Patent ID: 8850385

Claim:
Apparatus for providing information from a plurality of information source instances to users of a graphical user interface (GUI), the GUI being produced by a system of the apparatus which includes a processor and a memory device and GUI-producing devices to which the processor has access, the memory device containing a plurality of objects and the system further including an access control system executing on the processor which controls access by the users to the objects on a per-object basis, the apparatus comprising: a resource template object of the objects, the resource template object specifying one or more classes of information source instances, the GUI including a resource template specifying GUI that a resource template object specifying user who has the necessary access to the resource template object employs to specify the resource template object; a resource object of the objects, the resource object specifying the resource template object and one or more information source instances belonging to the specified resource template object's information source instance classes, the GUI including a resource object specifying GUI that a resource object specifying user who has the necessary access to the resource object employs to specify the resource object; and the GUI including a resource object using GUI that specifies the resource object, a resource object using user who has the necessary access to the resource object employing the resource object using GUI to interact with the information source instances which belong to the specified resource object, wherein: when specifying an information source instance in the resource object, the resource object specifying user provides access information for accessing the information source instance according to the class of the information source instance, and when the resource object using user interacts with the information source instance, the processor uses the provided access information to access the information source instance.