Time offset data request handling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11082735-B2
Application number	US-201916574627-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2019
Priority date	May 6, 2016
Publication date	Aug 3, 2021
Grant date	Aug 3, 2021

Abstract

The described technology is directed towards obtaining and returning time offset data instead of current data in response to a data request. The time offset data may be limited to privileged clients only, and only provided thereto when desired, using a time offset value set by the client, for example. For example, a privileged user may request time offset data corresponding to a future time so as to preview how the data may be presented at a future time. Time offset data may be used by a system entity to fill a cache, e.g., as secondary cached data that may be used once primary cached data expires.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a request for data;
determining whether the request is associated with a time offset value corresponding to a future time;
in response to determining that the request is associated with the time offset value, obtaining, prior to the future time, time offset data that defines a first version of one or more user interface elements and that is unavailable to unauthorized entities until the future time from a data source that contains the time offset data;
in response to determining that the request is not associated with the time offset value, obtaining, prior to the future time, non-time offset data that defines a second version of the one or more user interface elements and that is currently available to the unauthorized entities from the data source; and
pre-populating a cache with information corresponding to the time offset data or the non-time offset data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining whether the request is associated with a time offset value comprises determining whether request is from a user that is authorized to receive time offset data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining whether the request is associated with a time offset value comprises evaluating information in a token received in association with the request.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining whether the request is associated with a time offset value comprises accessing a time offset data store, and further comprising, obtaining the time offset value from the time offset data store.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the accessing the time offset data store comprises communicating with a time offset server.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining the time offset data from the data source that contains the time offset data comprises bypassing cache access operations.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time offset value is set by a requesting entity and maintained at a time offset server, and further comprising, communicating with the time offset server to obtain the time offset value for the requesting entity from which the request is received.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that request is from a system component that is authorized to receive time offset data.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising formatting the time offset data into formatted data for a first device type, and wherein the pre-populating the cache with the information corresponding to the time offset data comprises pre-populating the cache with the formatted data.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising formatting the time offset data into first formatted data for a first device type and formatting the time offset data into second formatted data for a second device type, and wherein the pre-populating the cache with the information corresponding to the time offset data comprises pre-populating the cache with the first formatted data and pre-populating the cache with the second formatted data.

11. A system comprising:
a processor, and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
in the presence of a time offset privilege, obtaining, at a current time, time offset data that represents a first version of video content unavailable to unauthorized users until a future time;
in the absence of the time offset privilege, obtaining, at the current time, non-time offset data that represents a second version of the video content currently available to the unauthorized users;
pre-populating a cache with information corresponding to the time offset data or the non-time offset data; and
associating the information with a time at which the video content is to become available.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the obtaining the time offset data comprises providing authorization information to a data service indicating time offset privilege.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise formatting the time offset data into formatted data for a first device type, and wherein the pre-populating the cache with the information corresponding to the time offset data comprises pre-populating the cache with the formatted data.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise formatting the time offset data into first formatted data for a first device type and formatting the time offset data into second formatted data for a second device type, and wherein the pre-populating the cache with the information corresponding to the time offset data comprises pre-populating the cache with the first formatted data and pre-populating the cache with the second formatted data.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the cache comprises a REDIS cache.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
in the presence of a time travel privilege, communicating with a data service, comprising a time offset data server, to obtain, before a future time, time offset data that represents a first version of user interface elements and that is inaccessible to unauthorized clients until the future time;
in the absence of the time travel privilege, communicating with the data service to obtain, before the future time, non-time offset data that represents a second version of the user interface elements and that is currently accessible to the unauthorized clients; and
pre-populating a cache with information corresponding to the time offset data or the non-time offset data.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the communicating with a data service comprises providing authorization information indicating time offset privilege to the data service.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise formatting the time offset data into formatted data for a first device type, and wherein the pre-populating the cache with the information corresponding to the time offset data comprises pre-populating the cache with the formatted data.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise formatting the time offset data into first formatted data for a first device type and formatting the time offset data into second formatted data for a second device type, and wherein the pre-populating the cache with the information corresponding to the time offset data comprises pre-populating the cache with the first formatted data and pre-populating the cache with the second formatted data.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise associating the information with an expiration time.

Assignees

• Home Box Office Inc

Inventors

• Gay Allen Arthur
• Busayarat Sata

Classifications

• H04L67/5681

  Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics · CPC title

• H04L67/62

  Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests · CPC title

• H04N21/266 Primary

  Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system, merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel · CPC title

• H04N21/25816

  involving client authentication (restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06) · CPC title

• H04L67/1036

  Load balancing of requests to servers for services different from user content provisioning, e.g. load balancing across domain name servers · CPC title