Patent Abstract:
The present invention relates to systems, apparatus, and methods of parsing a script within an HTML page. The method includes receiving a script object, where the script object includes text. The method further includes parsing the text of the script object for tokens and comparing the parsed tokens with a valid tokens list to determine locations within the text of the script object that include potential universal resource locators (URLs). The method includes parsing before and after the determined locations until complete URLs are constructed, and forwarding the complete URLs to a detector. The detector then determines whether the complete URLs are valid. The method then sends object retrieval requests to websites associated with the valid complete URLs.

Full Description:
PRIORITY CLAIM 
     This application is a claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/967,924, filed Aug. 15, 2013, titled “Methods and Systems for Javascript Parsing,” which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/182,917, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,549,099, filed Jul. 14, 2008, titled “Methods and Systems for Javascript Parsing,” and to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/949,493, filed Jul. 12, 2007, entitled “Methods and Systems for Java Script Parsing,” all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety for all purposes. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates, in general, to network acceleration and, more particularly, to JavaScript® 1  parsing. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Presently, many objects that are downloaded when rendering a web page result from references to universal resource locators (URLs) are embedded within JavaScript. For example, a web page may include a table of icons that appear within a JavaScript on the page and the icons to be displayed may depend on a state, such as whether the mouse is over the icon. The icons are small objects for which prefetching is highly beneficial (i.e., it is advantageous to prefetch both copies: mouse over and mouse not over). In order to prefetch the items, the JavaScript must be parsed in order to determine the URLs for each of the icons. 
     Currently, JavaScript parsers maintain a complicated state machine. In order to execute the code correctly, the parser must start at the beginning of the script and adjust its state in response to each text character. In addition, the scripts may refer to other scripts and possibly on other pages, which further increases the state machine&#39;s complexity. This type of parsing is too taxing on the resources of a central processing unit (CPU) to be performed on, for example, a proxy server that is providing network acceleration for a large number of clients simultaneously. In addition, the scripts may include functions that depend on objects (e.g., cookies) or machine state (e.g., mouse position, browser configurations, etc.) that are not known to a proxy server which is remotely located. Thus, a conventional parser is both too slow and inherently unsuited to identify embedded references (among other things) for the purposes of prefetching (as well as network acceleration). Hence, there is a need for improved methods and systems in the art. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method of parsing a script within an HTML page. The method includes receiving a script object, where the script object includes text. The method further includes parsing the text of the script object for tokens and comparing the parsed tokens with a valid tokens list to determine locations within the text of the script object that include potential universal resource locators (URLs). The method includes parsing before and after the determined locations until complete URLs are constructed and forwarding the complete URLs to a detector. The detector then determines whether the complete URLs are valid. The method then sends object retrieval requests to websites associated with the valid complete URLs. 
     According to further embodiments, a system for accelerating network communications is described. The system includes a client system having a proxy client. The proxy client is configured to intercept a content request generated by the client and to transmit the request. The system further includes a proxy server coupled with the client system via the proxy client. The proxy server includes a script parser configured to receive a script object, where the script object includes text. The script parser is further configured to parse the text of the script object for tokens and to compare the parsed tokens with a valid tokens list to determine locations within the text of the script object that include potential URLs. 
     The script parser is further configured to parse before and after the determined locations until complete URLs are constructed. The proxy server further includes a detector which is configured to receive the complete URLs in order to determine whether the complete URLs are valid. The system further includes a content server coupled with the proxy server. The content server is configured to receive object retrieval requests associated with the valid complete URLs from the proxy server and to transmit objects associated with the valid completed URLs to the proxy server. 
     In yet another embodiment, a script parser for parsing script objects is described. The script parser includes a syntax dictionary which is configured to receive script text and compare portions of the received script text with a valid tokens list to determine locations within the text of the script object that include potential URLs. The script parser further includes a URL rules detector coupled with the syntax dictionary. The URL rules detector is configured to determine whether the complete URLs are valid. 
