Representing and managing dynamic data content for web documents

• US 20020122054A1
• Filed: 03/02/2001
• Published: 09/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hind, John R., Li, Yongcheng
• Granted Patent: US 7,194,683 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/731
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for improving the authoring of dynamic data content for Web documents (such as Web pages) by applying a content management paradigm to the representation, storage, and retrieval of the content. A transformation flow container is defined, which contains one or more transformations. A particular transformation preferably specifies either (1) a generation or retrieval of content or (2) styling for content. In the former case, executable code such as a JavaBean™ may be referenced for invocation. In the latter case, one or more style sheets may be referenced. Upon evaluating the flows in the flow container, an authored document containing dynamic data content results.

Claims

1. A method of improving authoring of Web documents, comprising steps of:

specifying a transformation flow container (“

TFC”

) which represents one or more transformations; and

including the specified TFC in an authored Web document, thereby avoiding mixing of application logic with a specification of content presentation syntax.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transformations comprise at least one of (1) data retrieval transformations and (2) data styling transformations.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a selected data retrieval transformation is a JavaBean invocation syntax.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein a selected data styling transformation is a style sheet reference.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of evaluating the authored Web document, wherein the evaluation causes the transformations in the TFC to be applied.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of evaluating the authored Web document, wherein the transformations in the TFC are left in place for subsequent application.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the TFC is specified using a structured markup language notation.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the structured markup language notation is a notation known as “

the Extensible Markup Language notation”

.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the TFC is referenced from the authored Web document rather than included therein, while still avoiding the mixing of application logic with the specification of content presentation syntax

10. A Web document embodied on one or more computer-readable media, the Web document comprising a template and a transformation flow container specified in the template, wherein the transformation flow container comprises one or more of (1) data retrieval transformations and (2) data styling transformations.

11. A dynamic content retrieval and presentation mechanism, comprising:

a first specification for invoking a data content retrieval operation;

a second specification for selecting a data content rendering operation;

a container for containing the first specification and the second specification;

means for referencing the container from a data template; and

means for dynamically replacing the container by a result of evaluating the first specification and the second specification.

12. The dynamic content retrieval and presentation mechanism according to claim 11, further comprising means for storing the container in a repository, and wherein the means for referencing refers to the stored container.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein a selected data retrieval transformation invokes a JavaBean.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein a selected data styling transformation specifies a style sheet to be applied by a style sheet processing engine.

13. A system for managing dynamic data content in a computing environment, comprising:

means for specifying a transformation flow container (“

TFC”

) which represents one or more transformations, wherein the transformations comprise at least one of (1) data retrieval transformations and (2) data styling transformations;

means for including the specified TFC in an authored Web document, thereby avoiding mixing of application logic with a specification of content presentation syntax; and

means for evaluating the authored Web document, wherein the evaluation causes the transformations in the TFC to be applied, thereby replacing the TFC by a result of evaluating the transformations.

16. A computer program product for providing dynamic data content management, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:

computer-readable program code means for specifying a transformation flow container (“

TFC”

) which represents one or more transformations, wherein the transformations comprise at least one of (1) data retrieval transformations and (2) data styling transformations;

computer-readable program code means for embedding the specified TFC in an authored Web document, thereby avoiding mixing of application logic with a specification of content presentation syntax; and

computer-readable program code means for evaluating the authored Web document, thereby dynamically replacing the TFC by a result of evaluating the transformations.