Granted Patent B2

US 8,271,547 · App. 11/442,821 · Granted Sep 18, 2012

Abstract

Claims (50)

1. A dynamic webpage versioning system, comprising:

a configuration database comprising computer-readable storage media, the configuration database configured to store plural versions of configuration data for a dynamic webpage, wherein each of the plural versions is simultaneously available without reconstruction by the configuration database for production of plural versions of the dynamic webpage, the plural versions comprising a first version and a second version; and

a computing device comprising a processor and communicatively coupled to the configuration database and a network, the computing device comprising,

a website manager operable on the processor and configured to produce two or more different versions of the dynamic webpage at the same time using different versions of the configuration data, wherein the website manager makes the dynamic webpage produced using the first version of the configuration data publically available at a first uniform resource locator (URL) to one or more users on the network, and restricts access to the dynamic webpage produced using the second version of the configuration data and accessible on the network at a second URL, and

a publication engine operable on the processor and configured to replace the first version of the configuration data with the second version of the configuration data in the configuration database in response to a version transition request,

wherein, in response to a request from a particular client to the first URL and prior to the version transition request, the website manager produces the dynamic webpage using the first version of the configuration data,

wherein the plural versions of the configuration data stored on the computer-readable storage medium of the configuration database comprise a work-in-progress version, a prototype version, a live version, and a previous live version, and wherein the publication engine is to transition the work-in-progress version of the configuration data to the prototype version by causing the configuration database to store the work-in-progress version of the configuration data as prototype configuration data, and

wherein to transition the work-in-progress version of the configuration data to the prototype version, the publication engine is further configured to pre-render one or more dynamically defined, static components of the dynamic webpage produced using the work-in-progress version of the configuration data and to cause the configuration database to store the pre-rendered components as prototype configuration data.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the configuration data is stored on the computer-readable media of the configuration database in a hierarchical file system including a different subdirectory for each version of the configuration data, and wherein the publication engine causes the configuration database to store work-in-progress configuration data as prototype configuration data by causing the configuration database to copy configuration data from a work-in-progress subdirectory to a prototype subdirectory.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the work-in-progress version is unpublished and the prototype, live, and previous live versions are published.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plural versions of the configuration data comprise a work-in-progress version, a prototype version, a live version, and a previous live version, and wherein the website manager is further configured to provide public access to a dynamic webpage produced using the live version of the configuration data and to restrict access to dynamic webpages produced using the work-in-progress, prototype, and previous live versions of the configuration data.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein to transition the work-in-progress configuration data to the prototype version, the publication engine is further configured to insert one or more links to the pre-rendered components into the prototype version of the dynamic webpage.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second version of the configuration data comprises a dynamic component having a static equivalent, and wherein, in response to the version transition request, the publication manager is configured to pre-render the dynamic component into the static equivalent and to store the pre-rendered, static equivalent with the first version of the configuration data in the configuration database.

7. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer-readable instructions to cause a computing device to implement a method, comprising:

providing a dynamic webpage versioning system configured to provide concurrent access to plural versions of a dynamic webpage, the plural versions comprising a first version and a second version, the system comprising distinct software modules embodied on the computer-readable storage medium, wherein the software modules comprise a configuration database, a publication engine, and a website manager;

the configuration database storing plural versions of configuration data for a dynamic webpage, wherein the configuration database is configured to allow simultaneous access to each of the plural versions of the configuration data without reconstruction by the configuration database;

the website manager providing simultaneous access to each of the plural versions of the dynamic webpage, wherein the website manager is configured to produce two or more different versions of the dynamic webpage at the same time using different versions of the configuration data, and wherein the website manager is configured to make the dynamic webpage produced using the first version of the configuration data publically available on a network at a first uniform resource locator (URL), and to restrict access to the dynamic webpage produced using the second version of the configuration data and accessible on the network at a second URL; and

the publication engine managing requests to transition between the plural versions of the configuration data, wherein a transition request comprises replacing the first version of the configuration data with the second version of the configuration data in the configuration database, wherein, in response to a request from a particular client to the first URL and prior to the transition request, the website manager produces the dynamic webpage using the first version of the configuration data,

wherein the plural versions of the configuration data comprise a work-in-progress version, a prototype version, a live version, and a previous live version, the method further comprising:

