Patent ID: 7082454

Claim:
A method of caching and retrieving cached dynamically generated files that each include presentation information characterized by respective presentation states, wherein each dynamically generated file is associated with a file identifier that is derived from state information that describes contents of the associated dynamically generated electronic file and the file is operable to be provided by an application running on a server computer system to at least one client computer system, the method comprising: receiving a file request that includes state information based on selections of a user interacting with a web page using at least one client computer system; determining whether the file request identifies one of the cached dynamically generated files; retrieving the dynamically generated file identified by the file request and transmitting the file to the at least one client computer system if the file exists in the cache; computing presentation information based on the state information in the file request when a dynamically generated file does not exist in the cache; and saving the computed presentation information in a file in the cache, thus creating a dynamically generated file, and transmitting the dynamically generated file to the at least one client computer system.