Suffix proxied web application collaboration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12506796-B2
Application number	US-202318536427-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2023
Priority date	Dec 12, 2023
Publication date	Dec 23, 2025
Grant date	Dec 23, 2025

Abstract

In some embodiments, a collaboration feature overlays a web application by receiving a network communication that was redirected from the web application by a suffix proxy. The collaboration feature supplements or replaces activity of the web application by maintaining per-user-account activity states, deriving a shared collaboration state from the activity states, and supplying the shared collaboration state to multiple user accounts. The collaboration feature is installed without modifying the web application. The collaboration feature provides user accounts with a collaboration capability, such as shared document editing, chat rooms, shared calendars, or shared private workspaces. Some collaboration features overlay multiple web applications, even from different vendors, and some collaboration features support posting collaboratively created content to a website even when some contributors to the content are not registered users of the website. Some collaboration features impose stricter or different cybersecurity than an underlying website.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of providing a collaboration feature which overlays at least a portion of a web application, the method comprising automatically:
receiving at a collaboration feature interface of the collaboration feature a suffix proxy communication from a web application interface URL of the web application; maintaining in the collaboration feature, on a per-user-account basis, collaboration activity states representing activities on the collaboration feature which are associated with the web application; deriving a shared collaboration state of the collaboration feature from respective collaboration activity states of multiple user accounts; and supplying a copy of at least a portion of the shared collaboration state to each of a plurality of the multiple user accounts.

2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving at a collaboration feature interface URL a communication that was redirected from the web application interface URL by the suffix proxy, the collaboration feature interface URL having a domain name portion which overlaps but differs from a domain name portion of the web application interface URL; receiving at the collaboration feature interface URL a second communication that was redirected from a second web application interface URL by a second suffix proxy, the collaboration feature interface URL domain name portion overlapping but differing from a second domain name portion of the second web application interface URL; maintaining, on the per-user-account basis, the activity states representing activities on the collaboration feature which are associated with the web application; maintaining, on the per-user-account basis, second activity states representing second activities on the collaboration feature which are associated with the second web application; deriving a shared collaboration state from respective collaboration activity states of multiple user accounts representing the activities and the second activities; and supplying the copy of at least a portion of the shared collaboration state to each of the plurality of the multiple user accounts.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising redirecting the communication from the web application interface URL to the collaboration feature interface.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising restricting at least one of: an attempt by a user account to access the collaboration feature, or an attempt by the user account to access the shared collaboration state, wherein the restricting comprises imposing a cybersecurity access requirement that is not imposed on a successful attempt by the user account to access the web application directly at the web application interface URL.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising installing the collaboration feature without modifying the web application.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the supplying supplies to each of the plurality of the multiple user accounts the copy of the shared collaboration state, and the shared collaboration state comprises a digital representation containing content from at least two of the multiple user accounts, the digital representation representing at least one of: a document, a chat, or a collection of remarks.

7 . A computing system configured with a collaboration feature which overlays at least a portion of a web application, the web application having a web application body and having a web application interface located at a web application interface URL, the system comprising:
the collaboration feature, the collaboration feature having a collaboration feature interface; a digital memory set comprising at least one digital memory, the digital memory set containing multiple per-user-account basis collaboration activity states collectively representing activities on the collaboration feature which are associated with the web application; a processor set comprising at least one processor, the processor set in operable communication with the digital memory, the processor set configured to perform an execution of the collaboration feature, the collaboration feature execution comprising receiving at the collaboration feature interface a communication that was redirected from the web application interface URL by a suffix proxy, maintaining collaboration activity states on a per-user-account basis, deriving a shared collaboration state from respective collaboration activity states of multiple user accounts, and supplying a copy of at least a portion of the shared collaboration state to each of a plurality of the multiple user accounts.

8 . The computing system of claim 7 , further characterized by at least one of:
the collaboration feature is published by a first vendor, and the web application is published by a second vendor which differs from the first vendor; the collaboration feature interface is located at a collaboration feature interface URL, the collaboration feature interface URL is secured by a first secure sockets layer certificate chain, and the web application interface URL is simultaneously secured by a second secure sockets layer certificate chain which differs from the first secure sockets layer certificate chain; or the collaboration feature interface is located at a collaboration feature interface URL, the collaboration feature interface URL is secured by a first certificate assigned to a first organization, the web application interface URL is secured by a second certificate assigned to a second organization which differs from the first organization, and each certificate includes an extended validation secure sockets layer certificate or an organization validation secure sockets layer certificate.

9 . The computing system of claim 7 , wherein the collaboration feature overlays the web application, the collaboration feature is published by a first vendor, the web application is published by a second vendor which differs from the first vendor, the collaboration feature also overlays a second web application, and the second web application is published by a third vendor which differs from the second vendor and also differs from the first vendor.

10 . The computing system of claim 7 , wherein the collaboration feature comprises at least one of:
a multi-user-account chat room; a multi-user-account document editor which upon execution edits a shared document; a multi-user-account shared event calendar; a multi-user-account shared project plan; a multi-user-account shared checklist; or a multi-user-account video conference engine.

11 . The computing system of claim 7 , further comprising the suffix proxy.

12 . The computing system of claim 7 , further characterized by at least one of:
the collaboration feature comprises a multi-user-account chat room which is accessible to at least three of the multiple user accounts for a shared chat, and the web application does not contain any multi-user-account chat room; the collaboration feature comprises a multi-user-account document editor which is accessible to at least three of the multiple user accounts for editing a shared document, and the web application does not contain any multi-user-account document editor; the collaboration feature comprises a multi-user-account shared event calendar which is accessible to at least three of the multiple user accounts, and the web application does not contain any multi-user-account shared event calendar; the collaboration feature comprises a multi-user-account shared project plan which is accessible to at least three of the multiple user accounts, and the web application does not contain any multi-user-account shared project plan; the collaboration feature comprises

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Malik Vikas
• Rappaport Nir Mardiks
• Blachman Meir Baruch

Classifications

• H04L67/56

  Provisioning of proxy services (store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54) · CPC title

• H04L63/10

  for controlling access to devices or network resources · CPC title

• G06F16/955

  using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL] · CPC title

• H04L67/02 Primary

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title