(12) United States Patent (10) Patent N0.: US 6,839,760 B1 Walters (45) Date of Patent: Jan
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US006839760B1 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent N0.: US 6,839,760 B1 Walters (45) Date of Patent: Jan. 4, 2005 (54) METHOD FOR PREVENTING DEEP 6,233,618 B1 * 5/2001 Shannon ................... .. 709/229 LINKING INTO A WEB SITE 6,256,739 B1 * 7/2001 Skopp et a1. .. 709/229 6,539,424 B1 * 3/2003 Dutta ....................... .. 709/219 (75) Inventor: Glen R. Walters, Hollywood, FL (US) * Cited by examiner (73) Assignee: International Business Machines Primary Examiner_Pau1 H, Kang COI‘POI‘HtiOII, Armonk, NY (US) (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Akerman Senter?tt ( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this (57) ABSTRACT patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U‘SC' 154(k)) by 661 days‘ Amethod for preventmg access to a document in a server in a computer communications network can include the step of establishing a list of allowable source documents from (21) APP1~NO~309/587’228 which a request to access the document can originate. (22) Filed, Jun_ 2’ 2000 Furthermore, a request for the document can be received from a requesting client. An identity of a source document (51) Int. Cl.7 ...................... .. G06F 15/16; G06F 15/173 of the request can be detected in the request and compared (52) US. Cl. ...................... .. 709/229; 709/217; 709/225 With the list of allowable source documents from which a (58) Field of Search ............................... .. 709/201, 205, request to access the document can originate The request 709/206, 207, 217, 219, 225, 229, 227, can be serviced if the detected identi?er matches an allow 228; 707/104 able source document contained in the list of allowable source documents. Moreover, the request can be denied if (56) References Cited the detected identi?er does not match an allowable source document contained in the list of prohibited source docu U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS ments 5,819,285 A * 10/1998 Damico et a1. ........ .. 707/104.1 6,199,102 B1 * 3/2001 Cobb ....................... .. 709/206 48 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets 14A %an U.S. Patent Jan. 4,2005 Sheet 2 of 8 US 6,839,760 B1 f \ —-24 CPU // /_'_"26 RAM ' 32 \\ HDD / 34—""'_\\ DOCUMENTS /'__22 K30 NIC \ J FU@D 2 U.S. Patent Jan. 4,2005 Sheet 3 of 8 US 6,839,760 B1 l SERVER x14 1 0 HYPERTEXT SEESEE??SS DOCUMENT DEEP SERVER UNKING Filii, 3 U.S. Patent Jan. 4,2005 Sheet 5 of 8 US 6,839,760 B1 0/38 RECEIVE r50 REQUEST l REQUEST-HEADER”.EXTRACT - 52 FROM REQUEST REQUEST-HEADER CONTAIN A - ' REFERENT , URL 7 , EXTRACT URL {56 FROM REQUEST-HEADER EXTRACTED URL MATCH E , SERVICEv r62 DENY' REQUEST REQUEST FU@D 5A U.S. Patent Jan. 4,2005 Sheet 6 6f 8 US 6,839,760 B1 5/38 RECEIVE ,--50 REQUEST l EXTRACT 52 REQUEST-HEADER /' FROM REQUEST REQUEST-HEADER CONTAIN A REFERENTu§L V ,I " EXTRACT URL {56 FROM REQUEST-HEADER EXTRACTED URL MATCH /_ v . ‘i r60 SERVICE /'62 DENY REQUEST REQUEST , U.S. Patent Jan. 4,2005 Sheet 7 of 8 US 6,839,760 B1 0/38 RECEIVE REQUEST 1 EXTRACT 52 REQUESFHEADER" FROM REQUEST REQUEST-HEADER CONTAINA REFERENT a U§L ,- ' EXTRACT URL /. 55 FROM REQUEST-HEADER sERcE REQUEST REQUEST FU@U 5C2 U.S. Patent Jan. 4,2005 Sheet 8 of 8 US 6,839,760 B1 9/38 RECEIVE r50 REQUEST EXTRACT 52 REQU EST-HEADER " FROM REQUEST REQUEST-HEADER CONTAIN A " REFERENTU§L ' EXTRACT URL {56 FROM REQUEST-HEADER . v 1’- 6o SERVICE r62 DENY REQUEST REQUEST FUCEBU 5E1) US 6,839,760 B1 1 2 METHOD FOR PREVENTING DEEP broWser for the Web page denoted by the embedded URL. LINKING INTO A WEB SITE In this Way, the displayed. Web page is said to have been hyperlinked to the Web page denoted by the embedded URL. In consequence, a user can cause the Web broWser to retrieve CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED a Web page not only by explicitly supplying a URL to the APPLICATIONS Web broWser, but also by selecting an embedded URL in a displayed Web page. Not APP licable URLs embedded in a Web page are traditionally referred STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY to as hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are not merely limited to SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 10 referencing Web pages. Rather, hyperlinks can reference several types of objects distributed on the Internet. For Not APP licable example, hyperlinks can refer to graphics ?les, sound ?les, BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION audio and video recordings, and non-HTML documents, for example portable document format (PDF) documents. 