International Business Machines Corporation

Joseph Laurence Saunders

Roderick Clint Bowser

Ian Wills

John F LaPenta, Jr

Robert Thomas Uthe

Kathryn Heninger Britton

Samar Choudhary

Vijay Pandiarajan

Velda Bartek

Ronald L Heiney

Joseph A Bohn

John Elderton

Douglas Robert Petty

Mike Moran

Carl Steven Swanson

Gary Thomas Barta

Kevin Thomas McDonald

Brock K Brogan

A task-like user interface is provided for Web-based applications. Preferred embodiments enable users to initiate multiple instances of tasks within a single Web application, where independent state information is retained for each instance. Each user-initiated task also has a prescribed life cycle with a definite start and end. Resources allocated to perform various activities can therefore be released when the activity ends. Optionally, contextual information can be passed to a task upon invocation. Support for persisting a currently-viewable work unit as a user-selectable favorite may optionally be provided.

User task interface in a web application

A function is added to a Web page that communicates with a refresh control helper. The Web page is associated with a session identifier. If an information update that affects the Web page occur, an update notification is associated with the session identifier. Periodically, the function in the Web page sends the session identifier to the refresh control helper. The refresh control helper calls a refresh controller and passes the session identifier. The refresh controller checks a data store to determine if update notifications associated with the session identifier have been received. If updates are available for the page, the refresh controller informs the refresh control helper that new data is available and removes any update notifications for the session identifier from the data store. The refresh control helper then informs the function in the Web page that new data is available and the function requests a page reload.

Timely update of information displayed within a portal

A method for displaying a network topology begins by presenting a user a set of attributes for network objects in the network. The user the selects a given attribute and an attribute value. A mapper routine of the invention then builds a topology map that includes at least one icon representing network objects that have the user-selected attribute value for the attribute. This &ldquo;group&rdquo; icon preferably includes a numeric, textual or graphical representation to indicate the number of objects (or perhaps some given characteristic thereof) represented by the group icon.

Method for displaying a network topology for a task deployment service

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Joseph Laurence Saunders