System and Method for Real-Time Validation of Structured Data Files

• US 20080040635A1
• Filed: 10/15/2007
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Selim, Nora, Bath, Kamaljit, Narendran, Arungundram, Levenkov, Alexei, Shur, Andrey, Sikchi, Prakash, Catorcini, Alessandro, Ardeleanu, Adriana, Larcheveque, Jean-Marie
• Granted Patent: US 7,865,477 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/49
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/84 Mapping; Conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Validating data of and/or indicating errors of a structured data file using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) elements and/or XML Path (XPATH) expression are described.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising computer-executable instructions that perform the following when executed by a computer:

determine that a node of an extensible markup language (XML) data file is associated with an XML element;

read, from the XML element, an error message attribute and an error-type attribute, the error message attribute including an error message and the error-type attribute setting forth a modal type of error present in the node;

associate the error message with the node; and

display the error message on a display in which the node of the XML data file is represented.

2. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising, in response to the error-type attribute setting forth the modal type of error, rolling back data in the node.

3. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the act of display the error message on the display in which the node of the XML data file is represented comprises displaying the error message on an electronic form at a data-entry field of the electronic form that is associated with the node.

4. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising reading a long error-message attribute from the XML element and wherein the act of display the error message comprises displaying a long error message read from the long error-message attribute.

5. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising:

determine that a second node of the XML data file is associated with a second XML element;

read, from the second XML element, a second error message attribute and a second error-type attribute, the second error message attribute including a second error message and the second error-type attribute setting forth a modeless type of error present in the second node;

associate the second error message with the second node; and

display the second error message on the display.

6. The computer-readable storage media of claim 5, further comprising, in response to the second error-type attribute setting forth the modeless type of error, indicating in the display that data in the second node is invalid.

7. The computer-readable storage media of claim 5, further comprising reading a long error-message attribute from the second XML element and wherein the act of display the second error message comprises displaying a long error message read from the long error-message attribute.

8. The computer-readable storage media of claim 5, wherein the act of display the second error message comprises displaying the second error message on an electronic form and at a data-entry field of the electronic form that is associated with the second node.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising:

an extensible markup language (XML) element, the XML element having a match attribute and either or both an expression attribute and a handler-object attribute, and wherein;

the match attribute identifies nodes of an XML data file;

the expression attribute, if included in the XML element, contains an XPath expression capable of being evaluated as true or false against data within each of the identified nodes; and

the handler-object attribute, if included in the XML element, identifies executable code that is capable of being called to validate data in each of the identified nodes when data in each of the identified nodes is altered.

10. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the match attribute identifies nodes of the XML data file using a second XPath expression included in the match attribute.

11. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the XML element further comprises:

an expression-context attribute that specifies parent nodes that are roots of the identified nodes; and

a show-error-location attribute that specifies, based on the parent nodes of the identified nodes, where on a representation of the XML data file an error message is to be displayed.

12. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the XML element has both the expression attribute and the handler-object attribute.

13. A method comprising:

finding a node of an extensible markup language (XML) data file using a first XPath expression;

validating or invalidating the node using a second XPath expression; and

displaying an error message if the node is invalid.

14. The method claim 13, further comprising:

reading a first attribute and a second attribute from an XML element; and

parsing the first XPath expression from the first attribute and the second XPath expression from the second attribute.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of finding the node includes comparing each node of the XML data file against a match pattern within the first XPath expression.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of validating or invalidating the node includes evaluating data within the node against the second XPath expression.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of validating or invalidating the node includes evaluating data within the node against a Boolean operator within the second XPath expression.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising obtaining a set of nodes of which the node found is a member and invalidating all of the nodes of the set of nodes using the second XPath expression.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising displaying the error message once for each node of the set of nodes.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the act of obtaining the set of nodes comprises parsing an expression-context XPath expression, the expression-context XPath expression specifying nodes of the set of nodes that are in addition to the node found.