed using keyboard 40 or mouse 44 to display
additional pull-down menus, and a button bar 66 having several
graphical buttons with icons that allow the user to more simply
effectuate a command with a single click of mouse 44 as it controls
the graphical pointer 68 on display monitor 50, and a URL field 70
for manually typing in a URL.
[0033] Prior to initiating any specific communication, the user can
establish different personas which are to be searched as a URL is
entered to dynamically associate a given persona with a respective
URL. FIG. 3 illustrates a query or dialog box 72 that is presented
to the user in response to a command such as using mouse 40 to
control graphical pointer 68 and click on a particular button 74
provided for the purpose of selecting such information sets. In the
illustrative implementation, dialog box 72 allows the user to
create, view and edit the preferences for each persona. A name
field 76 shows various names or titles associated with various
personas, with the name "ABC Company" selected. The associated
persona preferences for the ABC Company are shown to the right of
field 76, and include the URL, a username, a password, and enabling
of Java, cookies and caching. The user can edit these preferences
using the "Edit" button 78 which can present a further dialog box
or interface (not shown) to allow the preferences to be modified. A
"New" button 80 is similarly used to create a new persona. An
"Options" button 82 can be used to set other general attributes
used with persona preferences such as associating all URLs for a
given site/domain with the chosen persona.
[0034] As seen in field 76, one of the personas may be designated
as the "Default" persona. This persona is used for any URLs that
are not explicitly specified in one of the other established
personas.
[0035] The present invention may be further understood with
reference to the flow charts of FIGS. 5-7 which depict examples of
accessing network sites in accordance with various implementations
of the present invention. FIG. 5 illustrates the procedure for
visiting a web site (URL), e.g., on the Internet, and begins when
the user selects the particular URL to visit (90). The list of URLs
for previously associated personas is reviewed to check for a match
with the URL selected by the user (92). If the URL is on the list,
the associated persona is loaded and set for accessing that URL
(94). If the URL is not on the list, the default persona is used
(96). If the default persona is being used, the user may want to
associate a new persona with the site. Alternatively, if a
previously associated persona is being used, the user may
nevertheless want to change to a different persona. In either case,
the procedure can make an inquiry as to whether the desired persona
is currently loaded (98). If not, the user can load the desired
persona (100), and the URL is then loaded by the web browser (102).
This process continues iteratively for each URL selected to visit
(104).
[0036] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of how a user might open an
email message using the present invention. The procedure begins
with the user selecting a mail message to read (110). The email ID
(address) for the sender of the message is first extracted (112),
and compared to the list of email addresses having previously
associated personas (114). If the email address is on the list, the
associated persona is loaded and set for viewing that message
(116). If the address is not on the list, the default persona is
used (118). The program can again query the user as to whether the
desired persona is actually loaded (120). If not, the user is
afforded an opportunity to load another desired persona (122). The
email message is then opened using the appropriate persona (124).
In this manner, the desired persona is used for any transactions
involving that message, such as a return confirmation that is
transmitted to the original email sender. The process continues
interatively for each mail message to be displayed (126).
[0037] FIG. 7 illustrates one manner to implement the invention for
adding new bookmarks, including a "type" of association for a URL
that indicates if all pages on the site should use the persona, or
if only the pages subordinate to the current page (i.e., a branch
of the site tree) should use the persona, or if just that specific
page should use the persona. The process again begins when the user
visits a site, i.e., enters a URL in a web browser (130). A
bookmark is set for the URL (132), and a list of available personas
is displayed which may be associated with it (134). The user then
selects the desired persona (136), and further chooses are
particular selection type as explained above (138). For example, a
URL for a company's background information might be
"http://www.abc.com/info" and, for such an address, the user could
associate the persona with all addresses at that site (e.g., any
address with the domain "http://www.abc.com"), or branches off the
information page (e.g., any address beginning with
"http://www.abc.com/info") or just the specific page bookmarked.
The persona is then stored with a type indicator for the URL(s) as
appropriate (140).
[0038] The present invention offers several advantages over
convention network applications such as web browsers and email
composes. A user is no longer required to continually modify
preferences to allow specific sites/pages to have elevated
privileges. It is also easier to protect sensitive information
(e.g., email addresses) from site snoopers. Browser attributes are
treated consistently and are not artificially separated into
security-type preferences and user preferences.
[0039] Although the invention has been described with reference to
specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed
in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed
embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments of the invention,
will become apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference
to the description of the invention. It is therefore contemplated
that such modifications can be made without departing from the
spirit or scope of the present invention as defined in the appended
claims.
* * * * *
References