Data processing system and method for generating a representation for and random access rendering of electronic documents
First Claim
1. A method of random access extraction of a portion of a hierarchical digital document, the digital document having descriptive markup defining a plurality of hierarchical elements, wherein each element has a type name, and has at least one of an ancestor element, a child element, a left sibling element, a right sibling element and unformatted text content, the data processing system using a representation of the digital document, including, for each element, an indication of any ancestor element, child element, and left and right sibling element, the method comprising:
- receiving a request for a portion of a digital document including an indication of a starting point within the digital document; and
selecting elements from the digital document in accordance with the received request, including;
identifying one of the plurality of hierarchical elements within the digital document as an initial element containing the indicated starting point using the representation of the digital document; and
traversing the representation of the digital document to select elements of the digital document beginning with the initial element.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A data processing system and method for generating a representation of an electronic document, for indexing the electronic document, for navigating the electronic document using its representation and for displaying the electronic document on an output device. The system and method are used with electronic documents having descriptive markup which describes the content or meaning of the document rather than its appearance. Such documents may be represented by a tree. Each markup element defines a node or element in a tree. The tree is represented by providing a unique identifier for each element and for accessing a descriptor of the element. An element descriptor preferably includes indications of the parent, first child, last child, left sibling, right sibling, type name and text location for the element. The document representation is used to facilitate navigation of the text for constructing navigational aids such as table of contents and full text indexing. A document is also provided with a style sheet for specifying desired formatting characteristics for each type of element in the document. To display the document, a suitable starting point is found on the basis of a selected starting point. The document is displayed beginning with the suitable starting point and the format characteristics for each element displayed are retrieved from the style sheet and applied to the text of the displayed element.
147 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method of random access extraction of a portion of a hierarchical digital document, the digital document having descriptive markup defining a plurality of hierarchical elements, wherein each element has a type name, and has at least one of an ancestor element, a child element, a left sibling element, a right sibling element and unformatted text content, the data processing system using a representation of the digital document, including, for each element, an indication of any ancestor element, child element, and left and right sibling element, the method comprising:
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receiving a request for a portion of a digital document including an indication of a starting point within the digital document; and selecting elements from the digital document in accordance with the received request, including; identifying one of the plurality of hierarchical elements within the digital document as an initial element containing the indicated starting point using the representation of the digital document; and traversing the representation of the digital document to select elements of the digital document beginning with the initial element. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A data processing system for random access extraction of a portion of a hierarchical digital document, the digital document having descriptive markup defining a plurality of hierarchical elements, wherein each element has a type name, and has at least one of an ancestor element, a child element, a left sibling element, a right sibling element and unformatted text content, the data processing system using a representation of the digital document, including, for each element, an indication of any ancestor element, child element, and left and right sibling element, the system comprising:
a data selection component that receives at an input a request for a portion of a digital document including an indication of a starting point within the digital document, and generates at an output selected elements from the digital document in accordance with the received request, the data selection component including; a data identifying component that receives at an input the indicated starting point and generates at an output an initial element, the initial element identified using the representation of the digital document and being one of the plurality of hierarchical elements within the digital document containing the indicated starting point; and a data traversing component that receives at an input the initial element and generates at an output selected elements of the digital document beginning with the initial element, the traversing component selecting elements by traversing the digital document. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer program product for random access extraction of a portion of a hierarchical digital document, the digital document having descriptive markup defining a plurality of hierarchical elements, wherein each element has a type name, and has at least one of an ancestor element, a child element, a left sibling element, a right sibling element and unformatted text content, the data processing system using a representation of the digital document, including, for each element, an indication of any ancestor element, child element, and left and right sibling element, the system comprising:
a data selection component that receives at an input a request for a portion of a digital document including an indication of a starting point within the digital document, and generates at an output selected elements from the digital document in accordance with the received request, the data selection component including; a data identifying component that receives at an input the indicated starting point and generates at an output an initial element, the initial element identified using the representation of the digital document and being one of the plurality of hierarchical elements within the digital document containing the indicated starting point; and a data traversing component that receives at an input the initial element and generates at an output selected elements of the digital document beginning with the initial element, the traversing component selecting elements by traversing the digital document. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A data processing system for random access extraction of a portion of a hierarchical digital document, the digital document having descriptive markup defining a plurality of hierarchical elements, wherein each element has a type name, and has at least one of an ancestor element, a child element, a left sibling element, a right sibling element and unformatted text content, the data processing system using a representation of the digital document, including, for each element, an indication of any ancestor element, child element, and left and right sibling element, the system comprising:
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means for receiving a request for a portion of a digital document including an indication of a starting point within the digital document; and means for selecting elements from the digital document in accordance with the received request, including; means for identifying one of the plurality of hierarchical elements within the digital document as an initial element containing the indicated starting point using the representation of the digital document; and means for traversing the representation of the digital document to select elements of the digital document beginning with the initial element. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A process of producing a digital information product comprising computer data signals defining a portion of a hierarchical digital document, the digital document having descriptive markup defining a plurality of hierarchical elements, wherein each element has a type name, and has at least one of an ancestor element, a child element, a left sibling element, a right sibling element and unformatted text content, the data processing system using a representation of the digital document, including, for each element, an indication of any ancestor element, child element, and left and right sibling element, the method comprising:
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receiving a request for a portion of a digital document including an indication of a starting point within the digital document; and selecting elements from the digital document in accordance with the received request and encoding the selected elements in a computer data signal, including; identifying one of the plurality of hierarchical elements within the digital document as an initial element containing the indicated starting point using the representation of the digital document; and traversing the representation of the digital document to select elements of the digital document beginning with the initial element. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification