Methods and systems for server side form processing

• US 20060106858A1
• Filed: 11/16/2004
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sikchi, Prakash, O'Connor, Brian G., Aggarwal, Ranjan, Airapetyan, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,721,190 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Various embodiments can efficiently utilize form server resources by, in at least some embodiments, acting only on one tree during the form editing process. Various embodiments can act on a form'"'"'s data and not necessarily a representation of the form'"'"'s view. The described embodiments can support various different presentation formats.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, with a form server, a request that embodies form changes;

loading previous data that corresponds to the form, into a data tree;

operating on the data tree sufficient to incorporate the changes;

after all of the changes are incorporated on the data tree, instantiating, for the first time relative to the changes that were just incorporated, a view tree based on the data tree;

rendering a markup representation of the view tree; and

returning the markup representation to a user agent from which the request was received.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said act of operating comprises mapping at least one identifier associated with a form control onto a corresponding node in the data tree and performing one or more operations on data associated with the form control.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving is performed by receiving an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving is performed by receiving an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made, and wherein the act of operating on the data tree comprises serially processing each entry in the event log and, responsively, operating on the data tree.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving is performed by receiving an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made, and wherein the event log comprises a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving is performed by receiving an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made, and wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions; and

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving is performed by receiving an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made, and wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor; and

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving is performed by receiving an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made, and wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor;

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action; and

a value field for maintaining entries associated with new values for a control.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of receiving is performed by receiving an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made, and wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor;

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action;

a value field for maintaining entries associated with new values for a control; and

a new control ID field associated with new controls that might be created by the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of instantiating is performed by applying a transform to the data tree.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the changes comprises a structural change to the form.

12. One or more computer-readable media embodying computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement a method comprising:

receiving, with a form server, a request that embodies form changes, wherein the request comprises an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made;

loading previous data that corresponds to the form, into a data tree;

operating on the data tree sufficient to incorporate the changes;

instantiating a view tree based on the data tree;

rendering a markup representation of the view tree; and

returning the markup representation to a user agent from which the request was received.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein said act of operating comprises mapping at least one identifier associated with a form control onto a corresponding node in the data tree and performing one or more operations on data associated with the form control.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the act of operating on the data tree comprises serially processing each entry in the event log and, responsively, operating on the data tree.

15. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the event log comprises a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions.

16. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions; and

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor.

17. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor; and

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action.

18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor;

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action; and

a value field for maintaining entries associated with new values for a control.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor;

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action;

a value field for maintaining entries associated with new values for a control; and

a new control ID field associated with new controls that might be created by the user.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the act of instantiating is performed by applying a transform to the data tree.

21. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein at least one of the changes comprises a structural change to the form.

22. A method comprising:

receiving, with a form server, a request that embodies form changes, wherein the request comprises an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made;

loading previous data that corresponds to the form, into a data tree;

operating on the data tree sufficient to incorporate the changes;

instantiating a view tree based on the data tree;

rendering a markup representation of the view tree; and

returning the HTML representation to a user agent from which the request was received.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said act of operating comprises mapping at least one identifier associated with a form control onto a corresponding node in the data tree and performing one or more operations on data associated with the form control.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the act of operating on the data tree comprises serially processing each entry in the event log and, responsively, operating on the data tree.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the event log comprises a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions; and

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor; and

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor;

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action; and

a value field for maintaining entries associated with new values for a control.

29. The method of claim 22, wherein the event log comprises:

a descriptor field that contains a descriptor or command for particular user editing actions;

a control ID field that contains values associated with a control identifier for an associated descriptor;

a parameters field that contains parameters associated with a particular user action;

a value field for maintaining entries associated with new values for a control; and

a new control ID field associated with new controls that might be created by the user.

30. The method of claim 22, wherein the act of instantiating is performed by applying a transform to the data tree.

31. The method of claim 22, wherein at least one of the changes comprises a structural change to the form.

32. A method comprising:

receiving, with a form server, a request that embodies form changes, wherein the request comprises an event log that embodies the order in which form changes were made;

loading previous data that corresponds to the form, into a data tree;

operating on the data tree sufficient to incorporate the changes;

returning, to a user agent from which the request was received, with data that can be used by the user agent to render a new form.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein said act of operating comprises mapping at least one identifier associated with a form control onto a corresponding node in the data tree and performing one or more operations on data associated with the form control.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the act of returning comprises returning HTML data to the user agent, wherein the HTML data comprises all of the HTML data that is to be used to render the form.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the act of returning comprises returning only data associated with changes that have been made to the form.

36. A system comprising:

means for receiving, with a form server, a request that embodies form changes, wherein the request embodies the order in which form changes were made;

means for loading previous data that corresponds to the form, into a data tree;

means for operating on the data tree sufficient to incorporate the changes; and

means for returning, to a user agent from which the request was received, with data that can be used by the user agent to render a new form.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein said means for returning comprises means for providing data that can be used to render the form on different types of devices.

38. The system of claim 36, wherein said means for returning comprises means for providing data that can be used to render the form using different presentation technologies.

39. The system of claim 36, wherein said means for returning comprises means for providing data that can be used to render the form on different types of devices and using different presentation technologies.

40. The system of claim 36, wherein said request comprises log means.