XML smart mapping system and method

• US 20030018661A1
• Filed: 07/18/2002
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blue Titan Software, Inc. (Perforce Software Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Blue Titan Software, Inc. (Perforce Software Incorporated)
• Inventors: Darugar, Parand Tony
• Application Number:
  US10/198,553
• Publication Number:
  US 20030018661A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/500
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/88 Mark-up to mark-up conversion conversion for visualization in web browsing G06F16/9577

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses and systems facilitating mapping of elements from a first XML format to a second XML format using an interface that allows a user to associate elements from the first format to the second format. In some embodiments, a mapping can cause a direct transfer of a value in an input document to an output document. Maps can also be augmented with textual strings and scripts, for example, that can save a value from a first file format to a variable that can be accessed by another script, or save a value in association with a result tag in the second file format. A single tag from the first format can be mapped to multiple tags from the second format, multiple tags from the first format can be mapped to a single tag in the second format, and a single tag in the first format can be mapped multiple times to a single tag in the second format.

Claims

1. An apparatus enabling a project development environment facilitating the configuration of functionality that maps a first document format to a second document format, comprising

a user interface module, operative to:

receive an input document format and an output document format,

display the input document format and the output document format,

allow a user to configure a mapping between at least one source element of the input document format to at least one result element of the output document format,

a mapping code generator, operative to;

generate mapping code based on the mapping configured by the user,

a mapping code execution module operative to;

selectively execute the mapping code to map an input document formatted according to the input document format to an output document formatted according to the output document format according to the mapping specified by the user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the user interface module is operative to store a representation of the mapping in a mapping file.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the mapping file is an XML file.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the mapping configured by the user includes at least one mapping action and mapping parameters associated with at least one mapping action defining a map between at least one source element of the input document format and at least one result element of the output document format, and wherein the mapping code generator is operative to:

load a mapping code skeleton into a memory,

as to a given result element, selectively combine at least one action code skeleton corresponding to the at least one mapping action with the mapping parameters to create a mapping function, and

add the mapping function to the mapping code skeleton.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the mapping code generator is further operative to generate a translation hash allowing for association of the mapping function to that at least one result element of the output document format.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the mapping code execution module is operative to access the translation hash to identify the mapping code function corresponding to a given result element and execute the identified mapping code function to map the at least one source element to the given result tag.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the user interface is a graphical user interface.

4. The apparatus of claim I wherein the mapping code generator includes at least one action code skeleton corresponding to a mapping action;

and wherein the mapping code generator is operative to construct the mapping code to include at least one mapping function based on the mapping configured by the user and the at least one action code skeleton.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the mapping code generator is operative to selectively combine the at least one action code skeleton to the mapping configured by the user to construct the mapping code.

8. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the mapping code execution module is operative to selectively execute the at least one mapping code function in the mapping code.

11. An apparatus enabling a graphical development environment facilitating the configuration of functionality that maps a first document format to a second document format, comprising

a graphical user interface module, operative to:

receive an input XML document format and an output XML document format,

display the input XML document format and the output XML document format,

allow a user to configure a mapping between at least one tag of the input XML document format to at least one tag of the output XML document format,

a memory including a tag stack and a context stack;

a mapping code generator, operative to;

generate mapping code based on the mapping configured by the user, wherein said mapping code including at least one mapping function corresponding to a tag in the output document format;

wherein the at least one function is operative to map at least one tag from the input XML document to at least one tag of the output XML document; and

a mapping code execution module operative to;

load a representation of the output document format into the memory,

load a representation of an input document into the memory,

push a tag of the output document format onto the tag stack and a context associated with the tag onto the context stack,

determine whether a mapping function in the mapping code is associated with a tag in the output document format,

locate at least one source tag in the input document corresponding to a result tag in the output document format,

selectively execute a mapping function in the mapping code associated with the result tag to map the at least one source tag of the input document to an output document formatted according to the output document format, and

traverse through all tags in the representation of the output document format.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the graphical user interface module is operative to store a representation of the mapping in a mapping file.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the mapping file is an XML file.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the mapping code generator includes at least one action code skeleton corresponding to a mapping action;

and wherein the mapping code generator is operative to construct the mapping code to include at least one mapping function based on the mapping configured by the user and the at least one action code skeleton.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the context associated with a tag determines which segment of the input document is searched for at least one source tag that corresponds to the result tag.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the mapping configured by the user includes at least one mapping action and mapping parameters associated with at least one mapping action defining a map between at least one source element of the input document format and at least one result element of the output document format, and wherein the mapping code generator is operative to:

load a mapping code skeleton into the memory,

as to a given result element, selectively combine at least one action code skeleton corresponding to the at least one mapping action with the mapping parameters to create a mapping function, and

add the mapping function to the mapping code skeleton.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the mapping code generator is further operative to generate a translation hash allowing for association of the mapping function to that at least one result element of the output document format.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising

storing a representation of the mapping configuration in a mapping file.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the mapping file is a XML file.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the mapping code comprises at least one mapping function;

wherein the at least one mapping function is associated with a result element of the output document format, and wherein the selectively executing step comprises selectively executing the at least one mapping function in the mapping code based on the matching step.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the mapping configuration comprises at least one mapping action and mapping parameters associated with at least one mapping action defining a map between at least one source element of the input document format and at least one result element of the output document format, and wherein the generating step comprises

loading a mapping code skeleton into a memory,

selectively combining action code skeleton corresponding to the at least one mapping action with the mapping parameters to create a mapping function, and

adding the mapping function to the mapping code skeleton.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the generating step further comprises

generating a translation hash allowing for association of the mapping function to that at least one result element of the output document format.

18. A method enabling a graphical development environment allowing for the creation of functionality that maps a first document format to a second document format, comprising

receiving an input document format and an output document format;

receiving a mapping configuration between at least one source element of the input document format to at least one result element of the output document format;

generating mapping code based on the mapping configuration;

receiving an input document formatted according to the first document format;

matching at least one source element from the input document corresponding to at least one result element in the output document format;

selectively executing the mapping code based on the matching step to map the at least one source element to the at least one result element in an output document.