Method and apparatus for server side queuing to control page presentation on web enabled device

• US 7,734,725 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2001
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tilt, LeRoy W. IV, Trevathan, Matthew B.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THANH T
• Application Number:
  US09/823,331
• Publication Number:
  US 20020194306A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,357 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/231, 709/224, 709/220, 709/221, 707/3, 705/59
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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 and apparatus for controlling at the server-side the order in which supplemental files referenced in an HTML page are served to a client machine requesting the page. The server queues the supplemental files in an order dictated within the HTML code itself and serves the supplemental files in the order dictated in the queue regardless of the order of which the Web browser at the client-side requests the supplemental files.

Claims

1. A method of serving a Web page to a requesting client, said Web page comprising code defining said Web page and including a plurality of supplemental files, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for said Web page;

obtaining said code defining said Web page responsive to said request;

parsing said code defining said Web page to detect order data within the code that indicates an order in which said supplemental files are to be served, said order data comprising data other than the order in which said supplemental files appear in said code defining said Web page;

constructing a queue indicating said order;

serving said code to said requesting client;

serving said supplemental files to said client in said order indicated in said queue

wherein said code defining said Web page comprises HTML code, said references to supplemental files comprise HTML tags, and said order data comprises attributes of said tags.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of obtaining said Web page comprises retrieving said code defining said Web page from a memory.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of obtaining said Web page comprises building said code defining said Web page responsive to said request.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

receiving and detecting requests from said client machine for said supplemental files; and

wherein said step of serving said supplemental files is performed after said receiving and detecting step.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of serving said code defining said Web page is performed after said step of constructing said queue.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said order data attributes are not recognizable by said client machine.

7. A computer readable storage medium containing executable code for controlling a computer for rendering a Web page, said code comprising:

first code at least partially defining said Web page, said code including a plurality of references to supplemental files containing content of said page; and

second code indicating an order in which said supplemental files are to be rendered, said second code associated with each of said references and comprising an attribute of a tag associated with said supplemental file.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7

wherein said second code associated with each of said references comprises an attribute of an HTML tag for which another of said tag=s attributes is said reference to a supplemental file.

9. A computer program product embodied on computer readable media readable by a computing device, said product for sewing Web pages to a requesting client machine, wherein at least one of said Web pages contains a plurality of references to supplemental files comprising content of said Web page, said references including order data indicating an order in which said supplemental files are to be served relative to said other supplemental files contained in said page, said product comprising:

first computer readable program code for receiving requests for said Web pages;

second computer readable program code for obtaining code defining said requested Web pages responsive to said requests;

third computer readable program code for parsing said code defining said Web page to detect said order data;

fourth computer readable program code for constructing a queue in a memory, said queue comprising a list of said supplemental files in said order;

fifth computer readable program code for serving said code defining said Web page to said requesting client machine; and

sixth computer readable program code for serving said supplemental files to said requesting client machine in said order of said queue;

wherein said code defining said Web page comprises HTML code, said references to supplemental files comprise HTML tags, and said order data comprises attributes of said tags.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein said second computer readable program code comprises code for retrieving said code defining said Web page from a storage medium.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein said second computer readable program code comprises code for building said code defining said Web page responsive to receipt of said request for said Web page.

12. The computer program product of claim 9 further comprising:

seventh computer readable program code for receiving and detecting requests from said client machine for said supplemental files and wherein said sixth computer readable program code operates after said seventh computer readable program code detects said request for at least one of said supplemental files.

13. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein said fifth computer readable program code operates after said fourth computer readable program code constructs said queue.

14. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein said order data attributes are not recognizable by said client machine.

15. A system for serving Web pages to a requesting client machine, at least one of said Web pages containing a plurality of references to supplemental files comprising content of said Web page, said page including order data indicating an order in which said supplemental files are to be served relative to said other supplemental files contained in said page, the system comprising:

a computer including memory, and a processor, the memory being accessible by the processor and storing computer-readable programming including,

first computer readable program code for receiving requests for said Web pages;

second computer readable program code for obtaining code defining said requested Web pages;

third computer readable program code for parsing said code defining said Web page to detect said order data;

fourth computer readable program code for constructing a queue in a memory, said queue comprising a list of said supplemental files in said order;

fifth computer readable program code for serving said code defining said Web page to said requesting client machine; and

sixth computer readable program code for serving said supplemental files to said requesting client machine in said order of said queue;

wherein said code defining said Web page comprises HTML code, said references to supplemental files comprises HTML tags, and said order data comprises attributes of said tags.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said fifth computer readable program code operates after said fourth computer readable program code constructs said queue.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein said order data attributes are not recognizable by said client machine.