Method and apparatus for printing XML directly using a formatting template

• US 20030058469A1
• Filed: 09/26/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hohensee, Reinhard Heinrich, Gebert, Steven Mark, Buis, Roger Lee
• Granted Patent: US 7,733,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1205 resulting in increased flexibility in print job configuration, e.g. job settings, print requirements, job tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1206 resulting in increased flexibility in input data format or job format or job type
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1246 by handling markup languages, e.g. XSL, XML, HTML
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1257 by using pre-stored settings, e.g. job templates, presets, print styles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/126 Job scheduling, e.g. queuing, determine appropriate device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server

Abstract

A printing system and method for printing XML files directly using a formatting template is disclosed. An embodiment of the printing system includes a spooler for receiving printable information from the print channel, a print services facility for parsing an XML file, formatting the XML file according to a formatting template, the print services facility organizing a data stream representing the formatted XML file and generating a print steam having been formatted using the formatting template and a printer for printing the print steam according to the formatting defined by the formatting template, wherein the formatting template defines a data map format containing XML descriptors defining the formatting for an element of the XML file. The formatting template, such as a data map in a page definition, is used to format each XML element. The formatting template contains descriptors that specify presentation parameters such as position, rotation, font, color, etc. The descriptors are indexed using a concatenation of the XML tags that must be traversed to get to a particular XML element.

Claims

1. A formatting template for printing XML files, comprising a data map format containing XML descriptors defining the formatting for elemental content of the XML file.

2. The formatting template of claim 1 wherein the XML descriptors are identified by a qualified tag.

3. The formatting template of claim 1 wherein the qualified tag comprises a concatenation of XML element start tags that must be traversed in the XML file to get to a particular element.

4. The formatting template of claim 1 wherein the qualified tag identifies a description that is used to format the content for the element.

5. The formatting template of claim 4 wherein the qualified tag is generated whenever a start tag is encountered.

6. The formatting template of claim 4 wherein the qualified tag is modified whenever a start tag is encountered.

7. The formatting template of claim 1 wherein the XML file to be printed is parsed into element contents that can be broken into fields and processed using a chain of field XMDS.

8. The formatting template of claim 7 wherein the element contents are broken into fields either with byte counts or with delimiters.

9. The formatting template of claim 1 wherein a chain of attribute XMDS are used for formatting attributes, wherein the attributes are broken into fields, the fields being formatted with a chain of field XMDS.

10. A printing system, comprising:

a spooler for receiving printable information from the print channel;

a print services facility for parsing an XML file, formatting the XML file according to a formatting template, the print services facility organizing a data stream representing the formatted XML file and generating a print steam having been formatted using the formatting template; and

a printer for printing the print steam according to the formatting defined by the formatting template;

wherein the formatting template defines a data map format containing XML descriptors defining the formatting for an element of the XML file.

11. The printing system of claim 10 wherein the XML descriptors are identified by a qualified tag.

12. The printing system of claim 10 wherein the qualified tag comprises a concatenation of XML element start tags that must be traversed in the XML file to get to a particular element.

13. The printing system of claim 10 wherein the qualified tag identifies a description that is used to format the content for the element.

14. The printing system of claim 13 wherein the qualified tag is generated whenever a start tag is encountered.

15. The printing system of claim 13 wherein the qualified tag is modified whenever a start tag is encountered.

16. The printing system of claim 10 wherein the XML file to be printed is parsed into element contents that can be broken into fields and processed using a chain of field XMDS.

17. The printing system of claim 16 wherein the element contents are broken into fields either with byte counts or with delimiters.

18. The printing system of claim 10 wherein a chain of attribute XMDS are used for formatting attributes, wherein the attributes are broken into fields, the fields being formatted with a chain of field XMDS.

19. A method for printing XML files directly using a formatting template, comprising:

placing an XML file to be printed on a server spool;

providing a formatting template to a print services facility, wherein the formatting template defines a data map format containing XML descriptors defining the formatting for an element of the XML file; and

pulling the XML file from the spooler for generating a formatted print stream using the formatting template.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

parsing the XML file to be printed into elemental content;

searching the formatting template for formatting instructions for a parsed element content;

determining whether the search was successful;

formatting the element content using formatting instructions obtained by the search; and

determining whether the end of the document has been reached.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising continuing to process parsed element content when the end of the document is not reached.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising sending the formatted data stream to a printer.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein the formatting template comprises a chain of attribute XMDS for formatting attributes, wherein the attributes are broken into fields, the fields being formatted with a chain of field XMDS.

24. An article of manufacture comprising a program storage medium readable by a computer, the medium tangibly embodying one or more programs of instructions executable by the computer to perform a method for printing XML files directly using a formatting template, the method comprising:

placing an XML file to be printed on a server spool;

providing a formatting template to a print services facility, wherein the formatting template defines a data map format containing XML descriptors defining the formatting for an element of the XML file; and

pulling the XML file from the spooler for generating a formatted print stream using the formatting template.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 24, further comprising:

parsing the XML file to be printed into elemental content;

searching the formatting template for formatting instructions for a parsed element content;

determining whether the search was successful;

formatting the element content using formatting instructions obtained by the search; and

determining whether the end of the document has been reached.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 25, further comprising continuing to process parsed element content when the end of the document is not reached.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 26, further comprising sending the formatted data stream to a printer.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 24 wherein the formatting template comprises a chain of attribute XMDS for formatting attributes, wherein the attributes are broken into fields, the fields being formatted with a chain of field XMDS.

29. A printing system, comprising:

spooler means for receiving printable information from the print channel;

print driver means for parsing an XML file, formatting the XML file according to a formatting means, the print services facility organizing a data stream representing the formatted XML file and generating a print steam having been formatted using the formatting template; and

printing means for printing the print steam according to the formatting defined by the formatting template;

wherein the formatting means defines a data map format containing XML descriptors defining the formatting for an element of the XML file.