Data store for software application documents

• US 20060195777A1
• Filed: 02/25/2005
• Published: 08/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Little, Robert A., Jones, Brian M., Davis, Tristan A., Taleghani, Ali, Sawicki, Marcin
• Granted Patent: US 7,668,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/80 of semi-structured data, e.g. markup language structured data such as SGML, XML or HTML content-based retrieval of web data G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/123 Storage facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A data store is provided for storing, relating and for allowing use of data associated with a computer-generated document. Data for structuring information associated with a document, such as document metadata, is maintained in the data store where relationships between different pieces of data are maintained in a location distinct from the surface level view of a document. The data store exposes interfaces to the various pieces of data in the data store for allowing different applications to access and operate on one or more of the data pieces. The pieces of data may be structured according to a markup language such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML), and XML schemas may be associated with each piece of data for allowing the data store to validate the structure applied to the data based on an XML schema associated with a given piece of data.

Claims

1. A method of managing data associated with computer-generated documents, comprising:

storing a document with an associated document data store;

storing a structured data item associated with the document in the document data store; and

exposing one or more application programming interfaces (API) to one or more software applications for allowing programmatic access to the structured data item by the one or more software applications.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising structuring the structured data item according to the Extensible Markup Language (XML).

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising associating with the structured data item an XML schema file for providing XML markup data and XML markup syntax that may be validly applied to the structured data item.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving a change to an XML markup data applied to the structured data item via the exposed one or more APIs.

5. The method of claim 4, in response to receiving a change to an XML markup data applied to the structured data item,

reading an XML schema file associated with the structured data item to which the change to the XML markup data is directed;

and

determining whether the change to the XML markup data is valid according to the read XML schema file.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising if the change to the XML markup data is not valid according to the read XML schema file, disallowing the change to the XML markup data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving programmatic access to the structured data item associated with the document by one of the one or more software applications via the one or more application programming interfaces.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising if a change is received to the structured data item via one of the one or more software applications having access to the document and to the structured data item, notifying any other of the one or more software applications having access to the structured data item of the change received to the structured data item.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising allowing a notified one of the one or more software applications to make changes to the structured data item in response to the change received to the structured data item.

10. The method of claim 9, whereby if the change received to the structured data item is undone by one of the one or more software applications, correspondingly undoing any changes made to the structured data item by any other of the one or more software applications where the any changes made by the other of the one or more software applications were made in response to the undone change.

11. The method of claim 1, prior to storing a structured data item associated with the document in the document data store, receiving the structured data item from one of the one or more software applications via the one or more application programming interfaces (API).

12. The method of claim 1, whereby the structured data item associated with the document includes metadata associated with the computer-generated document.

13. A document data store for managing data associated with computer-generated documents and being operative:

to store a structured data item associated with a document in the document data store; and

to expose one or more application programming interfaces (API) to one or more software applications for allowing programmatic access to the structured data item by the one or more software applications.

14. The document data store of claim 13, being further operative

to receive a change to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) markup data applied to the structured data item via the exposed one or more APIs;

and

to read an XML schema file associated with the structured data item to which the change to the XML markup data is directed;

to determine whether the change to the XML markup data is valid according to the read XML schema file; and

to disallow the change to the XML markup data if the change to the XML markup data is not valid according to the read XML schema file.

15. The document data store of claim 13, being further operative

to receive programmatic access to the structured data item associated with the document by one of the one or more software applications via the one or more application programming interfaces;

and

to notify any other of the one or more software applications having access to the structured data item of the change received to the structured data item if a change is received to the structured data item via one of the one or more software applications having access to the structured data item.

16. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method of managing data associated with computer-generated documents, comprising:

storing a structured data item associated with a document in the document data store; and

exposing one or more application programming interfaces (API) to one or more software applications for allowing programmatic access to the stored document and to the structured data item by the one or more software applications.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising

structuring the structured data item according to the Extensible Markup Language (XML);

and

associating with the structured data item an XML schema file for providing XML markup data and XML markup syntax that may be validly applied to the structured data item.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising

receiving a change to an XML markup data applied to the structured data item via the exposed one or more APIs;

reading an XML schema file associated with the structured data item to which the change to the XML markup data is directed;

determining whether the change to the XML markup data is valid according to the read XML schema file; and

if the change to the XML markup data is not valid according to the read XML schema file, disallowing the change to the XML markup data.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising

receiving programmatic access to the structured data item associated with the document by one of the one or more software applications via the one or more application programming interfaces;

if a change is received to the structured data item via one of the one or more software applications having access to the structured data item, notifying any other of the one or more software applications having access to structured data item of the change received to the structured data item; and

allowing a notified one of the one or more software applications to make changes to the structured data item in response to the change received to the structured data item.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, whereby if the change received to the structured data item is undone by one of the one or more software applications, correspondingly undoing any changes made to the structured data item by any other of the one or more software applications where the any changes made by the other of the one or more software applications were made in response to the undone change.