Embedding metadata with displayable content and applications thereof

• US 20090164494A1
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Dodin, Ramy
• Granted Patent: US 7,975,217 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/42 Syntactic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/51 Source to source

Abstract

The present invention relates to embedding metadata with user interface messages. One method embodiment includes: encoding the metadata into a sequence of non-displayable characters; combining the displayable data and the sequence of non-displayable characters; and sending the combined displayable data and sequence of non-displayable characters to a client for display. In examples, the displayable characters may be displayable Unicode characters, and the non-displayable characters may be non-displayable Unicode characters, such as the left-to-right mark (0x200E) and the right-to-left mark (0x200F).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for embedding metadata with displayable data, comprising:

(a) encoding the metadata into a sequence of non-displayable characters;

(b) combining displayable data and the sequence of non-displayable characters; and

(c) sending the combined displayable data and sequence of non-displayable characters to a client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding step (a) comprises:

converting the metadata into a binary number; and

mapping each digit of the binary number to a non-displayable Unicode character, and

wherein the displayable data includes a sequence of displayable Unicode characters.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mapping comprises mapping each digit of the binary number to either a left-to-right mark (0x200E) or a right-to-left mark (0x200F).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the combining step (b) comprises appending the sequence of non-displayable characters to the displayable data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata is an index identifying the displayable data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the displayable data represents a translation of a source message, and further comprising:

(d) receiving a request including the index; and

(e) retrieving the translation identified by the index.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the displayable data represents a translation of a source message suggested by a user, and further comprising:

(d) receiving a request including the index; and

(e) storing the translation according to the index.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

(d) receiving a request including a bug report and the index identifying the displayable data; and

(e) storing the bug report according to the index.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

(d) receiving a request including a feature suggestion and the index identifying the displayable data; and

(e) storing the feature suggestion according to the index.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

(d) receiving a request including usage data and the index identifying the displayable data; and

(e) storing the usage data according to the index.

11. A system for embedding metadata with displayable data, comprising:

a message ID encoder that encodes the metadata into a sequence of non-displayable characters;

a message combiner that combines displayable data and the sequence of non-displayable characters; and

a server that sends the combined displayable data and sequence of non-displayable characters to a client.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the message ID encoder comprises:

a binary converter that converts the metadata into a binary number; and

a Unicode converter that maps each digit of the binary number to a non-displayable Unicode character, and

wherein the displayable data includes a sequence of displayable Unicode characters.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the Unicode converter maps each digit of the binary number to either a left-to-right mark (0x200E) or a right-to-left mark (0x200F).

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the message combiner appends the sequence of non-displayable characters to the displayable data.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the metadata is an index identifying the displayable data.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the displayable data represents a translation of a source message, and further comprising a translation server that receives a request including the index and retrieves the translation of the displayable data identified by the index.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the displayable data represents a translation of a source message suggested by a user, and further comprising a translation server that receives a request including the index and stores the translation according to the index.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising a module that receives a request including a bug report and the index identifying the displayable data and stores the bug report according to the index.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising a module that receives a request including a feature suggestion and the index identifying the displayable data and stores the feature suggestion according to the index.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising a module that receives a request including usage information and the index identifying the displayable data and stores the usage information according to the index.

21. A computer-implemented method for retrieving a translation of a user interface message encoded as displayable data comprising:

(a) converting an index identifying a first translation of the user interface message into a binary number;

(b) mapping each digit of the binary number to either a left-to-right mark (0x200E) or a right-to-left mark (0x200F) to form a sequence of non-displayable characters;

(c) combining the sequence of non-displayable characters and the displayable data representing the user interface message;

(d) sending the combined displayable data and the sequence of non-displayable characters to a client;

(e) receiving a request including the index; and

(f) retrieving the first translation of the user interface message identified by the index.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the combining in step (c) comprises appending the sequence of non-displayable characters to the displayable data.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

(g) receiving a second request including the index and a second translation, wherein the second translation is suggested by a user; and

(h) storing the second translation according to the index in the second request.