Dynamic content caching framework

• US 7,082,454 B1
• Filed: 11/15/1999
• Issued: 07/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Versata Development Group, Inc. (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Trilogy Development Group Incorporated (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Inventors: Gheith, Ahmed M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne, Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Todd, Gregory G.
• Application Number:
  US09/440,246
• Time in Patent Office: 2,444 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/201, 709/212, 709/216, 709/217, 709/219, 709/250, 707/513, 707/514, 707/10, 705/26
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching

Abstract

A dynamic content caching framework that encodes dynamically created documents with a filename that is derived from the state information describing the contents of the document, advantageously allows for the dynamically created documents to be cached and reused, thereby reducing server computation, and allowing more users to utilize a particular web site. A file cache management system manages files that can be provided by a web server computer system to a client computer system. Parameters selected by a user viewing a web page define a presentation state that describes, and is used to produce, a subsequent web page. The presentation state is processed using a one-way hashing function to form a hash value, or signature, for that presentation state which is then used to identify the file in which presentation information for the presentation state is stored. When another user chooses the same presentation state, the existing file having presentation information can be identified quickly and reused.

Claims

1. A method of caching and retrieving cached dynamically generated files that each include presentation information characterized by respective presentation states, wherein each dynamically generated file is associated with a file identifier that is derived from state information that describes contents of the associated dynamically generated electronic file and the file is operable to be provided by an application running on a server computer system to at least one client computer system, the method comprising:

receiving a file request that includes state information based on selections of a user interacting with a web page using at least one client computer system;

determining whether the file request identifies one of the cached dynamically generated files;

retrieving the dynamically generated file identified by the file request and transmitting the file to the at least one client computer system if the file exists in the cache;

computing presentation information based on the state information in the file request when a dynamically generated file does not exist in the cache; and

saving the computed presentation information in a file in the cache, thus creating a dynamically generated file, and transmitting the dynamically generated file to the at least one client computer system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the file request includes at least one of a filename based on the first state, and first state information.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the file request includes a filename computed from the information based on selections by a user interacting with a web page using a hash function.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the file request is a URL.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining whether the file request identifies one of the cached dynamically generated files further comprises monitoring for a file not found error, and computing the presentation information when a file not found error occurs.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the file not found error is an HTTP error 404.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing presentation information further comprises:

computing at least one subsequent state based on the selections by a user interacting with a web page;

computing a signature of the at least one subsequent state based on at least one subsequent state; and

including the signature of the at least one subsequent state and the at least one subsequent state in the presentation information.

8. The method of claim 1 encoded in a computer readable medium as instructions executable on a processor, the computer readable medium being one of a magnetic storage medium, an optical storage medium, and a communications medium conveying signals encoding the instructions.

9. Dynamically generated files created in accordance with the method of claim 1.

10. The dynamically generated files of claim 9 wherein at least a portion of the presentation information of each dynamically generated file is encoded in a markup language.

11. The file of claim 10 wherein the markup language is one of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML).

12. The dynamically generated files of claim 9 wherein the web page is a product configuration web page and the file request is a Universal Resource Locator (URL) that includes state information comprising information based on user configuration selections.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the selections of the user interacting with the web page include configuration options selections for one or more configurable products for display in accordance with the associated dynamically generated electronic file.

14. A dynamic content caching and retrieval system that facilitates reusability of dynamically generated electronic files, the system comprising:

a processor;

a computer readable medium coupled to the processor;

dynamically generated electronic files stored in a storage medium, each dynamically generated electronic file includes an identifier that identifies dynamically generated presentation information stored in the file; and

a computer readable representation received by the system from a client computer system, the computer readable representation having a presentation state signature based on a presentation state defined, at least in part, by one or more parameters selected by a user interacting with a file displayed by the client computer system, wherein the computer readable representation is useful to identify one of the dynamically generated electronic files in which stored presentation information is associated with the presentation state upon which the signature is based;

wherein the computer readable medium includes a routine executable by the processor to determine if the presentation state signature of the computer readable representation identifies one of the dynamically generated electronic files stored in the storage medium of the system, to retrieve any identified dynamically generated electronic file and to serve the retrieved file to the client computer system.

15. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 further comprising:

a subsequent presentation state computation routine operable to cause at least one subsequent presentation state to be computed based on the presentation state signature; and

a presentation state signature computation routine operable to determine a presentation state signature for one or more subsequent presentation states.

16. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 15 further comprising a presentation information computation routine operable to compute subsequent presentation information based upon the at least one subsequent presentation state.

17. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 15 wherein the computer readable representation is a universal resource locator that includes a filename and state information for one of the dynamically generated electronic files.

18. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 15 further comprising a file cache and a look-ahead manager, the look-ahead manager operable to perform at least one of:

determining if the file cache includes a dynamically generated electronic file having presentation information characterized by the presentation state signature for one or more subsequent presentation states; and

causing a presentation information computation routine to compute subsequent presentation information based upon one or more subsequent presentation states.

19. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 18 wherein the determining if the file cache includes a dynamically generated electronic file includes searching the file cache for a file having a filename including the presentation state signature from the computer readable representation.

20. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 wherein the subsequent presentation state computation routine and the presentation state signature computation routine are encoded in the computer readable medium as instructions executable on the processor, and the computer readable medium being one of a magnetic storage medium, an optical storage medium, and a communications medium conveying signals encoding the instructions.

21. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 wherein at least a portion of the presentation information is encoded in a markup language.

22. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 21 wherein the markup language is one of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML).

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the hash function is a one-way hash function.

24. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 further comprising:

a plurality of additional computer readable representations from one or more client computer systems, each of the computer readable representations having a presentation state signature based on a presentation state defined, at least in part, by one or more parameters selected by a user interacting with a file displayed by one of the client computer systems that are useful to identify one of the dynamically generated electronic files in which stored presentation information is associated with the presentation state upon which the signature is based;

wherein the routine is further executable by the processor to determine if the presentation state signatures of the computer readable representations identify one of the dynamically generated electronic files stored in the memory of the system, retrieving the described dynamically generated electronic files, and serving the retrieved files to the client computer system from which the computer readable representation was received.

25. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 24 further comprising:

a subsequent presentation state computation routine operable to cause at least one subsequent presentation state to be computed based on each presentation state signature; and

a presentation state signature computation routine operable to determine a presentation state signature for each subsequent presentation state.

26. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 24 wherein each computer readable representation is a Universal Resource Locator (URL) comprising the presentation state signature based on the presentation state.

27. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 further comprising a file cache operable to store the dynamically generated electronic files.

28. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 27 wherein the file cache is a file server computer system.

29. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 wherein the presentation state signature computation routine uses a hashing function to determine the presentation state signature.

30. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 29 wherein the hashing function is a one-way hashing function.

31. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 30 wherein the one-way hashing function is one of Snefru, N-Hash, MD5, Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), RIPE-MD, and HAVAL.

32. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 wherein the computer readable medium further includes state information that at least one subsequent presentation state includes version information of the file displayed by the client computer system.

33. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 further comprising a web server application operable to receive the computer readable representation and to serve the retrieved file to the client computer system.

34. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 wherein the routine comprises a web server application.

35. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 wherein the client computer system is one of a plurality of interconnected client computer systems operating in a distributed computing environment and coupled to a server computer system.

36. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 35 wherein the plurality of interconnected client computer systems and the server computer system are coupled via a network.

37. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 36 wherein the network is the Internet and each of the files are web pages.

38. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 wherein the one or more parameters selected by a user include configuration options selections for one or more configurable products for display in accordance with the associated dynamically generated electronic file.

39. The dynamic content caching and retrieval system of claim 14 wherein the one or more parameters selected by a user interacting with a file displayed by the client computer system include configuration options selections for one or more configurable products for display in accordance with the dynamically generated electronic file.

40. A dynamic content caching and retrieval system that facilitates reusability of cached dynamically generated electronic files, the system comprising:

means for caching the dynamically generated electronic files and associating a respective file identifier with each of the dynamically generated electronic files, wherein each file identifier is derived from state information that describes contents of the associated dynamically generated electronic file;

means for receiving a file request that includes information based on selections of a user interacting with a web page using at least one client computer system (at least col. 5, lines 55–

60);

means for determining whether the file request identifies one of the cached dynamically generated electronic files (at least col. 5, lines 55–

60);

means for retrieving the dynamically generated electronic file identified by the file request and transmitting the file to the at least one client computer system if the file exists in a cache (at least col. 5, lines 55–

60);

means for computing presentation information based on the state information in the file request when a dynamically generated file does not exist in the cache; and

means for saving the computed presentation information in a file in the cache, thus creating a dynamically generated file, and transmitting the dynamically generated file to the at least one client computer system.