Providing descriptions of documents through document description files

• US 6,249,794 B1
• Filed: 12/23/1997
• Issued: 06/19/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Raman, T. V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kindred, Alford W.
• Application Number:
  US08/997,209
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: 707/500, 707/4, 707/523-526, 707/1-3, 707/100, 707/103, 707/513-516, 709/201-203, 709/217
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• 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

Document description files are used to encapsulate structural and meta information associated with a document stored on a computer-readable medium. Document description files are external to native application files and have a set of required fields. Document description files point to the referenced document data using Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and serve as virtual documents. In addition to the required fields, applications can choose to encode additional structural information in the document description files.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a request for information derived from a first document and a first document description file providing an application-independent description of the first document and being distinct from the first document;

using the first document description file to retrieve the information required to satisfy the request; and

generating a second document description file describing the retrieved information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the first document description file to retrieve the information derived from the first document comprises retrieving a second document, stored on a computer readable medium, containing the information derived from the first document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first document description file comprises a description of an operation that can be performed on the document, and retrieving the information derived from the first document comprises performing the operation on the first document to produce the information derived from the first document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information derived from the first document comprises a second document.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second document description file comprises a pointer to the second document.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the pointer comprises a uniform resource locator.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising transmitting the second document to the client.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information derived from the first document comprises the first document.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information derived from the first document comprises a pointer to the first document.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the pointer comprises a uniform resource locator.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the second document description file to the client.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first document description file contains the request.

46. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a first document description file further comprises generating and storing in the first document description file a description of an application that produced the referenced document.

48. The method of claim 1, wherein the size of document description file is independent of the size of the referenced file.

13. A document description file, stored on a computer-readable medium, providing an application-independent description of a referenced document stored on a computer-readable medium, the document description file comprising:

a location description for the referenced document, the location description providing sufficient information to enable a program to locate and retrieve the entire contents of the referenced document;

the referenced document being distinct from the document description file; and

a description of an operation that can be performed on the referenced document to produce information derived from the referenced document.

14. The document description file of claim 13, wherein:

the operation that can be performed on the referenced document comprises a transformation of the referenced document from a file stored in a first storage format to a file stored in a second storage format; and

the operation produces a second document description file that describes the file stored in the second storage format and is distinct from the file stored in the second storage format.

15. The document description file of claim 13, wherein:

the operation that can be performed on the referenced document comprises extraction of information from the referenced document; and

the operation produces a second document description file that describes the information extracted from the referenced document and is distinct from the referenced document.

16. The document description file of claim 13, further comprising a description of an operation to be performed on the document.

47. The document description file of claim 13, wherein generating a first document description file further comprises generating and storing in the first document description file a description of an application program that produced the referenced document.

17. A computer-implemented method for retrieving information derived from a first document, the first document being stored on a computer-readable medium, the method comprising:

retrieving by a first client a first document description file providing an application-independent description of the first document and being distinct from the first document, stored on a computer-readable medium, in response to a request from a second client, the first document description file comprising a location description from which the first document can be obtained, the location description providing sufficient information to enable a program to locate and retrieve the entire contents of the first document, and a description of an operation that can be performed on the first document to produce information derived from the first document;

using the first document description file to retrieve the information required to satisfy the request; and

transmitting the retrieved information to the second client.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein using the first document description file to retrieve the information derived from the first document comprises retrieving a second document, stored on a computer readable medium, containing the information derived from the first document.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein using the first document description file to retrieve the information derived from the first document comprises performing the operation on the first document to produce the information derived from the first document.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the information derived from the first document comprises a second document.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the information derived from the first document comprises the first document.

22. A system comprising:

a first computer-readable medium having a first document produced by a first application;

a second computer-readable medium having a first document description file providing an application-independent description of the first document and being distinct from the first document, the first document description file comprising a description of a location on the first computer-readable medium from which the entire contents of the first document can be obtained, and a description of an operation that can be performed on the first document to produce information derived from the first document; and

a server configured to use the first document description file to produce information derived from the first document.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the information derived from the first document comprises a second document.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the information derived from the first document comprises a second document description file describing the second document.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the second document description file further describes the first document description file.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the first and second computer-readable media are the same computer-readable media.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the first and second computer-readable media are different computer-readable media.

35. The method of claim 22, wherein the composite document description file further comprises:

a description of an operation that can be performed on the first document description file and the second document description file.

40. The system of claim 22, wherein the location element of the first document description file comprises a uniform resource locator pointing to the server.

28. A method, comprising:

generating a composite document description file for describing a combination of a document description file and a second document description file, where the first document description file is distinct from the second document description file, the method comprising;

generating and storing in the composite document description file a description of the combination;

generating and storing in the composite document description file a description of the first document description file, where the first document description file provides an application-independent description of a first document distinct from the first document description file; and

generating and storing in the composite document description file a description of the second document description file, where the second document description file provides an application-independent description of a second document distinct from the second document description file.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the combination is an aggregation of the first document description file and the second document description file.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the combination is an alternation of the first document description file and the second document description file.

31. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

generating a description of an operation that can be performed on the first document description file and the second document description file.

32. A composite description file, stored on a computer-readable medium, for describing a combination of a first document description file and a second document description file, where the first document description file is distinct from the second document description file, the composite document description file comprising:

a description of the combination;

a description of the first document description file, where the first document description file provides an application-independent description of a first document distinct from the first document description file; and

a description of the second document description file, where the second document description file provides an application-independent description of a second document distinct from the second document description file.

