Method for establishing optimal intermediate caching points by grouping program elements in a software system

A method of caching in a software system having a plurality of transcoders, comprising the steps of:

• associating sets of transcoders into one or more groups;
• responsive to a first client request, selectively caching an aggregate output of all of the transcoders in the given group;
• and
• responsive to a second client request, using the aggregate output to generate a response to the second client request.

A method of caching in a software system having a plurality of program elements, comprising the steps of:

• associating sets of program elements into one or more groups;
• responsive to a first client request, selectively caching an aggregate output of all of the program elements in the given group;
• responsive to a second client request, using the aggregate output to generate a response to the second client request;
• and
• identifying a given priority for each of the one or more groups,
• wherein at least one group includes a set of preference values;
• and
• wherein the preference values are selected from a set of values consisting of user preferences, network preferences and device preferences.

A method operative at a server, comprising the steps of:

• in response to a client request, generating a URL that identifies a set of transcoder groups, wherein each transcoder group comprises a set of administrator-defined transcoders;
• executing the transcoder groups to generate an output stream;
• and
• caching for subsequent reuse an output of a given intermediate transcoding step performed by one of the transcoder groups.

A computer program product in a computer readable medium for setting up intermediate caching points in a software system having a plurality of transcoders, comprising:

• means for associating sets of given transcoders into one or more groups;
• means for prioritizing the groups for execution;
• and
• means for defining a set of preference values for each group.

A computer system for providing a transcoding service, comprising:

• a set of transcoders;
• a cache;
• and
• a group administration mechanism for setting up intermediate caching points, comprising:
• means for associating a set of related transcoders into a group;
• and
• means operative during the processing of a client request for storing in the cache for reuse an aggregate output of the set of related transcoders, wherein an individual output of at least one of the set of related transcoders in the group is not cached.

A computer system, comprising:

• a set of transcoders;
• a cache;
• and
• a group administration mechanism for setting up intermediate caching points, comprising:
• display means for enabling a system administrator to associate a set of client requests for storing in the cache for reuse an aggregate output of the set of related transcoders.

A computer system, comprising:

• a set of transcoders;
• a cache;
• and
• a group administration mechanism for setting up intermediate caching points, comprising:
• means for dynamically associating a set of related transcoders storing in the cache for reuse an aggregate output of the set of related transcoders.