CROSS-BROWSER RICH TEXT EDITING VIA A HYBRID CLIENT-SIDE MODEL

• US 20090259949A1
• Filed: 04/15/2008
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Verlaan, Adri, Perantatos, George
• Granted Patent: US 8,694,904 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A full-featured cross-browser hybrid rich text editor for editing webpage content. The hybrid editor is integrated with a user interface (e.g., toolbar, menu bar), and provides the appropriate context-sensitive behavior when users interact with the user interface and the interface contents. The hybrid editor responds immediately to basic commands (e.g., cursor movements, inserts, selections, repeated key presses, etc.), and employs behaviors and effects that are more aligned with familiar editor experiences, such as in a word processor. The editor architecture leverages the strengths of both the current browser content editability and JavaScript, limits the browser-based content editing to the insertion pointer, paste, processes content as the content is entered or when cursor is moved around, and implements an abstraction layer that maps browser-specific functions independent of the browser to the underlying support of the hybrid editor.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented editing system, comprising

a rich text editing component for editing content of a webpage via a browser;

and

an abstraction component for exposing browser-specific functions for processing by the rich text editing component, the exposed functions independent of browser editing functions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the abstraction component exposes browser-specific script functions for rich text editing of the browser content and maps the browser-specific script functions to the rich text editing component.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the rich text editing component generates an insertion pointer as a browser content editable region in response to cursor behavior.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the rich text editing component handles content inserted into the webpage via a pasting or typing operation by executing a function that copies the content out of a browser editable region into markup language of the webpage.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the rich text editing component processes the content as the content is entered, via functions exposed for assisting in the processing of the content.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the rich text editing component includes a look-back memory for storing user input and automatically formatting the stored input when input completion is indicated.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the abstraction component is extensible for receiving new third-party functions that operate in response to specific events activated in the rich text editing component.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the rich text editing component includes features that are read-only regions in HTML portions of the webpage.

9. A computer-implemented editing system, comprising

a rich text editing component for editing content of a webpage via a browser, the content processed as the content is entered and in association with cursor movement;

and

an abstraction component for exposing browser-specific script functions for processing by the rich text editing component, the exposed script functions independent of browser editing functions and for rich text cross-browser editing.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the rich text editing component processes keystrokes using JavaScript editing functions exposed by the abstraction component.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the rich text editing component generates a browser content editable region as an insertion pointer in the webpage and manages cursor movement, selection changes and operations over the selections in the editable region.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the content editable region presents the content in a WYSIWYG format for editing.

13. A computer-implemented method of editing content, comprising:

initiating editing of webpage content in a browser;

defining an editable region based on the content to be edited;

presenting a cursor in the editable region as an insertion pointer for editing the content;

exposing common editing functions and browser-specific functions based on the browser and type of editing operations; and

editing the content using the common editing functions and browser-specific functions.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising controlling where the cursor is placed in the editable region, movement of the cursor in the editable region, and transitioning of the cursor to and from different structures.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising limiting editing capability of the browser to the insertion pointer.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising processing the content as the content is entered to present a live preview of how the edited content will look.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising copying content entered at the insertion pointer from the editable region into HTML code of the webpage.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising processing keystrokes associated with the editing using JavaScript browser-specific functions.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising mapping the browser-specific functions to rich text editing commands.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising adding new functions that are exposed to a rich text editor for the editing of the content.