Method and system for caching message fragments using an expansion attribute in a fragment link tag

• US 7,426,534 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2001
• Issued: 09/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Iyengar, Arun K., Challenger, James R. H., Copeland, George P., Conner, Michael H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US10/034,771
• Publication Number:
  US 20030191800A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,463 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/214, 709/217, 711/1, 711/111, 711/113, 711/118, 711/122, 711/133, 707/10
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method, a system, an apparatus, and a computer program product are presented for a fragment caching methodology. After a message is received at a computing device that contains a cache management unit, a fragment in the message body of the message is cached. Subsequent requests for the fragment at the cache management unit result in a cache hit. A FRAGMENTLINK tag is used to specify the location in a fragment for an included or linked fragment which is to be inserted into the fragment during fragment or page assembly or page rendering. A FRAGMENTLINK tag may include a FOREACH attribute that is interpreted as indicating that the FRAGMENTLINK tag should be replaced with multiple FRAGMENTLINK tags. The FOREACH attribute has an associated parameter that has multiple values that are used in identifying multiple fragments for the multiple FRAGMENTLINK tags.

Claims

1. A method for processing objects within a data processing system in a network, the method comprising:

receiving a message at a computing device, wherein the message comprises a set of message headers and a message body, wherein the message body contains a top-level fragment comprising a first linking element to a first next-level fragment;

in response to determining that the first linking element comprises an expansion attribute, generating a set of linking elements in accordance with at least one parameter associated with the expansion attribute;

retrieving a cookie name parameter associated with the expansion attribute;

retrieving a cookie value associated with the cookie name; and

retrieving an expansion parameter name and an expansion parameter value from the cookie value.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

parsing the cookie value as a string comprising a list of name-value pairs.

3. An apparatus for processing objects within a data processing system in a network, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a message at a computing device, wherein the message comprises a set of message headers and a message body, wherein the message body contains a top-level fragment comprising a first linking element to a first next-level fragment;

means for generating, in response to determining that the first linking element comprises an expansion attribute, a set of linking elements in accordance with at least one parameter associated with the expansion attribute;

means for retrieving a cookie name parameter associated with the expansion attribute;

means for retrieving a cookie value associated with the cookie name; and

means for retrieving an expansion parameter name and an expansion parameter value from the cookie value.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 further comprising:

means for parsing the cookie value as a string comprising a list of name-value pairs.

5. A computer program product in a computer readable storage medium for use within a data processing system in a network for processing objects, the computer program product comprising:

instructions for receiving a message at a computing device, wherein the message comprises a set of message headers and a message body, wherein the message body contains a top-level fragment comprising a first linking element to a first next-level fragment;

instructions for generating a set of linking elements in accordance with at least one parameter associated with the expansion attribute in response to determining that the first linking element comprises an expansion attribute;

instructions for retrieving a cookie name parameter associated with the expansion attribute;

instructions for retrieving a cookie value associated with the cookie name; and

instructions for retrieving an expansion parameter name and an expansion parameter value from the cookie value.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 further comprising:

instructions for parsing the cookie value as a string comprising a list of name-value pairs.