the publication engine receiving a request to transition work-in-progress configuration data to prototype configuration data; and

the publication engine transitioning the work-in-progress configuration data to prototype configuration data by causing the configuration database to store the work-in-progress configuration data as prototype configuration data in response to the transition request,

wherein the publication engine transitioning the work-in-progress configuration data to prototype configuration data further comprises the publication engine pre-rendering static HTML equivalents for dynamically defined, static components of the dynamic webpage produced using the work-in-progress configuration data; and

the publication engine causing the configuration database to store the pre-rendered static HTML equivalents as prototype configuration data.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the plural versions of the configuration data comprise a work-in-progress version, a prototype version, a live version, and a previous live version.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , the method further comprising:

the publication engine receiving a request to transition a first version of the configuration data to a second version of the configuration data; and

the publication engine causing the configuration database to store the first version of configuration data as the second version of the configuration data responsive to the request.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the configuration database stores the configuration data in a hierarchical file system including a different subdirectory for each version of the configuration data, and wherein the publication engine transitioning the work-in-progress configuration data to prototype configuration data comprises causing the configuration database to copy configuration data from a work-in-progress subdirectory to a prototype subdirectory.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the publication engine is to apprise a user of a URL for the dynamic webpage produced using the prototype version of the configuration data.

12. A method for dynamic webpage versioning, comprising:

providing a dynamic webpage versioning system, wherein the system comprises distinct software modules embodied on a computer-readable medium and operable on a processor, and wherein the distinct software modules comprise a configuration database, a website manager, and a publication engine;

the configuration database storing plural versions of configuration data, wherein each of the plural versions of the configuration data produce a different version of a dynamic webpage;

the configuration database making the plural versions of the configuration data simultaneously available to allow for production of plural versions of the dynamic webpage without reconstruction by the configuration database;

the website manager configured to produce two or more different versions of the dynamic webpage at the same time using different versions of the configuration data;

the publication engine receiving a request to transition a first version of the configuration data to a second version of the configuration data; and

the publication engine transitioning the first version of the configuration data to the second version of the configuration data by causing the configuration database to store the first version of the configuration data as the second version of the configuration data in the configuration database responsive to the transition request;

wherein the plural versions of the configuration data comprise a work-in-progress version, a prototype version, a live version, and a previous live version, the method further comprising:

transitioning the work-in-progress version to the prototype version of the configuration data by causing the configuration database to store the work-in-progress version of the configuration data as prototype configuration data, and

pre-rendering one or more dynamically defined, static components of a dynamic webpage produced using the work-in-progress version of the configuration data and to cause the configuration database to store the pre-rendered components as prototype configuration data.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first version in the transition request is the work-in-progress version of the configuration data, and the second version of the transition request is the prototype version, and

wherein the publication engine transitioning the first version of the configuration data to the second version comprises the publication engine causing the configuration database to store the work-in-progress version of the configuration data as prototype configuration data.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first version in the transition request is the prototype version of the configuration data, and the second version of the transition request is the live version, and

wherein the publication engine transitioning the first version of the configuration data to the second version comprises the publication engine causing the configuration database to store the live configuration data as previous live configuration data, and the publication engine causing the configuration database to store the prototype version of the configuration data as live configuration data.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the configuration database stores the plural versions of the configuration data in a hierarchical file system including a different subdirectory for each of the plural versions of the configuration data, and

wherein the publication engine transitioning the first version of the configuration data to the second version comprises the publication engine causing the configuration database to copy configuration data from a live subdirectory to a previous live subdirectory.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first version in the transition request is the prototype version of the configuration data, and the second version of the transition request is the live version, and

wherein the publication engine transitioning the first version of configuration data to the second version comprises the publication engine causing the configuration database to store the prototype version of the configuration data as live configuration data.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the configuration database stores the plural versions of the configuration data in a hierarchical file system including a different subdirectory for each version of the configuration data, and

wherein the publication engine transitioning from the first version of the configuration data to the second version comprises the publication engine causing the configuration database to copy configuration data from a prototype subdirectory to a live subdirectory.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the prototype configuration data comprises prototype static HTML, and wherein the publication engine causing the configuration database to store the prototype version of the configuration data as live configuration data further comprises the publication engine causing the configuration database to store the prototype static HTML as live configuration data.

Assignments (10)