Stateless microkernel web server architecture with self discoverable objects

1. A method of exchanging over a computer network a data object between a client executed on a client computing device and server system including a server with a stateless REST-compliant software architecture configured to respond to HTTP requests from a browser engine of the client, the server also being configured to reply to messages from a runtime executable program executed by a runtime executable program interpreter of the client on the client computing device, the method comprising:

at the browser engine,

sending an HTTP GET request from the browser engine of the client computing device via the computer network for a data object;

receiving an HTTP response from the HTTP server, the response including in a payload of the response the data object, the data object including a self entity, wherein the self entity is a data structure that includes an HREF, a location-independent URI and a content type of the data object, as well as cache control information for the data object;

caching the data object in a browser cache based upon cache control information included in an HTTP header of the HTTP response;

removing from the data object HTTP header data including HTTP cache control information, content type, HREF, and URI; and

passing the data object to the runtime executable program at the runtime executable program interpreter;

at the runtime executable program,

identifying the URI and content type contained in the self entity of the data object;

interpreting the data object based upon the identified content type;

sending a message to the server based upon the identified URI;

receiving a reply from the server; and

processing the reply to generate an output to be displayed to the user;

at the browser engine,

sending a command to display the output on a display associated with the computing device, wherein

the content type specifies a format of the data object.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the server is further configured to execute an application server program and the step of sending a message to the server based upon the identified URI, includes sending the message to the application server program, and the step of receiving a reply from the server including receiving a reply from the application server program.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, at the runtime executable program, caching the data object in an interpreter cache based on cache control information in the self entity of the data object.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cache control information includes one or more of a max-age indicator, an ETag, and an if-modified-since indicator.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the runtime executable program is configured to control the caching of the data object in an interpreter cache based upon the cache control information.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising, at the runtime executable program, sending a message to the server conditionally requesting a new version of the data object and including the if-modified-since indicator.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising, at the runtime executable program, requesting a new instance of the data object if an age of the data object exceeds an age indicated by the max-age indicator.

8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising, at the runtime executable program, sending a conditional request for a new instance of the data object with an ETag of a cached instance of the data object accompanying the request, to cause the server to reply with a new instance only if the current instance of the data object on the server has an ETag that does not match the received ETag.

9. A method of exchanging over a computer network a data object between a client executed on a client computing device and a server system including a server with a stateless REST-compliant software architecture configured to respond to HTTP requests from a browser engine of the client, the server also being configured to reply to messages from a runtime executable program executed by a runtime executable program interpreter of the client on the client computing device, the method comprising:

at the server,

receiving an HTTP GET request from the browser engine of the client computing device via the computer network for a data object;

generating the data object with a self entity, wherein the self entity is a data structure that includes an HREF, a location-independent URI and a content type of the data object, as well as cache control information for the data object;

sending an HTTP response, including the data object and the self-entity along with the location-independent URI and the content type into a payload of the HTTP response, to the requesting browser engine, for passage to a runtime executable environment associated with the browser engine;

at the browser engine,

receiving the HTTP response including the data object;

caching the data object in a browser cache based on HTTP cache control information;

removing from the data object all HTTP header data including HTTP cache control information, content type, HREF, and URI;

passing the data object to a runtime executable environment, without HTTP cache control information, content type, or URI;

at the runtime executable program in the runtime executable environment,

receiving the data from the browser engine;

reading the cache control information and content type from the self entity;

caching the data object based on cache control information in the self entity of the data object;

sending a message to the server based upon the URI in the self entity;

at the server,

receiving a message from the runtime executable program executed in the runtime executable environment, the message including the URI of the self entity;

based on the URI, identifying an application state associated with the object;

generating a stateful reply, based on the application state; and

sending the reply to the runtime executable environment;

at the runtime executable program in the runtime environment,

receiving the reply; and

returning a result to the browser engine;

at the browser engine,

displaying the result on a display associated with the computing device, wherein

the content type specifies a format of the data object.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cache control information includes one or more of a max-age indicator, an ETag, and an if-modified-since indicator.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the server is configured to respond to messages requesting a new version of the data object and including the if-modified-since indicator by only serving a new instance of the data object if it has been modified since a date and time indicated in the if-modified-since indicator.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the max age indicator causes the runtime executable program to purge cached objects exceeding the age indicated in the max age indicator.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the ETag causes the runtime executable program to request a new instance of the data object and send the ETag with the request, and the server is configured to respond with a new instance only if the current instance of the data object on the server has an ETag that does not match the received ETag.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the server is configured to respond to messages to a URI space that includes the URI.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the server system is configured as an e-commerce platform.