Identifying relevant data to cache

• US 7,565,489 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2005
• Issued: 07/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dalfo, Ricard Roma i, Mullender, Maarten Willem
• Primary Examiner(s): Ellis; Kevin L
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOONAN, ERIC T
• Application Number:
  US11/173,688
• Publication Number:
  US 20070005892A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,481 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for identifying relevant information to cache. A computer system accesses a marked data entity that has been marked for caching at a client computer system. The marked data entry is marked for caching based on the relevance of the marked data entity from the perspective of a requested data entity. The computer system identifies relationships from the marked data entity to one or more other data entities. The computer system selects, from among the identified relationships, any relationships that satisfy a relevance threshold from the perspective of the requested data entity. The computer system identifies, from among the one or more other data entities, any of the other data entities that correspond to a selected relationship satisfying the relevance threshold. The computer system marks the identified other data entities for caching.

Claims

1. At a computer system configured to provide relevant cacheable data to client computer systems in response to data requests, a method for identifying relevant cacheable data, the method comprising:

an act of receiving a request for a requested data entity from among a plurality of data entities at the computer system, the request received from a client computer system;

an act of marking the requested data entity for caching at the client computer system based on the requested data entity being requested;

an act of accessing configured metadata that refers to an executable relevance algorithm that can return relevancy for one data entity from perspective of another data entity;

in response to the request and for each other data entity in the plurality of data entities;

an act of referring to the relevance algorithm to identify the relevancy of the other data entity from the perspective of the requested data entity, the relevance algorithm considering a length of a path from the requested data entity to the other data entity, the length of the path calculated from a number of links that are followed to traverse from the requested data entity to the other data entity;

an act of applying user configurable relevance rules to the identified relevancy of the relationship between the requested data entity and the other data entity to determine if the identified relevancy is within a relevancy threshold, the user configurable relevance rules providing flexible user control over an amount of data that is cached in response to a data request, the user configurable relevance rules defining how related another data instance is to be to the requested data instance for the other data instance to satisfy the relevancy threshold, the user configurable relevance rules configured to cache relevant information for more efficient availability based on the bandwidth environment of the client computer system;

an act of identifying one or more of the other data entities, from among the plurality of other data entities, determined to be relevant cacheable data from a perspective of the requested data entity based on results of applying the user configurable relevance rules;

an act of marking the identified one or more other data entities for caching at the client computer system based on the one or more other entities begin determined as relevant cacheable data; and

an act of automatically transferring any marked data entities to the client computer system in response to the request for the requested data entity such that the one or more other data entities are transferred to the client computer system without actually having been requested, the marked data entities transferred in anticipation of a subsequent request for one of the one or more other data entities.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of referring to a relevance threshold comprises an act of referring to a relevance threshold that defines a cacheable data perimeter around the requested data entity, the cacheable data perimeter indicating the number of links from the requested data entity that can be followed before the configurable relevance rules indicate that data is no longer relevant to the requested data entity.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the act of determining that the other data entity satisfies the relevance threshold with respect to the requested data entity comprises an act of determining that the other data entity is within the cacheable data perimeter.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of identifying the relevancy of the other data entity from the perspective of the requested data entity comprises an act of identifying a static relationship from metadata contained in the requested data entity.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of identifying the relevancy of other data entity from the perspective of the requested data entity comprises an act of deriving a relationship based on the contents of the requested data entity.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of referring to a relevance threshold comprises an act of referring to a relevance threshold that defines relevance between data entities based on one or more of a user role, the data entity type of the requested data entity, and purported data usage of the requested data entity.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the act of referring to a relevance threshold that defines relevance between data entities based on one or more of a user role, the data entity type of the requested data entity, and purported data usage of the requested data entity comprises an act of referring to a relevance data structure, the relevance data structure combining one or more of a user role, the data entity type of the requested data entity, and purported data usage of the requested data entity with a number representing a cacheable data perimeter to indicate how related the other data entity is to be to the requested data entity for the other data entity to be identified as relevant cacheable data with respect to the requested data entity.

