Scalable computing system for presenting customized aggregation of information

• US 6,564,251 B2
• Filed: 12/03/1998
• Issued: 05/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sinha, Alok K., Katariya, Sanjeev
• Primary Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US09/204,592
• Publication Number:
  US 20020091789A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,622 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213, 709/214, 709/215, 709/216, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/231, 709/232, 707/104, 707/523, 707/513
• US Class Current: 709/214
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A method and computing system for providing a highly reliable web site that is capable of handling millions of Internet users per day. The computing system is customizable on a per user basis yet seamlessly aggregates data from a number of information providers, such as news services, weather services, stock services, personal email, and even a community specific service. The computing system includes a plurality of personalization stores that maintain personalization data for a corresponding Internet user. The computing system is based on a federated model in which a single entry point spans to a plurality of web servers. Each web server has an aggregation module, such as an Internet Server API (ISAPI) filter, that retrieves user-specific data “clips” from the personalization store and passes the data to one or more provider objects. The provider objects receive data from the information providers and render the data to form the data clips according to the personalization data retrieved from the personalization store.

Claims

1. A computing system for aggregating information for a user from a plurality of information providers, said computing system comprising:

a personalization store maintaining personalized data for the user;

a plurality of provider objects rendering user-specific data from the information providers based on the personalized data retrieved from said personalization store;

a server including a first-level cache for storing at least a first portion of said user-specific data, said server for aggregating said user-specific data into one or more pages and communicating said one or more pages to the user; and

a cluster of second-level cache servers for caching at least a second portion of said user-specific data.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the server includes an aggregation module for retrieving the personalized data from the personalization store and for requesting said data clips from the provider objects.

3. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the aggregation module conforms to the Internet Server Application Programming Interface.

4. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the server comprises a web server.

5. The computing system of claim 4, wherein the web server communicates said data clips to the user via the Internet.

6. The computing system of claim 1, wherein each of said provider objects includes a third-level cache for storing the rendered data.

7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the personalization data within the personalization store is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

8. The computing system of claim 1, further including a site layout module defining the layout and presentation of the pages.

9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the site layout module is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

10. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the personalized data is not encoded in a template, a template being a predetermined hyper-text markup language encoded document.

11. A computing system for providing an aggregation of information from a plurality of information providers to a plurality of users, said computing system comprising:

a plurality of personalization stores, wherein personalized data for each user is maintained in one of said personalization stores;

a plurality of provider objects rendering data from a corresponding information provider based on the personalized data of the users;

a plurality of web servers, each said web server including a first-level cache, wherein each of a plurality of users is assigned to a corresponding web server of the plurality of web servers, wherein for each user the respective web server;

(a) retrieves the personalized data from the corresponding personalization store,

(b) commands the provider objects to render data as a function of the retrieved personalized data,

(c) stores the corresponding rendered data in said corresponding first-level cache,

(d) aggregates the rendered data to form one or more pages, and

(e) communicates the one or more pages to the corresponding user; and

a cluster of second-level cache servers for caching the rendered data.

12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the web server further includes an aggregation module for retrieving the corresponding personalized data from the personalization store and for requesting the rendered data from the provider objects as a function of the retrieved personalized data.

13. The computing system of claim 11, wherein each of said provider objects includes a third-level cache for storing the rendered data.

14. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the personalization data within the personalization store is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

15. The computing system of claim 11, further including a site layout module defining the layout and presentation of the pages.

16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the site layout module is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

17. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the personalized data is not encoded in a template, a template being a predetermined hyper-text markup language encoded document.

18. A computing method for presenting users an aggregation of information received from a plurality of information providers comprising:

receiving a user request to receive information from the plurality of information providers;

retrieving personalized data from a corresponding personalization store for the requesting user;

rendering data from the plurality of information providers based on the retrieved personalized data;

storing the rendered data in at least one of a first-level cache and a cluster of second-level cache servers;

aggregating the rendered data to form one or more pages; and

communicating the one or more pages to the requesting user.

19. The computing method of claim 18, wherein rendering the data includes the step of determining whether the rendered data is stored by the cluster of second-level cache servers.

20. The computing method of claim 18, wherein the personalized data is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

21. The computing method of claim 18, wherein aggregating the rendered data includes accessing a site layout module that defines the layout and presentation of the pages.

22. The computing method of claim 21, wherein the site layout module is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

23. The computing method of claim 18, wherein the personalized data is not encoded in a template, a template being a predetermined hyper-text markup language encoded document.

24. The computing method of claim 18, wherein retrieving personalized data from a corresponding personalization store further comprises:

retrieving personalized data from a corresponding personalization store and additional personalization data stored locally at the requesting user.

25. The computing method of claim 24, wherein the additional personalization data further comprises additional personalization data having the form of a cookie.

26. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions to a cause a computing system to perform a method comprising the steps of:

receiving a user request to receive information from a plurality of information providers;

retrieving personalized data from a corresponding personalization store for the requesting user;

rendering the information into data as a function of the retrieved personalized data;

storing the rendered data in at least one of a first-level cache and a cluster of second-level cache servers;

aggregating the rendered data to form one or more pages; and

communicating the one or more pages to the requesting user.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein rendering the data includes determining whether the rendered data is stored by the cluster of second-level servers.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the personalized data is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein aggregating the rendered data includes accessing a site layout module that defines the layout and presentation of the pages.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the site layout module is defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the personalized data is not encoded in a template, a template being a predetermined hyper-text markup language encoded document.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein retrieving personalized data from a corresponding personalization store further comprises:

retrieving personalized data from a corresponding personalization store and additional personalization data stored locally at the requesting user.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein the additional personalization data further comprises additional personalization data having the form of a cookie.