Mapping property hierarchies to schemas

• US 20070061706A1
• Filed: 09/14/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Saliba, Hani, Merchant, Raj, Barac, Dragos, Cupala, Shiraz, Begun, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US11/226,044
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061706A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4492 Inheritance

Abstract

Various embodiments provide a translation mechanism in which property architectures associated with various objects are translated into a schema that maintains the semantics of the property architecture. In at least some of the embodiments, the property architectures are translated into hierarchical, standards-based schemas which enhance the environments in which associated objects can be consumed and processed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining one or more objects in a system that includes inheritable property domains from which other property domains can inherit and inheriting property domains that can inherit from the inheritable property domains, individual objects having an assigned property domain; and

translating said assigned property domain from a first format into a second different format.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second format maintains inheritance semantics.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second format comprises one or more hierarchical schemas.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second format is a standards-based format.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the standards-based format comprises an XML format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second format uses individual namespaces for each property domain.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein individual namespaces reside in human-readable form.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first format comprises a database representation format, and the second format comprises an XML format.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining a document in a system in which property domains that can be assigned to documents are defined by content type templates and content types, wherein content type templates define sets of properties that can then be inherited by content types and wherein said property domains are represented in said system in a non-hierarchical format;

obtaining property domain information associated with said document;

using said property domain information to translate said non-hierarchical format into an hierarchical, XML-compliant schema or schemas that preserve the semantics of the translated property domain.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the act of using translates the non-hierarchical format into the XML compliant schema or schemas by assigning individual namespaces for each property domain.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the act of using translates the non-hierarchical format into human-readable XML compliant schemas in which property domain semantics can be ascertained.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said acts of obtaining and using are performed by a document management server.

13. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed, implement a method comprising:

maintaining a property architecture of individual property domains that can be assigned to documents; and

translating formats of individual property domains into XML-compliant schemas that preserve the semantics of the translated property domain.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein said act of translating is performed responsive to receiving a request for a document having an assigned property domain.

15. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein said formats of individual property domains comprises a non-XML format.

16. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the act of translating comprises assigning individual namespaces for each property domain.

17. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein individual property domains are defined by content type templates and content types, wherein content type templates define sets of properties that can be inherited by content types or other content type templates.

18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the act of translating translates the formats of the individual property domains into human-readable XML compliant schemas in which property domain semantics can be ascertained.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining one or more objects in a system in which the one or more objects are represented in a non-hierarchical format; and

translating non-hierarchical format representations of the one or more objects into a hierarchical representation.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said one or more objects comprise documents.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein said one or more objects do not comprise documents.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein said hierarchical representation comprises an XML representation.