Data processing

• US 20030097635A1
• Filed: 11/19/2002
• Published: 05/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Giannetti, Fabio
• Application Number:
  US10/299,618
• Publication Number:
  US 20030097635A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/241
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database

Abstract

A method of generating data suitable for transmission to at least one data-receiving device, said method comprising the following steps: specifying said data in a first and a second portion, said first portion being substantially independent of any formatting, and said second portion containing said formatting for said first portion specified in a platform independent manner; transforming said second portion, using a first transform, to generate a platform dependent portion containing said formatting specified in a platform dependent manner; and combining said first portion with said platform dependent portion using a second transform to generate said data suitable for transmission to said at least one data-receiving device. This method may be suitable for generating data suitable for transmission to a variety of platforms including WML, HTML, XSL-FO, etc. based devices.

Claims

1. A method of generating data suitable for transmission to at least one data-receiving device, said method comprising the following steps:

i. specifying said data in a first and a second portion, said first portion being substantially independent of any formatting, and said second portion containing said formatting for said first portion specified in a platform independent manner;

ii. transforming said second portion, using a first transform, to generate a platform dependent portion containing said formatting specified in a platform dependent manner; and

iii. combining said first portion with said platform dependent portion using a second transform to generate said data suitable for transmission to said at least one data-receiving device.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the method is arranged such that said first portion contains at least one marker identifying a section of the first portion.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein said marker identifies a section such that formatting specific to that section can be applied to said section.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein said method arranges said second portion such that it contains at least one of the following items of formatting information:

font type, font size, font colour, font weight (i.e. whether the font is to be displayed in italic, bold, normal,), justification, line spacing, character spacing.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein said first portion is written in a device independent language.

7. A method according to claim 6 wherein said device independent language is XML.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein said second portion is written in a device independent language.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein said device independent language is XML.

10. A method according to claim 1 wherein said first transform is written in XSL.

11. A method according to claim 1 wherein said second transform is written in XSL.

12. A method according to claim 1 comprising holding said data on a server and arranging said server to perform said method upon receipt of a request for said data.

13. A method according to claim 12 wherein said request is from a data-receiving device for data to be sent thereto.

14. A method according to claim 12 wherein said request is from a first data-receiving device requesting that data should be sent to a second data-receiving device.

15. A method according to claim 1 in which said data suitable for transmission to said at least one data-receiving device is generated in advance and stored for transmission to a data-receiving device.

16. A method according to claim 1 comprising generating said data suitable for transmission to any of the following data-receiving devices:

a WAP enabled telephone, a web enabled television, a printer, a browser, a PDA.

17. A computer readable medium holding a program arranged to run the method of claim 1.

5. A method according to clam 1 wherein said first and second portions are held in separate files.

18. A data structure accessible by a processing apparatus for processing and subsequent transmission to a data-receiving device, comprising in combination:

a first portion containing data that it is desired to send to said data-receiving devices, held in a platform independent form, and being substantially free of any formatting information;

a second portion specifying how the first portion should be displayed on said data-receiving device, said second portion containing said formatting information for said first portion specified in a platform independent manner.

19. A structure according to claim 18 in which said first portion is written in a mark-up language.

20. A structure according to claim 19 wherein said mark-up language is XML.

21. A structure according to claim 18 in which said second portion is written in a mark-up language.

22. A structure according to claim 21 wherein said mark-up language is XML.

23. A structure according to claim 18 comprising arranging said first and second portions in separate files.

24. A structure according to claim 18 in which the first transform is written in XSL.

25. A structure according to claim 18 in which the second transform is written in XSL.

26. A processing apparatus arranged to hold data intended for transmission to at least one data-receiving device, said data being held in at least a first portion substantially independent of any formatting, and a second portion containing said formatting for said first portion specifying formatting for said first portion in a platform independent manner, said apparatus comprising processing circuitry including a transmitter and receiver, said receiver arranged to receive a data request and pass said request to said processing circuitry, on receipt of said data request said processing circuitry being arranged to transform said second portion to generate a transformed version suitable for sending to said data-receiving device and further to combine said transformed version with said first portion to generate a data-receiving device specific portion, and further being arranged to send said data-receiving device specific portion to said transmitter for transmission to said data-receiving device.

27. A method of generating data suitable for transmission to at least one data-receiving device, said method comprising the following steps:

i. specifying said data in a first and a second portion, said first portion being written in XML, substantially independent of any formatting, and containing at least one marker identifying a section thereof, and said second portion being written in XML and containing said formatting for at least said section identified by said marker;

ii. transforming said second portion, using a first transform written in XSL, to generate a platform dependent portion containing said formatting specified in a platform dependent manner; and

iii. combining said first portion with said platform dependent portion using a second transform written in XSL to generate said data suitable for transmission to said at least one data-receiving device such that formatting specified by said second portion is applied to at least said section identified by said marker.

28. An apparatus arranged to hold data intended for transmission to at least one data-receiving means for receiving and processing data, said data being held in at least a first substantially independent of any formatting, and a second portion containing said formatting for said first portion specifying formatting for said first portion in a platform independent manner, said apparatus comprising a processing means for processing data and including a transmitter means for transmitting data and receiver means for receiving data, said receiver means being arranged to receive a data request and pass said request to said processing means, on receipt of said data request said processing means being arranged to transform said second portion to generate a transformed version of said second portion suitable for said data receiving means and further to combine said transformed version with said first portion to generate a data-receiving means specific portion, and further being arranged to send said data-receiving means specific portion to said transmitter means for transmission to said data-receiving means.

29. A method of generating data suitable for transmission to at least one data receiving device said method comprising the following steps:

i. specifying the data in at least a first and a second portion, said first portion containing said data, and said second portion specifying how said first portion should be displayed in a device independent manner;

ii. transforming said second portion into a device dependent manner; and

iii. combining said first and said transformed second portions into a data-receiving device specific document to generate said device specific data suitable for transmission to said data-receiving device.

30. A method according to claim 29 wherein the method is arranged such that said first portion contains at least one marker identifying a section of the first portion.

31. A method according to claim 29 wherein said first portion is written in XML.

32. A method according to claim 29 wherein said second portion is written in XML.