Method and apparatus for supporting context links for application program text
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving at an application program executing on a computer system a request to open a context link to a text element that is part of a document being operated on by the application program;
determining whether more than one data object of a data object type is associated with the text element and, if so, performing the following;
displaying a list of data objects of that data object type that are associated with the text element;
displaying information to distinguish listed data objects;
receiving a selection of a data object from the displayed list; and
receiving a selection from a list of actions relating to a context link for the selected data object.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for supporting text-based context links for application programs. In some embodiments, an application executing on a first computer system may receive a request to open a context link to a text element in a document. The application may determine, based on a list of context links, whether more than one data object is associated with the text element. If so, a list of data objects associated with the text element and distinguishing information may be displayed, a selection of a data object from the displayed list may be received, and a selection of an action relating to a context link for the selected data object may be received. In some embodiments, the context link list is created by parsing a document into text elements at the first computer, storing entries representing a plurality of text elements on a list, and transmitting the list to a second computer to determine in the second computer if the text elements are associated with data objects. In some embodiments, before transmitting a data element to a second computer to determine an association with a data object, a software cache is checked to determine if the text element has already been transmitted, with text elements removed from the software cache if the software cache is larger than a threshold amount.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving at an application program executing on a computer system a request to open a context link to a text element that is part of a document being operated on by the application program;
determining whether more than one data object of a data object type is associated with the text element and, if so, performing the following;
displaying a list of data objects of that data object type that are associated with the text element;
displaying information to distinguish listed data objects;
receiving a selection of a data object from the displayed list; and
receiving a selection from a list of actions relating to a context link for the selected data object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method comprising:
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parsing a new document being operated on by an application program at a first computer into text elements;
storing an entry on a first list for each of a plurality of the text elements, wherein each entry represents a text element;
transmitting the first list from the first computer to a second computer to determine in the second computer if the text elements represented on the first list are associated with data objects in the second computer;
receiving an indication at the first computer from the second computer whether text elements represented on the first list were determined to be associated with a data object; and
creating an entry in a context link list at the first computer for each of the text elements that were determined to be associated with a data object, wherein entries on the context link list indicate that a text element is associated with at least one data object as a context link. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method comprising:
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parsing a new document being operated on by an application program at a first computer into text elements;
determining if a text element is represented in a software cache, wherein the text elements represented in the software cache were previously transmitted to a second computer for determining if those text elements are associated with a data object;
if the text element is not represented in the software cache, performing the following;
transmitting a representative of the text element from the first computer to the second computer to determine in the second computer if the text element is associated with one or more data objects;
determining whether the size of software cache is greater than a threshold amount and, if so, removing entries from the software cache;
adding the transmitted text element to the software cache; and
receiving a response at the first computer from the second computer that indicates whether the transmitted text element was determined to be associated with a data object and, if so, creating an entry in a context link list at the first computer to indicate that the text element is associated with at least one data object as a context link. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification