Method and system to associate cell and item metadata

• US 20060212469A1
• Filed: 03/18/2005
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ellis, Charles D., Dickerman, Howard J., Babanov, Alexander A., Hawking, Robert G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,693,860 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to new and improved embodiments of methods and systems for capturing and providing arbitrarily rich data to be stored or manipulated within a spreadsheet. In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for creating spreadsheet metadata comprises receiving an item in a spreadsheet, receiving item metadata about the item, and associating the item metadata with the item to create spreadsheet metadata.

Claims

1. A computer program product encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer implemented method for creating spreadsheet metadata, the method comprising:

receiving an item in a spreadsheet;

receiving item metadata about the item; and

associating the item metadata with the item to create spreadsheet metadata.

2. A computer program product defined in claim 1, wherein receiving item metadata further comprises:

receiving an input related to the item; and

automatically creating the item metadata incident to the input.

3. A computer program product defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving cell metadata about one or more cells containing the item; and

associating the cell metadata with the one or more cells.

4. A computer program product defined in claim 1, wherein associating further comprises:

storing the item in a cell table; and

storing the item metadata with the item in the cell table.

5. A computer program product defined in claim 1, wherein associating further comprises:

storing the item in a cell table;

storing an index in the cell table; and

storing the item metadata in an item metadata table, wherein the index generates a pointer to the item metadata in the item metadata table.

6. A computer program product defined in claim 1, wherein associating further comprises:

storing the item in a cell table;

storing an index in the cell table;

automatically generating an item metadata type table comprising one or more type entries and corresponding type indices for one or more types of item metadata; and

storing the item metadata in a type metadata table, wherein the index generates a first pointer to an entry in the item metadata type table and wherein the type index generates a second pointer to the item metadata in the type metadata table.

7. A computer program product defined in claim 1, wherein associating further comprises:

storing the item in a cell table;

storing an aggregator in the cell table;

generating a metadata table comprising a type section and an index; and

generating one or more metadata bundles to store the metadata, wherein the aggregator generates a first pointer to the metadata table and wherein the index generates a second pointer to the metadata in the metadata bundle.

8. A computer program product defined in claim 7, further comprising:

generating an item metadata table comprising one or more item metadata indices; and

wherein the index generates a first pointer to the item metadata table and wherein the item metadata index generates a second pointer to an item metadata bundle.

9. A computer program product defined in claim 8, wherein one of the metadata bundles comprises an overflow index to a metadata bundle overflow comprising one or more entries of metadata.

10. A computer program product defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an input to perform an operation on an item; and

altering the performance of the operation in response to item metadata.

11. A computer program product encoding a computer program of components, the components comprising:

a spreadsheet data store storing at least one item in at least one cell of a spreadsheet;

a metadata store storing at least one item metadata that is associated with an item in the spreadsheet data store;

a calculation engine operable to conduct operations utilizing the item and the item metadata associated with the item.

12. A computer program product defined in claim 11, wherein an index in the spreadsheet data store generates a pointer to the associated item metadata in the metadata store.

13. A computer program product defined in claim 11, wherein the metadata store further comprises:

an item metadata type table comprising one or more entries and corresponding type indices for one or more types of item metadata; and

a type metadata table comprising item metadata, wherein the index generates a first pointer to an entry in the item metadata type table and wherein the type index generates a second pointer to the item metadata in the type metadata table.

14. A computer program product defined in claim 11, wherein the metadata store further comprises:

an aggregator stored with the item in the spreadsheet data store;

a metadata table comprising a type section and an index; and

one or more metadata bundles to store the metadata, wherein the aggregator generates a first pointer to the metadata table and wherein the index generates a second pointer to the metadata in the metadata bundle.

15. A computer program product defined in claim 14, further comprising:

an item metadata table comprising one or more item metadata indices; and

wherein the index generates a first pointer to the item metadata table and wherein the item metadata index generates a second pointer to an item metadata bundle.

16. A computer program product defined in claim 11, wherein the calculation engine is operable to alter the performance of an operation in response to item metadata.

17. A computer program product encoding a data structure for metadata in a spreadsheet, the method comprising:

a first data field that represents one or more cells within a spreadsheet;

a second data field that contains one or more items within the one or more cells; and

a third data field that contains item metadata associated with an item in the spreadsheet.

18. A computer program product defined in claim 17, further comprising a fourth data field that contains an index that generates a pointer to the third data field to associate the one or more items with the item metadata.

19. A computer program product defined in claim 17, further comprising:

a fifth data field that contains an aggregator;

a sixth data field that contains a metadata table comprising metadata type data and an index; and

a seventh data field that contains a metadata bundles to store the item metadata, wherein the aggregator generates a first pointer to the sixth data field and wherein the index generates a second pointer to the seventh data field.

20. A computer program product defined in claim 19, wherein the seventh data field further comprises overflow index data to generate a pointer to an eighth data field that contains a metadata bundle overflow comprising one or more entries of metadata.