DYNAMICALLY LOADING SCRIPTS

• US 20080271046A1
• Filed: 04/27/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Calvert, Simon, Kothari, Nikhil, Harder, Michael James, Le Roy, Bertrand Claude, Lipton, Eilon J., Gibbs, Matthew E., Reed, David Vincent
• Granted Patent: US 7,689,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/311
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for dynamically loading scripts. Web pages can include references to script loaders that control the loading of other scripts at a Web browser. A script loader can load scripts in accordance with script loading rules that override the default script loading behavior of the Web browser. Script loading rules can cause scripts to load in a different order than encountered in a Web pager, load in parallel, load in a manner that limits cross-domain requests, etc. Script loading rules are configurable such at that a developer can create customized script loading behavior.

Claims

1. At a computer system connected to a network, the computer system including a Web browser configured to render Web pages at the computer system, a method for dynamically loading scripts at the Web browser, the method comprising

an act of receiving a Web page from a Web server, the Web page sent to the Web browser in response to a request for the Web page from the Web browser, the Web page including a reference to a script loader, the script loader configured to, upon execution, create a data structure for queuing other script references, the script loader also configured to, upon an indication from the Web browser, dynamically load scripts referenced in the Web page in accordance with script loading rules to override the default script loading behavior of the Web browser;

an act of executing the script loader to create a data structure for queuing script references

an act of processing the Web page to queue any script references included in the Web page in the data structure;

an act of detecting that no further script references are included in the Web page subsequent to queuing any script references included in the Web page in the data structure;

an act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to dynamically load scripts corresponding to the queued script references in accordance with the script loading rules to override the default script loading behavior of the Web browser; and

an act of including any relevant script results in a rendering of the Web page.

2. The method as recited in claim, 1 further comprising:

an act of sending an HTTP GET to the Web server prior to receiving the Web page from the Web server.

3. The method as recited in claim, 1 further comprising:

an act of sending an asynchronous HTTP POST to the Web server.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of receive a Web page from a Web server comprising an act of receiving a Web page that includes a script loader reference at the top of the Web page.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to dynamically load scripts comprises an act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to load scripts in an order different than the order the scripts were encountered in the Web page.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to dynamically load scripts comprises an act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to load a plurality of scripts in parallel.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to dynamically load scripts comprises an act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to load scripts in a manner that limits the number of requests to any given domain.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to dynamically load scripts comprises an act of indicating to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to load scripts in a manner that overrides the default loading behavior of the Web browser.

9. At a computer system connected to a network, the computer system including a Web browser configured to render Web pages at the computer system and a script loader configured to dynamically load scripts referenced in a Web page to override the default script loading behavior of the Web browser, the method comprising

an act of creating a queue configured to store script references;

an act populating the queue with script references included a specified Web page;

an act of receiving an indication from the Web browser that no further script references are included in the specified Web page; and

an act of causing scripts referenced by the queued script references to load in accordance with script loading rules to override the default script loading behavior of the Web browser.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

an act of enumerating the script references in the queue prior to causing the scripts to be loaded so as to build up a list of script references.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

an act of identifying scripts that correspond to script references contained in the list of script references; and

an act of determining if any of the identified scripts are related to one another.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

an act of identifying that at least one script is dependent on at least one other script.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

an act of identifying scripts that include cross-domain requests.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the act of causing scripts to load in accordance with script loading rules comprises an act of to loading scripts in an order different than the order the scripts were encountered in the Web page.

15. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the act of causing scripts to load in accordance with script loading rules comprises an act of to loading a plurality of scripts in parallel.

16. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the act of causing scripts to load in accordance with script loading rules comprises an act of to loading scripts in a manner that limits the number of concurrent requests to any given domain.

17. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the act of causing scripts to load in accordance with script loading rules comprises an act of to loading scripts in a manner that overrides the sequential loading behavior of the Web browser.

18. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the act of causing scripts to load in accordance with script loading rules comprises an act of to loading scripts based on the characteristics of the referenced scripts and the relationships between the referenced scripts.

19. A computer system, the computer system comprising:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions representing a Web browser that, when executed at one of the processors, cause the Web browser to be configured to;

receive a Web page from a Web server, the Web page sent to the Web browser in response to a request for the Web page from the Web browser, the Web page including a reference to computer-executable instructions representing a script loader, the script loader configured to, upon execution, create a data structure for queuing other script references, the script loader also configured to, upon an indication from the Web browser, dynamically load scripts referenced in the Web page in accordance with script loading rules to override the default script loading behavior of the Web browser;

executing the computer-executable instructions of the script loader to create a data structure for queuing script references

process the Web page to queue any script references included in the Web page in the data structure;

detect that no further script references are included in the Web page subsequent to queuing any script references included in the Web page in the data structure;

indicate to the script loader that no further script references are included in the Web page so as to cause the script loader to dynamically load scripts corresponding to the queued script references in accordance with the script loading rules to override the default script loading behavior of the Web browser; and

upon execution of the computer-executable instructions representing the script loader, storing executable-instructions representing the script loader into system memory that, when executed at one of the processors, cause the script loader to be configured to;

create a queue configured to store script references;

populate the queue with script references included a specified Web page;

receive an indication from the Web browser that no further script references are included in the specified Web page; and

cause scripts referenced by the queued script references to load in accordance with script loading rules to override the default script loading behavior of the Web browser.

20. The computer system as recited in claim 19, wherein scripts are loaded in accordance with script loading rules to override the default sequential script loading behavior of the Web browser based on the characteristics of the referenced scripts and the relationships between the referenced scripts.