Intermediary Authentication Server for Automated Third-Party Data Reports
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Solution Overview
Problem
The current process of generating financial reports within information systems is cumbersome and time-consuming, requiring manual data gathering and formatting, which leads to resource consumption and potential errors.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a unified authentication server that intercepts web cookies from third-party servers to establish sessions, scrapes user data, and generates reports using a user data location table, allowing automated report generation across multiple third-party applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual data gathering and report generation is used, then users can access and process data, but the process becomes cumbersome and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automatic self-service report generation by having the server autonomously scrape data from third-party applications, authenticate users, and generate reports without requiring manual intervention. The server performs these operations automatically based on user requests, eliminating the need for manual data gathering and processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical operations (manual data gathering, formatting, and report generation) with automated electronic processes. The server uses web scraping techniques, authentication mechanisms, and automated report generation systems to substitute human manual work, thereby reducing time consumption and improving efficiency.
2Productivity
If manual report generation is performed, then users can create reports, but resource consumption increases and errors may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The server performs self-service operations to generate reports automatically, eliminating manual intervention that leads to errors. The system autonomously authenticates users, scrapes data from multiple third-party applications, processes the information, and generates accurate reports consistently, thereby improving both productivity and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where the server validates user authentication credentials, verifies data accuracy from third-party sources, and ensures report generation meets specified criteria. This feedback loop ensures high reliability and accuracy in report production while maintaining efficient automated operation.
3Loss of time
If automated report generation is implemented, then time is saved and errors are reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication server is segmented into distinct functional modules: authentication module for validating credentials, data scraping module for extracting information from third-party applications, data processing module for aggregating and processing data, and report generation module for creating final reports. This segmentation manages complexity by dividing the automated system into manageable, independent components.
Solution Approach 2:
The server acts as an intermediary between users and third-party applications, managing authentication and data access centrally. This intermediary role simplifies the overall system architecture by providing a single point of coordination that handles authentication, data retrieval, and report generation, reducing the complexity that would otherwise exist in direct user-access-to-multiple-systems architectures.
Data Source
AI summary
A unified authentication server is configured to obtain credentials for accessing third-party applications for generating user data reports. In response to a user of a mobile device logging into a portal associated with a third-party server via a web browser of the mobile device, the server may intercept a web cookie provided by a third-party server via a client application executed by the mobile device. The web cookie includes session authentication credentials. The server may receive the web cookie from the client application, establish a session with the third-party server on behalf of the user using the session authentication credentials of the web cookie. The server may scrape user data associated with the user from the third-party server and generate a user data report by aggregating the scraped user data for display by the client application within an interface of the mobile device.