Priority-driven boxcarring of action requests from component-driven cloud applications

• US 10,250,716 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2016
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Joshi, Shweta, Mathur, Ashraya Raj, Fong, Ronnie, Ding, Jianxun Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Keller, Michael A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Guzman, Javier O
• Application Number:
  US15/199,768
• Publication Number:
  US 20180007166A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,006 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

Improved perceived load time for browser and mobile application pages is achieved by adjusting boxcarring of action requests from coupled data consuming applications on the user device, using the priority level of regions and components in component-driven cloud applications. Priority labels differentiate among display regions rendered by the data consuming application and the priority labels further differentiate among components within respective display regions. The middleware application batches the action requests into batches based at least in part on the priority labels, into boxcars segregated by priority label according to a predetermined segregation schedule, and dispatches the boxcars of batched action requests to the server. Performance is also dynamically speeded up, by adjusting inter-boxcar intervals used to dispatch batches of action requests from the user device to a production server, based on the dynamically measured network communication latency between the user device and the server.

Claims

1. A system including a user device and a server device, coupled in communication, including:

the user device configured to;

determine an action request by a data consuming application that consumes data received from the server responsive to the action request, the action request associated with a priority label applied to a display region rendered by the data consuming application;

place, by a middleware application, the action request into a first batch based on the priority label and a predetermined segregation schedule;

manage, by the middleware application, a pool of request objects; and

send, to the server device via a request object from the pool of request objects, the first request batch as a first boxcar ahead of a second request batch based on the priority label; and

the server device configured to;

receive the first boxcar and forward the action request to an application program of the server;

collect a response to the action request from the application program;

send the response in a second boxcar corresponding to the first boxcar, the second boxcar including other responses associated with the first boxcar.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the priority label is set using an attribute of a DIV html tag.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the user device is further configured to:

receive a server processing time from the server device, the server processing time corresponding to a third boxcar of responses;

determine, by the middleware application, network communication latency based on a server response time and the server processing time;

determine an inter-boxcar interval based on (a) a number of connections supported between the user device and the server device and (b) the network communication latency; and

send a fourth boxcar and a fifth boxcar to the server device based on the inter-boxcar interval, the inter-boxcar interval identifying a duration of time between sending the fourth boxcar and the fifth boxcar.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the network communication latency is a first network communication latency, the inter-boxcar interval is an original inter-boxcar interval, and the user device is further configured to:

determine, by the middleware application, a second network communication latency;

determine, by the middleware application, an updated inter-boxcar interval based on the second network communication latency; and

send a sixth boxcar and a seventh boxcar to the server device based on the updated inter-boxcar interval, the updated inter-boxcar interval identifying a duration of time between sending the sixth boxcar and the seventh boxcar.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein to determine the inter-boxcar interval, the server device is further configured to:

set, by the middleware application, the inter-boxcar interval to 250-350 ms when the network communication latency exceeds 300 ms.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the user device is further configured to:

identify, by the middleware application, a browser or app through which the middleware application is coupled in communication with the server device; and

determine the number of connections supported between the user device and the server device based on the browser or app.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the user device is further configured to:

receive the second boxcar via the middleware application.

8. A user device comprising:

a memory including a middleware application coupled in communication with a data consuming application; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

receive, by the middleware application, an action request from the data consuming application, the action request associated with a priority label applied to a display region rendered by the data consuming application;

place, by the middleware application, the action request into a first batch request based on the priority label and a predetermined segregation schedule;

manage, by the middleware application, a pool of request objects; and

send, to a server device via a request object of the pool of request objects, the first request batch as a boxcar ahead of a second request batch based on the priority label.

9. The user device of claim 8, wherein the boxcar is a first boxcar and the at least one processor is further configured to:

receive a server processing time from the server device, the server processing time corresponding to a second boxcar of responses;

determine, by the middleware application, network communication latency based on a server response time and the server processing time;

determine an inter-boxcar interval based on (a) a number of connections supported between the user device and the server device and (b) the network communication latency; and

send a third boxcar and a fourth boxcar to the server device based on the inter-boxcar interval, the inter-boxcar interval identifying a duration of time between sending the third boxcar and the fourth boxcar.

