METHOD AND SOFTWARE FOR REDUCING SERVER REQUESTS BY A BROWSER

• US 20100161717A1
• Filed: 12/22/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Sommer, David, Albrecht, Frank H., Rundholz, Jochen
• Granted Patent: US 8,195,767 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

This disclosure provides various embodiments of systems, software, and computerized methods for reducing the number of server requests sent to a web server. In one aspect, the software generates a file reference uniquely identifying a version of a file capable of being cached by a requester. The file reference can comprise a network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file and a parameter uniquely identifying the version of the cacheable file, where the parameter is separated from the network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file. The software can further embed the file reference into a web page file, and send the web page file in response to a request for the web page. The parameter may include a plurality of data elements, such as a second instance of the file name, a timestamp, or a version number of the cacheable file.

Claims

1. A computer program product for reducing the number of server requests sent to a web server, the computer program product comprising computer readable instructions embodied on tangible media and operable when executed to:

generate a file reference uniquely identifying a version of a file capable of being cached by a requester, the file reference comprising a network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file and a parameter uniquely identifying the version of the cacheable file, the parameter separated from the network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file;

embed the file reference into a web page file; and

send the web page file in response to a request for the web page.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the location of the version of the cacheable file includes a name of the file.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the parameter uniquely identifying the version of the cacheable file includes a plurality of data elements.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the plurality of data elements comprises at least one of the following:

a second instance of the file name, a timestamp, or a version number.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the parameter uniquely identifying the version of the cacheable file is automatically generated by a web server.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the parameter is separated from the network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file by a pre-defined character string.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the web page file substantially comprises a hypertext markup language (HTML) file.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the cacheable file comprises an image file associated with the web page file.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 further operable when executed to:

store the version of the cacheable file at the network-addressable location defined by the file reference; and

send the version of the cacheable file in response to a request for the version of the cacheable file.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the file reference is a first file reference, the version of the file is a first version of the file, the network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file is a first network-addressable location of the first version of the cacheable file, the parameter uniquely identifying the version of cacheable file is a first parameter uniquely identifying the first version of the cacheable file, and the request for the web page is a first request for the web page, the software further operable when executed to:

identify a second version of the cacheable file;

generate a second file reference uniquely identifying the second version of the cacheable file, the second file reference comprising a second network-addressable location of the second version of the cacheable file and a second parameter uniquely identifying the second version of the cacheable file, the second parameter separated from the network-addressable location of the second version of the cacheable file;

update the embedded first file reference with the generated second file reference in the web page file; and

send the web page file in response to a second request for the web page.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the second network-addressable location of the second version of the cacheable file is identical to the first network-addressable location of the first version of the cacheable file.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the second version of the file comprises an updated version of the first version of the file.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the second parameter is different from the first parameter.

14. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the web page file is dynamically generated in response to the request for the web page.

15. A computer implemented method for reducing the number of server requests sent to a web server comprising:

generating a file reference uniquely identifying a version of a file capable of being cached by a requester, the file reference comprising a network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file and a parameter uniquely identifying the version of the cacheable file, the parameter separated from the network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file;

embedding the file reference into a web page file; and

sending the web page file in response to a request for the web page.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the parameter uniquely identifying the version of the cacheable file includes a plurality of data elements.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of data elements comprises at least one of the following:

a second instance of the file name, a timestamp, or a version number.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the parameter uniquely identifying the version of the cacheable file is automatically generated by a web server.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the web page file comprises a hypertext markup language (HTML) file.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the cacheable file comprises an image file associated with the web page file.

21. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

storing the version of the cacheable file at the network-addressable location defined by the file reference; and

sending the version of the cacheable file in response to a request for the version of the cacheable file.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the file reference is a first file reference, the version of the file is a first version of the file, the network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file is a first network-addressable location of the first version of the cacheable file, the parameter uniquely identifying the version of cacheable file is a first parameter uniquely identifying the first version of the cacheable file, and the request for the web page is a first request for the web page, the software further operable when executed to:

identifying a second version of the cacheable file;

generating a second file reference uniquely identifying the second version of the cacheable file, the second file reference comprising a second network-addressable location of the second version of the cacheable file and a second parameter uniquely identifying the second version of the cacheable file, the second parameter separated from the network-addressable location of the second version of the cacheable file;

updating the embedded first file reference with the generated second file reference in the web page file; and

sending the web page file in response to a second request for the web page.

23. The method of software of claim 22, wherein the second network-addressable location of the second version of the cacheable file is identical to the first network-addressable location of the first version of the cacheable file.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the second version of the file comprises an updated version of the first version of the file.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the second parameter is different from the first parameter.

26. A computer program product for reducing the number of server requests sent to a web server, the computer program product comprising computer readable instructions embodied on tangible media and operable when executed to:

set a cache timeout value associated with the software to a substantively high value;

receive a web page file in response to a request for a network address, the received web page file included an embedded file reference, the file reference uniquely identifying a version of a file capable of being cached associated with the received web page and comprising a network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file and a parameter uniquely identifying the version of the cacheable file, the parameter separated from the network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file;

comparing the embedded file reference to a plurality of cached file references to determine whether the version of the cacheable file uniquely identified by the embedded file reference matches one of the plurality of cached file references; and

if the embedded file reference matches one of the plurality of cached file references;

retrieving a cached file associated with the matching one of the plurality of cached file reference; and

presenting a visual representation of the received web page file to a user via a graphical user interface (GUI), wherein the visual representation of the received web page includes the retrieved cached file.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein setting the cache timeout value associated with the software to a high value comprises setting the cache timeout value to one year.

28. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein if the embedded file reference does not match one of the plurality of cached file references, the computer program product further operable when executed to:

send a request to the network-addressable location of the version of the cacheable file for the uniquely identified version of the file;

receive a copy of the uniquely identified version of the file in response to the request; and

store the copy of the uniquely identified version of the file in a cache, wherein the stored copy of the uniquely identified version of the file is associated with the file reference.