US RE42,892 E1
Method and apparatus for maintaining state information on an HTTP client system in relation to server domain and path attributes
Lou Montulli, Reno, Nev. (US)
Assigned to Netscape Communications Corporation, Mountain View, Calif. (US)
Filed on Oct. 17, 2002, as Appl. No. 10/272,896.
Application 08/918977 is a division of application No. 08/540342, filed on Oct. 06, 1995, granted, now 5,774,670, filed on Jun. 30, 1998.
Application 10/272896 is a reissue of application No. 08/918977, filed on Aug. 27, 1997, now 6,134,592, filed on Oct. 17, 2000.
Int. Cl. G06F 13/38 (2006.01); G06F 15/17 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 709—229  [709/203; 709/218; 709/227] 28 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
[ 7. A computer-implemented method performed by a hardware server system, comprising:
receiving, at the server system, a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request from a client;
responding to the HTTP request by transmitting an HTTP response to the client wherein the HTTP response includes an HTTP header, the HTTP header including at least one set-cookie instruction specified by a “Set-Cookie:” text string, wherein the set-cookie instruction includes:
a name-value pair, the name-value pair specifying an assignment of a particular value to a particular name and being specified in the set-cookie instruction by a text string in a “NAME=VALUE” format; and
attribute information, wherein the attribute information specifies criteria to enable the client to determine whether to return the name-value pair to the server system with a subsequent HTTP request and wherein the attribute information includes:
a domain attribute that specifies a domain for which the name-value pair is valid, the domain being specified in the set-cookie instruction as a text string in a “domain=DOMAIN” format;
a path attribute specifying a range of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), in a domain of the server system, for which the name-value pair is valid, the path attribute being specified in the set-cookie instruction as a text string in a “path=PATH” format; and
an expiration attribute that specifies a valid life time for the name-value pair, the valid life time specifying the persistent storage of the name-value pair across one or more browser sessions, each browser session corresponding to a period during which a browser application is running on the client, and terminating on a specified date, the expiration attribute being specified in the set-cookie instruction as a text string in a “expires=DATE” format.]