Stylesheet conversion engine

• US 20090300483A1
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Viet, Julien
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,926 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/236
• 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

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a browser-independent cascading style sheet (CSS) that conforms to a CSS standard, and automatically modifying the browser-independent CSS to incorporate different CSS related features of various browsers. The method further includes creating one or more CSS files customized for the various browsers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a browser-independent cascading style sheet (CSS) that conforms to a CSS standard;

automatically modifying the browser-independent CSS to incorporate different CSS related features of a plurality of browsers; and

creating one or more CSS files customized for the plurality of browsers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of browsers represents at least one of multiple browser types and multiple versions of browser types, the multiple browser types comprising one or more of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and Flock.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the browser-independent CSS is modified using CSS filters created according to different interpretations of CSS behavior by the plurality of browsers.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the CSS filters comprise at least one of Conditional Comments or CSS Hacks.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more CSS files customized for the plurality of browsers includes a single CSS file customized for the plurality of browsers.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein automatically modifying the browser-independent CSS further comprises:

modifying the browser-independent CSS according to interpretation of CSS behavior by a first one of the plurality of browsers to create a first adjusted CSS file;

modifying the first adjusted CSS file according to interpretation of CSS behavior by a next one of the plurality of browsers to create a next adjusted CSS file; and

repeating a modification for each of the remaining browsers.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein a modification for each browser is performed by a plugin configured for a corresponding one of the plurality of browsers.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein a plugin associated with one of the plurality of browsers that is compliant with the CSS standard refrains from modifying a corresponding CSS file.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

providing a user interface allowing a user to submit a request to recreate existing CSS files.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more CSS files customized for the plurality of browsers includes a plurality of CSS files, each of the plurality of CSS files being customized for a distinct one of the plurality of browsers.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein automatically modifying the browser-independent CSS further comprises:

receiving an identifier of a first one of the plurality of browsers;

modifying the browser-independent CSS according to interpretation of CSS behavior by the first one of the plurality of browsers to create a first one of the plurality of the CSS files;

storing the first one of the plurality of the CSS files with the identifier of the first one of the plurality of browsers in a CSS data store; and

repeating the receiving, the modifying and the storing for each remaining of the plurality of browsers.

12. A system comprising:

a user interface to receive a browser-independent cascading style sheet (CSS) that conforms to a CSS standard; and

a CSS conversion engine, coupled with the user interface to automatically modify the browser-independent CSS to incorporate different CSS related features of a plurality of browsers, and to create one or more CSS files customized for the plurality of browsers.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the plurality of browsers represents at least one of multiple browser types and multiple versions of browser types, the multiple browser types comprising one or more of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and Flock.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the CSS conversion engine comprises a plurality of browser plugins operable to create a single CSS file customized for the plurality of browsers.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein a plugin associated with one of the plurality of browsers that is compliant with the CSS standard refrains from modifying a corresponding CSS file.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the user interface allows a user to submit a request to recreate existing CSS files.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the CSS conversion engine comprises a plurality of browser plugins operable to create a plurality of CSS files, each of the plurality of CSS files being customized for a distinct one of the plurality of browsers.

18. A machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

receiving a browser-independent cascading style sheet (CSS) that conforms to a CSS standard;

automatically modifying the browser-independent CSS to incorporate different CSS related features of a plurality of browsers; and

creating one or more CSS files customized for the plurality of browsers.

19. The machine-accessible storage medium of claim 18 wherein automatically modifying the browser-independent CSS further comprises:

modifying the browser-independent CSS according to interpretation of CSS behavior by a first one of the plurality of browsers to create a first adjusted CSS file;

modifying the first adjusted CSS file according to interpretation of CSS behavior by a next one of the plurality of browsers to create a next adjusted CSS file; and

repeating a modification for each of the remaining browsers.

20. The machine-accessible storage medium of claim 18 wherein the method further comprises:

providing a user interface allowing a user to submit a request to recreate existing CSS files.

21. The machine-accessible storage medium of claim 18 wherein automatically modifying the browser-independent CSS further comprises:

receiving an identifier of a first one of the plurality of browsers;

modifying the browser-independent CSS according to interpretation of CSS behavior by the first one of the plurality of browsers to create a first one of a plurality of the CSS files;

storing the first one of the plurality of the CSS files with the identifier of the first one of the plurality of browsers in a CSS data store; and

repeating the receiving, the modifying and the storing for each remaining of the plurality of browsers.