Document transformation

• US 20040268249A1
• Filed: 07/30/2004
• Published: 12/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mobileaware Technologies Limited
• Original Assignee: Mobileaware Technologies Limited
• Inventors: Fennelly, Thomas, Brady, Ronan Charles, Geraghty, Ronan John, Hanrahan, Rotan
• Application Number:
  US10/902,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20040268249A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

In a server a source document is represented as a source document object model (13). For delivery of the source document to a user device such as a mobile phone the server dynamically selects transformation maps (10) and merges them to provide a compound map (12). The maps (10) are selected according to characteristics of the delivery channel and of the user device. The source DOM (13) is then transformed into a target DOM (14) in a single pass. Each node of the source DOM (13) self-transforms using the map rules. At the node level the transformation may change node attributes and/or node-to-node relationships.

Claims

1. A process carried out by a server for providing an output document of content for delivery to a user device, by transforming a source document, characterised in that,

the source document is represented in the server as a source document object model (DOM) having a plurality of interconnected nodes,

the server dynamically selects a transformation map according to characteristics of the user device and/or its delivery channel, the transformation map comprising at least one transformation rule, and

the server transforms the source DOM to a target DOM on a node-by-node basis according to the selected transformation map.

2. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein a source node transforms to provide a target node having different attributes.

3. A process as claimed in claims 1, wherein a source node transforms to provide a target node having a different node-to-node relationships.

4. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein a source node transforms to provide different attributes or relationships of a plurality of target nodes.

5. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein a source node transforms to create at least one additional target node.

6. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one source node self-transforms by executing a node method to dynamically execute a rule of the transformation map.

7. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is a transformation map associated with each potential user device and delivery channel combination.

8. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein a rule of the selected transformation map causes an additional rule to be retrieved, either from within the server or from an external system.

9. A process as claimed in claim 5, wherein a node transforms while other source document nodes are being linked to complete the source DOM.

10. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transformation takes place in a single pass.

11. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transformation map is represented as a mark-up language document and associated external classes.

12. A process as claimed in claim 1, comprising the step of selecting a plurality of transformation maps and merging them to provide a compound transformation map.

13. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transformation map includes a null rule causing a source node to be unchanged.

14. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein external rules referenced by rules of the transformation map are retrieved by reference to an object class.

15. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transformation replaces elements in a source node with content that represents a fragment of embedded script in which a tag refers to a user device-side process.

16. A server comprising means for performing a process of claim 1.

17. A computer program product comprising software code for performing a method of claim 1 when executing on a digital computer.