Dell Products Inc.

Ken Maranian

Khachatur Papanyan

Hang H Ng

A method and apparatus for providing web pages to a client with improved speed and efficiency. Web pages are cached in a web server and are referenced from a database in a database server. When a request from a client is sent to the web server for a web page, the web server checks the web page cache table in the database server. The web page cache table contains a field wherein a flag is set to indicate whether any data that affects the web page has been updated. Database triggers are used to change the value of the flag when specified data fields corresponding to a web page have been changed. If the value of the flag indicates that there has not been any change in the data, the web server reads the html file reference in the web page cache table, retrieves the corresponding page from the web page cache in the web server and sends the page back to the client. If the value of the flag indicates that the data has changed, the web server reconstructs the web page from the database, caches the web page and resets the value of the flag before sending the web page to the client. The method and apparatus of the present invention is capable of delivering cached web pages in a much shorter time than is needed to generate the web page each time a request is received from a client.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Ken Maranian