WO2005015882A1

WO2005015882A1 - Method and system for sharing device - session data with multiple devices

Info

Publication number: WO2005015882A1
Application number: PCT/EP2004/051202
Authority: WO
Inventors: Peter Fischer; Uwe Hansmann; Stephan Hesmer
Original assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
Priority date: 2003-07-25
Filing date: 2004-06-23
Publication date: 2005-02-17
Also published as: TW200506649A

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for session handling of web applications that allow to continue an already existing device - session of a device with a web application with another device without loosing the device -session data created by the predecessor device. All single device sessions created and maintained by a session handling component are now controlled by an overall session created by a new session handling component. The overall - session represents a user - session for user's multiple devices to which references to all single existing device - sessions created by user's multiple devices with a web application as well as the latest device - session data (latest overall session data) created by the user's device currently in use are assigned. The device - session data created by the user's device currently in use is intercepted by the new session handler component and assigned to the overall session as the latest overall session data. All single existing device sessions of the user's multiple devices not currently in use are synchronized with the latest overall session data. An essential advantage of the present invention is that the existing prior device session handling can be completely reused in the present invention without essential modifications.

Description

D E S C R I P T I O N

Method and System for sharing device - session data with multiple devices

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to session handling in general, and more particularly to session handling of web applications, especially sharing of device - session data with multiple devices.

Background of the invention

HTTP that is the most commonly known communication protocol in the Internet offers no mechanism for data to be retained between requests. In other words it cannot track the activities of a user across requests. Therefore, many web applications additionally provide session handling. That means web applications not only uniquely identifying the user on each request (device - session) , but also storing data across requests and associating it with the user (device - session data) . The most known mechanisms for session handling are "rewriting URLs" and "creating cookies". URL rewriting is based on the idea of embedding a unique ID (generated by the server) in each URL of the response from the server. When the client sends a request to one of such URL, the browser sends this ID back to the server. Cookies are an alternative to URL rewriting. A cookie is not sent as a query string but is exchanged within the bodies the HTTP requests and response. There is no need to rewrite URLs. In order to send a cookie to a client, a server creates a cookie header and attaches it to the HTTP response. The client receives the request and extracts the cookie response header. The cookie is usually stored on a file on the client's system.

Portal applications are specific web applications which allow users to create their personal web page from a set of smaller information units commonly called "portlets".

A very important task of Portal applications amongst others is to provide a session handling for portlets to enable them to store transient data on a per user base.

An example would be that a user logs-in into the portal application to read the latest news displayed in a news portlet If the user decides that he wants to know more about for example Oil Prices in the European Politics section and he gets more information.

The information the portlet displays is stored in the user's device - session. If the user switches to anther portal page and returns again he will still find the information he selected before.

If the user logs out the device - session data will be deleted from the server's memory.

The session handling of portal applications is normally handled by the application server (see Fig. 1A) . However session handling may also be part of the web application or portal application itself.

More and more mobile devices like mobile phone, personal digital assistant, or notebooks are able to communicate with portal applications via wireless communication network. A disadvantage of Internet communication by such mobile devices is their limited processing and displaying capabilities. Therefore, it would be desirable for a user who owns several devices to start a session with the portal application with one device, and to continue that established session with another device having greater capacities. For example, a car driver starts a portal session with his mobile phone in his car, and continues the already existing mobile phone - session with his desktop computer when he arrives at home.

However, the existing session handling concepts of web applications especially portal applications do not allow sharing of session data between different devices at all (e.g. IBM Websphere Portal Server, Yahoo etc.) They always create a new device - session with its own session data for each device of the user if multiple devices are supported at all (see Fig.l B) . That means the user has always to initiate a new session with each of his device. That causes unnecessary double work and additional network costs.

Object of the invention

Starting from this, the object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for session handling avoiding the disadvantages of the prior art.