     In an alternative embodiment, a machine-readable medium is described. The machine-readable medium is for parsing script files and including sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to execute the following method. The method includes receiving a script object, where the script object includes text. The method further includes parsing the text of the script object for tokens and comparing the parsed tokens with a valid tokens list to determine locations within the text of the script object that include potential URLs. The method includes parsing before and after the determined locations until complete URLs are constructed and forwarding the complete URLs to a detector. The detector then determines whether the complete URLs are valid. The method then sends object retrieval requests to websites associated with the valid complete URLs. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components. In some instances, a sub-label is associated with a reference numeral to denote one of multiple similar components. When reference is made to a reference numeral without specification to an existing sub-label, it is intended to refer to all such multiple similar components. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a system for implementing JavaScript parsing, according to embodiments of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram further illustrating JavaScript parsing according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating a method for implementing JavaScript parsing according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating a system for accelerating network communications according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a generalized schematic diagram illustrating a computer system, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating a networked system of computers, which can be used in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     While various aspects of embodiments of the invention have been summarized above, the following detailed description illustrates exemplary embodiments in further detail to enable one of skill in the art to practice the invention. In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form. Several embodiments of the invention are described below and, while various features are ascribed to different embodiments, it should be appreciated that the features described with respect to one embodiment may be incorporated with another embodiment as well. By the same token, however, no single feature or features of any described embodiment should be considered essential to the invention, as other embodiments of the invention may omit such features. 
     Aspects of the present invention relate to improved JavaScript parsing. Rather than create a complex state machine and update the state machine for every byte processed, the present invention scans for a specific list of tokens, such as “.gif” or “.jpg”, which are highly likely to be associated with a universal resource locator (URL) that might be requested when the browser is parsing that script. This token search can be performed at high speeds using various programming techniques, such as converting to 4-byte tokens and using integer comparisons rather than sting searches, among other techniques. Hence, the computational cost of finding the tokens is thus quite small. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 1 , which illustrates a system  100  for optimizing transfer of content from the Internet to a web browser. In one embodiment, the system may include a user system  102 , a proxy client  112  and a proxy server  132 . The user system may include a client graphical user interface (GUI)  110 . Client GUI  110  may allow a user to configure performance aspects of system  100 . For example, the user may adjust the compression parameters and/or algorithms, content filters (e.g., blocks elicit websites), and enable or disable various features used by system  100 . In one embodiment, some of the features may include network diagnostics, error reporting, as well as controlling, for example, prefetch response abort  142 . Such control may be adding and/or removing pages (i.e. URLs) to or from whitelist  148  and/or blacklist  149 . 
     In one embodiment, the user selects a URL address which directs web browser  106  (e.g., Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 2 , Mozilla® Firefox® 3 , Netscape Navigator® 4 , etc.) to a website (e.g., webpage.com, internetsite.com, etc.). In a further embodiment, web browser  106  may check browser cache  104  to determine whether the website associated with the selected URL is located within browser cache  104 . If the website is located within browser cache  104 , the amount of time the website has been in the cache is checked to determine if the cached website is “fresh” (i.e. new) enough to use. For example, the amount of time that a website may be considered fresh may be 5 minutes; however, other time limits may be used. Consequently, if the website has been cached and the website is considered fresh, then web browser  106  renders the cashed page. However, if the website has either not been cached or the cached webpage is not fresh, web browser  106  sends a request to the Internet for the website. 
     In one embodiment, redirector  108  intercepts the request sent from web browser  106 . Redirector  108  instead sends the request through a local bus  105  to proxy client  112 . In some embodiments, proxy client  112  may be implemented as a software application running on user system  102 . In an alternative embodiment, proxy client  112  may be implemented on a separate computer system and is connected to user system  102  via a high speed/low latency link (e.g., a branch office LAN subnet, etc.). In one embodiment, proxy client  112  includes a request parser  116 . Request parser  116  may check cache optimizer  114  to determine if a cached copy of the requested website may still be able to be used. Cache optimizer  114  is in communication with browser cache  104  in order to have access to cached websites. Cache optimizer  114  is able to access browser cache  104  without creating a redundant copy of the cached websites, thus requiring less storage space. 
     According to one embodiment, cache optimizer  114  implements more effective algorithms to determine whether a cached website is fresh. In one embodiment, cache optimizer  114  may implement the cache expiration algorithms from hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) v1.1 (i.e., RFC 2616), which may not be natively supported in web browser  106 . For example, browser cache  104  may inappropriately consider a cached website as too old to use; however, cache optimizer  114  may still be able to use the cached website. More efficient use of cached websites can improve browsing efficiency by reducing the number of Internet accesses. 
     In one embodiment, if the requested website is not able to be accessed from the cached websites, request parser  116  checks prefetch manager  120  to determine if the requested website has been prefetched. Prefetching a website is when content from the website is accessed, downloaded and stored before a request to the website is made by web browser  106 . Prefetching can potentially save round-trips of data access from user system  102  to the Internet. Prefetching may be according to the methods disclosed in U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/949,492, filed on Jul. 12, 2007, entitled, “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PERFORMING A PREFETCH ABORT OPERATION”, which is incorporated by reference for any and all purposes. 
