Role-based navigation of information resources

A method of controlling access to Web documents that are stored on a protected Web access server, the method comprising the steps of:

• said Web access server receiving information identifying a user;
• said Web access server causing transmission of said information describing said user to a registry server;
• in response to receiving said information describing said user:
• said registry server identifying a subset of the Web documents that the user is authorized to access, based on stored information describing the Web documents, one or more roles, one or more functional groups, and one or more access rights of the user that are stored in association with user identifying information, and
• said registry server communicating information defining the subset to the Web access server;
• communicating, to a client that is associated with the user, a Web page containing links to only those Web documents that the user is authorized to access, based on the user's role within an enterprise that controls the Web documents;
• after communicating information defining the subset, said Web access server receiving one or more requests from said client to access said subset of Web documents;
• and
• said Web server resolving whether to grant said one or more requests based on said information defining the subset.

A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for controlling access to one or more resources to which access is controlled through a Web server, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• the Web server receiving information describing a user;
• said Web server causing transmission of said information describing said user to a Web application server;
• said Web application server receiving said information describing said user;
• in response to receiving said information describing said user:
• said Web application server identifying a subset of the one or more resources that the user is authorized to access, based on stored information describing one or more roles and one or more access rights of the user that are stored in association with user identifying information, and
• said Web application server communicating information defining the subset to the Web server;
• said Web server storing said information defining the subset;
• communicating, to a client that is associated with the user, a Web page containing links to only those resources that the user is authorized to access, based on the user's role within an enterprise that controls the resources;
• after communicating information defining the subset, said Web server receiving one or more requests from said client to access said one or more resources;
• and
• said Web server resolving whether to grant said one or more requests based on said information defining the subset.

A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for controlling access to Web documents that are stored on a protected Web access server, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• said Web access server receiving information identifying a user;
• said Web access server causing transmission of said information describing said user to a registry server;
• in response to receiving said information describing said user:
• said registry server identifying a subset of the Web documents tat the user is authorized to access, based on stored information describing the Web documents, one or more roles, one or more functional groups, and one or more access rights of the user that are stored in association with user identifying information, and
• said registry server communicating information defining the subset to the Web access server;
• communicating, to a client that is associated with the user, a Web page containing links to only those Web documents that the user is authorized to access, based on the user's role within an enterprise that controls the Web documents;
• after communicating information defining the subset, said Web access server receiving one or more requests from said client to access said subset of Web documents;
• and
• said Web server resolving whether to grant said one or more requests based on said information defining the subset.