System and method for intelligent GUI navigation and property sheets in a traffic director environment

A method for receiving and communicating requests from clients to a plurality of pools of origin servers each comprising a plurality of origin servers, the method comprising:

• providing a traffic director which is configured to receive and communicate requests, from the clients, to the plurality of pools of origin servers each comprising a plurality of origin servers, wherein the traffic director comprises
• a plurality of traffic director instances,
• an HTTP connection handler which receives HTTP requests from said clients,
• an HTTP engine operating on one or more microprocessor and computer memory, wherein said HTTP engine receives said HTTP requests from said HTTP connection handler, and
• a reverse proxy module in said HTTP engine, wherein the reverse proxy module selects a pool of said plurality of pools of origin servers to which said requests should be directed and forwards said requests to one or more of the plurality of origin servers in said pool;
• providing an administration console graphic user interface (GUI) for use by a user/administrator in managing said plurality of traffic director instances by reviewing and configuring different configurable objects of the traffic director;
• and
• wherein the GUI includes a plurality of sections including a navigation section divided into one or more navigation options and a navigation tree section, wherein each of the navigation options is associated with content for display within the navigation tree section, and wherein selecting a particular navigation option causes its associated content to be displayed.

A non-transitory computer readable medium, including instructions stored thereon for supporting receiving and communicating requests from clients to a plurality of pools of origin servers each comprising a plurality of origin servers, which instructions, when read and executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform steps comprising:

• providing a traffic director which is configured to receive and communicate requests, from the clients, to the plurality of pools of origin servers each comprising a plurality of origin servers, wherein the traffic director comprises
• a plurality of traffic director instances,
• an HTTP connection handler which receives HTTP requests from said clients,
• an HTTP engine operating on one or more microprocessor and computer memory, wherein said HTTP engine receives said HTTP requests from said HTTP connection handler, and
• a reverse proxy module in said HTTP engine, wherein the reverse proxy module selects a pool of said plurality of pools of origin servers to which said requests should be directed and forwards said requests to one or more of the plurality of origin servers in said pool;
• providing an administration console graphic user interface (GUI) for use by a user/administrator in managing said plurality of traffic director instances by reviewing and configuring different configurable objects of the traffic director;
• wherein the GUI includes a plurality of sections including a navigation section divided into one or more navigation options and a navigation tree section, wherein each of the navigation options is associated with content for display within the navigation tree section, and wherein selecting a particular navigation option causes its associated content to be displayed.

A traffic director system which receives and communicates requests from clients to a plurality of pools of origin servers each comprising a plurality of origin servers, the traffic director comprising:

• a microprocessor and a computer memory;
• a traffic director having a plurality of traffic director instances;
• an HTTP connection handler which receives HTTP requests from said clients;
• an HTTP engine operating on said microprocessor and computer memory, wherein said HTTP engine receives said HTTP requests from said HTTP connection handler;
• a reverse proxy module in said HTTP engine, wherein the reverse proxy module selects a pool of said plurality of pools of origin servers to which said requests should be directed and forwards said requests to one or more of the plurality of origin servers in said pool;
• an administration console graphic user interface (GUI) for use by a user/administrator in managing said plurality of traffic director instances by reviewing and configuring different configurable objects of the traffic director;
• and
• a property sheet which automatically detects modified GUI fields, such that the GUI can track which fields have changed, and by checking the modified value with an original value for that field, marks or otherwise indicates changed fields.

A method for receiving and communicating requests from clients to a plurality of pools of origin servers each comprising a plurality of origin servers, the method comprising:

• providing a traffic director which is configured to receive and communicate requests, from the clients, to the plurality of pools of origin servers each comprising a plurality of origin servers, wherein the traffic director comprises
• a plurality of traffic director instances,
• an HTTP connection handler which receives HTTP requests from said clients,
• an HTTP engine operating on one or more microprocessor and computer memory, wherein said HTTP engine receives said HTTP requests from said HTTP connection handler, and
• a reverse proxy module in said HTTP engine, wherein the reverse proxy module selects a pool of said plurality of pools of origin servers to which said requests should be directed and forwards said requests to one or more of the plurality of origin servers in said pool;
• providing an administration console graphic user interface (GUI) for use by a user/administrator in managing said plurality of traffic director instances by reviewing and configuring different configurable objects of the traffic director;
• and
• providing a property sheet which automatically detects modified GUI fields, such that the GUI can track which fields have changed, and by checking the modified value with an original value for that field, and provided modification indicators on the property sheet for changed fields.