A methodology for providing a single-sign-on mechanism within an ASP
aggregator service is presented. An aggregator token is generated by an
ASP aggregator service and sent to a client device after its user has
been successfully authenticated during a single-sign-on operation that is
provided by the ASP aggregator service. The aggregator token then
accompanies any request from the client to aggregated applications within
the ASP aggregator service's infrastructure. The aggregator token
comprises an indication of an address or resource identifier within the
ASP aggregator service to which a client/user can be redirected when the
client/user needs to be authenticated by the ASP aggregator service. In
other words, the address/identifier is associated with a logon resource;
when a request from a client is sent to this address, the ASP aggregator
service responds with an authentication challenge to force the user to
complete a single-sign-on operation.