Estimation of initial dynamic rendering control data

Abstract

Facilitation of web page rendering using dynamic rendering controls. A server identifies a representation of a page to be downloaded to a client. The representation includes a dynamic rendering control that may be used to render a portion of the page. Rather than leaving it to the client to gain access to the initial set of data that is to be used by the dynamic rendering control to properly render, the server estimates the initial set of data that is to be used, and transmits a network response that includes the estimated initial set of data. When executing the rendering component, the client may simply use the data provided in the network response to render the portion of the page, rather than having to gain access to the data from a network source.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The appended drawings are used in order to more particularly describe embodiments of the present invention. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the embodiments will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a computing system in which embodiments of the principles of the present invention may operate;

FIG. 2 illustrates a request-response flow between a client and server in which the response includes initial data for a dynamic rendering component in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3A illustrates a flowchart of a method for initially rendering a page using initial data provided by the server in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3B illustrates a flowchart of a method for a dynamic rendering control to re-rendering its associated portion of the page;

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a representation of a page with an associated initial data source data structure; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of method for the server to access the initial data from another network source using the initial data source data structure.

Claims

1. A method for a server computing system to facilitate rendering of a page at a client, the method comprising: an act of receiving a network request for a page from a client;an act of identifying a representation of the page that corresponds to the network request, wherein the representation includes at least one dynamic rendering control that may be used to render a portion of the page;an act of estimating some or all of an initial set of data that the dynamic rendering control needs to properly render the portion of the page; andan act of transmitting a network response to the client, the network response corresponding to the network request and including at least a transformed version of the representation of the page and some or all of the initial set of data.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the representation of the page is a text-based representation and is transmitted using a transformed version of the representation of the page.

3. A method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the transformed version of the representation of the page is a version of the text-based representation that is transformed into a format suitable for transmission.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of estimating some or all of the initial set of data comprises: an act of accessing an initial data source data structure from the representation of the page, the initial data source data structure specifying the initial set of data.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of estimating some or all of the initial set of data comprises: an act of accessing an initial data source data structure from the representation of the page, the initial data source data structure providing a network source from which the initial data may be obtained;an act of requesting the initial data from the network source; andan act of receiving the initial data from the network source in response to requesting the initial data from the network source.

6 A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the server computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method of claim 1.

7. A computing system configured to perform the method recited in claim 1.

8. A method for a client computing system to download a page, the method comprising: in response to a request for a web page being sent to a server, an act of receiving a response to the request in the form of a representation of the web page that includes at least one dynamic rendering control that may be used to render a portion of the web page;an act of executing the dynamic rendering control;while executing the dynamic rendering control, performing the following: an act of determining that additional data is needed in order to fully render the portion of the web page;an act of determining whether or not the network response also includes an estimate of the additional data; andif it is determined that the network response includes the estimate of the additional data, an act of using the estimate of the additional data to render the portion of the web page using the dynamic rendering control; andif it is determined that the network response does not include the estimate of the additional data, an act of requesting the additional data from another network source; and an act of using the additional data acquired from the other network source to render the portion of the web page using the dynamic rendering control.

9. A method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the network response includes a representation of a data source control, wherein the act of using the estimate of the additional data comprises: an act of the dynamic rendering control querying the data source control for the additional data; andan act of the data source control providing the additional data included in the data source control to the dynamic rendering component.

10. A method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the network response includes a representation of a data source control, wherein the act of requesting the additional data from another network source comprises: an act of the dynamic rendering control querying the data source control for the additional data; andan act of the data source control requesting the additional data from a network source that is identified in the data source component.

11. A method in accordance with claim 8, further comprising: an act of detecting that the web page is to be updated;an act of the dynamic rendering control accessing updated data; andan act of the dynamic rendering control re-rendering the portion of the web page using the updated data.

12. A method in accordance with claim 11, wherein the act of the dynamic rendering control accessing updated data comprises: act of the client computing system requesting the updated data over a network.

13. A method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the request is a HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) request.

14. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the server computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method of claim 8.

15. A computing system configured to perform the method recited in claim 8.

16. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform the following in response to receiving a response to a network request for a web page, the response including a representation of the web page including at least one dynamic rendering control that may be used to render a portion of the web page: an act of executing the dynamic rendering control;while executing the dynamic rendering control, performing the following: an act of determining that additional data is needed in order to fully render the portion of the web page;an act of determining that the response includes an estimate of the additional data; andan act of using the estimate of the additional data to render the portion of the web page using the dynamic rendering control.

17. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein the dynamic rendering control is part of a control tree.

18. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions for performing the act of using the estimate of the additional data comprise computer-executable instructions for performing: causing the dynamic rendering control to request the additional data from a data source control also provided in the representation of the web page; andcausing the data source control to provide the additional data to the dynamic rendering control.

19. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical storage media.

20. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical memory media.