METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PRODUCT FOR PARSING BINARY DATA

• US 20040123277A1
• Filed: 12/18/2002
• Published: 06/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Medical Systems Information Technologies Incorporated (GE Healthcare Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: GE Medical Systems Information Technologies Incorporated (GE Healthcare Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Laferriere, Robert J., Cincotta, James Steven, Schrader, Stuart Lyle
• Granted Patent: US 7,111,286 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/143
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records

Abstract

A method for parsing binary data is disclosed. The method includes receiving binary data and a parse request, the parse request calling for either a non-differenced parsing method or a differenced parsing method, invoking a parse tree and receiving a parse definition to parse the received binary data, parsing the binary data to define a value in accordance with the parse definition and calling a data builder to manage the value parsed. The value parsed is inserted into an updated data tree and an object is returned to the parse requestor.

Claims

1. A method for parsing binary data, comprising:

receiving binary data and a parse request at a value parser, the parse request calling for at least one of a non-differenced parsing method or a differenced parsing method;

invoking a parse tree and receiving a parse definition to parse the received binary data;

parsing the binary data at the parse tree to define a value in accordance with the parse definition and calling a data builder to manage the value parsed;

inserting the value into an updated data tree; and

returning an object to the parse requester.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating communication between a value parser and a parse definition file and parsing the parse definition file; and

building a parse tree at a value parser handler.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said calling for at least one of a non-differenced parsing method or a differenced parsing method comprises calling for a non-differenced parsing method; and

said returning an object to the parse requester comprises returning the updated data tree to the parse requester.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said calling for at least one of a non-differenced parsing method or a differenced parsing method comprises calling for a differenced parsing method, and further comprising:

storing a last known data tree in a memory at the value parser;

retrieving the last known data tree from the memory at the value parser;

creating a differenced tree containing the changes in the data tree from the last known data tree; and

said returning an object to the parse requester comprises returning the differenced tree to the parse requestor.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said building a parse tree comprises:

reading an element into the value parser handler and determining if a parse tree stack is empty;

creating a parse tree root if the stack is empty;

searching the stack for a matching known element name;

identifying a parent parse node, creating a standard node, adding the standard node to the parent parse node, and mapping the element to the standard node if the matching known element name is found;

identifying a parent parse node, creating a custom node, adding the custom node to the parent parse node, and mapping the element to the custom node if the matching known element name is not found.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said parsing the binary data comprises:

parsing a root of the parse tree, the parse tree representing the structure of the binary data;

parsing a child of each parse node stemming from the root until a primitive parse node is identified;

defining and parsing a value at the current position in the binary data for association with the primitive parse node; and

calling a data builder to insert the parsed value into a data tree.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein said creating a differenced tree comprises:

comparing the updated data tree to the last known data tree; and

creating a differenced tree containing the changes from the last known data tree to the updated data tree.

8. A method for parsing medical binary data for transmission over a communication line, comprising:

receiving binary data and a parse request at a value parser, the parse request calling for at least one of a non-differenced parsing method or a differenced parsing method;

storing a last known data tree in a memory at the value parser;

invoking a parse tree and receiving a parse definition to parse the received binary data;

parsing the binary data at the parse tree to define a value in accordance with the parse definition and calling a data builder to manage the value parsed;

inserting the value into an updated data tree;

retrieving the last known data tree from the memory at the value parser if a differenced parsing method was called;

comparing the updated data tree to the last known data tree if a differenced parsing method was called;

creating a differenced tree containing the changes from the last known data tree to the updated data tree if a differenced parsing method was called; and

returning at least one of the updated data tree or the differenced tree to the parse requestor.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

said inserting the value further comprises inserting the value into an updated data tree having an absence of embedded protocol information; and

said creating a differenced tree further comprises creating a differenced tree having an absence of embedded protocol information.

10. A system for parsing binary data, comprising:

a hospital computer system in communication with a network, said hospital computer system including software to implement a method for parsing medical binary data for transmission over a communication line, said method comprising;

receiving binary data and a parse request at a value parser, the parse request calling for at least one of a non-differenced parsing method or a differenced parsing method;

storing a last known data tree in a memory at the value parser;

invoking a parse tree and receiving a parse definition to parse the received binary data;

parsing the binary data at the parse tree to define a value in accordance with the parse definition and calling a data builder to manage the value parsed;

inserting the value into an updated data tree;

retrieving the last known data tree from the memory at the value parser if a differenced parsing method was called;

comparing the updated data tree to the last known data tree if a differenced parsing method was called;

creating a differenced tree containing the changes from the last known data tree to the updated data tree if a differenced parsing method was called; and

returning at least one of the updated data tree or the differenced tree to the parse requestor.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a network, and

said hospital computer system being in communication with said network.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said network is an internet.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein said network is an intranet.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said network is wireless.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein:

said inserting the value further comprises inserting the value into an updated data tree having an absence of embedded protocol information; and

said creating a differenced tree further comprises creating a differenced tree having an absence of embedded protocol information.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a network, and said hospital computer system being in communication with said network.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said network is an internet.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein said network is an intranet.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein said network is wireless.

20. A method for parsing binary data, comprising:

initializing a value parser by reading a parse definition file and creating a parse tree representative of the parse definition;

accepting binary data input having at least one of a primitive data element or a non-primitive data element at the value parser and the parse tree;

calling a data builder in response to the primitive data element and inserting the primitive data element into a data tree at a primitive parse node;

calling a data builder in response to the non-primitive data element and inserting the non-primitive data element into the data tree at a non-primitive parse node; and

establishing and returning at least one of a non-differenced data tree or a differenced tree.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said establishing and returning at least one of a non-differenced data tree or a differenced tree comprises:

comparing the data tree with a cached last known data tree;

creating a differenced tree; and

returning the differenced tree.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said returning the differenced tree comprises:

returning the differenced tree in the absence of embedded protocol information.

23. A computer program product for parsing binary data, the product comprising:

a storage medium, readable by a processing circuit, storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for;

receiving binary data and a parse request at a value parser, the parse request calling for at least one of a non-differenced parsing method or a differenced parsing method;

storing a last known data tree in a memory at the value parser;

invoking a parse tree and receiving a parse definition to parse the received binary data;

parsing the binary data at the parse tree to define a value in accordance with the parse definition and calling a data builder to manage the value parsed;

inserting the value into an updated data tree;

retrieving the last known data tree from the memory at the value parser if a differenced parsing method was called;

comparing the updated data tree to the last known data tree if a differenced parsing method was called;

creating a differenced tree containing the changes from the last known data tree to the updated data tree if a differenced parsing method was called; and

returning at least one of the updated data tree or the differenced tree to the parse requestor.

24. The computer program of claim 23, wherein:

said inserting the value further comprises inserting the value into an updated data tree having an absence of embedded protocol information; and

said creating a differenced tree further comprises creating a differenced tree having an absence of embedded protocol information.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein said instructions are XML instructions.