10. The user device of claim 9, wherein the network communication latency is a first network communication latency, the inter-boxcar interval is an original inter-boxcar interval, and the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine, by the middleware application, a second network communication latency;

determine, by the middleware application, an updated inter-boxcar interval based on the second network communication latency; and

send a fifth boxcar and a sixth boxcar to the server device based on the updated inter-boxcar interval, the updated inter-boxcar interval identifying a duration of time between sending the fifth boxcar and the sixth boxcar.

11. The user device of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

set, by the middleware application, the inter-boxcar interval to 250-350 ms when the network communication latency exceeds 300 ms.

12. The user device of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

identify, by the middleware application, a browser or app through which the middleware application is coupled in communication with the server device; and

determine the number of connections supported between the user device and the server device based on the browser or app.

13. The user device of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

receive the second boxcar via the middleware application.

14. A server device, comprising:

a memory including a dispatcher and a plurality of application programs, the dispatcher coupled in communication with a middleware application running on a user device;

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

receive, by the dispatcher, a first request boxcar including a priority-based batch of action requests from the middleware application;

forward, by the dispatcher, the action requests to the plurality of application programs;

send, by the dispatcher, a first response boxcar including responses to the action requests;

determine, by the dispatcher, a server processing time based on a difference between when a second request boxcar of action requests is received and when a corresponding second response boxcar of responses is ready to be returned; and

send the determined server processing time to the middleware application.

15. The server device of claim 14, wherein to forward the action requests to the plurality of application programs, the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine, by the dispatcher, an application program of the plurality of application programs that is associated with an action request of the first request boxcar; and

forward the action request to the application program.

16. The server device of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

postpone, by the dispatcher, the sending of the response boxcar until the dispatcher has received a time out or application program response to all of the action requests in the first request boxcar.

17. A method that conserves connections between a browser or app running on a user device and at least one server device, comprising:

receiving, by a middleware application running on the user device, an action request from a data consuming application, wherein the action request is qualified by a priority label associated with a display region rendered by the data consuming application;

placing, by the middleware application, the action request into a first request batch based on the priority label and a predetermined segregation schedule;

managing, by the middleware application, a pool of request objects; and

sending, to the at least one server device via a request object of the pool of request objects, the first request batch as a request boxcar ahead of a second request batch based on the priority label.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the request boxcar is a first request boxcar, and further comprising:

receiving a server processing time from the at least one server device, the server processing time corresponding to a response boxcar;

determining, by the middleware application, network communication latency based on a server response time and the server processing time;

determining an inter-boxcar interval based on (a) a number of connections supported between the user device and the at least one server device and (b) the network communication latency; and

sending a second request boxcar and a third request boxcar to the at least one server device based on the inter-boxcar interval, the inter-boxcar interval identifying a duration of time between sending the second request boxcar and the third request boxcar.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the network communication latency is a first network communication latency, the inter-boxcar interval is an original inter-boxcar interval, and further comprising:

determining an updated inter-boxcar interval based on the second network communication latency; and

sending a fourth request boxcar and a fifth request boxcar to the at least one server device based on the updated inter-boxcar interval, the updated inter-boxcar interval identifying a duration of time between sending the fourth request boxcar and the fifth request boxcar.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

setting the inter-boxcar interval to 250-350 ms when the network communication latency exceeds 300 ms.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

identifying, by the middleware application, a browser or app through which the middleware application is coupled in communication with the at least one server device; and

determining the number of connections supported between the user device and the at least one server device based on the browser or app.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving the response boxcar via the middleware application.

23. A method that conserves connections between a browser or app running on a user device and at least one server device, the method comprising:

receiving, by a dispatcher of the at least one server device, a first request boxcar including a priority-based batch of action requests from a middleware application of the user device;

forwarding, by the dispatcher, the action requests to a plurality of application programs executing on the at least one server device;

receiving, by the dispatcher, a plurality of responses corresponding to the action requests from the plurality of application programs;

sending a first response boxcar including the plurality of responses;

determining, by the dispatcher, a server processing time based on a difference between when a second request boxcar of action requests is received and when a second response boxcar of responses is ready to be returned; and

sending, by the dispatcher, the determined server processing time to the middleware application.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein forwarding the action requests further comprises:

determining, by the dispatcher, an application program of the plurality of application programs associated with an action request of the first request boxcar; and

forwarding the action request to the application program.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

postponing, by the dispatcher, the sending of the first response boxcar until the dispatcher has received a time out or response to all of the action requests in the first request boxcar.