LOCALLY STORING WEB-BASED DATABASE DATA

• US 20080086477A1
• Filed: 10/06/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hawkins, Jonathan C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,778,987 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for locally storing Web-based database data. Embodiments of the present invention permit Web-based database data to be locally stored at a computer system to increase the efficiency of rendering the Web-based database data within a Web browser at the computer system. Web-based database data can be sandboxed per domain to mitigate (and possibly eliminate) the exposure of the Web-based database data to malicious computer systems. Space allocated to each domain can be initially set and then subsequently altered by a user.

Claims

1. At a computer system including a Web browser for browsing Web-based content, a method for caching tabular database data at the computer system for subsequent Web browser access, the method comprising:

an act of sending a Web based request to a Web server in a specified domain, the Web based request requesting access to a Web page that includes a portion of a database, the database portion stored in a database accessible to the Web server;

an act of receiving the database portion from the Web server;

an act of locally storing the database portion at the computer system, the locally stored database portion locally accessible to the Web browser such that data from the locally stored database portion can be locally provided to the Web browser without the data being included in network based communication;

an act of retaining an indication that the database portion was received from the specified domain to prevent Web servers in other domains from accessing the copy of the database.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of sending a Web based request to a Web server comprises an act of sending an HTTP request.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of sending a Web based request to a Web server comprises an act of sending a Web based request that includes communication from a portion of a distributed application at the computer system to another portion of the distributed application in the specified domain.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of receiving the database portion from the Web server comprises an act of receiving a portion of a relational database.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of locally storing the database portion at the computer system comprises an act of storing the received database portion in a location accessible to script code from the Web server so that the script code from the Web server can access the local database portion to fulfill Web-based requests from the Web browser.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of locally storing the database portion at the computer system comprises an act of storing the received database portion in a location accessible to the script code from the Web server so that data can be used to fulfill Web-based requests without having to transfer the data over Internet.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of retaining an indication that the database portion was received from the specified domain comprises an act of locally storing the specified domain name along with the database portion at the computer system.

8. At a computer system including a Web browser for browsing Web-based content, a method for rendering tabular database data within the Web browser, the method comprising:

an act of sending a Web based request to a Web server in a specified domain indicated by a specified domain name, the Web based request for accessing a Web page that includes a portion of database data, the database portion stored in a database accessible to the Web server;

an act of receiving a request from the Web server for access to a locally stored database portion that is stored locally at the computer system;

an act of accessing a stored domain name indicative of a domain that previously sent the locally stored copy of the database to the computer system;

an act of comparing the specified domain name to the stored domain name;

an act of determining that the specified domain name and the stored domain name are sufficiently similar to allow responses from the Web server to include database data from the locally stored database portion;

an act of including data from the locally stored database portion in a Web based response to the Web based request based on the determination; and

an act of presenting the Web based response including the data from the locally stored database portion at the Web browser.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of sending a Web based request to a Web server comprises an act of sending a Web based request that includes communication from a portion of a distributed application at the computer system to another portion of the distributed application in the specified domain.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of accessing a stored domain name indicative of a domain comprises an act of accessing a Domain Name Services (“

DNS”

) name.

11. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of comparing the specified domain name to the stored domain name comprises an act of determining that the specified domain name and the stored domain name are identical.

12. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of including data from the locally stored database portion in a Web based response comprises an act of including the data without transferring the data over the Internet.

13. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the act of presenting the Web based response including the data from the locally stored database portion at the Web browser comprises an act of presenting a response that includes data from the locally stored database portions and one or more other types of content.

14. At a computer system including a Web browser for browsing Web-based content, a method for caching tabular database data at the computer system for subsequent Web browser access, the method comprising:

an act of sending a Web based request to a Web server in a specified domain, the Web based request requesting access to a Web page that includes a portion of database data, the database portion stored in a database accessible to the Web server;

an act of receiving a request from the Web server to send the database portion to the computer system for local storage at the computer system;

an act of determining that the amount of storage space allocated to the specified domain for local storage is large enough to store the database portion;

an act of receiving the database portion from the Web server;

an act of storing the received database portion at the computer system, the stored database portion locally accessible to the Web browser such that data from the database portion can be locally provided to the Web browser without the data being including network based communication.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein an act of determining that the amount of storage space allocated to the specified domain for local storage is large enough to store the database portion comprises referring to user-configurable quota data for the specified domain.

16. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein an act of determining that the amount of storage space allocated to the specified domain for local storage is large enough to store the database portion comprises receiving an indication that an initial user setting allocated enough storage space to the specified domain to permit storage of the database portion.

17. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

an act of determining that the amount of storage space allocated to the specified domain for local storage is not large enough to store the database portion prior to determining that the amount of storage space allocated to the specified domain for local storage is large enough to store the database portion; and

an act of presenting a notification at the computer system, the notification indicating that the amount of storage space allocated to the specified domain for local storage is not large enough to store the database portion.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

an act of receiving an indication that a user has increased to the storage space allocated to the specified domain for local storage prior to determining that the amount of storage space allocated to the specified domain for local storage is large enough to store the database portion.

19. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the act of receiving the database portion from the Web server comprises an act of receiving a portion of an SQL database.

20. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the act of storing the received database portion at the computer system comprises an act of storing the database portion so that data from the database portion can be used to fulfill Web-based requests without transferring data from the database portion over the Internet.