Method and system for client context dissemination for web-based applications

Abstract

A method advertises the existence of a subscriber profile service on a communication network. A first data request sent from a client device to an application server is intercepted. The first data request is modified by inserting an advertisement of contextual information relating to the existence of the subscriber profile service into the first data request prior to transmission to the application server. The modified data request is transmitted to the application server.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of operating an application server, the method comprising:
 receiving a first data request from a client via a client proxy, the first data request comprising an advertisement of contextual information associated with the client by a subscriber profile service, the advertisement identifying the subscriber profile service and indicating at least one type of contextual information associated with the client that is available at the subscriber profile service;   selecting a subset of the contextual information associated with the client that is available at the subscriber profile service; and   sending a second data request to the subscriber profile service identified by the advertisement, the second data request identifying the client and the selected subset of contextual information.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving the selected subset of contextual information from the subscriber profile service;   generating a response to the first data request based on the first data request and at least some of the received contextual information; and   sending the generated response to the client.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein:
 the first data request comprises an encryption key to be used by the application server to decrypt contextual information associated with the client;   at least some of the selected subset of contextual data received from the subscriber profile service is encrypted using the encryption key; and   the method further comprises decrypting the encrypted contextual data based on the encryption key.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement identifies the subscriber profile service by including a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the subscriber profile service. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement of contextual information in the data request is in an extension header of the first data request. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the extension header comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with subscriber profile service. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the extension header comprises a client field identifying the client. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the extension header comprises at least one aspect field indicating the at least one type of contextual information associated with the client that is available at the subscriber profile service. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the extension header comprises a profile field identifying a type of profile associated with the client by the subscriber profile service. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises location information. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises client device characteristics. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises demography information. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises personal profile information. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises contact information. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises professional profile information. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises presence information. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises preferences associated with a user of the client. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one type of contextual information comprises network resource usage information. 
     
     
         19 . A method of operating a subscriber profile server, the method comprising:
 receiving from an application server, a contextual information request, the contextual information request identifying a client and a subset of contextual information associated with the client at the subscriber profile server;   retrieving the identified subset of contextual information associated with the client at the subscriber profile server; and   sending the selected subset of contextual information to the application server.   
     
     
         20 . A method of operating a client proxy, the method comprising:
 receiving a data request from a client, the data request being destined for an application server;   modifying the data request by adding thereto an advertisement of contextual information associated with the client by a subscriber profile service to the first data request, the advertisement identifying the subscriber profile service and indicating at least one type of contextual information associated with the client that is available at the subscriber profile service; and   transmitting the modified data request to the application server.