8. A computer program product for use at a computer system configured to provide relevant cacheable data to client computer systems in response to data requests, the computer program product for implementing a method for identifying relevant cacheable data , the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the computer system to perform the following:

receive a request for a requested data entity from among a plurality of data entries at the computer system, the request received from a client computer system;

mark the requested data entity for caching at the client computer system based on the requested data entity being requested;

access configured metadata that refers to an executable relevance algorithm that can return relevancy for one data entity from the perspective of another data entity;

in response to the request and for each other data entity in the plurality of data entities;

refer to the relevance algorithm to identify the relevancy of the other data entity from the perspective of the requested data entity, the relevance algorithm considering a length of a path from the requested data entity to the other data entity, the length of the path calculated from a number of links that are followed to traverse from the requested data entity to the other data entity;

apply user configurable relevance rules to the identified relevancy of the relationship between the requested data entity and the other data entity to determine if the identified relevancy is within a relevancy threshold, the user configurable relevancy rules providing flexible user control over an amount of data that is cached in response to a data request, the user configurable relevance rules defining how related another data instance is to be to the requested data instance for the other data instance to satisfy the relevancy threshold, the user configurable relevance rules configured to cache relevant information for more efficient availability based the bandwidth environment of the client computer system;

identify one or more of the other data entities, from among the plurality of other data entries, determined to be relevant cacheable data from a perspective of the requested data entity based on results of applying the user configurable relevance rules;

mark the identified one or more other data entities for caching at the client computer system based on the one or more other entities being determined as relevant cacheable data with respect to the requested data entity; and

automatically transfer any marked data entities to the client computer system in response to the request for the requested data entity such that the one or more other data entities are transferred to the client computer system without actually having been requested, the marked data entities transferred in anticipation of a subsequent request for one of the one or more other data entities.

9. The computer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to refer to a relevance threshold comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to refer to a relevance threshold that defines a cacheable data perimeter around the requested data entity, the cacheable data perimeter indicating the number of links from the requested data entity that can be followed before the configurable relevance rules indicate that data is no longer relevant to the requested data entity.

10. The computer program product as recited in claim 9, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to determine that the other data entity satisfies the relevance threshold with respect to the requested data entity comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to determine that the other data entity is within the cacheable data perimeter, the cacheable data perimeter indicating the number of links from the requested data entity that can be followed before the configurable relevance rules indicate that data is no longer relevant to the requested data entity.

11. The computer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to identify the relevancy of the other data entity from the perspective of the requested data entity comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to identify a static relationship based on metadata contained in the requested data entity.

12. The computer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to identify the relevancy the other data entity from the perspective of the requested data entity comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to dynamically derive a relationship based on the contents of the requested data entity at run-time.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to refer to a relevance threshold comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to refer to a relevance threshold that defines relevance between data entities based on one or more of a user role, the data entity type of the requested data entity, and the purported data usage of the requested data entity.

14. The computer program product as recited in claim 13, wherein computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to refer to a relevance threshold that defines relevance between data entities based on one or more of a user role, the data entity type of the requested data entity, and the purported data usage of the requested data entity comprise computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the computer system to refer to a relevance data structure, the relevance data structure combining one or more of a user role, the data entity type of the requested data entity, and purported data usage of the requested data entity with a number representing a cacheable data perimeter to indicate how related the other data entity is to be to the requested data entity for the other data entity to be identified as relevant cacheable data with respect to the requested data entity.

15. A system for identifying relevant data to cache at client computer systems, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer readable-media having stored thereon a service agent, the service agent configured to;

receive a request for a requested data entity from among a plurality of data entries at the computer system, the request received from a client computer system;

mark the requested data entity for caching at the client computer system based on the requested data entity being requested;

access configured metadata that refers to an executable relevance algorithm that can return relevancy for one date entity from the perspective of another data entity;

in response to the request and for each other data entity in the plurality of data entities;

refer to the relevance algorithm to identify the relevancy of the other data entity from the perspective of the requested data entity, the relevance algorithm considering a length of a path from the requested data entity to the other data entity, the length of the path calculated from a number of links that are followed to traverse from the requested data entity to the other data entity;

apply user configurable relevance rules to the identified relevancy of the relationship between the requested data entity and the other data entity to determine if the identified relevancy is within a relevancy threshold, the user configurable relevance rules providing flexible user control over an amount of data that is cached in response to a data request, the user configurable relevance rules defining how related another data instance is to be to the requested data instance for the other data instance to satisfy the relevancy threshold , the user configurable relevance rules configured to cache relevant information for more efficient availability based on the bandwidth environment of the client computer system;

identify one or more of the other data entities, from among the plurality of other data entries, determined to be relevant cacheable data from a perspective of the requested data entity based on results of applying the user configurable relevance rules;

mark the identified one or more other data entities for caching at the client computer system based on the one or more other entities being determined as relevant cacheable data with respect to the requested data entity; and

automatically transfer any marked data entities to the client computer system in response to the request for the requested data entity such that the one or more other data entities are transferred to the client computer system without actually having been requested, the marked data entities transferred in anticipation of a subsequent request for one of the one or more other data entities.