Hierarchical drag and drop structure editor for web sites

• US 20040205594A1
• Filed: 10/02/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Kleinberg, David, Frid-Nielsen, Martin, Arora, Gagan, Mok, Clement, Brown, Gregory, Lakshminarayan, Rajagopal, Arora, Samir
• Granted Patent: US 7,246,307 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/513
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A method and apparatus for a structure editor implementing a “top-down” approach to designing a Web page. The user uses a “drag and drop” interface to add, delete, and move display elements to define the hierarchy of the site and to define the layout of each page in the site. The present invention automatically generates a layout for each page. This layout contains display elements that represent the links between pages of the site. The present invention automatically adds, removes, and deletes the appropriate links between the pages of the site as the user moves display elements. After the user has defined the hierarchy of the site and the layout of each page in the site, the user “publishes” the site. The publish function automatically generates HTML for each page of the site in accordance with the display elements of each page, yielding true WYSIWYG pages for the site.

Claims

1. A method for publishing hierarchically defined web site comprising the steps of:

identifying links for which hypertext mark-up language pages are to be generated;

generating hypertext mark-up language links for internal links;

generating hypertext mark-up language links for external links; and

generating, for links to a home page, a parent page, child pages, and sibling page links by finding said pages, and generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises providing a uniform resource locator for each of said pages.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises providing buttons with names of each of said pages.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises, for said sibling pages, generating a hypertext mark-up language link to a next sibling page.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises, for said sibling pages, generating a hypertext mark-up language link to a previous sibling page.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises generating a hypertext mark-up link up in said hierarchy for said parent page.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises generating a hypertext mark-up link down said hierarchy for said child page.

8. A system for publishing hierarchically defined web site comprising the steps of:

means for identifying links for which hypertext mark-up language pages are to be generated;

means for generating hypertext mark-up language links for internal links;

means for generating hypertext mark-up language links for external link;

means for finding a parent page, child pages and sibling pages for a home page; and

generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said means for generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises means for providing a uniform resource locator for each of said pages.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein said means for generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises means for providing buttons with names of each of said pages.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein said means generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises means for generating a hypertext mark-up language link from a first sibling page to a next sibling page.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein said means for generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises means for generating a hypertext mark-up language link form a first sibling page to a previous sibling page.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein said means for generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises means for generating a hypertext mark-up link up in said hierarchy to said parent page.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein said means for generating hypertext mark-up language links to each of said pages comprises generating a hypertext mark-up link down said hierarchy to said child page from said parent page.

15. A method for publishing a hierarchically defined web site comprising the steps of:

traversing a hierarchical tree of a web site;

building multiple hypertext mark-up language pages for each stacked page, comprising the steps of;

creating an initial multiple hypertext mark-up language for a data page of said stacked page;

creating a multiple hypertext mark-up language table for a body of said data page;

creating a final hypertext mark-up language page for said data page;

repeating, said creating an initial hypertext mark-up language and said creating a hypertext mark-up language table, for each of said data pages in said stacked page; and

building a hypertext mark-up language page for each normal page, comprising the steps of;

creating an initial hypertext mark-up language for said normal page;

creating a hypertext mark-up language-table for a body of said normal page;

creating a final hypertext mark-up language page for said normal page.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said building a hypertext mark-up language page for each of said stacked pages further comprises the step of:

creating a hypertext mark-up language-table for a header of each of said data pages.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein said building a hypertext mark-up language page for each of said stacked pages further comprises the step of:

creating a hypertext mark-up language table for a footer of each of said data pages.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein said building a hypertext mark-up language page for each of said normal pages further comprises the step of:

creating a hypertext mark-up language table for a header of said normal page.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein said building a multiple hypertext mark-up language page for each of said normal pages further comprises the step of:

creating a hypertext mark-up language table for a footer for of said normal page.