Dynamic Properties of Documents and the Use of These Properties

• US 20060242575A1
• Filed: 07/10/2006
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Winser, Michael E.D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,469,377 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149

Abstract

A browser for executing HTML code received from a computer network having a computer. The browser comprises code programmed to analyze HTML code and identify scalar properties and expressions, each expression defining the value of a dynamic property and being a function of the scalar property; code programmed to map a dependent/dependency relationship between the expression and the scalar property; and code programmed to notice a change in a value of the scalar property and to execute the expression in response to the change in value of the scalar property.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of using expressions to establish a relationship between properties in code executable by a browser running on a computer, each property defining a characteristic of an object, wherein the computer-readable instructions are written in HTML code and define a document that forms the browser, the method comprising:

declaring the value of a first property as a scalar value, wherein the first property is a width of a window of the browser;

declaring the value of a second property as an expression, wherein the second property is a function of the first property, and wherein the expression represents an element in the window of the browser;

automatically changing the value of the second property in response to a change in the value of the first property; and

updating the document upon changing the value of the second property.

2. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, the data structure including a plurality of nodes, comprising:

at least one leaf node stored in memory, each leaf node containing a scalar property, wherein the scalar property is a width of a window of a browser;

at least one expression node stored in memory, the at least one expression node containing an expression written in a markup language and defining a dynamic property, the expression being a function of the scalar property, the expression for programming formatting instructions, wherein the expression represents an element in the window of the browser;

at least one pointer stored in memory, the at least one pointer mapping a dependent/dependency relationship between the scalar properties and the expressions, wherein upon notification of a change in the value for one of the scalar properties, the browser executes the expressions dependent on the scalar property having a changed value.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the data structure is formed by the browser.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the markup language is HTML.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein two or more pointers map two or more scalar properties, respectively, to a single expression.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein two or more pointers map a single scalar properties to two or more expressions, respectively.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein two or more pointers map a single expression to two or more different expressions, respectively.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein at least one of the pointers maps a dependent/dependency relationship between two expressions.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein:

one of the pointers maps a dependent/dependency relationship between a scalar property and a first expression and another pointer maps a dependent/dependency relationship between the first expression and a second expression, the first expression forming a least-dependent expression and the second expression forming a most-dependent expression; and

the browser executes the expressions in the order of the least-dependent expression to the most-dependent expression.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein:

two pointers map the second expression to the first expression and a third expression, respectively, the second expression being dependent on the first and third expressions thereby being more dependent than the first and third expressions; and

the browser does not execute the second expression until the first and third expressions are executed.

11. A computer for determining and outputting dynamic properties in HTML code received from a computer network, the computer comprising:

a processor;

a peripheral in data communication with the processor;

memory in data communication with the processor, the memory storing a browser for execution by the processor, the browser including code programmed to;

(a) analyze the HTML code to identify scalar properties and expressions, at least one of the expressions defining the value of a dynamic property and being a function of at least one scalar property, wherein the scalar property is a width of a window of the browser, and wherein the expression represents an element in the window of the browser;

(b) map a dependent/dependency relationship between the at least one of the expressions and the scalar properties, wherein each expression depends from at least one scalar property; and

(b) upon notification of a change in value of the scalar property, execute the at least one of the expressions that depends on the scalar property having a changed value.

12. The computer of claim 11, wherein the browser code programmed to execute each expression is further programmed to execute each expression in the dependency graph in sequential order from a least-dependent expression to a most-dependent expression, the least-dependent expression depending directly on a scalar property and the most-dependent expression having no dependent expressions.

13. The computer of claim 11, wherein the computer further includes an input for receiving a signal, and the browser further includes code programmed to notice when a signal received by the input changes the value of a scalar property, and in response thereto automatically execute each expression that depends on the scalar property having a value changed by the input signal.

14. The computer of claim 11, wherein the peripheral is a computer monitor and the browser is further includes code programmed to display an HTML document having dynamic properties on the computer monitor.

15. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process using expressions to establish a relationship between properties of a document generated by HTML code that is executable by a browser, the properties including constant properties and dynamic properties, said computer process comprising:

providing a value of one or more scalar properties, wherein the value of the scalar properties is not a function of another property, and wherein at least one of the scalar properties is a width of a window of the browser;

creating one or more expressions declaring a value of a dynamic property, each dynamic property being a function of another property, the expression for programming formatting instructions, and wherein the expression represents an element in the window of the browser; and

generating a dependency graph, the dependency graph having a plurality of nodes, including at least one expression node and one leaf node, each expression node corresponding to an expression and each leaf node corresponding to a value of a scalar property, the dependency graph mapping the relationship between the properties.

16. The propagated signal of claim 15, wherein the nodes have a dependent/dependency relationship to one another and each node has either a dirty state or a clean state, and the computer process further comprises:

when the value for one of the properties changes, changing the state of the node corresponding to the changed property to dirty;

propagating the dirty state to each of the nodes in the dependency graph that are dependent on the node corresponding to the changed property; and

recalculating the values of the expressions stored in nodes having a dirty state.

17. The propagated signal of claim 16, wherein the act of recalculating the values of the expressions is performed automatically after completion of the act of propagating the dirty state to each of the nodes in the dependency graph.

18. The propagated signal of claim 16, wherein the dependency graph includes a plurality of expression nodes mapped in network wherein the most-dependent expression node in the network has no dependent expression nodes and the least-dependent expression node depends directly on a scalar property;

and the act of recalculating comprises;

executing the expression corresponding to each of the expression nodes in the network beginning with the least-dependent node and ending with the most-dependent node; and

assigning the value of each executed expression to the dynamic property corresponding to that executed expression.

19. The propagated signal of claim 18, wherein the HTML code generates a user interface upon execution and at the dynamic property declared by the expression defines at least a portion of the user interface, and the computer process further comprises:

updating the user interface upon assigning the value to the dynamic property.