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

• US 6,996,770 B1
• Filed: 07/26/1999
• Issued: 02/07/2006
• 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): Herndon, Heather R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Queler, Adam M
• Application Number:
  US09/361,782
• Time in Patent Office: 2,388 Days
• Field of Search: 707/513, 707/103, 709/230, 709/231, 715/513, 715/523
• 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 one embodiment, an XML response generator responds to a client request without having to first build and save a hierarchical tree structure in memory that represents the response.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented 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 method of claim 1 further comprising sending the response portion to the client.

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

5. The method 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 method 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 method 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 method of claim 1 further comprising:

buffering a plurality of response portions in a buffer; and

sending the plurality of response portions together to the client.

9. The method 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 method 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-readable medium having a program which, when executed by a computer, performs the method of claim 1.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said creating a request method object her comprises creating a request method object for the WebDAV request method responsive to determination of the WebDAV request method.

13. A computer-readable medium having a computer program for responding to an XML request, the program comprising the following steps:

receiving a client request;

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

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

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

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

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

14. The program of claim 13, wherein the making of the series of calls comprises doing so in a defined order.

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

16. The program of claim 13, wherein sending the response portion to the client further comprises sending the response portion so that a hierarchical order of an XML document forming the response to the client'"'"'s request is preserved.

17. The program of claim 13 wherein said instantiating a request method object further comprises instantiating a request method object that corresponds to the HTTP verb responsive to the determination of the HTTP verb.

18. A computer-readable medium having software code that is configured 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 using 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.

19. The software code of claim 18, wherein individual objects that are instantiable by the software code are unique to an HTTP verb with which it corresponds.

20. The software code of claim 18, wherein the object is configured to make calls to another object, the calls containing information that is to be included in the XML response.

21. The software code of claim 18, 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.

22. The software code of claim 18, wherein sending the response portion to the client further comprises sending the response portion so that a hierarchical order of an XML document forming the XML response is preserved.