Extensible stylesheet designs in visual graphic environments

• US 20030120671A1
• Filed: 12/20/2002
• Published: 06/26/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chartoleaux KG LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Xmlcities
• Inventors: Kim, Hong J., Huang, Evan S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,080,083 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/16 Automatic learning of transformation rules, e.g. from examples
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Techniques for designing stylesheets using meta-tag and/or associated meta-tag information are described. In one embodiment, a graphic user interface environment including at least two displays is provided. One of the displays is from a commonly used browser or an application to display a target file including a plurality of objects and the other display is used to facilitate the editing of a tree structure. Each of the nodes in the tree structure is associated with one of the objects by associated meta-tag information. Based on the tree structure, a source can be generated. Together with the source file, the stylesheet can be designed in accordance with the displayed target file.

Claims

1. A method for designing extensible stylesheets in a visual graphic environments, the method comprising:

providing the graphic user interface environment including at least a first display and a second display;

displaying a source file in the first display, the displayed source file including a plurality of objects;

creating a tree structure in the second display;

associating each of the objects with one of the nodes in the tree structure in the second display by associated meta-tag information; and

creating an stylesheet from the tree structure in accordance with the displayed source file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the source file is associated with a DTD file, and the method further comprising generating the tree structure from the DTD file.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the source file is a markup language file.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the markup language file is selected from a group consisting of an HTML file, a WML file, an XML file and a RTF file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating of the tree structure in the second display comprises representing each of the nodes as an icon, the icon being labeled with a corresponding text from the source file when the each of the nodes is associated with one of the objects in the displayed source file.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising obtaining corresponding meta-tag information from the associated meta-tag information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the meta-tag information pertains to information about association of one of the nodes with another one or more of the nodes in the tree structure.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the associated meta-tag information of one of the nodes in the tree structure pertains to association information about the one of the nodes with the one of associated objects.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the creating of the stylesheet comprises:

generating from the tree structure a markup language file including a plurality of elements, each of the elements corresponding to one of the nodes in the tree structure;

differentiating the elements if there are any of the elements being identical;

generating a resultant file from the markup language file in accordance with a DTD file of the displayed source file, wherein the resultant file is the stylesheet.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the markup language file is an XML file, and the resultant file is an XLS or XSLT file.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the differentiating of the elements comprising:

identifying one of the elements as a reference;

determining if any of the elements except for the reference are identical to the reference; and

inserting one of identifiers to each of some of the elements when the some of the elements are determined to be identical to the reference, wherein each of the identifiers is different from each other, and the some of the elements are uniquely differentiated by the identifiers.

12. A method for designing extensible stylesheets in a visual graphic environments, the method comprising:

providing the graphic user interface environment including at least a first display and a second display;

displaying a source file in the first display, the displayed source file including a plurality of objects, each being a group of texts, an image, or a sign;

creating an tree structure in the second display;

associating each of the objects with one of the nodes by associated meta-tag information, wherein the one of the nodes is labeled accordingly in the tree structure in the second display whenever one of the objects is identified and associated with the one of the nodes, and the tree structure subsequently shows hierarchical relationships of the objects;

creating an XML file from the tree structure to contain contents respectively representing the objects; and

creating an XSL or XSLT file from the XML file using the associated meta-tag information therein.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising obtaining corresponding meta-tag information from the associated meta-tag information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the meta-tag information pertains to information about association of one of the nodes with another one or more of the nodes in the tree structure.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the associated meta-tag information of one of the nodes in the tree structure pertains to association information about the one of the nodes with the one of associated objects.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the source file is associated with a DTD file, and the creating of the tree structure comprises generating the tree structure from the DTD file and the nodes in the tree structure are located in accordance with the DTD file.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the creating of the XSL or XSLT file from the XML file using the associated meta-tag information therein comprises:

converting the XML file into another file in accordance with the DTD file;

obtaining corresponding meta-tag information from the associated meta-tag information; and

adding XSL declaration at the beginning of the another file.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the associating of the each of the objects with one of the nodes by the associated meta-tag information comprises dragging the each of the objects from the first display to the one of the nodes in the second display through a clipboard, a drag-and-drop mechanism in an operating system or an OLE data transfer mechanism.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the associating of the each of the objects with one of the nodes by the associated meta-tag information comprises receiving typed entries from a user for the one of the nodes to indicate that the each of the objects is assigned to the one of the nodes.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the creating of the XML file from the tree structure comprises traversing the nodes in the tree structure.

