Patent ID: 7650392

Claim:
A network device coupled over a network to a client device, comprising: a processor configured to perform actions including: receiving a pre-patching module for processing a content of HTTP reply data from a host server that is a subject of an HTTP request from the client device to the host server over the network, wherein the pre-patching module includes at least one of a user-defined search pattern, a user-defined action, or a user-defined substitution data; receiving the requested HTTP reply data from the host server for processing the content of the HTTP reply data; upon receiving the requested HTTP reply data, executing the pre-patching module on the received HTTP reply data to: generate pre-patched HTTP reply data based on modifying a portion of the content of the received HTTP reply data, wherein the pre-patched HTTP reply data includes the modified portion of the content of the received HTTP reply data; and modify at least one action performed by a generic patching module; and upon completion of the execution of the pre-patching module and prior to sending data that corresponds to the pre-patched HTTP reply data from the network device, performing generic patching by executing the generic patching module on the pre-patched HTTP reply data and leaving unmodified by the generic patching at least some of the portion of the content modified by the pre-patching module.