Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Accessing a remote server
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-12
2003-02-25
Caldwell, Andrew (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Accessing a remote server
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06526438
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to a method for distributing timely information to authorized subscribers over a publicly accessible global information network.
In the business environment, information is vital to conducting the business of the enterprise. In order to gather all of the relevant facts, numerical data and expert opinions in a particular field of business, the managers, analysts and other users of information may subscribe to, or otherwise obtain access to, a number of publications and information services in addition to internal sources of information. Examples of information to be gathered and integrated by the knowledge worker in a meaningful fashion include business and financial information on other companies or enterprises in the selected field, prices and price movements, new discoveries and methods, rules and regulations of regulatory authorities, spot information items, tabular economic data, and historical financial data.
Some subscriptions are made through “open” publication sources available to the public. For example, U.S. Government documents can be copied and distributed without concern for copyright or other authorization to use the information.
Other information comes from specialized services business news publishers, or consulting firms which gather and disseminate information to a select group of paid subscribers. Information from such “restricted” publication sources often includes expert opinions and advice which is distributed to its subscribers on a highly controlled basis and is often licensed for use to business enterprises at rates depending upon the number of individual users permitted to view the information.
The business enterprise also has internal sources of data or information. Data is stored, created, and provided across the enterprise in and from a variety of technologies, schemas, and formats, and is accessed utilizing a multitude of Advanced Programming Interfaces (API). From legacy systems, to document management systems, to relational data stores, it is difficult to make the bulk of useful information accessible in ways that make sense to all users, is navigable by all users, and is centrally controllable.
The common interface for integration of external and internal data, display and navigation of information items is sometimes called an enterprise information portal (EIP).
The goals of an EIP should be to create a common, flexible infrastructure, which enables the rapid design, development, and deployment of custom navigational and display components. An enterprise information portal creates a platform upon which a multitude of business applications may provide the informational tools which knowledge workers require to research information, access daily briefings applicable to their work environment of the moment, and be notified of breaking information relevant to that environment. This information must be presented to the user in a common display and navigation environment regardless of its source.
One of the major functions of an EIP is to answer queries posed by users of the system. It is known that the various information items contained in publications from both restricted publication sources and open publication sources, as well as internal information may be gathered, edited, and stored in a relational database. Searches for information items meeting specified criteria are then conducted using Structured Query Language (SQL) which is the ISO-ANSI standard data definition language and data manipulation language for relational database systems. SQL software is produced by Oracle Corporation, Sybase Inc., Microsoft Corporation, IBM and many others.
Much has been written concerning access and searching of relational databases residing on file servers connected as part of a client/server local area network. These local file servers must be updated and maintained by the enterprise. Another type of relational database search system allows for accessing a central database over a publicly accessible global information network, such as the Internet. In most such cases, the relational database resides in a central database storage facility at a remote location. The database is updated and maintained by an information service company, which supplies information to its subscribers in a normalized and unified manner. The remote database may be queried by commands transmitted over a global information network and a response is returned over the global information network to the local client making the query. The response may comprise a series of documents transmitted over the network satisfying the query criteria and which the user is permitted to view and/or copy, generally subject to copyright restrictions. An example of such a system is that offered by the Dialog Corporation. The result of this approach is that the API and data access code clutter that in the days of client server occurred at the client, now occur at the web server. The same issues of very complex, high maintenance code that plagued client side applications in the client server model now plague web server backend code. This is due to the model where data stores are “dumb”, and merely respond to queries, and business intelligence resides at the client (or web server) level. Other authors have suggested the use of multiple databases at different locations which are linked together so that a user can search all databases as though they were a single database. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,906—Seifert issued Feb. 24, 1998. In this patent, each provider of information at the separate locations of the databases may limit access to the resource by identifying users who are authorized to obtain access to the resource. This is known as “entitlement”. In this case, each location independently controls access, which imposes the requirement for each resource to determine and monitor right of access to the information on a continuing basis.
Other systems have been devised for determining whether the user is authorized to access the requested document. Once such entitlement system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,780 issued Jan. 13, 1998 to Levergood et al. This system involves an authorization indicator imbedded in a session identifier indicating that the user has purchased the subscription in advance. This approach on a document-by-document basis for every session becomes a cumbersome process when multiple documents, multiple queries and multiple users are involved.
Ideally, a client user wishes to query a database which is updated so as to contain the latest information available from each of the publication sources to which the user subscribes. Various publishers update their publications at different times and at different frequencies. It is difficult for an individual subscriber to multiple publications to continuously update a multiple source database to delete obsolete information and incorporate new information. This is best done in a centralized location under control of a disciplined group of information specialists. On the other hand, it is undesirable to transmit entire documents to respond to queries, when most of the information in the document is largely historical and has only been updated to add a small increment of new information. In this case, it would be desirable for the user to have access to a local or in-house file server containing the relational database which has been updated in a timely manner with authorized documents.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for distributing timely information to authorized subscribers of publications over a publicly accessible global information network.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method for distributing update information over a global information network to update subscriber databases.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved method for sending new information items only to authorized subscribers of restricted publications.
Still another object of the invention
Bienvenu Rodney
Khilkevich Zakhar
Krikston Susan
Kuzemchenko Mikhail
Caldwell Andrew
Crutcher William C.
divine, inc.
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