Through the script, as a manner and a system null software application and an evaluation engine

摘要

A method of determining membership in a group includes receiving a request to determine if an element is a member of a group. The request may be generated by a software application where the application provides at least one parameter to a script which resides external to the application. The script, along with an optional application-provided parameter, is evaluated to determine the membership of the element in the group. Generally, the script is flexibly generated by an administrator independent of the development of the application. After evaluation, a response is sent back to the application where the response is an indication of membership of the element in the group. The method may optionally allows the script to access an external data source to provide additional information to determine membership. In some applications of the invention, determinations of membership may be used for access determination purposes.