21. A software product including computer program code for designing extensible stylesheets, the software product executable in a computing device operating under a window operating system, the software product comprising:

program code for providing a graphic user interface environment including at least a first display and a second display;

program code for displaying a source file in the first display, the displayed source file including a plurality of objects;

program code for creating a tree structure in the second display;

program code for associating each of the objects with one of the nodes in the tree structure in the second display by associated meta-tag information; and

program code for creating an stylesheet from the tree structure in accordance with the displayed source file.

22. The software product of claim 21, wherein the source file is associated with a DTD file, and the method further comprising generating the tree structure from the DTD file.

23. The software product of claim 22, wherein the program code for creating a tree structure comprises program code for representing each of the nodes as an icon, the icon being labeled with a corresponding text from the source file when the each of the nodes is associated with one of the objects in the displayed source file.

24. The software product of claim 23, further comprising program code for obtaining corresponding meta-tag information from the associated meta-tag information.

25. The software product of claim 24, wherein the program code for creating the stylesheet comprises:

program code for generating from the tree structure a markup language file including a plurality of elements, each of the elements corresponding to one of the nodes in the tree structure;

program code for differentiating the elements if there are any of the elements being identical;

program code for generating a resultant file from the markup language file in accordance with a DTD file of the displayed source file, wherein the resultant file is the stylesheet.

26. The software product of claim 25, wherein the program code for differentiating the elements comprising:

program code for identifying one of the elements as a reference;

program code for determining if any of the elements except for the reference are identical to the reference; and

program code for inserting one of identifiers to each of some of the elements when the some of the elements are determined to be identical to the reference, wherein each of the identifiers is different from each other, and the some of the elements are uniquely differentiated by the identifiers.

27. A software product including computer program code for designing extensible stylesheets, the software product executable in a computing device operating under a window operating system, the software product comprising:

program code for providing the graphic user interface environment including at least a first display and a second display;

program code for displaying a source file in the first display, the displayed source file including a plurality of objects, each being a group of texts, an image, or a sign;

program code for creating an tree structure in the second display;

program code for associating each of the objects with one of the nodes by associated meta-tag information, wherein the one of the nodes is labeled accordingly in the tree structure in the second display whenever one of the objects is identified and associated with the one of the nodes, and the tree structure subsequently shows hierarchical relationships of the objects;

program code for creating an XML file from the tree structure to contain contents respectively representing the objects; and

program code for creating an XSL or XSLT file from the XML file using the associated meta-tag information therein.

28. The software product of claim 27, further comprising program code for obtaining corresponding meta-tag information from the associated meta-tag information.

29. The software product of claim 28, wherein the meta-tag information pertains to information about association of one of the nodes with another one or more of the nodes in the tree structure.

30. The software product of claim 28, wherein the associated meta-tag information of one of the nodes in the tree structure pertains to association information about the one of the nodes with the one of associated objects.

31. The software product of claim 27, wherein the source file is associated with a DTD file, and the creating of the tree structure comprises generating the tree structure from the DTD file and the nodes in the tree structure are located in accordance with the DTD file.

32. The software product of claim 31, wherein the program code for creating the XSL or XSLT file from the XML file using the associated meta-tag information therein comprises:

program code for converting the XML file into another file in accordance with the DTD file;

program code for obtaining corresponding meta-tag information from the associated meta-tag information; and

program code for adding XSL declaration at the beginning of the another file.

33. The software product of claim 32, wherein the program code for associating the each of the objects with one of the nodes by the associated meta-tag information comprises program code for allowing dragging of the each of the objects from the first display to the one of the nodes in the second display through a clipboard, a drag-and-drop mechanism in an operating system or an OLE data transfer mechanism.

34. The software product of claim 32, wherein the program code for associating the each of the objects with one of the nodes by the associated meta-tag information comprises program code for receiving typed entries from a user for the one of the nodes to indicate that the each of the objects is assigned to the one of the nodes.

35. The software product of claim 32, wherein the program code for creating the XML file from the tree structure comprises program code for traversing the nodes in the tree structure.