Application program interfaces for semantically labeling strings and providing actions based on semantically labeled strings

• US 20020035581A1
• Filed: 07/16/2001
• Published: 03/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Huynh, Tuan, Wang, Ziyi, Reynar, Jeff, Wolff, Roger, Higashiyama, Nobuya, Ammerlaan, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,712,024 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/513
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Application program interfaces (API) are provided for labeling strings while a user is creating a document and providing user actions based on the type of semantic label applied to the string. A recognizer API is provided and includes properties and methods or instructions which allow recognizer plug-ins to semantically label strings of text or cells or information. An action API is provided and includes properties and methods that are called upon when a user initiates particular actions such as opening a web browser, going to a particular URL, or opening an instance of a word processing or spreadsheet program. After the strings are annotated with a type label, application program modules may use the type label to provide users with a choice of actions. If the user'"'"'s computer does not have any actions associated with a type label, the user may be provided with the option to surf to a download Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and download action plug-ins for that type label. One or more recognizer plug-ins perform the recognition of particular strings in an electronic document. The recognizer plug-ins may be packaged with an application program module or they may be written by third parties to recognize particular strings that are of interest. One or more action plug-ins provide possible actions to be presented to the user based upon the type label associated with the string.

Claims

1. In a system for semantically labeling a string of text in an electronic document created in an application program module, a method of implementing an application program interface for further implementing a recognizer plug-in, the method comprising the steps of:

providing an identification, a title, and a description for the recognizer plug-in;

providing a number of text label types and a download location for additional label types;

providing a list of text items for recognition by the recognizer plug-in; and

causing the recognizer plug-in to search for text items from the list of text items in a selection of text received by the recognizer plug-in.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of registering the recognizer plug-in in an operating system registry.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing an identification, a title, and a description for a recognizer plug-in includes the step of providing the name of the recognizer plug-in for presentation via a user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing a number of text label types includes providing a number of text label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in.

5. The method of claim 1 whereby the step of providing a download location for additional text label types includes providing a uniform resource locator (URL) for obtaining additional text label types.

6. In a system for semantically labeling a string of text in an electronic document created in an application program module, a method of implementing an application program interface for further implementing an action plug-in, the method comprising the steps of:

providing an identification, a title, and a description for the action plug-in;

providing to a recognizer DLL a number of text label types, a name for each of the number of text label types, and a caption for each of the number of text label types;

providing the recognizer DLL a number of text label actions, a name for each of the number of text label actions, and an identification for each of the number of text label actions; and

displaying a list of the text label actions upon user initiation.

7. The method of claim 6, whereby prior to the step of displaying a list of the text label actions upon user initiation, further comprising the step of providing names of each of the number of text label actions for presentation in a user interface.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of providing to a recognizer DLL a caption for each of the number of text label types, further comprises the step of providing captions for displaying in the user interface each of the number of text label types.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of providing to a recognizer DLL a number of text label types, includes providing a number of text label types for which the action plug-in provides actions.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of registering the recognizer DLL and the action plug-in in a computer operating system registry.

11. In a system for semantically labeling a string of text in an electronic document created in an application program module, a method of implementing an application program interface for further implementing a recognizer plug-in and an action plug-in, the method comprising the steps of:

providing an identification, a title, and a description for the recognizer plug-in;

providing the recognizer plug-in number of text label types, a list of text label action types, and a download location for additional label types;

providing the recognizer a list of text items for recognition by the recognizer plug-in;

providing to the recognizer plug-in a number of text label types, a name for each of the number of text label types, and a caption for each of the number of text label types;

providing the recognizer plug-in a number of text label actions, a name for each of the number of text label actions, and an identification for each of the number of text label actions;

providing an identification, a title, and a description for the action plug-in;

causing the recognizer plug-in to search for text items from the list of text items in a selection of text received by the recognizer plug-in; and

displaying a list of the text label actions upon user initiation.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of registering the recognizer plug-in and the action plug-in in an operating system registry.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of providing an identification, a title, and a description for a recognizer plug-in includes the step of providing the name of the recognizer plug-in for presentation via a user interface.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of providing a number of text label types includes providing a number of text label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of providing a list of text label action types includes providing a list of text label action types associated with an action plug-in and recognizable by the recognizer plug-in.

16. The method of claim 11 whereby the step of providing a download location for additional text label types includes providing a uniform resource locator (URL) for obtaining additional text label types.

18. The application program interface of claim 17, further comprising an action API, comprising

a description property describing a semantic label action associated with an action operable on a semantically labeled text string;

a name property including a title for the semantic label action;

a programmatic identifier property including a unique identifier for the semantic label action;

a label caption property for displaying via a user interface;

a label name property identifying a number of types of semantic label actions operable by the action plug-in;

a label count property identifying the number of semantic label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in;

a verb caption from ID property including captions for the number of semantic label actions provided via a user interface;

a verb count property including a quantity of semantic label actions supported by a semantic label type;

a verb ID property for returning a unique identifier within a semantic label for use within the application program module;

a verb name from ID property for returning a name to represent a semantic label action for use within the application program module; and

an invoke verb method including instructions which when executed by a computer initiate the semantic label action.

17. In a system for semantically labeling a string of text in an electronic document created in an application program module, the system including a recognizer plug-in and an application program interface (API) for allowing the recognizer plug-in to semantically label strings of text, comprising:

a description property including a description of the recognizer plug-in;

a name property including a name of the recognizer plug-in;

a programmatic identifier including a unique identifier for the recognizer plug-in;

a label count property identifying a number of semantic label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in;

a label name property including unique identifiers for the semantic label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in;

a label download URL property for locating additional semantic label types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in; and

a recognize method including instructions which when executed by a computer cause the recognizer plug-in to recognize character strings semantically labeled as character string types recognizable by the recognizer plug-in.