Data exchange apparatus and methods
First Claim
1. A digital computer system including a data display apparatus and having access to files for storing items of data, the files belonging to a plurality of file types wherein the file types include a stream file type, a record file type, said digital computer system comprising:
- a data viewing apparatus for viewing one or more of the items of data in a file having any one of the plurality of file types, the data viewing apparatus comprising;
(1) generic form production means for reading a logical record containing an item of data from a file and using the contents of the logical record to produce a generic form of the logical record which is non-specific to any of the file types and which represents the contents of the logical record as an arrangement of codes representing displayable characters and(2) display production means for receiving the generic form of the logical record and producing a display thereof on the data display apparatus; and
a destination file production means for receiving the generic form of the logical record to produce a destination file logical record from contents of the generic form, said destination file logical record having a format proper for the file type of a destination file.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for the exchange of data between files having different types. The apparatus includes means for reading a logical record from a source file and using the data contained therein in the production of a generic form in which data is represented as an arrangement of displayable characters and means for using the data represented in the generic form to produce a logical record for a destination file. The means for producing the generic form may further include means for inserting a user-defined code in the generic form to mark fields of the source file logical record. The means for producing the destination file logical record may then employ the user-defined code to produce corresponding fields in the destination file logical record. The apparatus may further include data viewing means which permits the user to view the generic form and interactively define fields therein. The means for producing the destination file logical record may then employ the field definition for the generic form to produce corresponding fields in the destination file logical record.
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Citations
62 Claims
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1. A digital computer system including a data display apparatus and having access to files for storing items of data, the files belonging to a plurality of file types wherein the file types include a stream file type, a record file type, said digital computer system comprising:
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a data viewing apparatus for viewing one or more of the items of data in a file having any one of the plurality of file types, the data viewing apparatus comprising; (1) generic form production means for reading a logical record containing an item of data from a file and using the contents of the logical record to produce a generic form of the logical record which is non-specific to any of the file types and which represents the contents of the logical record as an arrangement of codes representing displayable characters and (2) display production means for receiving the generic form of the logical record and producing a display thereof on the data display apparatus; and a destination file production means for receiving the generic form of the logical record to produce a destination file logical record from contents of the generic form, said destination file logical record having a format proper for the file type of a destination file. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. In a digital computer system including a data display apparatus and a data exchange apparatus for exchanging data between a source file and a destination file, each of these files belonging to one of a plurality of file types wherein the file types include a stream file type, a record file type, a record and field file type and a document file type, a method for viewing one or more of the items of data in the source file to be exchanged with the destination file comprising:
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selecting a file containing an item of data to be viewed; reading a logical record which contains the item of data to be viewed from the selected file; using the contents of the logical record to produce a generic form of the logical record which is non-specific to any of the file types which represents the contents of the logical record as an arrangement of codes representing displayable characters; and producing a display of the generic form on the data display apparatus.
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9. In a digital computer system having access to files belonging to a plurality of file types, a display apparatus for receiving a control input from a user of the digital computer system, a data exchange apparatus for exchanging data between a source file having a first file type and a destination file having a second file type different from the first file type, comprising:
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(1) generic form production means for reading a source file logical record from the source file and producing a generic form representation of contents of the logical record wherein the contents are represented as an arrangement of codes representing displayable characters that are non-specific to the first file type or the second file type; (2) destination record production means for receiving the generic form representation, using the representation therein to produce a destination file logical record, and writing the destination file logical record to the destination file; (3) data viewing means for receiving the generic form representation and displaying the generic form representation on the display apparatus; and (4) data exchange control means for receiving the control input from the input apparatus, for operating the generic form production means and the destination record production means to exchange contents of a first source file logical record between the source file and the destination file and for operating the generic form production means and the data viewing means to view contents of a second given source file logical record as determined by the control input.
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10. A digital computer system having access to files for storing items of data, the files each having a file type selected from a plurality of file types wherein the file types include a stream file type, a record file type, a record and field file type and a document file type, wherein each file type identifies the format of items of data stored therein, said digital computer system including
a display apparatus for displaying data and a data exchange apparatus for exchanging one or more items of data between a source file having a file type within the plurality of file types and a destination file having a different one of the plurality of file types, the data exchange apparatus comprising: -
(1) for each of the file types, a generic form production means for operating when the source file has a corresponding source file type to read a source file logical record containing an item of data from the source file for each item of data to be exchanged and to produce a generic form from the source file logical record, the generic form representing each item of data as an arrangement of codes of displayable characters, said generic form being non-specific to any of the file types; and (2) for each of the file types, destination record production means for operating when the destination file has a corresponding file type to receive the generic form for each item of data to be exchanged, to use the generic form of each item of data to produce a destination file logical record in which each item of data has a proper format for the corresponding file type of the destination file, and to write the destination file logical record to the destination file. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. In a digital computer system having access to files for storing items of data, the files belonging to a plurality of file types wherein the file types include a stream file type, a record file type, a record and field file type and a document file type, said file types identifying a format of the items of data stored therein,
a method of exchanging one or more of the items of data between any source file having one of the plurality of file types of the file types and any destination file having one of the plurality of file types which is different from the source file type, the method comprising the steps of: -
from a plurality of generic form production means, each corresponding to one of the plurality of file types, selecting a generic form production means corresponding to the source file'"'"'s file type and from a plurality of destination record production means, each corresponding to one of the plurality of file types, selecting a destination record production means corresponding to the destination file'"'"'s file type; and for each one of the items of data to be exchanged, performing the steps of employing the selected generic form production means to perform the steps of reading a source file logical record containing the item of data from the source file and producing a generic form from the logical record, the generic form representing the item of data as an arrangment of codes representing displayable characters that are non-specific to any of the file types and employing the selected destination record production means to perform the steps of producing from the generic form a destination file logical record in which the item of data has a proper format for the type of the destination file and writing the destination file logical record to the destination file. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. In a digital computer system having access to files for storing items of data, the files each having a file type of a plurality of file types, said file types including a stream file type, a record file type, a record and field file type and a document file type and identifying a format of the items of data stored therein,
a data exchange apparatus for exchanging one or more of the items of data between a source file having a first file type and a destination file having a second file type that is different from the first file type, comprising: -
(1) operation specification means for specifying operations to be performed during exchange of items of data; and (2) record exchange means operating as specified by the operation specification means for performing an exchange operation for each item of data, the exchange operation including reading a source file logical record from the source file, using contents of the source file logical record to produce a generic form in which the contents of the source file logical record are represented as an arrangement of codes representing displayable characters such that the arrangement is non-specific to any of the file types, using the contents of the generic form to produce a destination file logical record in which each item of data has a format proper for a file of a type of the destination file, and writing the destination file logical record to the destination file. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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60. In a digital computer system having access to files for storing items of data, the files each having a file type of a set of file types, said file type identifying a format of the items of data sorted therein,
a method for exchanging one or more of the items of data between a source file having a first file type and a destination file having a second file type that is different from the first file type, comprising performing the steps of: -
providing a specification of a data exchange operation; and for each one of the items of data to be exchanged, performing the steps of reading a source file logical record containing the item of data from the source file in accordance with the specification; producing a generic form from the logical record in accordance with the specification, the generic form representing the item of data as an arrangement of codes representing displayable characters, said arrangement being non-specific to any of the file types; using the generic form to produce a destination file logical record in which the item of data has a format consistent with a file type of the destination file in accordance with the specification; and writing the destination file logical record to the destination file in accordance with the specification. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62)
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Specification