Portal server that provides a customizable user Interface for access to ...

(12) United States Patent

Anuff et al.

US006327628B1

(io) Patent No.: US 6,327,628 Bl (45) Date of Patent: Dec. 4,2001

(54) PORTAL SERVER THAT PROVIDES A

CUSTOMIZABLE USER INTERFACE FOR
ACCESS TO COMPUTER NETWORKS

(75) Inventors: Ed Anuff; John Dean Taylor; Miles
Chaston, all ol San Francisco; David
MacLeod, Oakland; Peter Leiser,
Berkeley; Oliver Muoto, Menlo Park;
Seth Ladygo, San Francisco; Brian
Slesinsky, San Francisco; Terry Joyce,
San Francisco, all of CA (US)

(73) Assignee: Epicentric, Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/573,226

(22) Filed: May 19, 2000

(51) Int. C I. G06F 17/30

(52) U.S. CI 709/311; 709/213; 707/9;

707/501; 713/200

(58) Field of Search 709/310, 311,

709/328, 213, 217, 218, 219; 345/333, 335; 707/500, 501, 513, 10, 104, 9; 717/1;

713/200

(56) References Cited

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OTHER PUBLICATIONS

"Corporate Portal Architecture—Special Report on Infoimage Freedom", The Delphi Group, 100 City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA 02108-2106, Nov. 1999, pp. 1-20.

(List continued on next page.)

Primary Examiner—Dung C. Dinh

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, LLP

A portal server presents an HTML page that comprises a plurality of modules that are formatted in a predetermined layout. Each module represents a network resource that can be accessed by a user through the portal. Some of the modules can be user-selectable, whereas others may be mandatory elements of the portal. Similarly, some aspects of the layout may be user-controllable, while others are fixed. The modular nature of the portal enables the various resources to be readily and independently updated by the entities who provide them, without affecting other features of the portal. The portal server includes an administration interface that enables an administrator to select from various layout styles, as well as control access to site information and services. A variety of customizations can be done to the portal without requiring programming skills. As a result, individual businesses and other entities can exercise complete ownership of their portals, from a hosting, branding and design perspective.

12 Claims, 10 Drawing Sheets

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

"Looking Under the Hood: DataChannel Server's Intelligent extensible Architecture (IXA)", DataChannel Server 4.0, 2000 DataChannel, Inc., 600 108"" Avenue N.E., Suite 900, Bellevue, WA 98004, pp. 1-12.

"Plumtree Corporate Portal Server Technical Architecture", pp. 1-2.

"Portal One", Technical Overview, Verity, Inc., 2000, 6 pps. "Portals With a Purpose, Acclerating Design Quality & Velocity", Kinetic Information, 106 Thornton Road, Waltham, MA 02453-7647, Jan. 2000, pp. 1-8.

"TIB ®/PortalBuilderTM, A TIPBCO ActivePortalTM Product", TIPCO Software Inc. Worldwide Offices, 2 pps. Foley, Mary Jo, "Oraclepitches unified data viewing", Sep. 22, 1999, 2 pps.

Rodriguez, John A. et al, "IBM Enterprise Information Portal—the bean story", IBM EDMSuite Newsletter, vol. 2, Issue 3, Fall 1999, pp. 1-7.

Rymer, John R., "IONA Technologies & the Enterprise Portal Market", IONA Technologies PLC, Nov. 1999, pp. 1-21.

* cited by examiner