Recursive sections in electronic forms

• US 20060129583A1
• Filed: 12/15/2004
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Palmer, Michael B., Ramagopalrao, Anand, Smuga, Michael A., Catorcini, Alessandro P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,904,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Systems and/or methods enabling creation and/or use of a recursive section for an electronic form are described. In one embodiment, a system and/or method enables alteration, responsive to graphical selection of a recursive section component, of an electronic form'"'"'s schema to permit a recursive section. In another embodiment, a system and/or method enables a user to modify a recursive section in an electronic form through a rendering of the electronic form.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

enabling graphical selection of a recursive section component for an electronic form;

receiving selection of the recursive section component; and

altering a schema governing the electronic form to permit a recursive section associated with the selected recursive section component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of enabling graphical selection comprises enabling dragging and dropping the recursive section component from one region of a display to another region of the display.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling graphical selection of a node of a hierarchical representation of the electronic form and wherein the act of altering the schema comprises adding a schema construct associated with the selected recursive section component at the selected node.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling graphical selection of a position in a hierarchical representation of the electronic form and wherein the act of altering the schema comprises placing a schema construct associated with the selected recursive section component at the selected position.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of altering the schema comprises adding to the schema a schema construct associated with the selected recursive section component.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the schema construct permits an arbitrary number of instances of a recursive section associated with the selected recursive section component.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the schema construct permits arbitrary levels of instances of a recursive section associated with the selected recursive section component.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a control approximating a user'"'"'s editable view of a recursive section associated with the selected recursive section component.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising enabling customization of the editable view.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic form comprises eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and the schema comprises XML schema (XSD).

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating logic with the electronic form, the logic associated with the selected recursive section component and capable of guiding how a recursive section associated with the selected recursive section component is edited by a user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the logic is associated with the selected recursive section component by being mapped one-to-one with a schema construct associated with the selected recursive section component.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating viewing information with the electronic form, the viewing information capable of guiding how a recursive section associated with the selected recursive section component is to be viewed by a user.

14. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform acts comprising:

enabling graphical selection of a recursive section; and

responsive to selection of the recursive section, building an electronic form capable of enabling a user to add an arbitrary number and level of instances of the selected recursive section to the electronic form.

15. The media of claim 14, wherein the act of enabling graphical selection comprises enabling dragging and dropping the recursive section from one region of a display to another region of the display.

16. The media of claim 14, wherein the act of building the electronic form comprises adding to a schema governing the electronic form a schema construct associated with the selected recursive section.

17. The media of claim 14, wherein the act of building the electronic form comprises associating logic with the electronic form, the logic associated with the selected recursive section and capable of guiding how the selected recursive section is edited by a user.

18. The media of claim 14, wherein the act of building the electronic form comprises associating viewing information with the electronic form, the viewing information capable of guiding how the selected recursive section is presented to a user.

19. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform acts comprising:

rendering an electronic form having a recursive section; and

enabling a user to modify the recursive section through the rendering.

20. The media of claim 19, wherein the rendering of the electronic form enables a user to enter data into the electronic form.

21. The media of claim 19, wherein the rendering of the electronic form comprises hyper text machine language.

22. The media of claim 19, wherein the act of enabling comprises enabling the user to add an arbitrary number of instances of the recursive section to the electronic form.

23. The media of claim 19, wherein the act of enabling comprises enabling the user to add an arbitrary level of instances of the recursive section to the electronic form.

24. The media of claim 19, wherein the act of enabling comprises enabling the user to add an instance of the recursive section to a data structure of the electronic form.

25. The media of claim 24, further comprising:

receiving a selection to add the instance; and

transforming the data structure effective to render the electronic form and display the added instance.

26. The media of claim 19, wherein the act of enabling is performed while maintaining the electronic form'"'"'s validity to a schema governing the electronic form.

27. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform acts comprising:

displaying an electronic form governed by a schema permitting a recursive section;

enabling graphical selection to add an instance of the recursive section to the electronic form; and

adding, responsive to receiving the selection, the instance of the recursive section to the electronic form while ensuring that the electronic form remains valid to the schema.

28. The media of claim 27, wherein the act of enabling comprises enabling graphical selection to add the instance only at a position in a data structure of the electronic form where the instance is valid to the schema.

29. The media of claim 27, further comprising:

enabling a second graphical selection of a second instance of the recursive section and adding, responsive to receiving the second selection, the second instance at a hierarchical level below that of the first instance.

30. The media of claim 27, further comprising:

enabling a second graphical selection of a second instance of the recursive section and adding, responsive to receiving the second selection, the second instance at a same hierarchical level as that of the first instance.

31. A method comprising:

determining that a recursive schema part of an electronic form is substantially similar to a schema construct capable of being associated with a recursive section component;

enabling selection of the recursive section component;

receiving selection of the recursive section component; and

associating logic with the electronic form, the logic associated with the recursive section component and capable of guiding how a user interacts with a portion of the electronic form governed by the recursive schema part.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the act of enabling selection comprises enabling graphical selection of the recursive section component.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the act of associating the logic with the electronic form comprises mapping the logic one-to-one with the recursive schema part.

34. The method of claim 31, further comprising associating viewing information with the electronic form, the viewing information capable of guiding how the portion is viewed by the user.

35. The method of claim 31, further comprising indicating that selection of the recursive section component does not require alteration of the electronic form'"'"'s schema.