Methods for content inlining and devices thereof

• US 9,917,887 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2014
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Inventors: Lowell, George Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Miah, Razu A
• Application Number:
  US14/529,344
• Publication Number:
  US 20150215381A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,229 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• 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, computer readable medium, and application delivery controller apparatus for content inlining includes obtaining content from one or more servers as requested by one or more clients, obtaining external content from the one or more servers as referenced by one or more external references included in the requested content, modifying the requested content to include at least one of the external content, and servicing the client request by communicating the modified requested content.

Claims

1. A method for content inlining implemented by an application delivery controller system comprising one or more application delivery controller apparatuses, client devices, or server devices, the method comprising:

obtaining content from one or more servers as requested by a client computing device, the content comprising a hypertext markup language (HTML) document;

identifying when one or more types of external references are included in the requested content and determining when the identified one or more types of external references in the requested content is an image object;

obtaining external content referenced by the image object included in the requested content, when the determining indicates that the identified one or more types of external references in the requested content is the image object;

modifying prior to sending the requested content to the client computing device, the requested content to replace at least a portion of the image object with the image object referenced external content inline, wherein the inline external content referenced by the image object does not include another reference to an external location; and

servicing the request by communicating the modified requested content to the client computing device.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising steps to:

identify each start script tag including a source attribute referencing the external content;

obtain external content referenced by the source attribute included in the requested content; and

remove the source attribute and include the obtained external content referenced by the removed source attribute immediately following the start script tag, for each identified start script tag.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising steps to convert each of the image object into a base64 representation and replace the reference to the image object with at least the base64 representation for each of an image tag in the requested content including a source attribute referencing an image object below a specified size before the requested content is modified.

4. The method as set forth in claim 3 wherein the specified size comprises an input predefined specified size or a maximum size of a uniform resource locator of a browser on the client computing device associated with the request for content.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising steps to, for each of an image tag in the requested content including a source attribute referencing the image object and not including at least one of a width attribute or a height attribute:

obtain metadata from the image object, including at least one of image width or image height; and

include in the image tag at least one of a width attribute or a height attribute based on the obtained metadata.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for content inlining comprising executable code which when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

obtain content from one or more servers as requested by a client computing device, the content comprising a hypertext markup language (HTML) document;

identify when one or more types of external references are included in the requested content and determine when the identified one or more types of external references in the requested content is an image object;

obtain external content referenced by the image object included in the requested content, when the determining indicates that the identified one or more types of external references in the requested content is the image object;

modify, prior to sending the requested content to the client computing device, the requested content to replace at least a portion of the image object with the image object referenced external content inline, wherein the inline external content referenced by the image object does not include another reference to an external location; and

service the request by communicating the modified requested content to the client computing device.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium as set forth in claim 6 wherein the executable code when executed by the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to:

identify each start script tag including a source attribute referencing the external content;

obtain external content referenced by the source attribute included in the requested content; and

removing the source attribute and include the obtained external content referenced by the removed source attribute immediately following the start script tag, for each identified start script tag.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium as set forth in claim 6 wherein the executable code which when executed by the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to perform steps further comprising, for each of an image tag in the requested content including a source attribute referencing an image object below a specified size, before modifying the requested content, converting each image object into a base64 representation and replace the reference to the image object with at least the base64 representation.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium as set forth in claim 8 wherein the specified size comprises a predefined specified size established by one of an operator of the one or more application delivery controller devices or a manufacturer of the one or more application delivery controller devices or a maximum size of a uniform resource locator of a browser on the client computing device associated with the request for content.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium as set forth in claim 6 wherein the executable code when executed by the one or more processors, further causes the one or more processors to perform steps further comprising, for each of an image tag in the requested content including a source attribute referencing an image object and not including at least one of a width attribute or a height attribute:

obtain metadata from the image object, including at least one of image width or image height; and

include in the image tag at least one of a width attribute or a height attribute based on the obtained metadata.

11. An application delivery controller apparatus comprising one or more processors and a memory, the memory comprising programmed instructions stored thereon and the one or more processors configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions to:

obtain content from one or more servers as requested by a client computing device, the content comprising a hypertext markup language (HTML) document;

identify when one or more types of external references are included in the requested content and determine when the identified one or more types of external references in the requested content is an image object;

obtain external content referenced by the image object included in the requested content, when the determining indicates that the identified one or more types of external references in the requested content is the image object;

modify, prior to sending the requested content to the client computing device, the requested content to replace at least a portion of the image object with the image object referenced external content inline, wherein the inline external content referenced by the image object does not include another reference to an external location; and

service the request by communicating the modified requested content to the client computing device.

12. The application delivery controller apparatus as set forth in claim 11 wherein the one or more processor are further configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions to:

identify each start script tag including a source attribute referencing the external content;

obtain external content referenced by the source attribute included in the requested content; and

remove the source attribute and include the obtained external content referenced by the removed source attribute immediately following the start script tag, for each identified start script tag.

13. The application delivery controller apparatus as set forth in claim 11 wherein the one or more processor are further configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions to:

convert each of the image object into a base64 representation and replace the reference to the image object with at least the base64 representation for each of an image tag in the requested content including a source attribute referencing an image object below a specified size, before modifying the requested content.

14. The application delivery controller apparatus as set forth in claim 13 wherein the specified size comprises a predefined specified size established by one of an operator of the one or more application delivery controller devices or a manufacturer of the one or more application delivery controller devices or a maximum size of a uniform resource locator of a browser on the client computing device associated with the request for content.

15. The application delivery controller apparatus as set forth in claim 11 wherein the one or more processor are further configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions to, for of an each image tag in the requested content including a source attribute referencing an image object and not including at least one of a width attribute or a height attribute:

obtain metadata from the image object, including at least one of image width or image height; and

include in the image tag at least one of a width attribute or a height attribute based on the obtained metadata.

16. A application delivery controller system, comprising one or more application delivery apparatuses, client devices, or server devices, the application delivery controller system comprising one or more processors and a memory, the memory comprising programmed instructions stored thereon and the one or more processors configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions to:

obtain content from one or more servers as requested by a client computing device, the content comprising a hypertext markup language (HTML) document;

identify when one or more types of external references are included in the requested content and determine when the identified one or more types of external references in the requested content is an image object;

obtain external content referenced by the image object included in the requested content, when the determining indicates that the identified one or more types of external references in the requested content is the image object;

modify, prior to sending the requested content to the client computing device, the requested content to replace at least a portion of the image object with the image object referenced external content inline, wherein the inline external content referenced by the image object does not include another reference to an external location; and

service the request by communicating the modified requested content to the client computing device.

17. The application delivery controller system of claim 16, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions to:

identify each start script tag including a source attribute referencing the external content;

obtain external content referenced by the source attribute included in the requested content; and

remove the source attribute and include the obtained external content referenced by the removed source attribute immediately following the start script tag, for each identified start script tag.

18. The application delivery controller system of claim 16, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions to:

convert each of the image object into a base64 representation and replace the reference to the image object with at least the base64 representation for each of an image tag in the requested content including a source attribute referencing an image object below a specified size before the requested content is modified.

19. The application delivery controller system of claim 18, wherein the specified size comprises an input predefined specified size or a maximum size of a uniform resource locator of a browser on the client computing device associated with the request for content.

20. The application delivery controller system of claim 16, further comprising steps to, for each of an image tag in the requested content including a source attribute referencing the image object and not including at least one of a width attribute or a height attribute:

obtain metadata from the image object, including at least one of image width or image height; and

include in the image tag at least one of a width attribute or a height attribute based on the obtained metadata.