1. Technical Field 15 Hyperlinks are often displayed in the form of text high The present invention relates to network based lighted in bold-face, different colors or by underlining. Still, technologies, and more particularly to a method for prevent the display of hyperlinks are typically not limited in this ing deep linking to a hypertext document in a hypertext regard. Rather, hyperlinks can be displayed in the form of a document distribution server. button or graphic that can be “activated” by the click of a 2. Description of Related Art mouse pointer. The Internet is a set of globally interconnected computers A hyperlink can refer to almost any other Web page in a through Which multiple users access data and programs from Web server on any other domain, including different Web around the World. As an informational sharing mechanism, pages stored in the same Web server or in an entirely it comprises a netWork of netWorks for interconnecting a different Web server. Signi?cantly, Web pages linked by 25 plurality of server computers (servers) and a plurality of hyperlinks, in of themselves, can include hyperlinks to yet client computers (clients). The Internet permits a Wide more Web pages thereby interconnecting almost every docu variety of communication and informational retrieval ment posted on the Internet With almost every other docu mechanisms, including electronic mail (e-mail), File Trans ment. Thus, by activating different hypertext links to a given fer Protocol (FTP), USENET, and the World Wide Web Web page, different readers can arrive at the same page by (Web). Notably, the Web permits users to retrieve and vieW a plurality of routes, each having vieWed different Web hypertext document containing not only text, but also pages along the Way. For example, a user can access any pictures, sound, animated images, and video-clips. given Web page on the Web by directly typing the corre Moreover, the Web permits user to interact With retrieved sponding URL into a broWser. Alternatively, the same user hypertext documents. can access the same Web page by folloWing a series of 35 The Web primarily consists of Web servers and Web hyperlinks from other Web pages leading thereto. broWsers. Whereas a Web server hosts hypertext documents, Web pages often are grouped in a Web site Wherein the knoWn as Web pages, by storing the Web pages and trans Web site can re?ect an overall theme. For example, a Web mitting those Web pages on command, a Web broWser site can include a car rental Web site in Which vieWers of Web pages in the Web site can survey available rental cars resides on a client computer, and both supplies requests to 40 Web servers for Web pages and displays the retrieved Web and consummate a rental car transaction. In another pages in a user interface. Each Web page stored in a Web example, a Web site can include a corporate marketing Web server has associated thereWith a Uniform Resource Locator site in Which vieWers of Web pages in the Web site can (URL) identifying both a particular domain on the Internet survey various corporate products, location and contact information and press releases relating to the company. As in Which the Web server can be located and a location in the 45 Web server Where the Web page is stored. The URL permits such, typically, Web sites have a preferred entry point any given Web page to be distinguished from all other Web referred to as a home page from Which a user can access pages. other Web pages in the Web site. In operation, a Web broWser can accept as input a URL of “Deep links” are hyperlinks Which can defeat a Web site’s a requested Web page Which can be provided by a user intended method of navigation. For example, many Web through any suitable means, but typically by keyboard or sites rely upon the home page as an intended initial entry hyperlink. The Web broWser can receive the URL and point to the Web pages Which comprise the site. The home transmit a request for the Web page to a Web server residing page can display contextually appropriate information, for at a domain speci?ed in the URL. Upon receiving the example a summary of the Web site, a table of contents, request, the Web server can identify in the URL the location 55 advertisements or Written disclaimers. Deep links are hyper of the requested Web page. If the requested Web page resides links specifying a Web page contained in a Web site Which at the location speci?ed in the URL, the Web server can normally can be accessed only by ?rst accessing the home serve the requested Web page to the requesting client. page of the Web site. A user performing “deep linking” can Subsequently, the Web broWser residing in the client can bypass the home page and effectively the display of the display the requested Web page. contextually appropriate information merely by specifying A Web page as described in the foregoing speci?cation the URL of the interior Web page.