CACHING HTTP REQUEST AND RESPONSE STREAMS

• US 20090204682A1
• Filed: 02/08/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jeyaseelan, Thomas Anand, Kim, Jacob DongJu
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,550 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A client requests a web page from a server including aggregated content comprising a plurality of content items from a plurality of content providers. The server provides content items to the client from a cache accessible to the server if any of the content items are stored in the cache, and requests any remaining content items from their respective content providers. The server receives responses from the content providers and stores any cacheable responses (i.e., content items) in the cache. Aspects of the invention apply to any content request from a client, for example, updating a client'"'"'s widget with a content item.

Claims

1. A method of providing content to a client comprising:

receiving, at a server, a request from the client for a web page containing aggregated content, said web page including at least one content item;

parsing the web page request from the client into at least one request for a content item;

determining whether the requested content item is cacheable and stored in a cache accessible to the server;

retrieving the stored content item from the cache as function of said determining;

retrieving any remaining content items not stored in the cache from one or more content providers;

aggregating the content items retrieved from the cache and the content items retrieved from the content providers; and

providing the aggregated content items to the client as the web page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the requested content item is cacheable comprises determining whether a uniform resource indicator of the content item is on a white list of cacheable entities associated with a cache entry policy component of the server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the requested content item is stored in a cache accessible to the server comprises:

examining one or more headers of a copy of the content item stored in the cache to determine whether the copy is limited to a particular group of clients; and

examining the one or more headers of the copy of the content item stored in the cache to determine whether the copy is expired.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a content item retrieved from a content provider is cacheable and storing said content item in the cache if the content item is cacheable, wherein storing the retrieved content item comprises storing a copy of the content item as retrieved from the content provider.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein storing said content item in the cache comprises storing a data stream of the content item in the cache as a memory stream and a header of the content item in a web header collection object, and retrieving the content item from the cache comprises exposing the content item as a stream such that the server does not differentiate between a content item retrieved from the cache and a content item retrieved from the content provider.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving the stored content item from the cache comprises cloning the content item stored in the cache or creating a reference copy of the content item stored in the cache.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising checking the content item retrieved from the cache for validity and deleting the content item stored in the cache if the content item present in cache is not valid for any client.

8. One or more computer readable storage media having computer-executable components for retrieving aggregated content in response to a request from a client, said components comprising:

a parser for receiving at a server a request for a web page, said web page having aggregated content including at least one content item, and for parsing the web page request into at least one request for a content item;

a cache accessible to a server for storing a plurality of content items;

a cache lookup responsive to a request for a content item from the parser for determining whether a valid copy of the content item is stored in the cache, and for retrieving the content item from the cache or sending a request for external retrieval of the content item as a function of said determining;

a web request object responsive to a request for external retrieval of a content item for retrieving a valid copy of the content item from a content provider of the content item; and

a cache entry component for receiving a valid copy of a content item from the web request object and providing the received valid copy of the content item to the cache for storage.

9. The computer readable storage media of claim 8 further comprising an aggregator for receiving and aggregating the content items to generate the web page requested by the client, wherein the cache lookup provides the copy of the content item retrieved from the cache to the aggregator.

10. The computer readable storage media of claim 9 wherein the web request object provides the content item to the aggregator.

11. The computer readable storage media of claim 9 wherein the cache entry component provides the content item retrieved from the content provider to the aggregator.

12. The computer readable storage media of claim 8 wherein the cache lookup determines whether a content item is stored in the cache by determining whether the content item is cacheable.

13. The computer readable storage media of claim 8 wherein the cache lookup determines whether a content item is cacheable by determining whether a uniform resource indicator of the content item is on a white list associated with the cache entry component of the server.

14. The computer readable storage media of claim 8 wherein the cache lookup determines whether a content item stored in the cache is valid by:

examining one or more headers of a copy of the content item stored in the cache to determine whether the copy is limited to a particular group of clients; and

examining the one or more headers of the copy of the content item stored in the cache to determine whether the copy is expired.

15. The computer readable storage media of claim 8 wherein the cache entry component stores the content item in the cache by storing a data stream of the content item in the cache as a memory stream and a header of the content item in a web header collection object, and wherein the cache lookup retrieves the content item from the cache by exposing the content item as a stream such that the server does not differentiate between a content item retrieved from the cache and a content item retrieved from the content provider.

16. The computer readable storage media of claim 8 wherein the cache lookup retrieves the stored content item from the cache by cloning the content item stored in the cache.

17. The computer readable storage media of claim 8 wherein the cache lookup checks the content item retrieved from the cache for validity and deletes the content item stored in the cache if the content item present in cache is not valid for any client.

18. A method of responding to a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request from a client, said HTTP request requesting content via a web request object and a web response object associated therewith, said method comprising:

overriding the web request object with a cacheable web request object in response to receiving the HTTP request from the client at a server;

implementing a cache lookup policy via the cacheable web request object;

determining whether the HTTP request is cacheable as a function of the cache lookup policy,

locating a response in a cache accessible to the server as a function of said determining;

providing the response in the cache to the client if the response is located in the cache and cloning the response;

sending a request for a web HTTP request if the response is not located in the cache; and

receiving a web HTTP response from a content provider in response to the web HTTP request, and providing the web HTTP response from the content provider to the client.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining whether the HTTP request is cacheable comprises comparing a uniform resource indicator of the HTTP request to a white list of the server according to the cache lookup policy.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining, by a cache entry policy of the server, whether the web HTTP response from the content provider is cacheable; and

storing a data stream of the web HTTP response from the content provider in the cache and a header of the web HTTP response from the content provider in a web header collection object as a function of determining whether the web HTTP response from the content provider is cacheable.