SCALABLE COMPUTING SYSTEM FOR PRESENTING CUSTOMIZED AGGREGATION OF INFORMATION

• US 20020091789A1
• Filed: 12/03/1998
• Published: 07/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: SINHA, ALOK K., KATARIYA, SANJEEV
• Granted Patent: US 6,564,251 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/214
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A method and computing system for providing a highly reliable web site that is capable of handling millions of Internet users per day. The computing system is customizable on a per user basis yet seamlessly aggregates data from a number of information providers, such as news services, weather services, stock services, personal email, and even a community specific service. The computing system includes a plurality of personalization stores that maintain personalization data for a corresponding Internet user. The computing system is based on a federated model in which a single entry point spans to a plurality of web servers. Each web server has an aggregation module, such as an Internet Server API (ISAPI) filter, that retrieves user-specific data “clips” from the personalization store and passes the data to one or more provider objects. The provider objects receive data from the information providers and render the data to form the data clips according to the personalization data retrieved from the personalization store.

Claims

1. A computing system for aggregating information from a plurality of information providers comprising:

a personalization store maintaining personalized data for the user;

a plurality of provider objects rendering data from corresponding information providers as a function of the personalized data of the user; and

a server aggregating the rendered data into one or more pages, wherein the server communicates the pages to the user.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the server includes an aggregation module for retrieving the personalized data from the personalization store and for requesting the rendered data from the provider objects as a function of the retrieved personalized data.

3. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the aggregation module conforms to the Internet Application Programming Interface (ISAPI).

4. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the server is a web server.

5. The computing system of claim 4, wherein the web server communicates the rendered data to the user via the Internet.

6. The computing system of claim 1, further comprising a cluster of cache servers for caching the rendered data.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein each web server includes a first-level cache for storing the rendered data.

8. The computing system of claim 6, wherein each provider objects includes a third-level cache for storing the rendered data.

9. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the personalization data within the personalization store is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

10. The computing system of claim 1, further including a site layout module defining the layout and presentation of the pages.

11. The computing system of claim 10, wherein the site layout module is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

13. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the server includes an aggregation module for retrieving the corresponding personalized data from the personalization store and for requesting the rendered data from the provider objects as a function of the retrieved personalized data.

14. The computing system of claim 12, further comprising a cluster of cache servers for caching the rendered data.

15. The computing system of claim 12, wherein each web server includes a first-level cache for storing the rendered data.

16. The computing system of claim 12, wherein each provider objects includes a third-level cache for storing the rendered data.

17. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the personalization data within the personalization store is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

18. The computing system of claim 12, further including a site layout module defining the layout and presentation of the pages.

19. The computing system of claim 18, wherein the site layout module is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

12. A computing system for providing an aggregation of information from a plurality of information providers to a plurality of users comprising:

a plurality of personalization stores, wherein each personalization store maintains personalized data for one of the users;

a plurality of provider objects rendering data from a corresponding information provider as a function of the personalized data of the users; and

a plurality of web servers, wherein each of a plurality of users is assigned to a corresponding web servers, wherein for each user the respective web server;

(a) retrieves the personalized data from the corresponding personalization store,

(b) commands the provider objects to render data as a function of the retrieved personalized data,

(c) retrieves the corresponding rendered data from the provider objects,

(d) aggregates the rendered data to form one or more pages, and

(e) communicates the pages to the corresponding user.

20. A computing method for presenting users an aggregation of information received from a plurality of information providers comprising:

receiving a user request to receive information;

retrieving personalized data from a corresponding personalization store for the requesting user;

rendering data as a function of the retrieved personalized data;

aggregating the rendered data to form one or more pages; and

communicating the pages to the corresponding user.

21. The computing method of claim 20, wherein rendering the data includes the step of determining whether the rendered data is stored by a cluster of cache servers.

22. The computing method of claim 20, wherein the personalized data is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

23. The computing method of claim 20, wherein aggregating the rendered data includes accessing a site layout module that defines the layout and presentation of the pages

24. The computing method of claim 23, wherein the site layout module is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein rendering the data includes determining whether the rendered data is stored by a cluster of cache servers.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the personalized data is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein aggregating the rendered data includes accessing a site layout module that defines the layout and presentation of the pages

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the site layout module is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

25. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions to a cause a computing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a user request to receive information;

retrieving personalized data from a corresponding personalization store for the requesting user;

rendering data as a function of the retrieved personalized data;

aggregating the rendered data to form one or more pages; and

communicating the pages to the requesting user.