Methods for dynamic document generation

• US 8,402,368 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2010
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bernstein, Keith, Kieffer, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): RIES, LAURIE ANNE
• Application Number:
  US12/719,354
• Publication Number:
  US 20100162099A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,107 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, 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 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; and

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;

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

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

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.

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

creating a first software object and storing it in the memory, the first software object comprising one or more of;

the template;

the one or more data traversable structures; and

instructions for performing one or more of the parsing and the composing.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the composing further comprises replacing the one or more of the placeholders with corresponding dynamic content.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the replacing the one or more of the placeholders with the corresponding dynamic content comprises storing the dynamic content in a hash map.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein composing the document further comprises writing the one or more portions of static content and the one or more portions of dynamic content to an output stream while traversing the data structures, so that the one or more placeholders are replaced with the one or more portions of dynamic content.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein a plurality of the one or more portions of static content are stored in a first data structure of the one or more traversable data structures and a plurality of the one or more placeholders are stored in a second data structure of the one or more traversable data structures.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the memory of the server comprises a cache and the one or more traversable data structures are stored in the cache.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the template and the document comprise HTML code.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the document comprises a web page.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

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

separating the static content portion of the set of instructions from the reference to the dynamic content portion of the set of instructions; and

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

wherein the dynamic content portion comprises content received from a source remote from the server system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the computer readable file comprises a document.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the computer readable file comprises a web page.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions comprises a template.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the reference comprise a plurality of placeholders corresponding to a plurality of dynamic content portions.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

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

composing the file by traversing the storage data structure to retrieve the dynamic content portion and to retrieve the static content portion; and

sending the file to the client system.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising

storing a first software object and storing it in the data storage structure of the server system, the first software object comprising instructions for performing the separating and the composing steps.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein composing the file further comprises writing the static content portion and the dynamic content portion to an output stream so as to replace the reference with the dynamic content portion.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising storing the dynamic content portion in a hash map.

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

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein one or more of the set of instructions and the file include HTML code.

22. A computer-implemented method comprising:

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

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

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

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

composing the file by traversing the storage data structure to retrieve the dynamic content portion and to retrieve the static content portion; and

sending the file to the client computing device;

wherein the dynamic content portion comprises content received from the client computing device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the computer readable file comprises a document.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the computer readable file comprises a web page.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the set of instructions comprises a template.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the reference comprise a plurality of placeholders corresponding to a plurality of dynamic content portions.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, further comprising

storing a first software object and storing it in the data storage structure of the server system, the first software object comprising instructions for performing the separating and the composing steps.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein composing the file further comprises writing the static content portion and the dynamic content portion to an output stream so as to replace the reference with the dynamic content portion.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, further comprising storing the dynamic content portion in a hash map.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the server system include a cache, the method further comprising storing the storage data structure in a cache of the server system.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein one or more of the set of instructions and the file include HTML code.