System and method for defining application definition functionality for general purpose web presences

• US 20080189303A1
• Filed: 02/02/2007
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rogers Family
• Original Assignee: Rogers Family
• Inventors: Ahmed, Zahid N., Stiel, Herbert Wayne, Bush, Alan, Galpin, Michael, Pelyushenko, Valeriy V., Suravarapu, Shashi P., Hoexter, Robert Saran, Brunaugh, Joshua
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,079 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/83 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

An application specification system and method are provided.

Claims

1. An application specification system, comprising:

a computing device having a processor wherein the processor implements an information management system having a storage unit;

the storage unit having one or more cells with each cell having one or more components wherein each component defines computational and data access aspects of an application and one or more presentations wherein each presentation defines a user interface for a particular application; and

wherein a web presence for performing one or more applications is instantiated from a cell with one or more components and one or more applications of the web presence are defined by the one or more components of the cell.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each component has one or more elements wherein each element defines an aspect of the computation.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein each component further comprises a name.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein each component further comprises a variable associated with the component wherein the variable is recalculated automatically.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein each component further comprises an action.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the action is defined in a context of an application and the action further comprises a local object invocation.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the action is defined in a context of an application and the action further comprises a remote object invocations.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein each component further comprises a subscription to an event.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein each component further comprises a sub-component wherein the sub-component is another component nested in the component.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein each variable further comprises a scope of the variable that defines a context for the variable and a type of the variable corresponding to the type of object associated with the variable.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein the variable further comprises a formula portion that specifies a value of the variable.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the formula portion further comprises a variable reference wherein a value of the variable reference is determined at the time of evaluation of the variable.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the formula portion further comprises a constant expression.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the formula further comprises a situated query to retrieve data from the same cell or from other cells and a context for the situated query is specified by the particular cell or within the situated query.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each cell of the one or more cells further comprises data in XML document instance format.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the set of XML document instances stored in a cell are managed by the embedded XML database.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the situated query further comprises a type specification that specifies a type of item to be returned by the situated query.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the situated query further comprises a scope where the scope describes a set of cells from which the situated query is to retrieve data.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the scope further comprises absolute references and/or relative references combined with one or more operators.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the relative references are resolved relative to the context cell for the query.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the situated query has a expression wherein the situated query with the expression returns all items in the one or more cells identified by the scope which further match the expression.

22. The system of claim 14, wherein the situated query further comprises a page size that define a number of items to be returned at a time by the situated query.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein the situated query further comprises a maximum size that define a maximum number of items returned by the situated query.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a kind element that defines a type of item which the situated query is supposed to return.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a filter element that filters the items returned by the situated query.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a connect element so that the situated query returns all items related to a defined item.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a tag element so that the situated query returns all items that match the tag element with respect to the tags and their values.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises an orderby element that orders the items returned by the situated query based on the values of a child element within each item.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a groupby element that groups the items returned by the situated query based on the values of a child element within each item.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a count element such that the situated query returns the count of items.

31. The system of claim 21, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a condition element that limits the situated query based on the type of entities to be returned.

32. The system of claim 21, wherein the situated query further comprises some number of expressions wherein the situated query returns all items in the cells identified by the scope that match all or some of those expressions and wherein the expressions are combined using a join operation element, indicating either “

and”

or “

or”

respectively.

33. The system of claim 11, wherein the formula portion further comprises a compound formula having an operator and one or more sub-formulas.

34. The system of claim 2, wherein each cell further comprises one or more lines of XML code, each component further comprises one or more lines of XML code, each web presence further comprises one or more lines of XML code, each widget further comprises one or more lines of XML code and each action item further comprises one or more lines of XML code.

