Method for generic object oriented description of structured data (GDL)

• US 20030055806A1
• Filed: 06/29/2001
• Published: 03/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wong, Peter W., Nguyen, Amanda Gian-Tien
• Granted Patent: US 7,092,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/123 Storage facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

A method is provided for use in a computer system to describe and obtain arbitrary data relating to a subject. The method provides a meta-language “Generic Object Oriented Description of Structured Data (GDL)” and a Parser. GDL allows a user to organize, define and describe subjects through the use of a schema known as a Template. Templates can be used to define the semantics for each subject element as well as, to define how each element fits into a larger data framework. Through the concept of Inheritance, Templates can be extended and defined to various levels of nesting, while still having a common core of properties. GDL allows the features and attributes of a subject to be quickly and readily extended or modified by altering a source file. A GDL parser provides a structured and hierarchical representation of the information, validation of text-entry semantics and a means to traverse through information obtained from the source file.

Claims

1. A method for use in a computing system for organizing and describing information pertaining to one or more subjects comprising:

providing a source file, said source file including a plurality of entries characterizing the subject, wherein said entries are an instantiation of an inheritance-based schema and conform to a predefined meta-language syntax;

providing a schema, said schema comprising one or more families of templates, each template defining one or more properties of a set of entries, the templates in each family related by inheritance;

associating one or more entries with an appropriate template of a family, thereby allowing such entries to be also associated with other ancestral templates in the same family.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising processing said entries guided by said templates to obtain information pertaining to said subjects.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein associating is the binding of entries with templates.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein properties of said entries are optionally defined by a schema.

5. A method as recited in claim 2 wherein said processing includes providing internal representations of templates and entries.

6. A method as recited in claim 2 wherein said processing includes serializing said associations, wherein said serializing allows the systematic traversing of said associations for entries without the need to re-read the source file.

7. A method as recited in claim 2 wherein said processing includes filtering said associations.

8. A method as recited in claim 7 wherein filtering includes validating semantics of said associations.

9. A method as recited in claim 7 wherein filtering includes converting value types in said associations.

10. A method as recited in claim 7 wherein filtering includes default initialization of values.

11. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 1.

12. A computer system having a processor, a memory and an operating environment, the computer system operable to execute the method recited in claim 1.

13. A method for use in a computing system for organizing and describing within a source file, information pertaining to one or more subjects by providing a schema, said schema comprising one or more families of templates, each template defining one or more properties of a set of entries.

14. A method as recited in claim 13 wherein said schema comprises:

one or more templates that utilize other defined templates as a base framework; and

said templates are nested to varying levels.

15. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein said templates inherit other templates and thus share a core set of common properties.

16. A method as recited in claim 13 wherein said templates are used to define the semantics for device data elements and to define how device data elements fit into a larger framework.

17. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 13.

18. A computer system having a processor, a memory and an operating environment, the computer system operable to execute the method recited in claim 13.

19. A method for use in a computing system for organizing and describing information pertaining to one or more subjects using one or more schemas of one or more families of templates related by inheritance in a source file comprising:

providing a first named reference to a schema;

providing a second similarly named reference to said schema; and

interpreting said second schema reference differently from said first schema reference depending on the position of said second named reference within said source file.

20. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 19.