Methods and systems for generating a viewable document using view descriptors and generic view stylesheets

• US 20020143820A1
• Filed: 03/27/2001
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Van Eaton, James R., Gering, Robert R.
• Granted Patent: US 6,948,117 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/517
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products, for using a web browser to view stored data over the World Wide Web, where the data is stored in a format normally incompatible with such viewing. A client computer processes a view descriptor and a general view class to generate a specific view class, or template, and a query. The specific view class is used as a template to display data the client receives from a data server after submitting the generated query to the data server. The result of using a specific view class as a template for the data is that the data is output in Hypertext Markup Language, so as to be easily displayable on a web browser. View classes and view descriptors may be developed using existing Web development tools such as Extensible Style Language and Extensible Markup Language.

Claims

1. In a system including a data server and a client that is associated with a web browser, wherein the client accesses data stored on the data server and displays such data using the web browser, a method for transforming the accessed data into a format for viewing using the web browser, the method comprising:

an act of the client accessing a view descriptor, the view descriptor identifying stored data and including formatting parameters on how the identified stored data should be arranged when viewed;

an act of the client processing the view descriptor using a generic view class to generate a specific view class;

an act of the client accessing the stored data that was identified by the view descriptor; and

an act of the client formatting the accessed data for viewing in accordance with the formatting parameters.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client accessing a view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client accessing a view descriptor that includes parameters on how the identified stored data should be arranged when viewed on the web browser.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client accessing a view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client accessing a view descriptor that includes Extensible Markup Language tags.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client accessing a view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client downloading the view descriptor.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of downloading the view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client downloading the view descriptor over a dial-up connection.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of the downloading the view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client downloading the view descriptor over a permanent network connection.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of downloading the view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client downloading the view descriptor over the Internet.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client accessing a view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client accessing a locally stored view descriptor through an API to an operating system running on the client.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client processing the view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client processing the view descriptor and a generic view class associated with the view descriptor in order to generate a specific view class for the stored data.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein an act of the client processing the view descriptor and a generic view class associated with the view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client processing the view descriptor and a generic view class associated with the view descriptor, the view descriptor including Extensible Style Language tags, in order to generate a specific view class for the stored data.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the act of the client processing a view descriptor and a generic view class associated with the view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client generating a specific view class.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client processing the view descriptor comprises the following:

an act of the client processing the view descriptor to generate a query, which may be submitted to the data server.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the act of the client processing the view descriptor to generate a query comprises the following:

an act of the view control processing the view descriptor to generate an SQL query, which may be submitted to the data server.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client accessing the stored data comprises the following:

an act of the client submitting a query to the data server.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the act of the client submitting a query to the data server comprises the following:

an act of the client submitting a SQL query to the data server.

16. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client accessing the stored data comprises the following:

an act of the client downloading the stored data from the data server.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the act of the client downloading the stored data from the data server comprises the following:

an act of the client receiving stored data, which includes Extensible Markup Language tags, from the server.

18. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the act of the client downloading the stored data from the data server comprises the following:

an act of the client receiving stored data, which includes Hypertext Markup Language tags, from the server.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client accessing the stored data comprises the following:

an act of the client accessing locally stored data through an API to an operating system running on the client.

20. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client formatting the accessed data for viewing comprises the following:

an act of the client formatting the accessed data for viewing in Internet Explorer.

21. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client formatting the accessed data for viewing in accordance with the formatting parameters comprises the following:

an act of the client processing the specific view class to format the data.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the act of the client processing the specific view class comprises the following:

an act of the client processing Extensible Markup Language tags inthe specific view class.

23. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the act of the client processing the specific view class comprises the following:

an act of the view control processing Extensible Style Language tags in the specific view class.

24. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the act of the client processing the specific view class comprises the following:

an act of the client processing Extensible Markup Language tags and Extensible Style Language tags in the specific view class.

25. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of the client formatting the accessed data for viewing comprises the following:

an act of the client formatting the accessed data into data that includes Hypertext Markup Language tags.

26. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising an act of the client outputting the formatted data.

27. The method as recited in claim 26, wherein the act of the client outputting the data comprises the following:

an act of the client displaying the data to a web browser.

28. The method as recited in claim 26, wherein the act of the client outputting the data comprises the following:

an act of the client outputting the data in Hypertext Markup Language.

30. The method as recited in claim 29, wherein the step for converting the identified stored data for viewing comprises the following:

an act of converting the identified stored data into displayable data that includes Hypertext Markup Language tags.

31. The method as recited in claim 29, wherein the step for converting the identified stored data for viewing comprises the following:

an act of converting the identified stored data into a format that is displayable on a web browser.

29. In a system including a data server and a client that is associated with a web browser, wherein the client accesses data stored on the data server and displayed such data using the web browser, a method for transforming the accessed data into a format for viewing using a web browser, the method comprising:

an act of the client accessing a view descriptor, the view descriptor identifying stored data and includes parameters on how the identified stored data should be arranged when viewed; and

a step for converting the identified stored data for viewing so as to allow easy viewing of data stored in different formats.

32. A computer program product for implementing, in a system including a data server and a client that is associated with a web browser, wherein the client accesses some the data stored on the data server and displays such data using the web browser, a method for transforming the accessed data into a format for viewing using a web browser, the computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable medium carrying computer-readable instructions, that when executed at the client, cause the client to perform the following;

an act of accessing a view descriptor, the view descriptor identifying stored data and including formatting parameters on how the identified stored data should be arranged when viewed;

an act of processing the view descriptor;

an act of the accessing the stored data that was identified by the view descriptor; and

an act of formatting the accessed data for viewing in accordance with the parameters;

33. The computer program product as recited in claim 32, wherein the computer-readable medium is a physical storage device.

34. The computer program product as recited in claim 32, wherein the computer-readable instructions that cause the client to perform the act of formatting the accessed data for viewing in accordance with the formatting parameters comprise computer-readable instructions that cause the client to perform the following when executed at the client:

an act of converting the identified stored data into displayable content that includes Hypertext Markup Language tags.

35. The computer program product as recited in claim 32, wherein the computer-readable instructions that cause the client to perform the act of formatting the accessed data for viewing in accordance with the formatting parameters comprise computer-readable instructions that cause the client to perform the following when executed at the client:

an act of converting the identified stored data into a format that is displayable on a web browser.