Extensible stylesheet designs using meta-tag and/or associated meta-tag information

• US 20030120686A1
• 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 7,146,564 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/200
• 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 extensible stylesheet designs using meta-tag and/or associated meta-tag Information are described. To generate a proper stylesheet (e.g., an XSL or XSLT file) from a source file (e.g., an XML file), all meta-tag and/or associated meta-tag Information are differentiated by attaching respectively unique identifiers to those that are otherwise identical. To facilitate user required operations on certain data in the source file, a document source path for the data is identified and inserted with one or more operators thus to form document source path information. The differentiated meta-tag and/or associated meta-tag Information and source path information are relied upon to generate one or more stylesheets.

Claims

1. A method for designing extensible stylesheets, the method comprising:

receiving a file including a plurality of elements;

identifying one of the elements as a reference;

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

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 thus the some of the elements are uniquely differentiated; and

wherein, when the file is used to generate another file, the elements are uniquely identified and converted accordingly in the another file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the elements pertains to either one of meta-tag information and associated meta-tag information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the meta-tag information of an element pertains to information about association of the element with another element, data or attributes in the file.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the associated meta-tag information of an element pertains to information about data from a source file and includes or is used to show the information about meta-tag information of an element in the file;

and wherein the associated meta-tag information is replaced accordingly with corresponding meta-tag information when the another file is being generated.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the meta-tag information includes a document object path and source information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the meta-tag information is expressed in a form of {source information:

document object path}.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user required operations on some of the elements;

identifying a document object path (DOP) for each of the some of the elements; and

creating document object path information (DOPI) for each of the some of the elements, wherein the document object path information (DOPI) includes one or more of the user required operations.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the creating of the document object path information (DOPI) includes inserting the one or more of the user required operations in the document object path (DOP).

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each of the user required operations is expressed as a pair of tags to enclose a piece of data in the file, wherein the piece of data is operated accordingly when the another file is being generated.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user required operations include at least two types of operations, both of the operations can be cascaded to operate a piece of selected data in the file.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserting of one of identifiers to each of some of the elements comprises:

providing a dialog interface to display some of the elements having identical counterparts in the file; and

receiving inputs from a user to attach the one of the identifiers to each of the some of the elements such that the some of the elements are uniquely differentiated.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the another file is a stylesheet in accordance with a desired presentation from the file.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the file is an XML file and the stylesheet is either one of XSL or XSLT file.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the desired presentation is a display of a structured or tagged file from a browser or an application.

29. The software product of claim 9, wherein the user required operations include at least two types of operations, both of the operations can be cascaded to operate a piece of selected data in the file.

32. The software product of claim 12, wherein the file is an XML file and the stylesheet is either one of XSL or XSLT file.

33. The software product of claim 32, wherein the desired presentation is a display of a structured or tagged file from a browser or an application.

15. A method for designing extensible stylesheets, the method comprising:

identifying an element as a reference in an XML file after the XML file is parsed, wherein the XML file includes a plurality of elements and the element is one of the elements in the XML file;

search in the XML file for any of the elements identical to the reference;

labeling explicitly in the XML file some of the elements identical to the reference by respective identifiers such that the elements are respectively differentiated;

wherein each of the elements pertains to either one of meta-tag information and associated meta-tag information; and

wherein, when the file is used to generate a stylesheet in accordance with a presentation of another file, the meta-tag information or associated meta-tag information in the file are converted accordingly in the stylesheet.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the presentation of is a display of the another file in a browser or an application.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the another file is a structured or tagged file.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the labeling explicitly in the XML file some of the elements comprises inserting a different identifier in each of the some of the elements such that the some of the elements are visually differentiated.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the labeling explicitly in the XML file some of the elements comprises:

determining an initial identifier;

inserting the initial identifier into a first one of the some of elements identical to the reference;

generating another identifier by incrementing the initial identifier;

inserting the another identifier into a second one of the some of elements identical to the reference; and

wherein the first and the second elements are differentiated in the file.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the meta-tag information and associated meta-tag information includes a document object path, and the method further comprising:

receiving user required operations on some of the elements;

inserting an operator in accordance with the user required operations in the document object path of the some of the elements to enclose a piece of data; and

wherein, when the file is used to generate the stylesheet in accordance with the presentation of the another file, the operator enacts on the piece of data such that the stylesheet receives desired results from the user required operations.

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 receiving a file including a plurality of elements;

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

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

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; and

wherein, when the file is used to generate another file, the elements are differentiated and converted accordingly in the another file.

22. The software product of claim 21, wherein each of the elements pertains to either one of meta-tag information and associated meta-tag information.

23. The software product of claim 22, wherein the meta-tag information of an element pertains to information about association of the element with another element, data or attributes in the file, and wherein the associated meta-tag information of an element pertains to information about data from a source file and includes or is used to show the information about meta-tag information of an element in the file.

24. The software product of claim 23, wherein the meta-tag information information includes a document object path and source information.

25. The software product of claim 24, wherein the meta-tag information is expressed in a form of {source information:

document object path}.

26. The software product of claim 21, further comprising:

program code for receiving user required operations on some of the elements;

program code for identifying a document object path for each of the some of the elements; and

program code for creating document object path information for each of the some of the elements, wherein the document object path information includes one or more of the user required operations.

27. The software product of claim 26, wherein the program code for creating the document object path information includes program code for inserting the one or more of the user required operations in the document object path.

28. The software product of claim 27, wherein each of the user required operations is expressed as a pair of tags to enclose a piece of data in the file, wherein the piece of data is operated accordingly when the file is being to generate the another file.

30. The software product of claim 21, wherein the program code for inserting one of identifiers to each of some of the elements comprises:

program code for providing a dialog interface to display some of the elements having identical counterparts in the file; and

program code for receiving inputs from a user to attach the one of the identifiers to each of the some of the elements such that the some of the elements are differentiated.

31. The software product of claim 21, wherein the another file is a stylesheet in accordance with a desired presentation from the file.

34. 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 identifying an element as a reference in an XML file after the XML file is parsed, wherein the XML file includes a plurality of elements and the element is one of the elements;

program code for search in the XML file for any of the elements identical to the reference;

program code for labeling explicitly in the XML file some of the elements identical to the reference by respective identifiers such that the elements are differentiated;

wherein each of the elements pertains to either one of meta-tag information and associated meta-tag information; and

wherein, when the file is used to generate a stylesheet in accordance with a presentation of another file, the meta-tag information or associated meta-tag information in the file are converted accordingly in the stylesheet.

35. The software product of claim 34, wherein the presentation of is a display of the another file in a browser or an application.

36. The software product of claim 35, wherein the another file is a structured or tagged file.

37. The software product of claim 35, wherein the program code for labeling explicitly in the XML file some of the elements comprises program code for inserting a different identifier in each of the some of the elements such that the some of the elements are visually differentiated.

38. The software product of claim 34, wherein the labeling explicitly in the XML file some of the elements comprises:

program code for determining an initial identifier;

program code for inserting the initial identifier into a first one of the some of elements identical to the reference;

program code for generating another identifier by incrementing the initial identifier;

program code for inserting the another identifier into a second one of the some of elements identical to the reference; and

wherein the first and the second elements are differentiated in the file.

39. The software product of claim 34, wherein each of the meta-tag information and associated meta-tag information includes a document object path, and the software product further comprising:

program code for receiving user required operations on some of the elements;

program code for inserting an operator in accordance with the user required operations in the document object path of the some of the elements to enclose a piece of data; and

wherein, when the file is used to generate the stylesheet in accordance with the presentation of the another file, the operator enacts on the piece of data such that the stylesheet receives desired results from the user required operations.