Method and system to persist state

• US 20070300145A1
• Filed: 06/26/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Matveief, Anatole A., Perelman, Roberto, Young, Jeff, Solc, Christopher T., Brinkman, John P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,698,628 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/222
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

A system, to persist state in a dynamic electronic form, may include a communications module to receive a request to load an electronic form, a merge module to merge a template associated with the electronic form and data values associated with the electronic form, a delta extractor to access delta data associated with the electronic form, and an overlay module to overlay the delta data onto the electronic form. The delta data, in an example embodiment, includes attributes and properties associated with the electronic form that are being designated to persist between editing sessions of the electronic form.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a communications module to receive a request to load an electronic form;

a merge module to merge a template associated with the electronic form and data values associated with the electronic form;

a delta extractor to access delta data associated with the electronic form, the delta data comprising attributes and properties associated with the electronic form and being designated to persist between editing sessions of the electronic form; and

an overlay module to overlay the delta data onto the electronic form.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the delta data includes a value associated with an unbound field in the electronic form.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the delta data includes a value associated with an overridden calculation in the electronic form.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the delta data includes a value associated with a visual characteristic of the electronic form.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications module is to receive an input, the system further comprising:

a data repository to store values associated with bound fields in the electronic form;

a delta generator to determine attributes and properties associated with the electronic form that are designated to persist between editing sessions of the electronic form; and

a delta repository to store the determined attributes and properties.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the values associated with the bound fields in the electronic form comprise application data.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a renderer to render the electronic form.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the renderer is to render the electronic form in a Portable Document Format (PDF).

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the attributes and properties of the electronic form are not part of application data.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a request to load an electronic form;

merging a template associated with the electronic form and data values associated with the electronic form;

accessing delta data associated with the electronic form, the delta data comprising attributes and properties associated with the electronic form and being designated to persist between editing sessions of the electronic form; and

overlaying the delta data onto the electronic form.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the delta data includes a value associated with an unbound field in the electronic form.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the delta data includes a value associated with an overridden calculation in the electronic form.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the delta data includes a value associated with a visual characteristic of the electronic form.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving an input;

saving values associated with bound fields in the electronic form in a data repository, wherein a bound field in the electronic form has an associated mapping to an item in the data repository;

determining attributes and properties associated with the electronic form that are designated to persist between editing sessions of the electronic form; and

saving the determined attributes and properties in a delta repository.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein values associated with the bound fields comprise application data.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising rendering the electronic form.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the rendering of the electronic form comprises creating a representation of the electronic form in a Portable Document Format (PDF).

18. A method comprising:

rendering an electronic form;

receiving an input to be applied to the electronic form, the input including;

form field values associated with application data, and

attributes and properties of the electronic form comprising data that is not part of the application data;

saving the form field values associated with one or more form fields of the electronic form in a first repository;

parsing the electronic form to determine attributes and properties associated with the electronic form that are designated to persist between sessions; and

saving the determined attributes and properties in a second repository.

19. A machine-readable medium having instruction data to cause a machine to:

receive a request to load an electronic form;

merge a template associated with the electronic form and data values associated with the electronic form;

access delta data associated with the electronic form, the delta data comprising attributes and properties associated with the electronic form and being designated to persist between editing sessions of the electronic form; and

overlay the delta data onto the electronic form.

20. A system comprising:

means for receiving a request to load an electronic form;

means for merging a template associated with the electronic form and data values associated with the electronic form;

means for accessing delta data associated with the electronic form, the delta data comprising attributes and properties associated with the electronic form and being designated to persist between editing sessions of the electronic form; and

means for overlaying the delta data onto the electronic form.