Web page source file transfer system and method

• US 7,249,196 B1
• Filed: 10/06/2000
• Issued: 07/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Peiffer, Christopher, L'Heureux, Israel
• Primary Examiner(s): Dalencourt; Yves
• Assistant Examiner(s): Osman; Ramy M
• Application Number:
  US09/680,998
• Time in Patent Office: 2,482 Days
• Field of Search: 709/246, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/226, 709/227, 709/201, 709/247, 709/232, 709/238, 707/104.1, 715/513, 715/515, 345/473
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A method for transmitting web page source data over a computer network. The method typically includes receiving a request for the web page source data from a remote client. The web page source data contains renderable and non-renderable data. The request is received at an acceleration device positioned on the computer network intermediate the web page source data and an associated web server. The method further includes filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable data from the requested web page source data, thereby creating modified web page source data, and sending the modified web page source data to the remote client. The non-renderable data is selected from the group consisting of whitespace, comments, hard returns, meta tags, keywords configured to be interpreted by a search engine, and commands not interpretable by the remote client.

Claims

1. A method for transferring web page source data between a web server and a remote client over a computer network, the computer network including a wide area network, the method comprising:

receiving a request for the web page source data from the remote client at a server-side acceleration device positioned on the computer network intermediate the remote client and the web server and intermediate the web server and the wide area network

obtaining original web page source data from the web server;

identifying within the original web page source data renderable character data and non-renderable character data, the renderable character data being data that affects the presentation of the web page by a browser, and the non-renderable character data being data that does not affect the presentation of the web page by a browser, the original web page source data being in a markup language data format;

filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data by removing characters of the identified non-renderable character data from the original web page source data, thereby creating modified web page source data;

transmitting the modified web page source data to the remote client over the computer network; and

after transmitting the modified web page source data to the remote client, transmitting the original web page source data to the remote client including the characters that were removed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying tags of the web page source data having one or more uppercase characters; and

rewriting the identified tags of the web page source data to have the same characters but in a lowercase.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the original web page source data is sent to the remote client in response to a subsequent request from the remote client for the original web page source data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, compressing the modified web page source data before sending it to the remote client.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the web server and acceleration device are connected by a LAN.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the acceleration device and remote client are connected by a WAN.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the WAN is the Internet.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data from the original web page source data comprises removing character data compatible with the HTTP data transfer protocol from the original web page source data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data from the original web page source data comprises removing HTML data from the original web page source data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data from the original web page source data comprises removing data in the ASCII format from the original web page source data.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data from the original web page source data comprises removing whitespace from the original web page source data.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data from the original web page source data comprises removing comments from the original web page source data.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data from the original web page source data comprises removing meta tags from the original web page source data.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data from the original web page source data comprises removing keywords configured to be interpreted by a search engine from the original web page source data.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering at least a portion of the non-renderable character data from the original web page source data comprises removing commands not interpretable by the remote client from the original web page source data.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering and transmitting of the modified web page source data over the computer network to the remote client are performed in less time than the original web page source data can be directly transmitted from the web server to the remote client.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the file size of the modified web page source data is smaller than the original web page source data.

18. A server-side networking device for use on a computer network having a web server and a remote client, wherein the remote client is configured to download a web resource from the web server via the computer network, the computer network including a wide area network, the networking device comprising:

a controller configured to be connected on the computer network intermediate the web server and the wide area network, and to obtain original web page source data from the web server, the original web page source data containing renderable character data and non-renderable character data, the renderable character data being data that affects the presentation of the web page by a browser, and the non-renderable character data being data that does not affect the presentation of the web page by a browser, the original web page source data being in a markup language data format,

wherein the controller is further configured to filter at least a portion of the non-renderable character data by removing one or more characters from the original web page source data, thereby creating modified web page source data, transmit the modified web page source data to the remote client over the computer network, and, after transmitting the modified web page source data to the remote client, transmit the original web page source data to the remote client including the characters that were removed.

19. The networking device of claim 18, wherein the controller includes a network communications program logic stored on an ASIC.

20. The networking device of claim 18, wherein the controller includes a CPU coupled to a memory, and a network communications program stored in memory and executable by the CPU.

21. The networking device of claim 18, wherein the controller is configured to remove character data compatible with the HTTP data transfer protocol from the original web page source data.

22. The networking device of claim 21, wherein the controller is configure to remove HTML data from the original web page source data.

23. The networking device of claim 22, wherein the controller is configured to remove data in the ASCII format from the original web page source data.

24. The networking device of claim 22, wherein the controller is configured to remove whitespace from the original web page source data.

25. The networking device of claim 22, wherein the controller is configured to remove comments from the original web page source data.

26. The networking device of claim 22, wherein the controller is configured to remove meta tags from the original web page source data.

27. The networking device of claim 22, wherein the controller is configured to remove keywords configured to be interpreted by a search engine from the original web page source data.

28. The networking device of claim 22, wherein the controller is configured to remove commands not interpretable by a browser executed on the remote client from the original web page source data.

29. The networking device of claim 18, wherein the controller is configured to filter and transmit the modified web page source data over the computer network to the remote client in less time than the original web page source data can be directly transmitted from the web server to the remote client over the computer network.

30. The networking device of claim 18, wherein the file size of the modified web page source data is smaller than the original web page source data.

31. A system for use in transferring web page source data over a computer network, the computer network including a wide area network, the system comprising:

a web server configured to serve original web page source data over a computer network, the original web page source data containing renderable data and non-renderable data, the renderable data being data that affects the presentation of the web page by a browser, and the non-renderable data being data that does not affect the presentation of the web page by a browser, the original web page source data being in a markup language data format;

a remote client configured to send a request for the original web page source data to the web server; and

a server-side acceleration device positioned intermediate the web server and the remote client on the computer network and intermediate the web server and the wide area network, the acceleration device configured to receive the request for the original web page source data from the remote client, to obtain the original web page source data from the web server, to filter at least a portion of the non-renderable data by removing one or more characters from the original web page source data, thereby creating modified web page source data, smaller in size than the original web page source data, and to send the modified web page source data to the remote client;

wherein the remote client is configured to display the modified web page source data, and

wherein the acceleration device is configured to send to the remote client an original, unmodified version of the web page source data including the characters that were removed after sending the modified web page source data to the remote client.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the removed characters include whitespace.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the removed characters include comments.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein the removed characters include hard returns.

35. The system of claim 31, wherein the removed characters include meta tags.

36. The system of claim 31, wherein the removed characters include keywords configured to be interpreted by a search engine.

37. The system of claim 31, wherein the acceleration device is configured to identify tags of the web page source data having one or more uppercase letters and rewrite the identified tags of the web page source data to have the same letters but in lowercase.

38. The system of claim 31, wherein the acceleration device is configured to cache the modified web page source data.

39. The system of claim 31, wherein the acceleration device is configured to compress the web resources in real-time after removing the characters and before transmission to the remote client.