Patent ID: 7640347

Claim:
A method for caching content responsive to a POST request from a client, the method comprising: receiving over a network at a cache server a POST request from a client requesting content, wherein the POST request comprises a first uniform resource locator (URL) and a first payload configured as a URL/payload combination; accessing a database configured to store entries including: a stored combination of a second URL and an associated second payload configured as a stored URL/payload combination from a previous POST request; an index value associated with the stored second URL/payload combination; and cached content responsive to the second URL/payload combination associated with the previous POST request, wherein the cache server retrieves cached content from a content server by recreating the POST request from data in the second URL/payload combination associated with the POST request and applying the recreated request to the content server; determining whether the first URL/payload combination associated with the received POST request matches the stored second URL/payload combination from the database and one of: if the first URL/payload combination associated with the received POST request matches the stored second URL/payload combination from the database, retrieving the index value associated with the stored second URL/payload combination; and if the first URL/payload combination associated with the received POST request does not match the stored second URL/payload combination from the database: storing the first URL/payload combination associated with the POST request in an open entry in the database; associating a new index value with the stored first URL/payload combination; and sending a redirect GET request over the network to the client including the URL from the stored first or second URL/payload combination and the associated index value, wherein the cache server is configured to respond to the client after receiving a redirect GET request to determine if the index value included in the redirect GET request identifies an entry in the database caching content responsive to the POST request.