     In a further embodiment, if the requested website has not been prefetched, then request parser  116  forwards the request to a request encoder  118 . Request encoder  118  encodes the request into a compressed version of the request using one of many possible data compression algorithms. For example, these algorithms may employ a coding dictionary  122  to store strings so that data from previous web objects can be used to compress data from new pages. Accordingly, where the request for the website is 550 bytes in total, the encoded request may be as small as 50 bytes. This level of compression can save bandwidth on a connection, such as high latency link  130 . In one embodiment, high latency link  130  may be a wireless link, a cellular link, a satellite link, a dial-up link, etc. 
     In one embodiment, after request encoder  118  generates an encoded version of the request, the encoded request is forwarded to a protocol  128 . In one embodiment, protocol  128  is Intelligent Compression Technologies, Inc. (ICT) transport protocol (ITP). Nonetheless, other protocols may be used, such as the standard transmission control protocol (TCP). In one embodiment, ITP maintains a persistent connection with proxy server  132 . The persistent connection between proxy client  112  and proxy server  132  enables system  100  to eliminate the inefficiencies and overhead costs associated with creating a new connection for each request. 
     In one embodiment, the encoded request is forwarded from protocol  128  to request decoder  136 . Request decoder  136  uses protocol  128  which is appropriate for the encoding performed by request encoder  118 . In one embodiment, this process utilizes a coding dictionary  138  in order to translate the encoded request back into a standard format which can be accessed by the destination website. Furthermore, if the HTTP request includes a cookie (or other special instructions), such as a “referred by” or type of encoding accepted, information about the cookie or instructions may be stored in a cookie model  152 . Request decoder  136  then transmits the decoded request to the destination website over a low latency link  156 . Low latency link  156  may be, for example, a cable modem connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection, a T1 connection, a fiber optic connection, etc. 
     In response to the request, a response parser  144  receives a response from the requested website. In one embodiment, this response may include an attachment, such as an image and/or text file. Some types of attachments, such as HTML, XML, CSS, or JavaScript, may include references to other “in-line” objects that may be needed to render a requested web page. In one embodiment, when response parser  144  detects an attachment type that may contain such references to “in-line” objects, response parser  144  may forward the objects to a prefetch scanner  146 . 
     In one embodiment, prefetch scanner  146  scans the attached file and identifies URLs of in-line objects that may be candidates for prefetching. For example, candidates may be identified by HTML syntax, such as the token “img src=”. In addition, objects that may be needed for the web page may also be specified in JavaScript that appear within the HTML or CSS page or within a separate JavaScript file. Potential URLs may be determined by parsing JavaScript objects using a JavaScript parser  205 , described below in  FIG. 2 , to construct additional URLs embedded within the JavaScript. In addition to JavaScript objects, other programming languages may be parsed. For example, active server page (ASP) and/or personal hypertext processor (PHP) scripting, etc., may be used in place of JavaScript. In one embodiment, the identified candidates are added to a candidate list. 
     In one embodiment, for the candidate URLs, prefetch scanner  146  may notify prefetch response abort  142  of the context in which the object was identified, such as the type of object in which the content was found and/or the syntax in which the URL occurred. This information may be used by prefetch response abort  142  to determine the probability that the URL will actually be requested by web browser  106 . 
     According to a further embodiment, the candidate list is forwarded to whitelist  148  and blacklist  149 . Whitelist  148  and blacklist  149  may be used to track which URLs should be allowed to be prefetched. Based on the host (i.e. the server that is supplying the URL), the file type (e.g, ASP files should not be prefetched), etc. Accordingly, whitelist  148  and blacklist  149  control prefetching behavior by indicating which URLs on the candidate list should or should not be prefetched. In many instances, with certain webpages/file types, prefetching may not work. In addition to ASP files, webpages which include fields or cookies may have problems with prefetching. 
     In one embodiment, once the candidate list has been passed through whitelist  148  and blacklist  149 , a modified candidate list is generated, and then the list is forwarded to a client cache model  150 . The client cache model  150  attempts to model which items from the list will be included in browser cache  104 . As such, those items are removed from the modified candidate list. Subsequently, the updated modified candidate list is forwarded to a request synthesizer  154  which creates an HTTP request in order to prefetch each item in the updated modified candidate list. The HTTP request header may include cookies and/or other instructions appropriate to the web site and/or to the preferences of web browser  106  using information obtained from cookie model  152 . The prefetch HTTP requests may then be transmitted through low latency link  156  to the corresponding website. 
