Web Caching and Replication

13.6. Active Proxies

We mentioned a general mechanism to inject new functionality into a browser by using Java applets. A similar mechanism has been proposed for extending proxy caches [Cao et al. 1998]. It is based on injecting executable modules called cache applets into a proxy cache; the proxies that implement this mechanism are called active. In this mechanism, a Web object carries in its entity headers a reference to a cache applet that a proxy must invoke any time it serves the object. In particular, this mechanism could be used to implement at the proxy level many of the ideas for caching un-cacheable content described in this chapter. An object carries a new entity header, CacheApplet, that identifies a Java applet to be invoked before ...