RESPONSE HEADER INVALIDATION

• US 20120005433A1
• Filed: 08/05/2010
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Ling, Shu, Zalpuri, Naveen, Wright, William A., Fry, Patrick H., Thilagar, Parthiban, Skarpelos, Michael J., Xu, Zhong, Lin, Wei
• Granted Patent: US 9,361,394 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/141
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0813 with a network or matrix configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0891 using clearing, invalidating or resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/154 Networked environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/60 Details of cache memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/62 Details of cache specific to multiprocessor cache arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with content invalidation are described. One example method includes providing an invalidation directive in a header of a response.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

identifying content that has been modified;

generating an invalidation directive that identifies the content; and

embedding the invalidation directive into a header of a response.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further including:

transmitting the response to a web cache server;

parsing, by the web cache server, the header of the response to identify the invalidation directive; and

invalidating, by the web cache server, cached content that corresponds to the content identified by the invalidation directive.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, further comprising:

modifying the response, by the web cache server, by removing the invalidation directive from the header of the response; and

transmitting the modified response to a requesting client.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the response is generated as a reply to an HTTP request.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further including:

generating the response including the header and a body, where the body includes non-HTML content.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further including generating a body for the response where the body includes body content that responds to a client request, and where the body content either corresponds to or does not correspond to the content to be invalidated.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further including generating one or more processing options associated with the invalidation directive and embedding the one or more processing options in the header of the response.

8. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying content that has been modified;

generating an invalidation directive that identifies the content to be invalidated; and

embedding the invalidation directive into a header of a response.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving an HTTP request; and

where the response is generated as a reply to the HTTP request.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further including:

transmitting the response to a web cache server;

parsing, by the web cache server, the header of the response to identify the invalidation directive; and

invalidating, by the web cache server, cached content that corresponds to the content identified by the invalidation directive.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

modifying the response, by the web cache server, by removing the invalidation directive from the header of the response; and

transmitting the modified response to a requesting client.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further including:

generating the response including the header and a body, where the body includes non-HTML content.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further including generating a body for the response where the body includes body content that responds to a client request, and where the body content either corresponds to or does not correspond to the content to be invalidated.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further including generating one or more processing options associated with the invalidation directive and embedding the one or more processing options in the header of the response.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving, by a caching device, an HTTP response to an HTTP request;

determining, by the caching device, whether the HTTP response includes an invalidation directive in a header of the HTTP response;

if the invalidation directive is found in the header, then;

identifying content to be invalidated from the invalidation directive; and

invalidating, by the web cache server, cached content that corresponds to the content identified by the invalidation directive.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, where the determining includes parsing, by the caching device, the header of the HTTP response to identify the invalidation directive.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, further including instructions for:

modifying the response, by the caching device, by removing the invalidation directive from the header of the HTTP response; and

transmitting the HTTP response to a client that submitted the HTTP request.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, further including receiving the HTTP request from a client and transmitting the HTTP request to a server for processing, where the HTTP response is received from the server in response to the HTTP request.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, where the determining comprises instructions for:

parsing the header of the HTTP response to identify syntax in the header; and

matching one or more terms of the parsed syntax to a list of known syntax or terms that are associated with identifying invalidation directives.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, where the determining comprises instructions for:

parsing, by the caching device, syntax in the header of the HTTP response to locate an invalidation directive syntax; and

if the invalidation directive syntax is found, then parsing the syntax to identify the content to be invalidated.