APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENABLING COMPOSITE STYLE SHEET APPLICATION TO MULTI-PART ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

• US 20080178072A1
• Filed: 10/19/2006
• Published: 07/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brad B. Topol, Erik P. Fiedorowicz, John R. Hind
• Original Assignee: Brad B. Topol, Erik P. Fiedorowicz, John R. Hind
• Inventors: Hind, John R., Topol, Brad B., Fiedorowicz, Erik P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,770,108 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 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets

Abstract

An apparatus and method for enabling composite style sheet application to multi-part electronic documents is provided. The apparatus and method identify content of a requested electronic document and determine subset style sheets that correspond to the identified content. Certain ones of these subset style sheets are selected based on, for example, requesting device characteristics, for use in generating a composite style sheet. The selected subset style sheets are then merged with a global style sheet to generate a composite style sheet that may be applied to the electronic document for proper presentation on a requesting device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of generating a composite style sheet used for transforming an electronic document, comprising:

determining particular rendering characteristics and device type of a client device to which the electronic document is to be sent;

during processing of the electronic document, dynamically identifying a plurality of subset style sheets based on (i) identified subject-matter content of the electronic document, (ii) the particular rendering characteristics of the client device to which the electronic document is to be sent, and (iii) the device type of the client device to which the electronic document is to be sent; and

merging the plurality of identified subset style sheets to generate the composite style sheet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of subset style sheets includes a global style sheet and other subset style sheets, and wherein merging the plurality of subset style sheets includes inserting the other subset style sheets into the global style sheet to generate the composite style sheet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein inserting the other subset style sheets of the plurality of subset style sheets into the global style sheet includes converting a root template in each of the other subset style sheets to a child template.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein inserting the other subset style sheets of the plurality of subset style sheets into the global style sheet further includes adjusting match phrases of embedded child templates and references in each of the other subset style sheets.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the other subset style sheets are inserted following a root template of the global style sheet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a plurality of subset style sheets includes parsing the electronic document into a document object model and examining first level child elements of the document object model in order to identify the subject-matter content of the electronic document that is used by the dynamically identifying step.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying a plurality of subset style sheets further includes matching values of the first level child elements to characteristic identifiers of subset style sheets in a subset style sheet repository and selecting the plurality of subset style sheets from the subset style sheets in the subset style sheet repository based on whether the first level child element values match characteristic identifiers for the subset style sheets.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the global style sheet includes electronic navigational information.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein the global style sheet includes a prefix/postfix glue that generates wireless markup language cards from the merged subset style sheets.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified subject-matter content comprises at least one of news, sports, stocks and weather.

8-9. -9. (canceled)

11. A method of generating a composite style sheet used for transforming an electronic document, comprising:

identifying a plurality of subset style sheets based on content of the electronic document;

merging the plurality of subset style sheets to generate the composite style sheet; and

determining if a client device to which the electronic document is to be sent is capable of rendering the electronic document using the composite style sheet, and if so, sending the electronic document to the client device with a reference to the composite style sheet.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising rendering the electronic document using the composite style sheet and sending the rendered electronic document to the client device, if the client device is not capable of rendering the electronic document using the composite style sheet.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the content used in identifying the plurality of subset style sheets is subject-matter content comprising at least one of news, sports, stocks and weather.

13. (canceled)

16. An apparatus for generating a composite style sheet used for transforming an electronic document, comprising:

a style sheet repository; and

a transcoder coupled to the style sheet repository, wherein the transcoder determines particular rendering characteristics and device type of a client device to which the electronic document is to be sent and dynamically identifies, during processing of the electronic document, a plurality of subset style sheets in the style sheet repository that correspond to the electronic document, based on (i) identified subject-matter content of the electronic document, (ii) the particular rendering characteristics of the client device to which the electronic document is to be sent, and (iii) the device type of the client device to which the electronic document is to be sent, and merges the plurality of identified subset style sheets to generate the composite style sheet.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of subset style sheets includes a global style sheet and other subset style sheets, and wherein the transcoder merges the plurality of subset style sheets by inserting the other subset style sheets into the global style sheet to generate the composite style sheet.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the transcoder inserts the other subset style sheets of the plurality of subset style sheets into the global style sheet by converting a root template in each of the other subset style sheets to a child template.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the transcoder inserts the other subset style sheets of the plurality of subset style sheets into the global style sheet by further adjusting match phrases of embedded child templates and references in each of the other subset style sheets.

21. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the transcoder identifies the plurality of subset style sheets by parsing the electronic document into a document object model and examining first level child elements of the document object model in order to identify the subject-matter content of the electronic document that is used by the transcoder.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the transcoder identifies the plurality of subset style sheets by further matching values of the first level child elements to characteristic identifiers of subset style sheets in the subset style sheet repository and selecting the plurality of subset style sheets from the subset style sheets in the subset style sheet repository based on whether the first level child element values match characteristic identifiers for the subset style sheets.

30. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the global style sheet includes a prefix/postfix glue that generates wireless markup language cards from the merged subset style sheets.

20. (canceled)

23-28. -28. (canceled)

31-45. -45. (canceled)