     In one embodiment, response parser  144  receives a prefetch response from the website and accesses a prefetch response abort  142 . Prefetch response abort  142  is configured to determine whether the prefetched item is worth sending to user system  102 . Prefetch response abort  142  bases its decision whether to abort a prefetch on a variety of factors, which are discussed below in more detail. 
     If the prefetch is not aborted, response parser  144  forwards the response to response encoder  140 . Response encoder  140  accesses coding dictionary  138  in order to encode the prefetched response. Response encoder  140  then forwards the encoded response through protocol  128  over high latency link  130  and then to response decoder  126 . Response decoder  126  decodes the response and forwards the response to response manager  124 . In one embodiment, if the response is a prefetched response then response manager  124  creates a prefetch socket to receive the prefetched item as the prefetched item is downloaded. 
     Response manager  124  transmits the response over local bus  105  to redirector  108 . Redirector  108  then forwards the response to web browser  106  which renders the content of the response. 
     Aspects of the invention include a JavaScript parser which is configured to search a sub-set of a JavaScript object in order to locate potential URLs for prefetching. The entire JavaScript code does not need to be interpreted/executed in order to locate potential URLs for prefetching. Instead, the JavaScript object may be searched for key tokens that may be constructed into URLs. Valid URLs may then be forwarded to prefetch response abort  142  in order to determine if prefetching the URL is cost effective. 
     Further aspects of the invention relate to the reality that many objects that are downloaded when rendering a web page may result from references to URLs embedded within JavaScript. For example, a web page may include a table of icons which appear within a JavaScript on the page. The icons to be displayed may depend on state, such as whether the mouse pointer is hovering over the icon. In one embodiment, the icons are small objects for which prefetching may be highly beneficial. Furthermore, it may be advantageous to prefetch both copies of the icon (i.e., the mouse over and the mouse not over versions). In order to prefetch such icons, the JavaScript would need to be parsed in order to determine the URLs for each icon. 
     A further aspect of the invention involves the creation of a simple state machine which scans for specific tokens within the JavaScript rather than fully execute the JavaScript code. The token search can be performed at high speeds using various programming techniques, such as converting to 4-byte tokens and using integer comparisons rather than string searches. Accordingly, the computational cost of finding the tokens is relatively small. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 2 , which illustrates a further embodiment of prefetch scanner  146 . In one embodiment, prefetch scanner  146  includes JavaScript parser  205 , which may be used to parse JavaScript objects included in candidate objects found in the candidate list. JavaScript is a programming language which includes a series of instructions that are interpreted/executed by a JavaScript interpreter. However, in the context of prefetching, it may not be inefficient for a server (e.g., proxy server  132  ( FIG. 1 )) to fully interpret the JavaScript in order to find candidate URLs, whereas parsing for certain JavaScript syntax and/or tokens is less processor intensive and can easily be computed by a server. 
     Thus, even though a complete interpretation/execution of the JavaScript is not performed, the text (i.e., the JavaScript code) of the JavaScript object can be parsed in order to find embedded URLs that may be prefetching candidates. In one embodiment, JavaScript parser  205  includes a syntax dictionary  210 . Syntax dictionary  210  may be used to compare the JavaScript text against while searching for potential URLs within the JavaScript text. Syntax dictionary  210  may include a list of syntax and/or tokens (e.g., “.gif”, “.jpg”, etc.) which, when found within the JavaScript text, could potentially be constructed into candidate URLs. 
     In one embodiment, as JavaScript parser  205  parses through the JavaScript text, the JavaScript parser accesses syntax dictionary  210  to compare the currently parsed text with the tokens included in syntax dictionary  210 . If a match is found, JavaScript parser  205  may continue to parse around (e.g., before and after the text) the text of the identified token to construct a URL. JavaScript parser  205  may access syntax dictionary  210  in order to identify syntax that would be useful in constructing the URL. For example, the “+” operator is used to concatenate strings in JavaScript code. Therefore, if JavaScript parser  205  finds, for example, “.gif” and then parses the text before and after to find “http://webpage.com/images/”+“videoIcon.gif”, then JavaScript parser  205  would concatenate the string according to JavaScript syntax found in syntax dictionary  210  to be “http://webpage.com/images/videoIcon.gif”. The potential URL “http://webpage.com/images/videoIcon.gif” may then be forwarded to a URL rules detector  220 . 
