Uniformity of instructions for content requests and responses in a content delivery network

A computer-implemented method for standardizing content requests and responses in a content delivery network (CDN), the computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving, by an edge node, a control object from a central authority, the control object comprising a client request sheet implementing at least a portion of a customer's business logic;
• receiving, by the edge node, a content request from a client, the content request identifying a content item;
• applying, by the edge node, the client request sheet responsive to the content request, the client request sheet causing the edge node to (i) determine any change to the content request is needed for the benefit of a cache server and any change to the content request is needed for the benefit of an origin server, and (ii) generate a processed client request identifying the content item and including any changes to the content request for the benefit of the cache server and the origin server;
• transmitting, by the edge node, the processed client request to the cache server;
• receiving, by the edge node, a response to the processed client request from the cache server;
• transmitting, by the edge node, the processed client response to the client;
• receiving, by the cache server, the processed client request;
• determining, by the cache server, that the cache server does not store the content item identified in the processed client request;
• based on the cache server determining that it does not store the content item, transmitting a post-cache processed client request to an upstream computer;
• receiving, by the upstream computer, the control object from the central authority and the post-cache processed client request from the cache server, the control object further comprising an origin request sheet implementing at least a portion of the customer's business logic;
• applying, by the upstream computer, the origin request sheet responsive to the post-cache processed client request, the origin request sheet causing that node to (i) determine whether any change to the post-cache processed client request is needed for the benefit of the origin server and (ii) generate a processed origin request identifying the content item and including, if needed, any changes to the post-cache processed client request for the benefit of the origin server;
• and
• transmitting, by the upstream computer, the processed origin request to the origin server, wherein
• the origin server generates an origin response including the content item identified in the processed origin request and transmits the origin response to a downstream computer,
• the control object further comprises a client response sheet implementing at least a portion of the customer's business logic,
• the response received by the edge node to the processed client request comprises the cache processed origin response,
• the processed client response is identical to the cached processed origin response, and
• the method further comprises applying, by the edge node, the client response sheet responsive to the cache processed origin response, the client response sheet causing the edge node to (i) determine any changes to the processed origin response are needed for the benefit of the client and (ii) generate the processed client response including the content item and any changes to the processed origin response for the benefit of the client.