Patent ID: 7017183

Claim:
A method for administering portal security for an object, comprising: extracting a native security setting comprising identities of external users or external groups, or both, from a native environment of the object; mapping, according to a predetermined process that is executed according to information maintained in a portal database, the native security setting into a portal security setting associated with a portal that comprises a metadata object; associating in the portal said portal security setting with the object according to a predetermined security relationship; instantiating the predetermined security relationship between the metadata object and the corresponding native security setting; granting viewing or exposure access to the object by a particular user or group, or combinations thereof, and wherein said information maintained in the portal database comprises: portal user and portal group information including membership information relating the portal users to portal groups; and one or more synchronization maps that maps external groups or domains, or both, to one or more intermediate sets of identifiers.