Authentication certificates as source of contextual information in business intelligence processes

1. A method comprising:

presenting, by a client to a server, a certificate of a user comprising authentication information and contextual information, the authentication information being used to authenticate communications between the client and the server;

caching, at the server and after completion of an authentication process using the certificate, data from the certificate including the contextual information; and

initiating, by the server at the client, one or more business intelligence processes of at least one business intelligence application at the client using the cached data, the cached data being used to provide the contextual information to the one or more business intelligence processes, the contextual information being used by the one or more business intelligence processes for purposes other than authentication;

wherein the contextual information is used to automatically answer a prompt value, by providing contextual information that more specifically characterizes the user, required by the business intelligence process to be manually input by a user, which then performs a business intelligence process using the provided contextual information.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the certificate is an authentication certificate.

3. The method as in claim 2 , wherein the authentication certificate is an X.509 authentication certificate.

4. The method as in claim 3 , wherein the cached data comprises values from at least one of a SUBJECT field and SUBJECT ALTERNATIVE NAME field of the X.509 authentication certificate.

5. The method as in claim 4 , wherein the cached data comprises values from the SUBJECT field, and wherein the SUBJECT field includes sub-fields selected from a group consisting of: country, organization, organizational unit, distinguished name qualifier, state or province name, common name, and serial number.

6. The method as in claim 4 , wherein the cached data comprises values from the SUBJECT field, and wherein the SUBJECT field includes sub-fields selected from a group consisting of: locality, title, surname, given name, initials, pseudonym, and serial number.

7. The method as in claim 4 , wherein the cached data comprises values from the SUBJECT ALTERNATIVE NAME field, and wherein the SUBJECT ALTERNATIVE NAME field includes sub-fields selected from a group consisting of: electronic mail address, DNS name, IP address, and uniform resource identifier.

8. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the cached data is data associated with a user selected from a group consisting of: country, organization, organizational unit, distinguished name qualifier, state or province name, common name, serial number, locality, title, surname, given name, initials, pseudonym, serial number, electronic mail address, DNS name, IP address, and uniform resource identifier.

9. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the contextual information is used to filter an output of the business intelligence process.

10. The method as in claim 9 , wherein the output is a report.

11. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the contextual information is used to perform a search as part of the business intelligence process.

12. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the contextual information is used to specify a join of tables in at least one database accessed by the business intelligence process.

13. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:

supplementing the contextual information by accessing one or more other data sources for context characterizing the user.

14. A method comprising:

transmitting, by a client to a server, authentication information and contextual information from a certificate of a user, the authentication information being used to authenticate communications between the client and the server;

caching, at the server and after completion of an authentication process using the certificate, data comprising the contextual information from the certificate; and

initiating, by the server at the client, one or more business intelligence processes of at least one business intelligence application at the client using the cached data, the cached data being used to provide the contextual information to the one or more business intelligence processes, the contextual information being used by the one or more business intelligence processes to more specifically characterize the user, the contextual information being used by the one or more business intelligence processes to filter an output to specify a task-based workflow specifying tasks customized for and specifically associated for the user, the output providing resources relevant to the user for accomplishing the specified tasks;

wherein the certificate is an X.509 authentication certificate and the cached contextual information comprises values from at least one of a SUBJECT field and SUBJECT ALTERNATIVE NAME field of the X.509 authentication certificate.

15. A method comprising:

initiating, at a client, one or more business processes of at least one business intelligence application, the one or more business processes being executed solely on the client;

accessing, by the client, one or more locally stored certificates, the locally stored certificates being used to authenticate communications between the client and a remote server, the locally stored certificates each comprising authentication information and contextual information; and

using, by the client and after completion of an authentication process using the one or more locally stored certificates, data from the accessed one or more locally stored certificates to provide the contextual information to the one or more initiated business processes, the contextual information being used by the one or more business intelligence processes for purposes other than authentication;

wherein the contextual information is used to automatically answer a prompt value, by providing contextual information that more specifically characterizes the user, required by the business intelligence process to be manually input by a user via a graphical user interface, which then performs a business intelligence process using the provided contextual information.

16. The method as in claim 15 , wherein the certificate is an X.509 authentication certificate.

17. The method as in claim 16 , wherein the used data comprises values from at least one of a SUBJECT field and SUBJECT ALTERNATIVE NAME field of the X.509 authentication certificate.

18. The method as in claim 16 , wherein the contextual information is used to specify a join of tables in at least one database accessed by the business intelligence process.