Techniques for previewing content package files through a portal

• US 20050102373A1
• Filed: 12/11/2003
• Published: 05/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Grinberg, Oded
• Granted Patent: US 8,312,102 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers

Abstract

Techniques for previewing a content package file through a portal interface before the file is imported to the portal server computer are provided. A content package file is a relational data structure that contains references to a first level of content files. The first level content files within the content package file can contain references to second level content files, the second level content files can contain references to third level content files, etc. The references to the content files are replaced with content from the content files. Information about the content files is displayed in a preview format through a portal interface before the content files are imported. The user can be notified if any of the references to content files contain errors.

Claims

1. A method for generating a preview of a content package file, the method comprising:

retrieving first level content files referred to in the content package file;

extracting content from the first level content files and replacing references to the first level content files in the content package file with the content from the first level content files to create a combined file; and

creating a preview of at least a portion of the content package file based on the content in the combined file.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the preview of the content package file includes meta-data about the first level content files.

3. The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the first level content files contain references to second level content files.

4. The method according to claim 3 further comprising:

if the first level content files contains references to second level content files, retrieving the second level content files;

extracting content from the second level content files and replacing the references with content from the second level content files.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the preview of the content package file contains information about the first level and the second level content files in an hierarchical format.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the hierarchical format of the preview is expandable to view the information about the first level and the second level content files.

7. The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

importing the content package file to a portal server computer.

8. The method according to claim 7 further comprising:

storing the content package file and the first level content files on the portal server computer, wherein the first level content files overwrite duplicative files that are stored on the portal server computer.

9. The method according to claim 7 further comprising:

storing the content package file and the first level content files on the portal server computer, wherein the first level content files do not overwrite duplicative files that are stored on the portal server computer.

10. The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

displaying a notification if any of the references to any content files contain errors.

11. A computer program product for previewing a content package file comprising code stored on a computer readable medium, the code comprising:

code for fetching first level content files referred to in the content package file;

code for obtaining content from the first level content files and replacing references to the first level content files in the content package file with the content from the first level content files to create a combined file; and

code for generating a preview of the content package file based on the content in the combined file.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

code for displaying a notification if any of the references to the first level content files contain errors.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

code for determining whether any of the first level content files contain references to second level content files.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising:

code for fetching the second level content files referred to in the first level content files;

code for obtaining content from the second level content files;

code for replacing the references to the second level content files with the content from the second level content files to create the combined file.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the code for previewing the content package file displays the content from the first level and the second level content files in an hierarchical format.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the hierarchical format is expandable to view the content from the first level and the second level content files.

17. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

code for importing the content package file to a portal server computer.

18. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

code for storing the content package file and the first level content files on the portal server computer so that the first level content files do not overwrite duplicative files stored on the portal server computer.

19. A computer system that previews a content package file containing references to content files, the computer system comprising:

a portal server that fetches content files referenced within the content package file, replaces references to the content files with content extracted from the content files to create a combined file, and creates a preview screen of the content package file and the content files using the combined file; and

a client that displays the preview screen.

20. The computer system according to claim 19 wherein the preview screen displays a notification if any of the references contain errors.

21. The computer system according to claim 19 wherein the preview screen displays the content from the content files in an hierarchical format.

22. The computer system according to claim 19 wherein the portal server imports the content package file and the content files from the client if a user selects an import option after viewing the preview screen.

23. The computer system according to claim 19 wherein the content files include first level content files and second level content files.

24. The computer system according to claim 19 wherein the preview screen displays meta-data about the content files.