Method and apparatus for data

• US 20050039113A1
• Filed: 08/12/2003
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Khuwaja, Ramzan, Mahwal, Sapna, Balducci, Corrado, Lam, Brenda Miu-to, Dawisha, Feras, Chan, Yumman
• Granted Patent: US 7,233,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/239
• 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 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

An information handling system comprises an input for receiving a spreadsheet application in static HTML form; a compiler for compiling the spreadsheet application to produce a generic XML document; an interpreter for interpreting the XML document to produce a browser-specific hypertext document representing the spreadsheet; and an output for serving the hypertext document to a client.

Claims

1. An information handling system, comprising:

an input for receiving a spreadsheet application in static hypertext form;

a compiler for compiling the spreadsheet application to produce a generic XML document;

an interpreter for interpreting the XML document to produce a browser-specific hypertext document representing the spreadsheet; and

an output for serving the hypertext document to a client.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a middle tier repository for storing at least the XML document.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the input is configured to receive Excel spreadsheets.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data binding tool for binding spreadsheet data to a data source.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a servlet for facilitating communication between the client and the interpreter.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the input is for receiving a spreadsheet application bound to a data source.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the compiler is further configured for producing an XSLT Stylesheet.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the compiler embeds pseudo code instructions in the XML document.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the compiler is further configured for producing the XML document to comprise four main child elements:

InitialDataDisplayed, XSLTStyleSheet, SpreadSheetFormulas, SpreadSheetGraphics.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter is configured for generating pseudo code instructions in the hypertext document.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter is configured to produce HTML documents.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter is configured to produce WML documents.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter is configured to execute pseudo code instructions from the hypertext document to generate another hypertext document.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter is configured to dynamically create graphical charts for the spreadsheet application.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter is configured to execute formulas and application logic flow for the spreadsheet application in the middle tier.

16. The system of claim 4 wherein the data binding tool comprises an Office Connect application.

17. A method comprising steps of:

receiving a spreadsheet application in static hypertext form;

compiling the spreadsheet application to produce a generic XML document; and

interpreting the XML document to produce a browser-specific hypertext document representing the spreadsheet; and

serving the hypertext document to a client.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of:

binding the spreadsheet application to a data source.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising storing at least the XML document in a middle tier repository.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the interpreting step further comprises producing an HTML document.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the interpreting step further comprises producing an WML document.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving an Excel spreadsheet.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of providing a servlet for facilitating communication between the client and an interpreter.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the compiling step further comprises producing an XSLT Stylesheet.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the compiling step further comprises embedding pseudo code instructions in the XML document.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein the interpreting step further comprises generating pseudo code instructions in the hypertext document.

27. The method of claim 17, wherein the interpreting step further comprises executing pseudo code instructions from the hypertext document to generate another hypertext document.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein the interpreting step further comprises executing formulas and application logic flow for the spreadsheet application in a middle tier.

29. The method of claim 17, wherein the interpreting step further comprises dynamically creating graphical charts for the spreadsheet application.

30. A computer readable medium comprising instructions for:

receiving a spreadsheet application in static hypertext form;

compiling the spreadsheet application to produce a generic XML document; and

interpreting the XML document to produce a browser-specific hypertext document representing the spreadsheet; and

serving the hypertext document to a client.