Systems and methods for dynamic document generation

• US 7,703,010 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2008
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kieffer, Robert, Bernstein, Keith
• Primary Examiner(s): RIES, LAURIE ANNE
• Application Number:
  US12/154,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20080294682A1
• Time in Patent Office: 697 Days
• Field of Search: 715/201, 715/202, 715/234, 715/235, 715/236, 715/237, 715/243, 715/248, 715/249, 715/253, 715/273, 715/277, 707/10, 717/104, 719/311
• US Class Current: 715/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/427 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Dynamic web page generation is optimized by reducing the processing overhead required to parse the web page HTML code for tokens and insert dynamic content. Using the invention, an HTML file for a dynamic web page need be read and parsed only once throughout the life of the server. A software object parses the HTML, decomposes the page into constituent pieces and saves them to data structures as byte streams, which are cached, along with the software object, rendering multiple disk accesses unnecessary when the page is reconstituted. For subsequent requests, the dynamic page is created from the cached version, which is shareable across users and across requests. The optimization reduces server resource usage for dynamic page generation to near zero. The invention is also applicable to other documents combining static and dynamic content that require composition tools for editing.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for electronically creating a template for generating a computer readable document incorporating static and dynamic content on a server, the method comprising:

parsing a template for a computer readable document by a processor of a server, the template including one or more portions of static content and one or more placeholders corresponding to one or more portions of dynamic content, the parsing comprising deconstructing the template in order to separate the one or more portions of static content and the one or more placeholders;

storing the one or more portions of static content and the one or more placeholders in one or more traversable data structures in memory of the server;

receiving, at the server, a request for the document from a client computer in communication with the server;

composing the document by the processor by traversing the one or more data structures to retrieve the one or more portions of dynamic content and to retrieve the one or more portions of static content; and

causing the document to be sent from the server to the client computer,

wherein the dynamic content comprises content received from the client computer.

2. A computer-implemented method for generating a computer readable file based on a set of instructions comprising:

providing a set of instructions on a server system for generating a computer readable file, the set of instructions including at least one static content portion and at least one reference to at least one dynamic content portion, the server system including at least one storage data structure;

separating the at least one static content portion of the set of instructions from the at least one reference to the at least one dynamic content portion of the set of instructions;

storing the at least one static content portion of the set of instructions and the at least one reference to the at least once dynamic content portion of the set of instructions in the at least one data storage structure of the server system; and

wherein the at least one dynamic content portion comprises content received from a client system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the computer readable file comprises a document.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the computer readable file comprises a web page.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of instructions comprises a template.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one reference comprise a plurality of placeholders and the at least one dynamic content portion comprises a plurality of dynamic content portions.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a request for the file from a client system in communication with the server system;

composing the file by traversing the one or more data structures to retrieve the at least one dynamic content portion and to retrieve the at least one static content portion; and

sending the file to the client system.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising storing a first software object and storing it in the at least one data storage structure of the server system, the first software object comprising instructions for performing the separating and the composing steps.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein composing the file further comprises writing the at least one static content portion and the at least one dynamic content portion to an output stream so as to replace the at least one reference with the at least one dynamic content portion.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, first comprising storing the at least one dynamic content portion in a hash map.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the server system include a cache, and further comprising storing the at least one data storage structure in a cache of the server system.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein one or more of the set of instructions and the file include HTML code.