Efficient creation, storage, and provision of web-viewable documents

• US 8,108,441 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2009
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ruhlen, Matthew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): LU, KUEN S
• Application Number:
  US12/427,552
• Publication Number:
  US 20100268736A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,015 Days
• Field of Search: 707/802, 707/755
• US Class Current: 707/802
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for providing a resource, such as a document, to a client computing device. A request is received at a server from the client for particular named objects representing a portion of the document. It is determined that the particular named objects requested are contained in a particular chunk of a bundle. The bundle includes a plurality of named objects that comprise a version of the document that is rendered to be displayable by the client. It is determined that the particular chunk is not stored locally at the server, so the particular chunk is requested and received from bundle storage. The particular chunk, which includes the particular named objects requested and additional named objects, is stored locally by the server. The particular named objects are then sent to the client without sending the additional named objects to the client.

Claims

1. A method for providing a document to a client computing device, comprising the following steps:

sending, by a server to the client computing device, a manifest, the manifest including location information of at least one particular named object in a bundle that includes a plurality of named objects, wherein the location information indicates that the at least one particular named object is contained in a particular chunk of a plurality of chunks of the bundle;

receiving, at the server, a request from the client computing device for the at least one particular named object representing a portion of a document, wherein the request from the client computing device identifies the particular chunk;

determining that the at least one particular named object is contained in the particular chunk of the bundle, wherein the bundle includes the plurality of named objects that comprise a version of the document rendered so that the document is displayable by the client computing device;

determining that the particular chunk is not stored locally at the server;

requesting the particular chunk from a bundle storage;

receiving the particular chunk from the bundle storage;

storing the particular chunk locally at the server, wherein the particular chunk of the bundle comprises the at least one particular named object and additional named objects; and

sending the at least one particular named object and the manifest to the client computing device without sending the additional objects to the client computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at the server a request from the client computing device for a second named object;

determining that the second named object is contained in the particular chunk;

retrieving the second named object from local storage at the server;

sending the second named object to the client computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the client computing device at the server a request for a second named object;

determining that the second named object is contained in a second chunk of the bundle;

requesting the second chunk from the bundle storage;

receiving the second chunk from the bundle storage;

storing the second chunk locally at the server, wherein the second chunk of the bundle comprises the second named object and third named objects;

sending to the client computing device the second named object without sending the third named objects.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a manifest to the client computing device from the server, wherein the manifest describes relative positions of the plurality of named objects within the bundle.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the request from the client computing device contains the relative position of the at least one particular named object within the bundle.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending to the client computing device an identifier of the server;

receiving a request for a second named object, wherein the request includes the identifier of the server.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

sending a manifest to the client computing device from the server, wherein the manifest describes relative positions of the plurality of named objects within the bundle.

8. A system for providing a document to a browser operating on a client computing device, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one computer storage medium, wherein the at least one computer storage medium stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method comprising the following steps;

rendering a document into a version that is displayable by a browser on a client computing device, wherein the version comprises a plurality of named objects;

creating a bundle, wherein the bundle comprises the plurality of named objects and a manifest that describes relative positions of the named objects within the bundle;

sending the bundle to a bundle storage;

sending, to the client computing device, the manifest;

receiving a request from the client computing device for at least one particular named object representing a portion of a document, wherein the request identifies a particular chunk in which the at least one particular named object is contained;

determining that the at least one particular named object is contained in the particular chunk of the bundle;

determining that the particular chunk is not stored locally in the at least one computer storage medium;

requesting the particular chunk from the bundle storage;

storing the particular chunk locally in the at least one computer storage medium, wherein the particular chunk comprises the at least one particular named object and additional named objects; and

sending the at least one particular named object to the browser without sending the additional objects to the browser.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises, after creating the bundle:

sending the manifest to the browser; and

receiving a request for the at least one particular named object, wherein the request for the at least one particular named object includes the relative position of the at least one particular named object within the bundle.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises, after rendering the document:

sending initial named objects to the browser prior to sending the bundle to the bundle storage.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

sending to the browser an identifier of a first web server;

receiving a request for a second named object, wherein the request includes the identifier of the first web server.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the system further comprises:

a load-balancing server, operatively connected to the first web server;

a second web server, operatively connected to the load-balancing server;

wherein the load-balancing server is adapted to receive the request for the second named object, recognize the identifier, and forward the request for the second named object to the first web server.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the step of creating the bundle comprises ordering the plurality of named objects within the bundle in an order of expected access by the browser.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the step of creating the bundle comprises:

determining a chunk size;

for any of the plurality of named objects that is smaller than the chunk size, placing the named objects into the bundle such that each named object is contained wholly within one chunk of the bundle.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the bundle includes a first chunk and a second chunk and the step of creating the bundle comprises padding the first chunk with information other than named objects so that the first chunk equals the determined chunk size.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a request from the browser for a second named object;

determining that the second named object is contained in the particular chunk;

retrieving the second named object from local storage at the first server;

sending the second named object to the browser.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving from the browser at a first server a request for a second named object;

determining that the second named object is contained in a second chunk of the bundle;

requesting the second chunk from the bundle storage;

receiving the second chunk from the bundle storage;

storing the second chunk locally at the first server, wherein the second chunk of the bundle comprises the second named object and third named objects;

sending to the browser the second named object without sending the third named objects.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the step of creating the bundle comprises padding the first chunk with information other than named objects so that the first chunk equals the determined chunk size.

19. A computer storage medium of a client device containing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform the following steps:

receiving a manifest associated with a document, wherein the manifest describes relative positions of a plurality of named objects within a plurality of chunks of a bundle associated with the document;

sending from the client device a request for at least one particular named object representing a portion of the document;

receiving at the client device the at least one particular named object;

wherein the at least one particular named object and additional named objects comprise a version of the document rendered to be displayable on a browser operating on the client device;

and wherein the request for the at least one particular named object includes the relative position of the at least one particular named object within the bundle by identifying a particular chunk of the plurality of chunks in which the at least one particular named object is contained; and

displaying the at least one particular named object.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the step of receiving the at least one particular named object includes receiving an identifier of a server device and further comprising the step of:

requesting a second named object, wherein the request for the second named object includes the identifier of the server device.