35. The system of claim 1, wherein each object is based on an abstract base type object having one or more general characteristics elements of an object and one or more semantic property elements, and a plurality of base components, each base component being a child of the abstract base type object and inheriting the one or more general characteristics, each base component being a container item kind that describes a type of object and encapsulates the particular type of object wherein each type of object associated with the system is represented by the abstract base type object and one of the base components.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein each base component has one or more semantic properties that are defined in the one or more semantic property elements.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the one or more semantic property elements further comprise a tag associated with an object.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein a tag further comprises a tag generated by a user or an automatically generated tag.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein each automatically generated tag further comprises a tag type name, a role and a value of the role wherein the role is an element within the base component to which the tag is associated.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the tag type name further comprises a time tag type, a person tag type, a location tag type, a category tag type or a rating tag type.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the tag types can have more one or more roles associated with the tag type wherein roles reference specific elements (i.e., content) within the item such that the various characteristics of an item can uniformly be exploited during search sessions.

42. The system of claim 38, wherein automatically generated tag type name are shared across different types of items and shared by a community of users.

43. The system of claim 38, wherein automatically generated tags are employed by the data management system to create or update corresponding index entries for each item instance that is persisted or updated in the DB container managed by the XML database for a given cell.

44. The system of claim 36, wherein the one or more semantic property elements further comprise a note associated with an object.

45. The system of claim 36, wherein the one or more semantic property elements further comprise a connection that connects a particular object with another object.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the connection further comprises a connection generated by a user or an automatically generated connection.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein each automatically generated connection further comprises a unique connection identifier and an identifier of a source of the automatically generated connection.

48. The system of claim 35, wherein the one or more general characteristic elements of an object further comprises a LogicalServerID element, a ContentSize element, a CreatedBy element, a CreationTime element, an ItemID element, a KindID element, a LastModified element, a Title element, or an UpdatedBy element.

49. The system of claim 35 further comprising a plurality of aggregated components wherein each aggregated component further comprises one or more base components so that the aggregated component stores information about a content having one or more types of objects.

50. The system of claim 35, wherein the abstract base type object further comprises an ItemKind data structure.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the plurality of base components further comprises one or more of a BlogKind, a ContactKind, a LinkKind, a MediaKind, a DocumentKind, a MessageKind, a CalendarKind, an EventKind, a To-DoKind, a TaskKind, and a PhotoKind.

52. The system of claim 49, wherein the abstract base type object, the plurality of base components and the plurality of aggregated components each further comprise XML data.

53. The system of claim 51, wherein the MediaKind further comprises an AudioKind, a VideoKind and a PhotoKind, the MessageKind further comprises an Email-MessageKind and a Text-MessageKind and wherein the Text-MessageKind further comprises an IM MessageKind.

54. The system of claim 49, wherein the plurality of aggregated components further comprises one or more of an ApparelKind, an AutoKind, a BookKind, a MovieKind, a MusicKind, a Real EstateKind, a VideoGameKind and a WineKind.

55. The system of claim 35 further comprising a new base component for a new type of object, the new base component describing the new type of object and encapsulating the underlying content of the new type of object within a generic content element wherein the new type of object is represented by the new base component.

56. The system of claim 35, wherein the plurality of base components further comprises a vertical application domain item based on a base component that has a vertical application domain semantic property element.

57. The system of claim 35, wherein the abstract base type object further comprises a views element, an actions element and a constraints element wherein the views element describes zero or more display types associated with the abstract base type object, the actions element describes zero or more actions associated with the abstract base type object and the constraints element describes zero or more constraints associated with the abstract base type object.

58. The system of claim 57, wherein the views element, actions element and constraints element associated with the abstract base type object are inherited by the base component types that extend the abstract base type object.

59. The system of claim 55, wherein each base component further comprises a views element, an actions element and a constraints element wherein the views element describes zero or more display types associated with the base component, the actions element describes zero or more actions associated with the base component and the constraints element describes zero or more constraints associated with the base component.

60. The system of claim 59, wherein the views element, actions element and constraints element associated with a particular base component type are inherited by the objects that are derived from that particular base component type.

61. A method for specifying an application stored in a storage unit, the method comprising:

providing one or more cells with each cell having one or more components wherein each component defines the computational and data access aspects of an application and one or more presentations wherein each presentation defines a user interface for a particular application; and

providing a web presence for performing one or more applications is instantiated from a cell with one or more components and the one or more applications of the web presence are defined by the one or more components of the cell.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein each component has one or more elements wherein each element defines as aspect of the computation.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein each component further comprises a name.

