System and method for supporting non-native XML in native XML of a word-processor document

• US 20040205583A1
• Filed: 06/27/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Little, Robert A., Jones, Brian M., Wang, Ziyi, Sawicki, Marcin, Sunderland, E. Mark
• Granted Patent: US 7,036,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/513
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for enabling validation of an extensible markup language (XML) document having elements associated with two or more schemata where elements of each schema may be arbitrarily nested within elements from the other schema and each set of elements remains valid within it'"'"'s own schema. Elements of the second schema are transparent to the elements of the first schema when the word-processor validates the elements of the first schema. The elements of the second schema are separately validated, such that the elements of the first schema are transparent for the validation of the elements corresponding to the second schema.

Claims

1. A method for supporting validation of a extensible markup language (XML) document that includes non-native XML within a native XML, the method comprising:

determining whether an element in the XML document is associated with one of the non-native XML and the native XML;

generating a parallel tree that includes nodes, wherein each node corresponds the element of the markup language file associated with the non-native XML;

validating the elements associated with the native XML in the XML document while ignoring the elements associated with the arbitrary markup language; and

validating the parallel tree separately from the XML document, such that the elements associated with the native XML are transparent when validating the non-native XML.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises mapping each node to its corresponding element in the markup language file, such that the position of each element associated with the arbitrary markup language is stored.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises generating a markup language document that corresponds to the validated elements associated with the native XML and the validated elements associated with the non-native XML.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of validating the elements associated with the native XML is executed internally by the word-processor.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the word-processor determines the validity of the elements associated with the native XML such that the XML document is built as the word-processor evaluates each element.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of validating the parallel tree separately from the XML document includes examining the parallel tree with a markup language validation engine according to a non-native XML schema that corresponds to the elements of the XML document that are associated with the non-native XML.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising effectively treating the elements associated with the non-native XML that are also associated with multiple different schemata, as separate files when validated.

8. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components, comprising:

a first component for generating an extensible markup language (XML) document that includes elements associated with a non-native XML nested within elements associated with a native XML of the word-processor;

a second component for storing nodes, wherein each node is associated with each element associated with the non-native XML;

a third component for validating the elements associated with the native XML in the first component while the elements associated with the non-native XML are transparent; and

a fourth component for validating the second component separately from the first component, such that the elements associated with the native XML are transparent while the elements associated with the non-native XML are validated.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising a fifth component for providing a schema that is associated with the non-native XML elements, wherein the non-native XML elements are validated against the fifth component.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the second component is further arranged such that each node is mapped to its corresponding non-native XML element within the first component.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first component is further arranged such that a placeholder is associated with each non-native XML element when its corresponding node is generated in the second component.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first component further includes elements associated with the native XML nested within elements associated with the non-native XML.

13. A computer-readable medium encoded with a data structure, comprising:

a first element that is associated with a native extensible markup language (XML) associated with a word-processor; and

a second element that is associated with a non-native XML, wherein the second element is nested within the first element and the first element is transparent when the second element is validated and the second element is transparent when the first element is validated.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising a third element that is associated with the native XML, wherein the third element is nested within the second element.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first element is validated separately from the second element.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first element is validated against a first schema associated with the native XML and the second element is validated against a second schema associated with the non-native XML.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first element is validated by the word-processor.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the second element is validated by a non-native XML validation engine.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first and second elements form a valid XML document.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for supporting validation of an extensible markup language (XML) document that includes non-native XML within native XML of a word-processor, the instructions comprising:

determining whether an element in the XML document is associated with one of a first namespace and a second namespace, wherein the first namespace is associated with the native XML and the second namespace is associated with the non-native XML;

generating a parallel tree that includes nodes, wherein each node corresponds the element of the XML document associated with the second namespace;

mapping each node to its corresponding element in the markup language file, such that the position of each element associated with the second namespace is stored;

validating each element of the XML document such that elements associated with the first namespace are transparent when elements associated with the second namespace are validated, and the elements associated with the second namespace are transparent when elements associated with the first namespace are validated.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of validating the elements associated with the first namespace is executed internally by the word-processor.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the word-processor determines the validity of the elements associated with the first namespace such that the XML document is built as the word-processor evaluates each element.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of validating the parallel tree separately from the XML file includes examining the parallel tree with an XML validation engine according to an non-native XML schema that corresponds to the elements of the XML file that are associated with the second namespace.