A method and apparatus for controlling use of a network resource. A network administrator
accesses and navigates one or more network resources. A navigation capture server
captures each request that is generated by the administrator's browser and each
response that is received, and stores information about the requests and responses.
The navigation capture server analyzes the captured information and generates an
access/navigation script that represents the navigation actions taken by the administrator
in the session. The script is edited and generalized in a manner such that upon
playback of the script, the user may input actual useful information and the system
may capture specific response data. When the client accesses and navigates the
Web applications, context-specific information, relating to the client's then-current
request, is passed from the User View Server to the navigation capture server.
The navigation capture server merges the context-specific information into a corresponding
request of the access/navigation script, and communicates a modified, context-specific
request to the network resource. When the network resource generates a response,
the message and any associated data are returned to the client through the navigation
capture server and User View Server in a reciprocal manner. Thus, each user experiences
a Web site with a uniform user interface or in a controlled way.