Brief summary of the present invention

The present invention provides a method and system for session handling of web applications that allow to continue an already existing device - session of a device with a web application with another device without loosing the device - session data created by the predecessor device. All single device - sessions created and maintained by a session handling component are now controlled by an overall session created by a new session handling component. The overall - session represents a user - session for user' s multiple devices to which references to all single existing device - sessions created by user' s multiple devices with a web application as well as the latest device - session data (latest overall session data) created by the user's device currently in use are assigned. The device - session data generated by the user' s device currently in use is intercepted by the new session handler component and assigned to the overall session as the latest overall session data. All single existing device - sessions of the user' s multiple devices not currently in use are synchronized with the latest overall session data. An essential advantage of the present invention is that the existing prior device session handling can be completely reused in the present invention without essential modifications .

Brief description of the several views of the drawings

The above, as well as additional objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent in the following detailed written description.

The novel features of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives, and advantages thereof, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig.l A-B shows a prior art session handling in a portal application environment,

Fig.2 shows the basic idea of the inventive overall session in its basic structure and its communication context with the multiple devices,

Fig.3 A shows an existing prior art portal application environment without the present invention, and Fig. 3 B shows the same existing portal application extended by the inventive portal session handler,

Fig. A shows a flow diagram with the inventive method steps performed by said inventive portal session handler during login of a new device, and FIG.4 B shows a flow diagram with the inventive method steps performed by said inventive portal session handler when portal application settings are changed.

With respect to Fig. 2, there is depicted the basic idea of the inventive overall session in its basic structure and its global context with multiple user devices. Several mobile devices 2 like mobile phone, personal digital assistant, notebook have a communication connection 3 with a web application 8 running on a server system 4. The communication between the mobile devices and the web application preferably uses the HTTP protocol. The web application may be for example a portal application. However the present invention may be used by any other web application requiring session handling. The web - application 8 or an application server creates for each mobile device 2 that makes a login to the web application 8 a device - session 6. The device-session 6 can be created by any prior art session handling procedure like URL rewriting or use of cookies. Furthermore, a new session handling component being part of the web application or forming an additional component creates an overall session 5 for a certain user who wants to use the web application 8 with multiple devices 2. The overall session 5 represents a user session to which references to all single existing device - sessions 6 created by user's multiple devices with a web application 8 as well as the latest device - session data (latest overall session data) created by the user's device currently in use are assigned. The latest overall session data is exclusively managed by the Web application especially by new session handling component. All single existing device - sessions 6 are controlled by the overall session 5 and synchronized with the overall session data but still managed by the application server. The Web application must access exclusively the overall session and use it as it has used the single device - sessions in its prior art implementation. To be able to do that the overall session must implement the same interfaces as the device - sessions which is preferably achieved by using a facade pattern. Hence, the change from device - sessions 6 to the overall session 5 is transparent to all internal web application components (e.g. such as the aggregation component or the portlets in a portal application so that no changes are required in that area as well) .

Using the prior device - session handling as integral part of the overall session 5 has the essential advantage that the existing device - session handling of prior art web application can be completely reused without modification in the present invention. Therefore, the implementation of the inventive overall session 5 into the existing session handling infrastructure of web applications requires minor implementation effort .

With respect to Fig.3 A, there is depicted a prior art portal application (portal server 8) running in a server system 4 without the present invention. The session handling is frequently part of the application server 12. The application server 12 combines or works with a HTTP-server 11. The HTTP- server 11 provides several different ways to forward a request created by a device 2 to the application server 12 and to forward back to a modified or new Web page created by the portal application 8. During the login of a user with a certain device 2 the application server 12 especially its session handling component 12 creates a device - session and passes it to the portal application 8. The portal application 8 itself passes the device - session to the portlet to be accessed by the user.

