CACHED DATA DETECTION

• US 20120259969A1
• Filed: 04/06/2011
• Published: 10/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mastrangelo, Michael P., Nassar, Aladdin A., Miranda-Steiner, Emmanuel Jose, Lee, Tze Meng, Alongi, David M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,966,059 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/885 Monitoring specific for caches
• 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 service assigns session identifiers to usage sessions of a program on a computing device, and maintains records in a log of received page requests and associated session identifiers, as well as received cached data detection requests and associated session identifiers. This log can be used to determine how many usage sessions existed over a particular amount of time, and how many of the usage sessions used data from a local cache rather than from the service. The service also returns, in response to a received cached data detection request, a response including an indication that the response is from the service. The program can determine that the response was received from the service if the indication is included in the response, and that the response was received from a local cache of the computing device if the indication is not included in the response.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a service, the method comprising:

receiving, from programs running on computing devices, page requests for one or more pages from the service;

storing, for each page request, information regarding the page request and a session identifier associated with a usage session of the program from which the page request is received;

receiving, from one or more of the programs, both a cached data detection request and the session identifier associated with the usage session of the program from which the cached data detection request is received; and

storing, for each cached data detection request, information regarding the cached data detection request and the session identifier.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

assigning the session identifier associated with the usage session in response to an initial page request to the service for the usage session; and

returning both the session identifier and the requested page in response to the initial page request.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, the cached data detection request comprising a request for a particular file or data.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, the cached data detection request identifying the particular file or data by a uniform resource locator (URL), the URL including a version identifier that is updated each time one or more files of the service are updated.

5. A method as recited in claim 3, further comprising returning, in response to the cached data detection request, the particular file or data as well as a cookie indicating that the response to the cached data detection request is from the service.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, the particular file or data having a same cache retention policy as one or more other files of the service.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, the service being one of multiple services provided by an entity, the functionality included in the service being specified by the entity.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining, based on the stored information, how many usage sessions existed over a particular amount of time, and how many of the usage sessions used data from a local cache rather than from the service.

9. One or more computer storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions implementing a program that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from a remote service in response to a page request, a page and a session identifier associated with a usage session of the program;

send a cached data detection request targeting the remote service;

receive a response to the cached data detection request;

determine, based on whether a particular indication is received with the response, whether the cached data detection response is provided by the remote service or by a local cache of the computing device; and

determine that data for the remote service is in the local cache if the cached data detection response is provided by the local cache, otherwise determine that data for the remote service is not in the local cache if the cached data detection response is provided by the remote service.

10. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 9, the instructions that cause the one or more processors to send the cached data detection request including instructions that cause the one or more processors to send the session identifier with the cached data detection request.

11. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 9, the particular indication comprising a cookie, and the instructions that cause the one or more processors to determine whether the cached data detection response is provided by the remote service or by the local cache including instructions that cause the one or more processors to determine that the response is from the remote service if the response includes the cookie, and otherwise to determine that the response is from the local cache.

12. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 9, the instructions including instructions that further cause the one or more processors to alter a behavior of the program based on whether the cached data detection response is provided by the remote service or by the local cache of the computing device.

13. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 9, the instructions including instructions that further cause the one or more processors to determine a latency between the computing device and the service, and to alter a behavior of the program based on the latency between the computing device and the service.

14. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 9, the instructions including instructions that further cause the one or more processors to determine a bandwidth between the computing device and the service, and to alter a behavior of the program based on the bandwidth between the computing device and the service.

15. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 9, the cached data detection request comprising a request for a particular file or data.

16. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 15, the cached data detection request identifying the particular file or data by a uniform resource locator (URL).

17. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 15, the particular file or data having a same cache retention policy as one or more other files provided to the program from the service.

18. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 15, the URL including a version identifier that is updated each time one or more files of the service are updated.

19. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 9, the program comprising a Web browser.

20. A method implemented in a service, the method comprising:

receiving, from programs running on computing devices, page requests for one or more pages from the service;

storing, for each page request, information regarding the page request and a session identifier associated with a usage session of the program from which the page request is received;

receiving, from one or more of the programs, both a cached data detection request and the session identifier associated with the usage session of the program from which the cached data detection request is received, the cached data detection request comprising a request for a particular file identified by a uniform resource locator (URL);

storing, for each cached data detection request, information regarding the cached data detection request and the session identifier; and

returning, in response to each cached data detection request, a response with both the particular file and a cookie indicating that the response with the particular file is being returned by the service, the particular file having a same cache retention policy as other files provided to the program from the service.