Data access control

Details Data access control Data access control

1998-03-13

2002-05-21

Rinehart, Mark H. (Department: 2152)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Remote data accessing

Using interconnected networks

C707S793000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06393468

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to information servers and particularly, but not exclusively, to Internet servers and methods of controlling an Internet server.
An important factor which has led to a rapid growth in people and businesses connecting to the Internet is the wealth of information it contains and makes available to practically anyone who has a telephone connection and a personal computer. This strength, however, leads to problems when an information or service provider, which uses the Internet as its communications medium, wishes to control how its information can be accessed.
The information accessible from the Internet is stored on servers which form part of the Internet infrastructure. The information is accessed by clients (which are controlled by users or customers) which are typically connected to, but which are not part of, the Internet. Normally, the clients only connect to the Internet for a relatively short time using, for example, a dial-up modem connection across a telephone line.
While communications and information transfer between Internet clients and servers relies on the well-established TCP/IP protocols, higher-level, dedicated protocols are employed to access certain types of information specific to one of the many services available on the Internet. Different services support different formats of information and allow different types of operation on the information. For example, a Gopher client allows retrieval and display of predominantly text-based information, an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client supports the transfer between a server and a client of binary or ASCII files and a World Wide Web (or simply a Web) client can retrieve and display mixed text and graphical information, as well as sounds, movies (usually encoded via MPEG), virtual ‘worlds’, and any other data type for which an appropriate ‘viewer’ (‘helper’) application or ‘plug-in’ is available.
The following description concentrates on the Internet Web service for the purpose of explanation only. The concepts described, however, are more broadly applicable to other Internet services and to other information services available from different communications networks.
FIG. 1
illustrates an example of an Internet connection serving a plurality of clients
100
connected via a local area network
110
to a workstation
120
. The workstation
120
is connected via a router
130
and a modem (or ISDN interface)
140
to an Internet connection provider
150
. A connection originates from a Web client, for example a Web browser, which is a software process typically residing on a personal computer (PC) or workstation. Using the connection, for example, client
100
a
can retrieve public information from any Internet server.
In the following description the term Internet server means a physical computing platform which is attached to the Internet, whereas the term Web server means a software process which resides and runs on the physical Internet server to provide the Internet server with Web server functionality. The term server on its own can mean either a Web or an Internet server depending on the context, although the distinction is rarely of significance for the purposes of the following description.
The Web employs a protocol called http (HyperText Transfer Protocol) to support access by a Web browser of information on a Web server. Of course, when transmitted across the Internet, the http information is wrapped in the TCP/IP protocol. The information retrieved by the Web browser is typically an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) file which is interpreted by the browser and displayed appropriately on a display screen as a Web page of information.
The Web browser specifies the information it wishes to retrieve using a URL (Universal Resource Locator) of the form:
http://lnternet server name/server directory/file name,
where “http” indicates that the URL points to a Web page of information. The Internet server name is translated into a physical network location by the Internet. The server directory is the location on the server of the file and the file name is that of the file in the directory which contains or generates the required information.
FIG. 2
is a diagram which illustrates the general form of a typical graphical user interface display provided by a Web browser, for example the Netscape (TM) Navigator Web browser. The display includes several main areas: an options area
200
providing the user-options for controlling and configuring the browser, a Web page display area
210
for displaying a Web page, a location box
220
for displaying the location, or URL, of the displayed Web page, and a status box
230
which displays information concerning the status of Web page retrieval. Also illustrated on the screen is a pointer
240
, the position of which can be controlled by a user using a computer mouse, roller-ball or equivalent pointing device. The user interacts with the browser by positioning the pointer appropriately on the screen and selecting available options or functions provided by the browser or displayed on the Web page by, for example, ‘clicking’ a mouse button.
An HTML file comprises ASCII text which includes embedded HTML tags. In general, the HTML tags are used to identify the nature and the structure of the Web page, and to identify HyperText links (hyperlinks), which are described in more detail below, and their associated URLs.
The display capabilities of a Web browser determine the appearance of the HTML file on the screen in dependence upon the HTML tags. HTML can in general identify:
the title of the file;
the hierarchical structure of the file with header levels and section names;
bulleted, numbered, and nested lists;
insertion points for graphics;
special emphasis for keywords or phrases;
pre-formatted areas of the file; and
hyperlinks and associated URLs.
In general, a hyperlink provides a pointer to another file or Internet resource. Sometimes also a hyperlink can point to a different location in a currently-displayed Web page. Within an HTML file, hyperlinks are identified by their syntax, for example:
<A HREF=“{URL}”>{anchor-text}</A>
where the < . . . > structure identifies the HTML tags.
The syntax typically includes a URL, which points to the other file, resource or location, and an anchor definition. In this case, the anchor is defined as a piece of text. In a Web page, typically a hyperlink is represented graphically on screen by the anchor. The anchor can be a piece of highlighted text or an image, for example a push-button or icon image. Where, for example, the anchor is non-textual, the underlying syntax usually also specifies a respective anchor image file location, which may be on the same or on a different server, as follows:
<A HREF=“{URL}”><IMG SRC=“{URL}”></A>
where IMG SRC specifies the location of the image file for the anchor.
The effect of a user selecting a hyperlink, by moving a pointer over the anchor and clicking, say, the mouse button, is normally that the Web browser attempts to retrieve for display as a new Web page the file indicated by the URL. However, sometimes a URL refers to a software process rather than to a Web page per se, as described in more detail below.
In some browsers, for example Netscape (TM) Navigator, when the pointer merely moves over a hyperlink anchor, the browser can be arranged to display the underlying URL in the status box of the display screen, irrespective of whether the user selects the hyperlink or not. Thus, a user can normally see the URL of any hyperlink in a Web page.
HTML files sometimes also include references to other files, for example, graphics files, which are retrieved by the browser and displayed as part of the Web page typically to enhance visual impact. Each reference comprises an appropriate HTML tag and a URL. In practice, the browser retrieves the requested Web page first and then retrieves other files referenced in this way by the Web page. Often, therefore

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