Patent ID: 7730154

Claim:
A method for processing objects at a data processing system in a network, the method comprising processing logic used for: receiving a message at a computing device; determining that a message header in the message indicates that the message relates to a fragment and that the fragment is cacheable, wherein the message header comprises no-cache directive data for not caching the fragment for non-fragment-supporting cache management units and caching directive data for caching the fragment for fragment-supporting cache management units; determining whether a cache management unit is a non-fragment-supporting cache management unit or a fragment-supporting cache management unit; processing the no-cache directive data to generate a no-cache instruction to a non-fragment-supporting cache management unit; processing the caching directive data to generate a no-cache instruction to a non-fragment-supporting cache management unit; retrieving a set of dependency identifiers from the message, wherein a dependency identifier is generated by a server that originated the fragment; storing the set of dependency identifiers in association with a source identifier for the fragment; receiving an invalidation request message; retrieving a dependency identifier from the invalidation request message; determining a set of fragments that are associated with the dependency identifier; and purging the set of fragments from the cache in response to determining the set of fragments that are associated with the dependency identifier.