Patent ID: 7398304

Claim:
In a server computer system that provides Web pages to requesting client computer systems, the Web pages potentially including content from locations that are external to the server computer system, the server computer system including a cache that stores portions of cached content previously received from locations external to the server computer system, a method for determining the validity of a cache entry, the validity of which is dependent on a user-customized dependency, the method comprising the following: an act of accessing an extensible cache dependency base class from which customized cache dependencies can be derived, the extensible cache dependency base class including a plurality of inheritable cache management methods usable by customized dependencies derived from the extensible case dependency base class to determine the validity of one or more cache entries corresponding to the customized dependencies; an act of deriving a customized cache dependency class from the extensible cache dependency base class, the customized cache dependency class inheriting the plurality of inheritable cache management methods from the extensible cache dependency base class, the customized cache dependency class also configured to implement further unique functionality of a customized dependency that extends the plurality of inheritable cache management methods included in the extensible cache dependency base class, the unique functionality including providing a user-customized basis for determining the validity of cache entries associated with the customized cache dependency; an act of accessing a portion of cached content that is to be delivered to a client computer system; an act of creating a cache entry that associates the customized dependency with the accessed portion of cached content, the customized dependency including the user-customized basis for determining cache entry validity; an act of determining that the cache entry is valid according to the user-customized basis for determining cache entry validity; and an act of inserting the determined valid cache entry into cache for delivery to the client computer system.