     In a further embodiment, URL rules detector  220  may be used to determine if a potential URL found within the JavaScript text is a valid URL. URL rule detector  220  may include a list of URL rules that would be able to scan a URL to determine its validity. If the potential URL passes the scan from URL rules detector  220 , then the URL may be sent to the Internet to begin the prefetching process. If the URL fails the scan by URL rules detector  220 , then the URL may be discarded, and JavaScript parser  205  would continue to search the JavaScript text for additional candidate URLs. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 3  which illustrates method  300  according to embodiments of the invention. At process block  305 , a JavaScript text is identified by prefetch scanner  146  ( FIG. 1 ). The JavaScript text may be embedded in an HTML or CSS page or could be a complete JavaScript file. The JavaScript text includes executable code which is in text form. Prefetch scanner  146  ( FIG. 1 ) scans, for example, the HTML of a webpage and may come across an HTML tag that indicates that an embedded JavaScript object is located within the HTML (e.g., &lt;script language=“JavaScript”&gt;). 
     At process block  310 , JavaScript parser  205  ( FIG. 2 ) begins parsing the JavaScript text. The parsing may include scanning the JavaScript text to identify tokens that indicate possible URLs (process block  315 ). A token may be the suffix of a common file type, such as “.gif” or “.jpg”. A list of tokens that are likely to be part of an embedded URL is provided in the token list  215 . If a sequence of bytes in the text matches a token in token list  215  ( FIG. 2 ), a potential URL has been found. After comparing a parsed token with the syntax dictionary  210 , a determination is made whether a potential URL has been located (decision block  320 ). In some embodiments, token list  215  ( FIG. 2 ) could include JavaScript expressions such as “var”. The expression may not be part of the URL, but the response to this token might include storing of variables useful for assembling URL strings. At decision block  320 , a token that might be part of a URL that has been identified is indicated. 
     In one embodiment, if a potential URL is not located, then a determination is made whether there is more text in the JavaScript code to parse (decision block  325 ). If there is no more text to parse, then method  300  ends; otherwise, method  300  returns to process block  315  to continue parsing the JavaScript text in order to locate potential URLs. 
     However, if a potential URL is located, then JavaScript parser  205  ( FIG. 2 ) continues to parse around the area where the token was located (process block  330 ). JavaScript parser  205  ( FIG. 2 ) may access JavaScript rules and syntax dictionary  210  ( FIG. 2 ) in order to concatenate together a full URL. In one embodiment, syntax dictionary  210  ( FIG. 2 ) may allow JavaScript operators such as “+” or, for example, arrays, lists, etc. to be parsed as needed to build up the full URL. This process may be similar to a conventional JavaScript interpreter, except that this process recognizes only a subset the JavaScript language, parses in both forwards and backwards, and is only designed to assemble URLs. Thus, JavaScript parser  205  ( FIG. 2 ) need only recognize a subset of operators in order to reassemble a large number of JavaScript expressions through which URLs are commonly constructed. JavaScript parser  205  ( FIG. 2 ) is much simpler than a full JavaScript parser, which saves CPU usage. This is a result of the fact that JavaScript parser  205  ( FIG. 2 ) is performing parsing only on a subset of the JavaScript data within the JavaScript file because the initial token search has enabled JavaScript parser  205  ( FIG. 2 ) to skip over a large portion of the JavaScript data. As JavaScript parser  205  ( FIG. 2 ) parses around the token, the URL may be built up into the full URL. After the full URL is constructed it may be sent to URL rules detector  220  ( FIG. 2 ) to determine if the URL is valid (process block  335 ). 
     URL rules detector  220  ( FIG. 2 ) may include a set of URL rules which may be compared to the concatenated URL in order to determine the validity of the URL. If the URL passed URL rules detector  220  ( FIG. 2 ), then it is determined to be a valid URL (decision block  340 ), subsequently a request to the Internet (or other network) for the URL is transmitted (process block  350 ). In one embodiment, a valid response to the request is received by, for example, response parser  144  ( FIG. 1 ). However, in an alternative embodiment, a page not found or similar error (e.g., unknown domain, unknown folder, etc.) may be returned. If a page not found error is returned, the URL may be discarded as an invalid URL. In an additional embodiment, an entry can be added into blacklist  149  ( FIG. 1 ) so that no further requests are made for the invalid URL. 
