Exposing embedded data in a computer-generated document

• US 20060271574A1
• Filed: 05/10/2006
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Villaron, Shawn, Jones, Brian, Rothschiller, Chad, Wu, Su-Piao Bill, Bishop, Andrew, Garg, Sharad, Jump, Dan, Little, Robert, Pollock, Josh
• Granted Patent: US 7,770,180 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

A mechanism is provided for embedding an object in a receiving or client document such that a client application may operate on the embedded object to include interrogation and modification of data contained in the embedded object. When a given document object is embedded into a receiving document, data representing the embedded object is saved to a data stream storage for the receiving document. When the embedded object in the receiving document is subsequently requested in response to an operation executed on the embedded object, the receiving application obtains the data representation of the embedded object from the data stream storage. Once the receiving application obtains the data representation of the embedded object, the receiving application may perform operations on the embedded object by accessing the embedded object via its data representation.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method for exposing data of an embedded object to a receiving software application, comprising:

storing a data representation of an object embedded in a receiving document in a data stream representing the receiving document;

receiving a request for an operation on the object at the receiving software application;

in response to receiving the request for an operation on the object at the receiving software application, parsing the data stream for the data representation of the object; and

at the receiving software application, utilizing the data representation of the object for processing the operation on the object.

2. The method of claim 1, prior to storing the data representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document, receiving a request for embedding the object from a providing document into the receiving document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the data representation of the object includes storing an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing an XML schema associated with the XML representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein utilizing the data representing the object for processing the operation on the embedded object includes parsing the XML representation of the object for exposing the object to one or more functionalities of the receiving software application.

6. The method of claim 1, after storing a data representation of the object in a data stream representing the receiving document, receiving an identification of the data representation of the object;

and storing the identification of the data representation in the data stream representing the receiving document.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving an identification of the data representation includes receiving a program ID and a class ID for the data representation of the object.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising maintaining the identification of the data representation in an operating system registry.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein parsing the data stream for the data representation of the object includes locating the data representation of the object based on the identification of the data representation stored for the data representation.

10. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method for exposing data of an embedded object to a receiving software application, comprising:

receiving a request for embedding an object from a providing document into the receiving document;

storing an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object in a data stream representing the receiving document;

receiving a request for an operation on the object at the receiving software application;

in response to receiving the request for an operation on the object at the receiving software application, parsing the data stream for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document; and

at the receiving software application, utilizing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object for processing the operation on the object.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising storing an XML schema associated with the XML representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein utilizing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object for processing the operation on the object includes parsing the XML representation of the object for exposing the object to one or more functionalities of the receiving software application.

13. The method of claim 10, after storing an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document, receiving an identification of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object;

and storing the identification of the XML representation in the data stream representing the receiving document.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving an identification of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation includes receiving a program ID and a class ID for the XML representation of the object.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising maintaining the identification of the XML representation in an operating system registry.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein parsing the data stream for the XML representation of the object includes locating the XML representation of the object based on the identification of the XML representation stored for the data representation.

17. A method for exposing an embedded object to a receiving software application, comprising:

storing an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of an object embedded in a receiving document;

receiving a request for application of a functionality of the receiving software application on the object;

in response to receiving the request for application of a functionality of the receiving software application on the object, retrieving the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object;

at the receiving software application, parsing the XML representation of the object for exposing the object to the functionality of the receiving software application; and

utilizing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object for applying the functionality to the object.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein storing an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of an object embedded in a receiving document includes storing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation in a data stream representing the receiving document.

19. The method of claim 18, after storing an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation in the data stream representing the receiving document, receiving an identification of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object;

and storing the identification of the XML representation in the data stream representing the receiving document.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein parsing the XML representation of the object for exposing the object to the functionality of the receiving software application includes locating the XML representation of the object based on the identification of the XML representation stored in the data stream representing the receiving document.