Method and system for automatically generating logical structures of electronic documents

• US 5,434,962 A
• Filed: 05/24/1994
• Issued: 07/18/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kusumoto, Koji, Takeoka, Makoto, Kamibayashi, Noriyuki, Kyojima, Masaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Herndon, Heather R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BURRASTON, NEIL
• Application Number:
  US08/248,547
• Time in Patent Office: 420 Days
• Field of Search: 395/145, 395/148, 364/419.1
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

According to the present invention, a document structure generation system in which logical structure generation rules are established between a logical structure satisfying the restrictions of a generic logical structure which restricts the logical structure of an input document or documents and a logical structure satisfying the restrictions of a generic logical structure which restricts the logical structure of an output document or documents. A logical structure of an output document can be automatically generated from a logical structure of an input document according to the rules.

Claims

1. A method of generating a logical document structure for a new electronic document,

wherein the new electronic document is to have a plurality of logically-connected document-parts;

wherein a generic logical structure corresponds to a configuration of document-parts and is expressed by a tree-like logical connection of nodes; and

wherein each of multiple generic logical structures includes restrictions for the connection of nodes therein;

the method comprising the steps of;

storing a plurality of the generic logical structures;

storing a plurality of electronic documents, each having a logical document structure corresponding to one of the stored generic logical structures;

storing a plurality of sets of rules, each defining a relationship between logical document structures corresponding to one of the stored generic logical structures and logical document structures corresponding to another of the stored generic logical structures;

receiving at least one of the stored electronic documents and the stored generic logic structure corresponding thereto, at least one stored generic logical structure restricting the logical document structure of the new electronic document, and at least one of the stored sets of rules defining the relationship between logical document structures corresponding to the received generic logical structures; and

establishing and interconnecting nodes to generate the new logical document structure of the new electronic document, according to restrictions of the received generic logical structure restricting the logical structure of the new electronic document and according to the received set of rules.

2. A method of generating a new logical structure for a new electronic document,

wherein the new electronic document is to have a plurality of logically-connected document-parts;

wherein a generic logical structure corresponds to a configuration of the document-parts and is expressed by a logic-tree structure having at least one parent node connected to at least one corresponding child node, and a leaf node being a child node having any one of the document-parts as its contents; and

wherein each of multiple generic logical structures includes restrictions for the connection of nodes therein;

the method comprising the steps of;

storing a plurality of the generic logical structures;

storing a plurality of electronic documents, each having a logical document structure corresponding to one of the stored generic logical structures;

storing a plurality of sets of rules, each defining a relationship between logical document structures and logical document structures corresponding to one of the stored generic logical structures corresponding to another of the stored generic logical structures;

receiving at least one of the stored electronic documents and the stored generic logic structure corresponding thereto, at least one stored generic logical structure restricting the logical document structure of the new electronic document, and at least one of the stored sets of rules defining the relationship between logical document structures corresponding to the received generic logical structures; and

establishing and interconnecting nodes to generate the new logical document structure of the new electronic document, according to restrictions of the received generic logical structure restricting the logical structure of the new electronic document and according to the received set of rules,

the step of establishing and interconnecting further including the substeps of;

determining a need for one or more child nodes;

generating any child node needed for interconnection of nodes,

determining, according to a descriptor in the restrictions of the received generic logical structure, whether any rule of the received set of rules is necessary for interconnection of nodes; and

applying any rule determined to be necessary.

3. An electronic document processing system comprising:

an electronic document memory unit for storing a plurality of predetermined electronic documents, wherein each predetermined electronic document includes a set of logically-connected document-parts, a logical structure of the document-parts that expresses the logical relationships among the document-parts, and a generic logical structure derived from the Logical structure;

a document program memory unit for storing a program to automatically generate a new electronic document from the stored electronic documents and for storing a plurality of sets of rules defining relationships between any pair of stored generic logical structures; and

a document program executing unit for receiving at least one of the stored electronic documents, a first and second of at least one of the stored generic logical structures, at least one of the stored sets of rules corresponding to the first and second generic logical structures, and the stored program and for executing the program to automatically generate the new electronic document according to the received electronic documents, first and second generic logical structures and sets of rules.

4. An electronic document processing system comprising:

an electronic document memory unit for storing a plurality of predetermined electronic documents, wherein each predetermined electronic document includes a set of logically-connected document-parts, a logical structure of the document-parts that expresses the logical relationships among the document-parts, and a generic logical structure derived from the logical structure;

a document program memory unit for storing a program to automatically generate a new electronic document from the stored electronic documents and for storing a plurality of a set of rules defining relationships between any pair of stored generic logical structures;

a document program executing unit for receiving at least one of the stored electronic documents, a first and second of at least one of the stored generic logical structures, at least one of the stored sets of rules corresponding to the first and second generic logical structures, and the stored program and for executing the program to automatically generate the new electronic document according to the received electronic documents, first and second generic logical structures and sets of rules; and

an automatic layout processing unit for receiving the new electronic document and for automatically executing a physical layout structure of the new electronic document.

5. An electronic document processing system comprising:

an electronic document memory unit for storing a plurality of predetermined electronic documents, wherein each predetermined electronic document includes a set of logically-connected document-parts, a logical structure of the document-parts that expresses the logical relationships among the document-parts, and a generic logical structure derived from the logical structure;

a document program memory unit for storing a program to automatically generate a new electronic document from the stored electronic documents and for storing a plurality of sets of rules defining relationships between any pair of stored generic logical structures;

a document program executing unit for receiving at least one of the stored electronic documents, a first and second of at least One Of the stored generic logical structures, at least one of the stored sets of rules corresponding to the first and second logical structures, and the stored program and for executing the program to automatically generate the new electronic document according to the received electronic documents, first and second generic logical structures, and sets of rules;

an automatic layout processing unit for receiving the new electronic document and for automatically executing a physical layout structure of the new electronic document;

an input unit for inputting edit items; and

a document processing unit for editing the new electronic document according to the edit items;

whereby an automatic generation mode or an edit mode are selectable.