     In a further embodiment, URL rules detector  220  ( FIG. 2 ) may determine that the URL is invalid. In that case, the URL may also be discarded (process block  345 ) and method  300  continues to decision block  325  to determine if there is additional text in the JavaScript to parse. A number of variations and modifications of the disclosed embodiments can also be used. For example, the parser may be used with other programming languages, such as ASP, PHP, etc. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 4 , which illustrates a system  400  for providing network acceleration. In one embodiment, user system  102  in  FIG. 1  may be client  405  and proxy client  112  in  FIG. 1  may be proxy client  410 . Client  405  may generate a request for content from content server  430 . In one embodiment, content server  430  may be a web server, a file server, a mail server, etc., and the content request may be for a file, a webpage, an email message, etc. 
     Proxy client  410  may be configured to intercept the content request from client  405  and transmit the request over high latency link  415  to proxy server  420  on behalf of client  405 . In one embodiment, high latency link  415  may be a satellite link, a cellular link, a wireless link, etc. In one embodiment, the content request may include JavaScript to be parsed. Accordingly, proxy server  420 , while pre-fetching objects from the JavaScript, would utilize the systems and methods described in  FIGS. 1 ,  2 , and  3 . 
     In a further embodiment, communications between proxy server  420  and content server  430  over low latency link  425  are sufficiently fast that acceleration is not needed or would not provide sufficient benefit for the cost needed to accelerate. Hence, upon receipt of communications from content server  430 , proxy server  420  accelerates the communications between proxy server  420  and proxy client  410  in order to accelerate communications over high latency link  415 . Accordingly, the network traffic over high latency link  415  is accelerated while network traffic over low latency link  425  remains relatively unchanged. 
       FIG. 5  provides a schematic illustration of one embodiment of a computer system  500  that can perform the methods of the invention, as described herein, and/or can function, for example, as any part of client  405 , proxy server  420 , or content server  430  in  FIG. 4 . It should be noted that  FIG. 5  is meant only to provide a generalized illustration of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate.  FIG. 5 , therefore, broadly illustrates how individual system elements may be implemented in a relatively separated or relatively more integrated manner. 
     The computer system  500  is shown comprising hardware elements that can be electrically coupled via a bus  505  (or may otherwise be in communication, as appropriate). The hardware elements can include one or more processors  510 , including without limitation one or more general-purpose processors and/or one or more special-purpose processors (such as digital signal processing chips, graphics acceleration chips, and/or the like); one or more input devices  515 , which can include without limitation a mouse, a keyboard and/or the like; and one or more output devices  520 , which can include without limitation a display device, a printer and/or the like. 
     The computer system  500  may further include (and/or be in communication with) one or more storage devices  525 , which can comprise, without limitation, local and/or network accessible storage and/or can include, without limitation, a disk drive, a drive array, an optical storage device, solid-state storage device such as a random access memory (“RAM”) and/or a read-only memory (“ROM”), which can be programmable, flash-updateable and/or the like. The computer system  500  might also include a communications subsystem  530 , which can include without limitation a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device and/or chipset (such as a Bluetooth® 5  device, an 802.11 device, a WiFi device, a WiMax device, cellular communication facilities, etc.), and/or the like. The communications subsystem  530  may permit data to be exchanged with a network (such as the network described below, to name one example), and/or any other devices described herein. In many embodiments, the computer system  500  will further comprise a working memory  535 , which can include a RAM or ROM device, as described above. 
     The computer system  500  also can comprise software elements, shown as being currently located within the working memory  535 , including an operating system  540  and/or other code, such as one or more application programs  545 , which may comprise computer programs of the invention, and/or may be designed to implement methods of the invention and/or configure systems of the invention, as described herein. Merely by way of example, one or more procedures described with respect to the method(s) discussed above might be implemented as code and/or instructions executable by a computer (and/or a processor within a computer). A set of these instructions and/or code might be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, such as the storage device(s)  525  described above. In some cases, the storage medium might be incorporated within a computer system, such as the system  500 . In other embodiments, the storage medium might be separate from a computer system (i.e., a removable medium such as a compact disc, etc.), and or provided in an installation package, such that the storage medium can be used to program a general purpose computer with the instructions/code stored thereon. These instructions might take the form of executable code, which is executable by the computer system  500  and/or might take the form of source and/or installable code, which, upon compilation and/or installation on the computer system  500  (e.g., using any of a variety of generally available compilers, installation programs, compression/decompression utilities, etc.) then takes the form of executable code. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that substantial variations may be made in accordance with specific requirements. For example, customized hardware might also be used, and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed. 
