Patent ID: 7822984

Claim:
A method for processing requests from a user for information from a content server, said method comprising the steps of: a web portal server receiving from the user a specification of a format requested by said user for nonconfidential information obtained by said web portal server from the content server on behalf of said user, said web portal server storing said specification received from said user; said web portal server receiving an information request and a public certificate from said user via a client computer coupled to said web portal server via a network; said web portal server sending said information request and said public certificate to said content server via a network; in response to said information request, said web portal server receiving from said content server nonconfidential information in unencrypted form and confidential information in encrypted form, the confidential, encrypted information including a parameter name and a data value for said parameter, the nonconfidential, unencrypted information including (a) a nonconfidential human language description of said parameter, (b) a nonconfidential description of a format of an unencrypted form of said data value, (c) a first pair of first mark-up language tags identifying said confidential information as encrypted, and (d) a second pair of second mark-up language tags identifying said nonconfidential information as unencrypted; said web portal server identifying said nonconfidential information based on said second pair of tags and in response, formatting said nonconfidential information based on said specification received from said user, and forwarding to said client computer a markup language representation of said nonconfidential, unencrypted information formatted based on said specification received from said user and said confidential, encrypted information.