CUSTOM CACHING

• US 20110137914A1
• Filed: 02/14/2011
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Seitz, Greg, Kasten, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,301,590 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0808 with cache invalidating means G06F12/0815 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0875 with dedicated cache, e.g. instruction or stack
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/12 Replacement control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/128 adapted to multidimensional cache systems, e.g. set-associative, multicache, multiset or multilevel
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2272 Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24552 Database cache management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/452 Instruction code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/465 Structured object, e.g. database record
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Methods and systems are presented for custom caching. Application threads define caches. The caches may be accessed through multiple index keys, which are mapped to multiple application thread-defined keys. Methods provide for the each index key and each application thread-defined key to be symmetrical. The index keys are used for loading data from one or more data sources into the cache stores on behalf of the application threads. Application threads access the data from the cache store by providing references to the caches and the application-supplied keys. Some data associated with some caches may be shared from the cache store by multiple application threads. Additionally, some caches are exclusively accessed by specific application threads.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, including:

indexing a custom application-defined cache into bucket collections, each bucket collection representing a logical grouping for a particular portion of data housed in the custom application-defined cache;

assigning each bucket collection a unique collection key; and

providing access to each bucket collection from the custom application-defined cache via each bucket collection'"'"'s unique collection key.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein indexing further includes receiving, from an application associated with the custom-application defined cache, definitions that define each bucket collection within the custom-application defined cache.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein indexing further includes preordering the bucket collections within the application-defined cache based on each bucket collection'"'"'s portion of the data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein indexing further includes representing each bucket collection'"'"'s portion of the data as multiple entries in the custom-application defined cache, each multiple entry for a particular bucket collection accessed via a single unique collection key for that particular bucket.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein indexing further includes organizing each bucket collection with the application-defined cache as a list data structure.

6. The method of claim 1 further including, receiving from an application associated with the application-defined cache an operation to enter new data into the application-defined cache and inserting the new data into a particular location associated with the application-defined cache for a particular bucket collection.

7. The method of claim 1 further including, receiving from an application associated with the application-defined cache an operation to enter new data into the application-defined cache and creating a new bucket collection for the new data having a new unique collection key and then inserting the new data into a particular location associated with the application-defined cache for the new bucket collection.

8. The method of claim 1 further including, permitting duplicate entries for the same data within the application-defined cache when each of the duplicate entries is associated with a different unique collection key.

9. A method implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, including:

managing a custom-defined application cache for an application and a plurality of other instances of the application, via multiple unique key definitions acquired from a key manager;

permitting the application and the other instances of the application to access the custom-defined application via custom defined keys defined via the key manager with the key definitions; and

collecting statistical data from usage of and efficiency of access to custom-defined application cache.

10. The method of claim 9 further including, storing the statistical data for subsequent analysis.

11. The method of claim 9 further including, generating a custom report from the statistical data.

12. The method of claim 9 further including, collecting additional statistical data form usage of and efficiency of access to other different custom-defined application caches.

13. The method of claim 12 further including, generating a custom report from the statistical data and the additional statistical data.

14. The method of claim 9 further including, reporting the statistical data to a configurable statistical collection service.

15. A method implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, including:

managing a first custom-defined application cache for a first application and a plurality of other first instances of the first application, via multiple first unique key definitions acquired from a first key manager;

managing a second custom-defined application cache for a second application and a plurality of other second instances of the second application, via multiple second unique key definitions acquired from a second key manager; and

selectively synchronizing first portions of the first custom-defined application cache from a first memory heap with second portions of the second custom-defined application cache from a second memory heap.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein selectively synchronizing further includes determining the first portions and the second portions based on loaded data in the first custom-defined application cache and the second custom-defined application cache that comes from a same source.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein selectively synchronizing further includes determining the first portions and the second portions based on a policy.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein selectively synchronizing further includes determining the first portions and the second portions based on a dynamically communicated instruction from a global administrator.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining further includes receiving the dynamically communicated instruction from the global administrator at a predefined interval.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein determining further includes receiving the dynamically communicated instruction from the global administrator at a dynamically instructed interval.