64. The method of claim 62, wherein each component further comprises a variable associated with the component wherein the variable is recalculated automatically.

65. The method of claim 63, wherein each component further comprises an action.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein the action is defined in a context of an application and the action further comprises a local object invocation.

67. The method of claim 65, wherein the action is defined in a context of an application and the action further comprises a remote object invocations.

68. The method of claim 63, wherein each component further comprises a subscription to an event.

69. The method of claim 63, wherein each component further comprises a sub-component wherein the sub-component is another component nested in the component.

70. The method of claim 63, wherein each variable further comprises a scope of the variable that defines a context for the variable and a type of the variable corresponding to the type of object associated with the variable.

71. The method of claim 70, wherein the variable further comprises a formula portion that specifies a value of the variable.

72. The method of claim 71, wherein the formula portion further comprises a variable reference wherein a value of the variable reference is determined at the time of evaluation of the variable.

73. The method of claim 71, wherein the formula portion further comprises a constant expression.

74. The method of claim 71, wherein the formula portion further comprises a situated query to retrieve data from the same cell or from other cells and a context for the situated query is specified by the particular cell or within the situated query.

75. The method of claim 74, wherein each cell of the one or more cells further comprises data in XML document instance format.

76. The method of claim 75, wherein the set of XML document instances stored in a cell are managed by the embedded XML database.

77. The method of claim 74, wherein the situated query further comprises a type specification that specifies a type of item to be returned by the situated query.

78. The method of claim 74, wherein the situated query further comprises a scope where the scope describes a set of cells from which the situated query is to retrieve data.

79. The method of claim 78, wherein the scope further comprises absolute references and/or relative references combined with one or more operators.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein the relative references are resolved relative to the context cell for the query.

81. The method of claim 78, wherein the situated query has a expression wherein the situated query with the expression returns all items in the one or more cells identified by the scope which further match the expression.

82. The method of claim 74, wherein the situated query further comprises a page size that define a number of items to be returned at a time by the situated query.

83. The method of claim 74, wherein the situated query further comprises a maximum size that define a maximum number of items returned by the situated query.

84. The method of claim 81, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a kind element that defines a type of item which the situated query is supposed to return.

85. The method of claim 81, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a filter element that filters the items returned by the situated query.

86. The method of claim 81, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a connect element so that the situated query returns all items related to a defined item.

87. The method of claim 81, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a tag element so that the situated query returns all items that match the tag element with respect to the tags and their values.

88. The method of claim 81, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises an orderby element that orders the items returned by the situated query based on the values of a child element within each item.

89. The method of claim 81, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a groupby element that groups the items returned by the situated query based on the values of a child element within each item.

90. The method of claim 81, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a count element such that the situated query returns the count of items.

91. The method of claim 81, wherein the expression of the situated query further comprises a condition element that limits the situated query based on the type of entities to be returned.

92. The method of claim 81, wherein the situated query further comprises some number of expressions wherein the situated query returns all items in the cells identified by the scope that match all or some of those expressions and wherein the expressions are combined using a join operation element, indicating either “

and”

or “

or”

respectively.

93. The method of claim 71, wherein the formula portion further comprises a compound formula having an operator and one or more sub-formulas.

94. The method of claim 62, wherein each cell further comprises one or more lines of XML code, each component further comprises one or more lines of XML code, each web presence further comprises one or more lines of XML code, each widget further comprises one or more lines of XML code and each action item further comprises one or more lines of XML code.

95. The method of claim 61, wherein each object is based on an abstract base type object having one or more general characteristics elements of an object and one or more semantic property elements, and a plurality of base components, each base component being a child of the abstract base type object and inheriting the one or more general characteristics, each base component being a container item, kind that describes a type of object and encapsulates the particular type of object wherein each type of object associated with the method is represented by the abstract base type object and one of the base components.

