External Session ID for Stateful Web Portal Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Stateful web applications in portals face challenges with multi-session capability and backward navigation, where users cannot seamlessly return to previous sessions due to session ID management issues, leading to resource wastage and loss of application state.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of an External Session ID (ESID) mechanism, where the client passes a unique session ID to the server for session management, allowing for session return and minimizing resource usage upon user departure, enabling users to resume applications from their previous state.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If session IDs are encoded in URLs to enable multi-session capability, then multiple instances of applications can run simultaneously, but the server cannot distinguish between instances when users navigate back to the same page
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a portal-level session manager as an intermediary component that receives termination notifications from applications and manages session state independently. This mediator layer allows the system to maintain session information even when individual application instances cannot be distinguished, resolving the contradiction between multi-session support and instance differentiation.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the server maintains session state for stateful web applications, then users can navigate through pages with persistent data, but resources are wasted when users leave applications without explicit termination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the portal receives termination notifications from applications when users leave, and this information is fed back to the session manager. The session manager uses this feedback to determine when to release session resources, allowing the system to maintain session state during active use while automatically releasing resources when no longer needed, thus eliminating resource wastage.
Solution Approach 2:
The session state is made dynamic rather than static - it is maintained during active application use but automatically released upon termination notification. This dynamic approach allows the system to adapt resource allocation based on actual usage, maintaining persistence when needed while releasing resources when applications are abandoned or completed.
3Loss of energy
If the portal notifies the server when users leave applications for resource release, then resource wastage is reduced, but users cannot return to previous applications in their original state
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts session state management from the individual application instances and places it at the portal level. The session manager maintains session information independently of application lifecycle, allowing session state to be preserved even after application termination notifications are processed. This separation enables users to return to previous applications with their original state intact, while the system still releases resources appropriately.
Data Source
AI summary
Mechanisms for allowing allow multi-session capability and session-return enabling stateful web applications include providing a start URL of a requested portal page with an “External Session ID” (ESID). The ESID is an argument that is different between the two instances of the application (on the same page), and leads to different/independent sessions in the server. When a user returns to the same page, the ESIDs are passed again with the individual application requests, and the server can then logically reconnect to the proper session and allow the user to continue. The ESID can be used to return to an application after the user has previously left to go to another application and then desires to come back, or even when the user closed the browser and restarts the application later.