The World's Leading Provider of OEM Categorization Solutions
Product Overview
The RuleSpace Categorization Solution has been designed with flexibility, redundancy, and efficiency in mind and is made up of the following components:
- RuleSpace Categorization and Filtering Interface (CFI) API
- RuleSpace Categorization Server (CSRV) application
- RuleSpace Update and Feedback Service (UFS)
Categorization and Filtering Interface (CFI)
The CFI is a C-callable API and shared DLL that provides developers with the ability to access all of the RuleSpace categorization services. In operation, the application provides the CFI with the content to be categorized which can include URLs or web content (traditional or mobile-formatted). This input data is normalized and the appropriate RuleSpace categorization service is invoked, either directly within the host application or via a local or remote service. Once the RuleSpace analysis has been done, a category is returned to the application via the CFI.
Classification services currently provided by the CFI:
- URL lookups against the categorization databases
- Real-time web page analysis using the real-time categorization engines
The CFI provides many configuration options that can be used to optimize performance and memory usage for a given task, platform or architecture. The CFI also includes configurable caching, the ability to programmatically request site reviews by RuleSpace, as well as built-in load balancing and redundancy.
Categorization Server (CSRV)
The CSRV is an application server that hosts the RuleSpace databases for access by the CFI via a local or network connection. It can be run on the same hardware as the CFI application, or remotely over a local network or internet connection (e.g. in a data center). It receives URL lookup requests from CFI clients and returns category responses to the CFI client.
Update and Feedback Service (UFS)
The UFS is hosted on the CSRV. It manages the database updating process as well as the “unknown site” and the “site review request” feedback mechanisms.
Database Update Process
RuleSpace delivers incremental updates for the Web Categorization Database once each day. The updates add newly categorized sites, remove outdated sites, and apply any necessary changes to existing records. The update process happens without any interruption to the categorization services. The update service is highly-configurable and redundant, and can be configured to propagate updates to multiple CSRVs via a single download.
The optional databases such as the phishing or malware sites are updated on appropriate time frames based on the time sensitivity of their content, and can be updated separately from the Web Categorization database.
Deployment Options
The RuleSpace categorization solution can be deployed in many ways to best suit your architectural needs. Common options include:
- Monolithic CFI integration with the host application (no CSRV)
- Client/Server architecture with CFI and CSRV on a single server or appliance
- Client/Server architecture with CFI and multiple locally hosted CSRVs
- Client/Server architecture with CFI and single or multiple remotely hosted CSRVs across the Internet
- Client/Server architecture with CFI and multiple RuleSpace hosted CSRVs across the Internet
The RuleSpace engineering team will help you determine the best architecture and configuration for your usage and performance requirements.
