Systems and methods for processing dynamic content

• US 7,590,704 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2004
• Issued: 09/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Zheng, Chen, Yu, Yuan, Chun
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr.; William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): RICHARDSON, THOMAS W
• Application Number:
  US10/760,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20050188048A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,065 Days
• Field of Search: 709/208
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Systems and methods for processing dynamic content are described herein. A system receives a request for content that includes an item cached by a proxy. The system issues another request to a content server to generate the other items that are not cached, without disrupting the process workflow of the original request. The system combines the items generated by the content server with the item cached by the proxy and sends the combined content to a destination.

Claims

1. A method of communicating between two or more computing devices, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first computing device, a request for content, from a requesting device, which includes a plurality of items, the plurality of items comprising an item cached by the first computing device and another item that is not cached by the first computing device;

processing the request for content, by the first computing device, to determine which of the plurality of items within the request are cached by the first computing device, the determination comprising;

computing one or more cache keys, wherein the cache keys are identifiers associated with the items within the request;

upon determining that one or more of the requested items are not cached by the first computing device, then sending, by the first computing device to a second computing device, the request and one or more identifiers associated with the one or more cached items, respectively;

receiving, by the second device, the request and the one or more identifiers associated with the one or more cached items;

generating, by the second computing device, content based on the request and the one or more identifiers, wherein the one or more identifiers are used by the second computing device to determine content that is not to be included in the generated content, the request being used by the second computing device to determine content to be included in the generated content;

sending, by the second computing device to the first computing device, the generated content;

receiving, by the first computing device from the second computing device, content generated by the second computing device based on the request and the one or more identifiers;

combining, by the first computing device, the cached item and the generated content, and

sending, by the first computing device, the combined content to the requesting device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the cached item includes at least one of a web page and a fragment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more identifiers includes a cache key.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated content includes a place holder to represent the cached item.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated content includes at least one cacheable item and metadata associated with the cacheable item, wherein the metadata enables the first computing device to cache the cacheable item.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising deleting, by the first computing device, the metadata before sending the combined content to the destination.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

caching, by the first computing device, the cacheable item; and

maintaining, by the first computing device, the cacheable item in accordance with the metadata.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

implementing, by the first computing device, a policy for caching the cacheable item based on the metadata.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the metadata includes at least one of a name, a key, and information for identifying conditions under which the cacheable item may be cached.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated content includes multiple items.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computing device is a proxy and the second computing device is a content server.

12. A system comprising:

a proxy server configured to receive and process a request for content, wherein the request includes a plurality of items and wherein at least one of the plurality of items is cached by the proxy server, the proxy server further having multiple items that are cached therein, the proxy server being further configured to determine which of the plurality of cached items are cached in the proxy by computing one or more cache keys, wherein the cache keys are identifiers associated with the items of the request, and being further configured to forward the request along with identifiers associated with the cached items; and

a content server configured to receive and inspect the request from the proxy server and dynamically generate content specified in the request from the proxy server based on the request and the identifiers included with the request, and based on a determination made by the inspection and wherein, the dynamically generated content excludes content of the request that relates to the identifiers associated with the cached items, the dynamically generated content further including content of the request not excluded by the identifiers, and the dynamically generated content having information for the proxy server to combine the dynamically generated content with the cached items for processing the request and wherein the content server is further configured to send the generated content to the proxy server;

wherein the proxy server and the content server are comprised of at least one computing device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the dynamically generated content includes multiple items that are not cached by the proxy server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the items include at least one of a web page and a fragment.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the information in the content includes place holders for inserting the items cached by the proxy server.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the place holders include at least one substitution tag.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the identifiers include cache keys and each place holder is identified with at least one of the cache keys.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the content server is further configured to generate and send cacheable items and metadata associated with the cacheable item in response to the request, and wherein the proxy server is configured to cache the cacheable items in a computer-readable media and to use the cacheable items to process subsequent requests based on the metadata.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the metadata includes at least one cache tag.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the cache tag includes a key.

21. A system comprising:

a proxy server configured to;

process a request for content, the proxy server having first items identified in the request for content that are cached and second items identified in the request for content that are not cached,

generate a cache key for each of the first items that are cached,

add each generated cache key to the request for content, and

forward the request including the added cache keys; and

a content server configured to;

dynamically generate content specified in the request from the proxy server based on the request and each generated cache key included with the request, the dynamically generated content excluding content of the request that relates to the generated cache keys included with the request, and the dynamically generated content including content of the request not excluded by the generated cache keys,

determine whether any portion of the dynamically generated content is cacheable,

determine conditions that are appropriate for the portion of the dynamically generated content to be cached,

include metadata with the dynamically generated content to identify the portion of the dynamically generated content that is cacheable content, and

send the dynamically generated content with the metadata to the proxy server;

wherein the proxy server and the content server are comprised of at least one computing device.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the dynamically generated content includes information for the proxy server to combine the dynamically generated content with the first items cached by the proxy server.