With respect to Fig.3 B, there is depicted a portal application 8 using the present invention. The session - handling of the application server 12 remains unchanged as described in Fig.3 A. A new session handling layer - hereinafter called "portal session handling 8a" is added to the portal application 8 of Fig.3 A. The new portal session handling 8a controls the overall session and its device - sessions as explained to Fig.2. In detail its main functionalities are intercepting all transmission of device - session data from the portal application 8 to the Application Server's Session Handling Component 12, creating a new overall session for each user, adding a new device session for a user to the already existing overall session, and recognizing the users identity to match it across the overall session and all device sessions which is technically achieved during the login with the user's identity in the portal application (e.g. authentication 12 b or registration with user ID) . All transmissions from the portal application to application server's session handling component are intercepted by the Portal session handling 8a. By intercepting, the portal session handling 8a knows about the single device - session data and therefore is able to synchronize the single device - session data with the overall session data. The overall session can be preferably implemented by a data structure for certain user, e.g. data file, Java class, which references to the single existing device - sessions created by the application's server session handling component, and the latest overall session data created by the user' s device currently in use. The references to the single device - sessions can be preferably the single session IDs of those device-sessions. Adding a new device - session to an overall can be implemented for example by assigning a reference of said device-session ID to the overall session. The user ID to which an overall session is assigned is preferably achieved by a authentication process during login providing at least user name or other user identification information, or any other registration process which must be executed prior to use of portal session handling. With respect to Fig. 4 A, there is depicted a flow diagram with the inventive method steps performed by said inventive portal session handler during login of a new device. For example a user is owner of several devices like mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, and a notebook. He uses his mobile phone to send a request to a portal application running on a server. At the server side the HTTP-server forwards the request to the application server that invokes the normal prior art session handling 20, e.g. rewriting of URL or cookies etc, for that specific device resulting in a device - session 20. The device - session 20 is exchanged in each request/response between the device and application server. After creation of the device - session 6 for the mobile phone (device - session) the portal application is called by the application server 30. Session handler layer preferably being part of the portal application intercepts the request and looks up for an overall session 5 for that user 40. If an overall session 5 already exists for that user 50, however the device - session 6 for the mobile phone is not contained in the user's overall session 61 (e.g. mobile phone uses the portal application at the first time) , reference 5a to the device - session is assigned to the existing overall session 62 and the latest overall session data is copied into the device-session data for that mobile device 63.

Another scenario may be that the overall session already exists 50 and a the reference 5A to the device-session for the mobile phone is already assigned to the overall session 60 (e.g. the mobile phone has already used the portal application) the latest overall session data 5b is automatically copied into the device-session data for that device 70.

Finally, another scenario may be that an overall session does not exist at all 51. In that case an overall session for that user is created at first 52. That newly created overall session contains no overall session data at that time. A reference to the device - session is assigned to the newly created overall session 62. Then the user request is executed by the portal application and the corresponding device - session data for that user request is assigned to the overall session as latest overall session data. Since no further devices are referenced to said overall session there is no synchronization of existing device - session data with the latest overall session data.

With respect to Fig.4 B, there is depicted a flow diagram with the inventive method steps performed by said inventive portal session handler when the portal application (portal server 8) settings are changed. A change of an application setting means for example a change of an attribute of session. In other words the content of the presently available overall session data has to be changed by a user request 25. That request is executed by the portal application and then the portal application forwards the content change to session handling component of the application server 12; 35. The component Attribute Dispatcher intercepts that content changes 45 and copies it into the overall session resulting in latest overall session data 5b and concurrently synchronizes the single existing device - session data 5a referenced in the overall session with the latest overall session data.

An alternative embodiment of the method as described before does not synchronize all single device sessions in advance but synchronizes only the overall session with currently used device session. When a new device or already known device is used then the overall session data containing the latest session data is synchronized with the new device session device .

Claims

C A I M S

1. Method for sharing device-session data of a web application amongst user's multiple devices, wherein each of said multiple device sends a request to said web application initiating creation of a device - session by a session handling component, wherein in response to said device request said web application transfers device - session data to said session handling component, wherein said method comprises the steps of:

intercepting transfer of said device - session data from said web application to said session handling component,

accessing overall session data of an overall session assigned to user identification data received during the login - procedure of said device with said web application,

updating said overall session data with said device - session data received from said intercepting step resulting in latest overall session data, and

synchronizing at least said device - session data of said device assigned to said overall session and currently in use with said latest overall session data.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein said login - procedure is an authentication or registration procedure.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein said user identification data is a user ID and/or a personal identification code (PIN) received during said login procedure of said device with said web application.

4. Method according to claim 1, wherein said synchronization step is extended to all device - sessions assigned to said overall session.

