SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CACHING CONTENT ELEMENTS WITH DYNAMIC URLS

• US 20120191804A1
• Filed: 01/25/2011
• Published: 07/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Openwave Mobility Inc. (Enea AB)
• Original Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Wright, Stephen, Logue, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,892,680 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• 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: Y10S 705/901 Digital rights management

Abstract

A system and method for allowing requests generated as a result of dynamic URLs to be efficiently looked up in a cache are provided. The system and method involve receiving a request for a content element, the request being generated from a dynamic URL. A static content element identifier is generated from the request. In an embodiment, the static content element identifier includes only the content identification parameters and the dynamic parameters are removed. The static content element identifier is then used to determine whether the content element is in the cache.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an HTTP request for a content element, the HTTP request being generated from a dynamic URL;

generating a static content element identifier from the HTTP request; and

determining whether the content element is in a cache using the static content element identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the HTTP request includes content identification parameters and context parameters that were present in the dynamic URL, wherein the content identification parameters define the requested content element and the context parameters define dynamic parameters, wherein generating the static content element identifier comprises removing the context parameters that were present in the dynamic URL.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the context parameters relate to digital rights and/or device compatibility.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the static content element identifier comprises removing dynamic fields that were present in the dynamic URL.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the static content element identifier in a table to enable location of the content element during subsequent cache lookups.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the table includes a list of content element identifiers versus pointers to content elements.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein if the static content element identifier matches one of the content element identifiers in the table, the content element is determined to be present in cache.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein if the static content element identifier does not match one of the content element identifiers in the table, the content element is requested and upon receipt is placed in the cache, and further wherein the static content element identifier is added to the table with a corresponding pointer to the content element in the cache.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending the HTTP request to a content provider hosting the content element to determine access privileges to the content element, before the content element is served from the cache to a user that selected the dynamic URL.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the HTTP response includes an entity tag relating to the content element, wherein the entity tag is used to determine whether the content element in the cache is the same version as a content element stored at the content provider.

11. A system comprising:

a cache controller configured to;

receive a request for a content element, the request being generated from a dynamic URL; and

generate a static content element identifier based on the request;

wherein the static content element identifier is used to determine whether the content element is in a cache.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the request includes content identification parameters and dynamic parameters that were resent in the dynamic URL, further wherein the content identification parameters are indicative of the requested content element, and further wherein the static content element identifier is generated by removing dynamic parameters of the request.

13. The system of claim 11 further comprising a cache lookup table of further content element identifiers versus pointers to further content elements.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the content element is looked up in the cache using the cache lookup table, wherein if the static content element identifier matches one of the further content element identifiers of the cache lookup table, the content element is determined to be present in the cache.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the content element is looked up in the cache using the cache lookup table, wherein if the static content element identifier does not match one of the further content element identifiers, the content element is requested and upon receipt is placed in the cache, and further wherein the static content element identifier is added to the table with a corresponding pointer to the content element in the cache.

16. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions, which when executed by the processor perform the steps of;

receiving an HTTP request for a content element, the HTTP request being generated from a dynamic URL;

generating a static content element identifier from the HTTP request; and

determining whether the content element is in a cache using the static content element identifier.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the HTTP request includes content identification parameters and context parameters, wherein the content identification parameters define the requested content element and the context parameters define dynamic parameters, and wherein generating the static content element identifier comprises removing dynamic fields that were present in the dynamic URL.

18. The system of claim 16 further comprising a cache lookup table of content element identifiers versus pointers to content elements.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the content element is looked up in the cache using the cache lookup table, wherein if the static content element identifier matches one of the content element identifiers of the cache lookup table, the content element is determined to be present in the cache.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the content element is looked up in the cache using the cache lookup table, wherein if the static content element identifier does not match one of the content element identifiers, the content element is requested and upon receipt is placed in the cache, and further wherein the static content element identifier is added to the table with a corresponding pointer to the content element in the cache.