     In one aspect, the invention employs a computer system (such as the computer system  500 ) to perform methods of the invention. According to a set of embodiments, some or all of the procedures of such methods are performed by the computer system  500  in response to processor  510  executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions (which might be incorporated into the operating system  540  and/or other code, such as an application program  545 ) contained in the working memory  535 . Such instructions may be read into the working memory  535  from another machine-readable medium, such as one or more of the storage device(s)  525 . Merely by way of example, execution of the sequences of instructions contained in the working memory  535  might cause the processor(s)  510  to perform one or more procedures of the methods described herein. 
     The terms “machine-readable medium” and “computer-readable medium”, as used herein, refer to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in a specific fashion. In an embodiment implemented using the computer system  500 , various machine-readable media might be involved in providing instructions/code to processor(s)  510  for execution and/or might be used to store and/or carry such instructions/code (e.g., as signals). In many implementations, a computer-readable medium is a physical and/or tangible storage medium. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as the storage device(s)  525 . Volatile media includes, without limitation, dynamic memory, such as the working memory  535 . Transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise the bus  505 , as well as the various components of the communication subsystem  530  (and/or the media by which the communications subsystem  530  provides communication with other devices). Hence, transmission media can also take the form of waves (including, without limitation, radio, acoustic and/or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave and infrared data communications). 
     Common forms of physical and/or tangible computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punchcards, papertape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read instructions and/or code. 
     Various forms of machine-readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to the processor(s)  510  for execution. Merely by way of example, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk and/or optical disc of a remote computer. A remote computer might load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions as signals over a transmission medium to be received and/or executed by the computer system  500 . These signals, which might be in the form of electromagnetic signals, acoustic signals, optical signals and/or the like, are all examples of carrier waves on which instructions can be encoded, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
     The communications subsystem  530  (and/or components thereof) generally will receive the signals, and the bus  505  then might carry the signals (and/or the data, instructions, etc., carried by the signals) to the working memory  535 , from which the processor(s)  505  retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by the working memory  535  may optionally be stored on a storage device  525  either before or after execution by the processor(s)  510 . 
     A set of embodiments comprises systems for implementing staged configurator modeling. In one embodiment, proxy server  420  and/or client  405  ( FIG. 4 ) may be implemented as computer system  500  in  FIG. 5 . Merely by way of example,  FIG. 6  illustrates a schematic diagram of a system  600  that can be used in accordance with one set of embodiments. The system  600  can include one or more user computers  605 . The user computers  605  can be general purpose personal computers (including, merely by way of example, personal computers and/or laptop computers running any appropriate version of Windows® 2  operating systems and/or Mac OS® 6 ) and/or workstation computers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX® 7  or UNIX-like operating systems. These user computers  605  can also have any of a variety of applications, including one or more applications configured to perform methods of the invention, as well as one or more office applications, database client and/or server applications, and web browser applications. Alternatively, the user computers  605  can be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabled mobile telephone, and/or personal digital assistant (PDA), capable of communicating via a network (e.g., the network  610  described below) and/or displaying and navigating web pages or other types of electronic documents. Although the exemplary system  600  is shown with three user computers  605 , any number of user computers can be supported. 
     Certain embodiments of the invention operate in a networked environment, which can include a network  610 . The network  610  can be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that can support data communications using any of a variety of commercially-available protocols, including without limitation TCP/IP, SNA, IPX, AppleTalk® 6 , and the like. Merely by way of example, the network  610  can be a local area network (“LAN”), including without limitation an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring network and/or the like; a wide-area network (WAN); a virtual network, including without limitation a virtual private network (“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”); an infrared network; a wireless network, including, without limitation, a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, the Bluetooth protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol; and/or any combination of these and/or other networks. 
     Embodiments of the invention can include one or more server computers  615 . Each of the server computers  615  may be configured with an operating system, including without limitation any of those discussed above, as well as any commercially (or freely) available server operating systems. Each of the servers  615  may also be running one or more applications, which can be configured to provide services to one or more clients  605  and/or other servers  615 . 