96. The method of claim 95, wherein each base component has one or more semantic properties that are defined in the one or more semantic property elements.

97. The method of claim 96, wherein the one or more semantic property elements further comprise a tag associated with an object.

98. The method of claim 97, wherein a tag further comprises a tag generated by a user or an automatically generated tag.

99. The method of claim 98, wherein each automatically generated tag further comprises a tag type name, a role and a value of the role wherein the role is an element within the base component to which the tag is associated.

100. The method of claim 99, wherein the tag type name further comprises a time tag type, a person tag type, a location tag type, a category tag type or a rating tag type.

101. The method of claim 100, wherein the tag types can have more one or more roles associated with the tag type wherein roles reference specific elements (i.e., content) within the item such that the various characteristics of an item can uniformly be exploited during search sessions.

102. The method of claim 100, wherein automatically generated tag type name are shared across different types of items (or content) and shared by a community of users.

103. The method of claim 100, wherein automatically generated tags are employed by the data management system to create or update corresponding index entries for each item instance that is persisted or updated in a database container managed by the XML database for a given cell.

104. The method of claim 96, wherein the one or more semantic property elements further comprise a note associated with an object.

105. The method of claim 96, wherein the one or more semantic property elements further comprise a connection that connects a particular object with another object.

106. The method of claim 105, wherein the connection further comprises a connection generated by a user or an automatically generated connection.

107. The method of claim 106, wherein each automatically generated connection further comprises a unique connection identifier and an identifier of a source of the automatically generated connection.

108. The method of claim 95, wherein the one or more general characteristic elements of an object further comprises a LogicalServerID element, a ContentSize element, a CreatedBy element, a CreationTime element, an ItemID element, a KindID element, a LastModified element, a Title element, or an UpdatedBy element.

109. The method of claim 95 further comprising a plurality of aggregated components wherein each aggregated component further comprises one or more base components so that the aggregated component stores information about a content having one or more types of objects.

110. The method of claim 95, wherein the abstract base type object further comprises an ItemKind data structure.

111. The method of claim 110, wherein the plurality of base components further comprises one or more of a BlogKind, a ContactKind, a LinkKind, a MediaKind, a DocumentKind, a MessageKind, a CalendarKind, an EventKind, a To-DoKind, a TaskKind, and a PhotoKind.

112. The method of claim 109, wherein the abstract base type object, the plurality of base components and the plurality of aggregated components each further comprise XML data.

113. The method of claim 111, wherein the MediaKind further comprises an AudioKind, a VideoKind and a PhotoKind, the MessageKind further comprises an Email-MessageKind and a Text-MessageKind and wherein the Text-MessageKind further comprises an IM MessageKind.

114. The method of claim 109, wherein the plurality of aggregated components further comprises one or more of an ApparelKind, an AutoKind, a BookKind, a MovieKind, a MusicKind, a Real EstateKind, a VideoGameKind and a WineKind.

115. The method of claim 95 further comprising a new base component for a new type of object, the new base component describing the new type of object and encapsulating the underlying content of the new type of object within a generic content element wherein the new type of object is represented by the new base component.

116. The method of claim 95, wherein the plurality of base components further comprises a vertical application domain item based on a base component that has a vertical application domain semantic property element.

117. The method of claim 95, wherein the abstract base type object further comprises a views element, an actions element and a constraints element wherein the views element describes zero or more display types associated with the abstract base type object, the actions element describes zero or more actions associated with the abstract base type object and the constraints element describes zero or more constraints associated with the abstract base type object.

118. The method of claim 117, wherein the views element, actions element and constraints element associated with the abstract base type object are inherited by the base component types that extend the abstract base type object.

119. The method of claim 95, wherein each base component further comprises a views element, an actions element and a constraints element wherein the views element describes zero or more display types associated with the base component, the actions element describes zero or more actions associated with the base component and the constraints element describes zero or more constraints associated with the base component.

120. The method of claim 119, wherein the views element, actions element and constraints element associated with a particular base component type are inherited by the objects that are derived from that particular base component type.