Declarative Cascade Reordering for Styles

• US 20160275052A1
• Filed: 03/11/2016
• Published: 09/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Eicholz, Arron J., Leithead, Travis
• Granted Patent: US 10,482,165 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/137 Hierarchical processing, e.g. outlines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets

Abstract

In one example, a document rendering device may reorder a cascade level for a style property of a style sheet to maintain cohesion across multiple document components of a document. The document rendering device may store a style sheet describing rendering of a structured document having a nominal cascade level indicating a sheet hierarchy for the style sheet to resolve conflicts with style properties in other style sheets. The document rendering device may set a group cascade level for a property group describing a set of multiple style properties in the style sheet so that the group cascade level is different than the nominal cascade level. The document rendering device may render a document component of the structured document for display based on the property group at the group cascade level.

Claims

1. A document rendering device, comprising:

memory configured to store a style sheet describing rendering of a structured document having a nominal cascade level indicating a sheet hierarchy for the style sheet to resolve conflicts with style properties in other style sheets;

a processing unit having at least one processor configured to;

set a group cascade level for a property group describing a set of multiple style properties in the style sheet so that the group cascade level is different than the nominal cascade level; and

render a document component of the structured document based on the property group at the group cascade level; and

a display screen configured to display the document component to a user.

2. The document rendering device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to identify in the style sheet a group rule defining the group cascade level for the property group and set the group cascade level in accordance with the group rule.

3. The document rendering device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to insert the document component into the structured document.

4. The document rendering device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to apply the property group to the structured document at the group cascade level.

5. The document rendering device of claim 1, wherein the group cascade level is lower than the nominal cascade level for the style sheet.

6. The document rendering device of claim 1, wherein the group cascade level is between a normal user cascade level and a normal user agent cascade level.

7. The document rendering device of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication interface configured to import the style sheet from at least one of a plug-in and a data content set.

8. The document rendering device of claim 1, wherein the style sheet is at least one of an author style sheet at an author cascade level and a user style sheet at a user cascade level.

9. The document rendering device of claim 1, wherein the memory is further configured to associate a property hierarchy indicator with a style property of the property group.

10. The document rendering device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to set a property cascade level for a style property of the property group based on a property hierarchy indicator.

11. A computing device, having a memory to store a series of instructions to execute a document rendering application, the computing device configured to:

process a style sheet describing rendering of a structured document having a nominal cascade level indicating a sheet hierarchy for the style sheet to resolve conflicts with style properties in other style sheets;

identify a style property in the style sheet;

set a property cascade level for the style property lower than the nominal cascade level; and

render a document component of the structured document based on the style property at the property cascade level.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

associating a property hierarchy indicator with the style property.

13. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying in the style sheet a property group containing the style property.

14. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying in the style sheet a group rule defining a group cascade level for a property group containing the style property.

15. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

setting a group cascade level for a property group containing the style property different from the nominal cascade level for the style sheet.

16. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

reading the style sheet as an author style sheet at an author cascade level.

17. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

importing the style sheet as a user style sheet at a user cascade level.

18. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the property cascade level is between an important user cascade level and an important user agent cascade level.

19. A machine-implemented method, comprising:

processing a style sheet describing rendering of a structured document having a nominal cascade level indicating a sheet hierarchy for the style sheet to resolve conflicts with style properties in other style sheets;

identifying in the style sheet a property group describing a set of multiple style properties;

setting a group cascade level for the property group lower than the nominal cascade level; and

rendering a document component of the structured document based on the property group at the group cascade level.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

setting a property cascade level for a style property of the property group based on a property hierarchy indicator.