Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing – Session/connection parameter setting
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-22
2003-10-14
Powell, Mark R. (Department: 2142)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
Session/connection parameter setting
C709S227000, C709S218000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06633915
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a personal information management apparatus and a customizing apparatus that manage users' personal information and customize resources according to the personal information, and more particularly to a personal information management apparatus and a customizing apparatus that manage personal information of each client user in a distributed network system having one or more severs and one or more clients and customize resources according to the personal information.
To be more specific, the present invention relates to a personal information management apparatus and a customizing apparatus that enable the servers to transfer resources customized according to users' personal information in response to a resource service request from a client user. The present invention relates to, for example, a personal information management apparatus and a customizing apparatus for a browser of WWW clients to display pages customized according to user's personal information in WWW resource spaces having WWW (World Wide Web) servers and WWW clients.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, there has been a remarkable development in the field of information processing and information communications. In the technical field of this type, a study and development for interconnecting computer systems has been heretofore made actively. A major object of interconnecting systems is to share and distribute computer resources and information among plural users.
Transmission media or networks for interconnecting systems include LAN (Local Area Network) built within a limited space such as the premises of a college or office; WAN (Wide Area Network) for connecting LANs over a leased line; public switched telephone network (PSTN); ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network); and Internet having communications networks expanded on a global scale.
A network system is generally built as a client-server model in which specific computers on a network are designated servers (file server, print server, etc.) and other clients share servers' resources. In such a client-server model, execution of a part of a procedure to constitute clients' programs is committed to another computer on the network in the format of remote procedure call (RPC) or remote method invocation (RMI). The result of executing the remote procedure is returned to the calling computer as a return value. Input can be made to the program by using a keyboard and files of a computer in hand, and output can be made to a display and files of the same computer.
The mechanism of the remote procedure call or remote method invocation, without being limited to the LAN world, is also usable in global networks such as Internet.
For example, a global information retrieval system, called WWW (World Wide Web), for providing resource spaces of hyperlink structure, is publicized and counted as one of the reasons for explosive widespread use of Internet. Message exchange for resource access and the like is performed between WWW servers and WWW clients on the WWW resource spaces in the format of remote procedure call or remote method invocation according to various protocols such as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and the following protocols: HTTPS, S-HTTP (Secure HTTP), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), CORBA (Common ORB Architecture), IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol), JavaRMI (Remote Method Invocation). CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is known as a method for executing procedures on WWW servers. The HTTP protocol is described in, e.g., RFC (Request For Comments) 1945 and RFC2068.
A WWW server provides resource objects possessed by it to WWW clients wherein the resource objects are located by an identifier called URL (Uniform Resource Locator). URL refers to a character string specifying a resource name and is described in the format of “scheme name (protocol name)://host name (domain name): port number/path name (file name)”. URL is described in, e.g., RFC1738 and RFC1808.
The type of resources especially frequently used on WWW is documents written in the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) language, that is, hypertext. HTML is described in, e.g., RFC1866 (already known).
On the other hand, WWW clients are computer systems that operate using an application called a WWW browser for browsing WWW resources, that is, documents written primarily in the HTML format.
The WWW browser, an application for reproducing homepage on screens, according to URL (or URL embedded in an anchor on a homepage) entered in a location box on a WWW browser window screen, searches WWW resource spaces of hyperlink structure on networks, finds out a resource object or a HTML file from a relevant HTTP service, and downloads data from a WWW server. The WWW browser analyzes the downloaded HTML file and displays it on a browser window screen as a homepage.
Normal WWW browsers, according to a HTML file obtained from a WWW server, faithfully reproduce a homepage on a browser window screen and present it to a client user. However, some users may desire to customize the homepage according to the users' own personal information.
There is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-260821 an automatic creation system that customizes the start page of a WWW browser according to users' personal information. In this automatic creation system, by in advance registering users, personal information in the servers to provide pages, the servers can automatically create pages customized according to the user's personal information and provide the pages to the users.
However, the servers may commit a part of service requested from a client to other servers. One of the methods by which servers request service supply from other servers is CGI (Common Gateway Interface). According to the method described in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-260821, in the case where resources possessed by plural servers must be used to create a certain page, all servers concerned in supplying the page must possess a user's personal information. Such distribution of the user's personal information to plural servers is problematic in terms of security.
Recently, there are increasing cases in which the presentation of users' personal information and replies to questionnaires are requested on homepages. For example, many prize pages are provided with a blank form for inputting applicants, personal information as a precondition for accepting application.
“ANAUMEKUN™ (blank-filler)” offered by Duo System, Ltd. is a service system that substitutes for users to input users' personal information (See the URL www2.duo.co.jp). This service requests a user to in advance register users' personal information in the server of “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler)”. The server of “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler)” provides a list of prize pages and presents them to the user. The user selects a favorite prize page from the list provided by “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler)”. “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler)”, in response to the selection operation, requests a server possessing the relevant page to provide resources. When transferring the obtained page to the user, “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler)” inserts the registered personal information in a mandatory personal information entry field on the page. Therefore, as for the personal information registered in the sever of “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler)”, the user can be saved the trouble of filling in a blank form provided in the prize pages.
However, “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler) ” is concerned in only filling in a blank form provided in prize pages or the like and is beyond the scope of application of users' personal information to other uses and purposes. In other words, “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler)” excludes customizing pages based on users' personal information from the scope of processing. Also, “ANAUMEKUN (blank-filler)” is concerned in only inputting personal information to a blank form and the prize pages themselves are pr
Cardone Jason D.
Fuji 'Xerox Co., Ltd.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Powell Mark R.
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