Methods and systems for preparing extensible markup language (XML) documents and for responding to XML requests

• US 6,993,715 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2005
• Issued: 01/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Soderberg, Joel M., Deen, Brian J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Queler, Adam M.
• Application Number:
  US11/192,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20050262436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 186 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715/523, 709/231
• US Class Current: 715/239
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Methods and systems for generating and sending an XML document are described. In a specific implementation, methods and systems for responding to an XML client request utilize an XML response generator that includes one or more request method objects. There is one object for each particular type of client request that might be received. Each request method object knows and gathers the data that is needed to respond to its particular associated client request. An emitter object receives calls from the request method object and translates the data that it receives into response portions that are in proper XML syntactic form.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable media;

computer-readable instructions on the one or more computer-readable media which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement a method of responding to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) request comprising;

receiving an XML request from a client, the XML request containing a Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) request method;

determining the WebDAV request method that is contained in the client'"'"'s request;

creating a request method object for the WebDAV request method;

gathering data that is to appear in a response to the client'"'"'s request with the request method object;

calling an emitter object and passing the emitter object data that was gathered by the request method object; and

generating a portion of a syntactically correct XML response with the emitter object using the data that was gathered by the request method object before the XML response is entirely built.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises sending the response portion to the client.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the sending of the response portion comprises doing so without building an entire hierarchical tree structure that represents an entire response for the client'"'"'s request.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said calling comprises calling the emitter object a plurality of times for a given response.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said generating comprises generating a plurality of syntactically correct XML response portions and sending said response portions separately to the client.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said calling comprises calling the emitter object a plurality of times and in a defined order for a given response.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein:

said calling comprises calling the emitter object a plurality of times for a given response; and

said generating comprises generating a plurality of syntactically correct XML response portions and sending said response portions separately to the client.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

buffering a plurality of response portions in a buffer; and

sending the plurality of response portions together to the client.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said sending of the plurality of response portions comprises sending less than an entirety of a response to the client.

10. The system of claim 8 further comprising:

setting a threshold value on the buffer;

determining when the threshold value is satisfied by the response portions that are buffered therein; and

responsive to the threshold value being satisfied, sending the buffered response portions to the client.

11. A computer system for responding to an XML request, the system comprising:

means for receiving a client request;

means for determining an HTTP verb that is contained in the client request;

means for instantiating a request method object that corresponds to the HTTP verb that is contained in the client request;

means for using the request method object to gather information that is to appear in an XML response to the client'"'"'s request;

means for making a series of calls to an emitter object that is configured to receive information from the request method object and process the information into a response portion having an appropriate XML syntactic format; and

means for sending the response portion to the client before the XML response is entirely built.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the means for making the series of calls makes said calls in a defined order.

13. The system of claim 11 further comprising means for accumulating response portions, said means for sending comprising means for sending accumulated response portions to the client, the accumulated response portions constituting less than an entirety of a complete client response.

14. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a computer-readable medium having software code that is configured to be executed by said one or more processors to;

receive a request from a client; and

instantiate an object that corresponds to an HTTP verb that is contained in the request;

the software code further causing the one or more processors to use the object to build a portion of an XML response to the request that is to be sent to the client before the XML response is entirely built.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein individual objects that are instantiable are unique to an HTTP verb with which it corresponds.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the object is configured to make calls to another object, the calls containing information that is to be included in the XML response.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the object is configured to make calls to a second object, the calls containing information that is to be included in the XML response, the second object being configured to format the information into an appropriate syntactic form.