Web Application Portion Access Restriction via Metadata Filtering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing web applications face challenges in efficiently managing access rights to web application portions, leading to increased network congestion, bandwidth utilization, and degraded user experiences due to the need to download unnecessary content and maintain complex access restrictions.
Innovation Solution
The system receives user requests for web applications, queries metadata from web application servers based on access rights, and loads only authorized web application portions, eliminating the need for clients to download restricted content, thereby reducing network congestion and improving performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If all web application portions are downloaded to clients, then complete application functionality is available, but network congestion and bandwidth utilization increase
Solution Approach 1:
The web application is divided into multiple independent portions (modules, components, or pages) that can be loaded separately. Each portion is identified by unique metadata including names, versions, and dependencies, allowing the system to selectively download only the specific portions needed for the user's access rights and current navigation context, rather than downloading the entire application.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and retrieves only the specific web application portions that are authorized for the user based on access rights metadata stored on the server. The client queries the server for metadata containing portion identifiers and receives only the authorized subsets, eliminating the need to download restricted content.
2Reliability
If access restriction management is implemented on the client side, then access control can be enforced, but device complexity and maintenance difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The server acts as an intermediary that stores and manages all access rights metadata. Instead of distributing complex access control logic to clients, the server mediates between the user's authentication status and the web application portions, providing filtered metadata that indicates which portions are accessible. This centralizes management complexity on the server side where it can be more easily maintained and updated.
3Productivity
If web application portions are loaded independently, then loading flexibility and performance are improved, but managing access rights across multiple portions becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-generating and storing metadata for all web application portions on the server, including access rights, dependencies, and version information. When a user requests the application, the server quickly filters and provides the appropriate subset of metadata based on user authentication, allowing the client to efficiently load only authorized portions without real-time access checks during loading.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus includes at least one processing device configured to receive, from a user, a request to execute a web application. The web application utilizes a plurality of web application portions configured for loading into the web application independent of one another. The at least one processing device is also configured to send, to one or more web application servers, a query for metadata associated with the plurality of web application portions, and to receive, from the web application servers, metadata for a subset of the plurality of web application portions. The subset is determined based at least in part on access rights associated with the user. The at least one processing device is further configured to load instances of one or more of the subset of web application portions at specified locations in pages of the web application based at least in part on the received metadata.