Patent ID: 7882130

Claim:
A directory server system, comprising: a processor; and a data repository, comprising: a data repository comprising a plurality of user entries and a plurality of role definitions defining a plurality of roles, wherein each of the plurality of user entries is associated with at least one of the plurality of roles, and wherein each one of the plurality of role definitions comprises an InterestedApplication attribute specifying at least one application associated with one of the plurality of roles; and a memory comprising software instructions executable by the processor for a directory server configured to execute a search operation, in response to a request from a requesting application, using search criteria to obtain initial results and subsequently apply an application filter to obtain final results, wherein the application filter is configured to use the initial results and the InterestedApplication attribute of at least one of the plurality of role definitions to obtain the final results, wherein the initial results comprise a plurality of user entries that match the search criteria and a plurality of roles corresponding to the plurality of user entries that match the search criteria, and wherein the application filter comprises functionality to: query the plurality of role definitions to obtain an interested role list comprising at least one role of the plurality of roles, wherein the InterestedApplication attribute of each role in the interested role list matches the requesting application, and identify at least one user entry of the plurality of user entries included in the initial results, wherein the at least one user entry corresponds to at least one of the plurality of roles included in the initial results, wherein the at least one of the plurality of roles included in the initial results matches the at least one role included in the interested role list, wherein the final result comprises the identified at least one user entry, wherein the requesting application is configured to use the final result to determine users allowed to access the requesting application.