5. Method for sharing device-session data of a web application amongst user's multiple devices, wherein each device of said multiple devices initiates a device - session by a session handling component, wherein said method comprises the steps of:

determining the existence of an overall session for said user of said device currently in use, wherein an overall session contains references to all single existing device - sessions created by said user's multiple devices already used with said web application as well as the latest session data (overall session data) created by said device - sessions of user's multiple devices already used,

assigning a reference of said device - session of said device currently in use to said overall session in the case there exists an overall for that user and there is no reference of said device - session assigned to said overall session,

copying the overall session data assigned to said overall session to said device - session currently in use representing said device-session data.

6. Method according to claim 5, further comprises the steps of:

changing settings of said device - session data provided by said copying step by a request created by said device currently in use, and sent it to said web application,

intercepting said device - change session data from said web application to said session handling component, updating said overall session data with said device - change session data resulting in the latest overall session data,

7. Method for sharing device-session data of a web application amongst user's multiple devices, wherein each device of said multiple devices initiates a device - session by a session handling component, wherein said method comprises the steps of:

determining the existence of an overall session for said user of said device currently in use, wherein an overall session contains references to all single existing device - sessions created by said user' s multiple devices already used with said web application as well as the latest session data (overall session data) created by said device - sessions of said user' s multiple devices already used,

assigning a reference of said device - session to said overall session if there exists an overall for said user of said device currently in use and if there is no reference of said device - session of said device currently to said overall session, and

copying said overall session data assigned to said overall session to said device - session of said device currently in use.

8. Method for sharing device-session data of a web application amongst user's multiple devices, wherein each of said multiple device creates a request and sends it to the web application, wherein said method comprises the steps of: creating a device - session with said web application with a device currently in use by said session handling component,

creating an overall session for the user of said device if not available, wherein an overall session contains references to all single existing device - sessions created by said user' s multiple devices already used with said web application as well as the latest session data (overall session data) created by said device - sessions of said user' s multiple devices already used,

intercepting transfer of said device - session data of said device currently in use from said web application to said session handling component,

assigning reference to said device - session of said device currently in use to said overall session as well as assigning the device - session data of said device currently in use to said overall session representing the latest overall session data, and

copying said latest overall session data to said device - session of said device currently in use.

9. Server system comprising:

a web application (8) ,

a session handling component (12a) with the functionality to create device - sessions for a web application and assigning device - session data received from said web application to said device - sessions, characterized by:

a further session handling component (8a) with the functionality to intercept the transmission of said device - session data from the web application to said session handling component, to create new overall session for each user that contains references to all single device - sessions created by said user' s multiple devices as well as the overall session data created by user's multiple devices, to add a new device session for a user to an already existing overall session by assigning its device - session reference to said overall _ session, and to synchronize single existing device - sessions assigned to said overall session with said overall session data.

10. System according to claim 9, wherein said session handling component (12a) is part of the application server (12) and said further session handling component (8a) is part of said web application (8) .

11. System according to claim 9, wherein said further session handling component (8a) contains the further functionality to recognize the user identification data provided during authentication or registration login procedure.

12. System according to claim 10, wherein said web application is a portal application (8) .

13. Client - Server system comprising

a client system (2) having a browser

a server system having a web server (11) communicating with said browser, an application server (12) which forwards client's request to a web application (8), wherein said application server (8) includes a session handling component (12a) with the functionality to create device - sessions for a web application and assigning device - session data to said device - sessions received from said web application (8), and a web application (8),

characterized by a further session handling component (8a) with the functionality to intercept the transmission of said device - session data from the web application (8) to said session handling component (12a) , to create new overall session for each user that contains references to all single device - sessions created by said user's multiple devices (2) with said web application (8) as well as the overall session data created by those user's multiple devices, to add a new device session for a user to the already existing overall session by assigning its device - session reference to said overall session, and to synchronize the overall session data with the single device session data assigned to said overall session.

14. Computer program product stored in the internal memory of a digital computer, containing parts of software code to execute the method in accordance with claim 1-7 if the product is run on the computer.