     Merely by way of example, one of the servers  615  may be a web server, which can be used, merely by way of example, to process requests for web pages or other electronic documents from user computers  605 . The web server can also run a variety of server applications, including HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, database servers, Java® 1  servers, and the like. In some embodiments of the invention, the web server may be configured to serve web pages that can be operated within a web browser on one or more of the user computers  605  to perform methods of the invention. 
     The server computers  615 , in some embodiments, might include one or more application servers, which can include one or more applications accessible by a client running on one or more of the client computers  605  and/or other servers  615 . Merely by way of example, the server(s)  615  can be one or more general purpose computers capable of executing programs or scripts in response to the user computers  605  and/or other servers  615 , including without limitation web applications (which might, in some cases, be configured to perform methods of the invention). Merely by way of example, a web application can be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any suitable programming language, such as Java, C, C# or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of any programming/scripting languages. The application server(s) can also include database servers, including without limitation those commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM and the like, which can process requests from clients (including, depending on the configurator, database clients, API clients, web browsers, etc.) running on a user computer  605  and/or another server  615 . In some embodiments, an application server can create web pages dynamically for displaying the information in accordance with embodiments of the invention, such as information displayed web browser  106  in  FIG. 1 . Data provided by an application server may be formatted as web pages (comprising HTML, JavaScript, etc., for example) and/or may be forwarded to a user computer  605  via a web server (as described above, for example). Similarly, a web server might receive web page requests and/or input data from a user computer  605  and/or forward the web page requests and/or input data to an application server. In some cases a web server may be integrated with an application server. 
     In accordance with further embodiments, one or more servers  615  can function as a file server and/or can include one or more of the files (e.g., application code, data files, etc.) necessary to implement methods of the invention incorporated by an application running on a user computer  605  and/or another server  615 . Alternatively, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, a file server can include all necessary files, allowing such an application to be invoked remotely by a user computer  605  and/or server  615 . It should be noted that the functions described with respect to various servers herein (e.g., application server, database server, web server, file server, etc.) can be performed by a single server and/or a plurality of specialized servers, depending on implementation-specific needs and parameters. 
     In certain embodiments, the system can include one or more databases  620 . The location of the database(s)  620  is discretionary: merely by way of example, a database  620   a  might reside on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) a server  615   a  (and/or a user computer  605 ). Alternatively, a database  620   b  can be remote from any or all of the computers  605 ,  615 , so long as the database can be in communication (e.g., via the network  610 ) with one or more of these. In a particular set of embodiments, a database  620  can reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilled in the art. (Likewise, any necessary files for performing the functions attributed to the computers  605 ,  615  can be stored locally on the respective computer and/or remotely, as appropriate.) In one set of embodiments, the database  620  can be a relational database, such as an Oracle® 1  database, that is adapted to store, update, and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands. The database might be controlled and/or maintained by a database server, as described above, for example. 
     While the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize that numerous modifications are possible. For example, the methods and processes described herein may be implemented using hardware components, software components, and/or any combination thereof. Further, while various methods and processes described herein may be described with respect to particular structural and/or functional components for ease of description, methods of the invention are not limited to any particular structural and/or functional architecture but instead can be implemented on any suitable hardware, firmware and/or software configurator. Similarly, while various functionalities are ascribed to certain system components, unless the context dictates otherwise, this functionality can be distributed among various other system components in accordance with different embodiments of the invention. 
     Moreover, while the procedures comprised in the methods and processes described herein are described in a particular order for ease of description, unless the context dictates otherwise, various procedures may be reordered, added, and/or omitted in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. Moreover, the procedures described with respect to one method or process may be incorporated within other described methods or processes; likewise, system components described according to a particular structural architecture and/or with respect to one system may be organized in alternative structural architectures and/or incorporated within other described systems. Hence, while various embodiments are described with—or without—certain features for ease of description and to illustrate exemplary features, the various components and/or features described herein with respect to a particular embodiment can be substituted, added and/or subtracted from among other described embodiments, unless the context dictates otherwise. Consequently, although the invention has been described with respect to exemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims. 
     APPENDIX 
     
         
           1  “JavaScript”, “Java”, and “Oracle” are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 
           2  “Microsoft”, “Internet Explorer”, and “Windows” are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. 
           3  “Mozilla” and “Firefox” are registered trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation. 
           4  “Netscape” and “Netscape Navigator” are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries. 
           5  The “Bluetooth” word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. Other trademarks and trade names are those of their respective owners. 
           6  “Mac OS” and “AppleTalk” are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. 
           7  “UNIX” is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6