Predictive asynchronous web pre-fetch

• US 20080301300A1
• Filed: 06/01/2007
• Published: 12/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Toub, Stephen H.
• Application Number:
  US11/809,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20080301300A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A web server receives an asynchronous pre-request of data from a web browser resulting from the web browser predicting a user action based on the user'"'"'s interaction with the web browser. The web server pre-fetches the pre-requested data based on the asynchronous pre-request of data.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for controlling a server computer to perform a method comprising:

receiving an asynchronous pre-request of data from a web browser resulting from the web browser predicting a user action based on the user'"'"'s interaction with the web browser; and

pre-fetching the pre-requested data based on the asynchronous pre-request of data.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

storing the pre-fetched data in a cache.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the method comprises:

receiving an actual request of data from the web browser based on the user actually performing the predicted user action; and

processing the actual request of data including returning the pre-fetched data from the cache to the web browser.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the pre-fetching comprises:

pre-fetching the data from a database in communication with the server computer.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

receiving an actual request of data from the web browser based on the user actually performing the predicted user action; and

processing the actual request of data including returning the pre-fetched data to the web browser.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the method comprises:

blocking the actual request of data until pre-fetching the pre-requested data based on the asynchronous pre-request of data is complete.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the predicted user action is a selection of a user interactable component.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the user'"'"'s interaction with the web browser is movement of a pointing device toward the user interactable component.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the method comprises:

marking each user interactable component that will be pre-fetchable.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

releasing a pre-fetch thread in the server computer while pre-fetching the pre-requested data;

storing an asynchronous result pre-marker; and

if an actual request of data has not been received from the web browser when the pre-fetching of the pre-requested data is complete, waking a pre-fetch thread based on the stored asynchronous result pre-marker and finish processing the woken up pre-fetch thread by storing the pre-fetched data in a cache.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the method includes:

receiving an actual request of data from the web browser;

matching the actual request to the stored asynchronous result pre-marker;

changing the stored asynchronous result pre-marker to an actual asynchronous result marker;

releasing a fetch thread in the server computer; and

when the pre-fetching of the pre-requested data is complete, waking a fetch thread based on the stored actual asynchronous result marker and finishing processing the woken up fetch thread by storing the pre-fetched data in the cache and returning the pre-fetched data to the web browser.

12. A method of controlling a server computer, the method comprising:

rendering a web page to a web browser, the rendering including providing a script to the web browser that analyzes user interaction with the web browser;

receiving an asynchronous pre-request of data from the web browser resulting from the web browser predicting a selection of a user interactable component based on the script'"'"'s analysis of the user'"'"'s interaction with the web browser; and

pre-fetching the pre-requested data based on the asynchronous pre-request of data.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising:

registering a method; and

executing the method in response to the asynchronous pre-request of data from the web browser, the executing including the pre-fetching of the pre-requested data.

14. A computer readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for controlling a client computer to perform a method comprising:

predicting a user action based on the user'"'"'s interaction with the client computer;

providing an asynchronous pre-request of data to a web server based on the predicted user action;

providing an actual request of data to the web server based on the user actually performing the predicted user action; and

receiving, in response to the actual request of data, data that was pre-fetched by the web server in response to the asynchronous pre-request of data.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the predicting comprises:

predicting a user selection of a user interactable component.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the predicting comprises:

tracking movement of a pointing device toward the user interactable component; and

predicting the user selection of a user interactable component based on the tracking of movement of the pointing device toward the user interactable component.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the tracking comprises:

tracking linear movement of a pointing device toward the user interactable component.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein computer-executable instructions for controlling the tracking of movement of the pointing device toward the user interactable component are included in a script that also tracks pre-requests previously made based on an identification that associates a pre-fetch action based on the asynchronous pre-request, a fetch action based on the actual request, and the user interactable component.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein providing the asynchronous pre-request of data to the web server is only provided for user interactable components that are marked as pre-fetchable.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the receiving comprises:

receiving, in response to the actual request of data, data from a cache on a server computer, that was pre-fetched and stored in the cache by the web server in response to the asynchronous pre-request of data.