33. The document description file of claim 32, wherein the combination is an aggregation of the first document description file and the second document description file.

34. The document description file of claim 32, wherein the combination is an alternation of the first document description file and the second document description file.

36. A method for generating a virtual document for a referenced electronic document, the method comprising:

generating a document description file distinct from the referenced electronic document and providing an application-independent description of the referenced electronic document, the document description file comprising;

an element describing an application program that produced the electronic document;

a location element for the referenced electronic document, the location element providing sufficient information to enable a program to locate and retrieve the entire contents of the referenced electronic document; and

an element describing an operation that can be performed on the referenced electronic document to produce information derived from the referenced electronic document.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the document description file is generated by the application program as a file separate from the electronic document.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the document description file is location independent, is declarative, and contains version information including date and time of last modification of the electronic document.

39. The system of claim 36, wherein the location element comprises a uniform resource locator.

41. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable medium for providing a server, the product comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable computer to:

receive from a client process a request related to a referenced electronic document and a document description file distinct from the referenced electronic document providing an application-independent description of the referenced electronic document, the document description file comprising elements including a location element providing sufficient information to enable the program to locate an retrieve the entire contents of the referenced electronic document, and one or more elements describing one or more operations that can be performed on the referenced electronic document to produce information derived from the referenced electronic document; and

use the document description file to satisfy the request.

42. The product of claim 41, wherein the request is an element of the document description file.

43. The product of claim 41, wherein the elements describing operations comprise a methods element that declares a method that can perform one of the operations on the referenced electronic document to produce information derived from the referenced electronic document;

and the product comprises instructions operable to cause the method to be performed on the referenced electronic document in response to a request for the operation.

44. The product of claim 43, wherein the method is a transformation method that, when applied to the referenced electronic document, returns a response document description file that describes a transformation of the referenced electronic document or that returns an actual result of applying the transformation method to the referenced electronic document.

45. The product of claim 43, wherein the method is an information method that, when applied to the referenced electronic document, returns a response document description file that contains additional information about the referenced electronic document.

49. A computer file format for describing content of a referenced document stored at a remote storage location on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer file format comprising:

a header field describing properties of the referenced document, the properties including at least a title identifying the referenced document;

a content-type field specifying a first computer content authoring application that produced the referenced document;

an address field specifying the remote storage location of the referenced file, the remote storage location identified by a uniform resource locator; and

a method declaration field enumerating one or more operations that can be performed on the referenced document, the one or more operations including at least a transformation method that, when performed at the remote storage location, transforms the content of the referenced document produced by the first computer content authoring application into content produced by a second computer content authoring application,

whereby an application-independent document description file formatted according to the computer file format manifests itself as bits of the referenced document produced by the first computer content authoring application when presented to the remote storage location of the referenced document with a document request from a client running the first computer content authoring application, and manifests itself as bits of the referenced document produced by the second computer content authoring application when presented to the remote storage location of the referenced document with a document request from a client running the second computer content authoring application.

50. The computer file format of claim 49, wherein the one or more operations includes an information method that, when performed, returns a response document description file formatted according to the computer file format, the response document description file including application data specific to the first computer content authoring application.

51. The computer file format of claim 50, wherein the application data describes individual layers of a multi-layered object produced by the authoring application.

52. The computer file format of claim 50, wherein the application data describes the location of tab stops in a word processing document.

53. The computer file format of claim 49, wherein the document description file is generated by a plug-in to the first computer content authoring application.

54. The computer file format of claim 49, wherein the document description file is generated when a save command is executed.

55. The computer file format of claim 49, wherein the document description file contains additional meta information including name of the author of the referenced document.

56. The computer file format of claim 49, wherein the document description file is significantly smaller in size relative to the referenced document.

57. The computer file format of claim 49, wherein the referenced document is a multimedia file.

58. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting an application-independent document description file to a remote sever with a document request; and

rendering the document description file as bits of a referenced document produced by the first computer content authoring application when the document request is from a client running a first computer content authoring application, and manifesting the document description file as bits of the referenced document produced by a second computer content authoring application when the document request is from a client running the second computer content authoring application,

wherein the document description file is formatted according to a computer file format including;

a header field describing properties of the referenced document, the properties including at least a title identifying the referenced document, a content-type field specifying the first computer content authoring application that produced the referenced document;

an address field specifying the remote storage location of the referenced file, the remote storage location identified by a uniform resource locator; and

a method declaration field enumerating one or more operations that can be performed on the referenced document, the one or more operations including at least a transformation method that, when performed at the remote storage location, transforms the content of the referenced document produced by the first computer content authoring application into content produced by a second computer content authoring application.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the one or more operations includes an information method that, when performed, returns a response document description file formatted according to the computer file format, the response document description file including application data specific to the first computer content authoring application.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein the application data describes individual layers of a multi-layered object produced by the authoring application.

61. The method of claim 59, wherein the application data describes the location of tab stops in a word processing document.

62. The method of claim 58, wherein the document description file is generated by a plug-in to the first computer content authoring application.

63. The method of claim 58, wherein the document description file is generated when a save command is executed.

64. The method of claim 58, wherein the document description file contains additional meta information including name of the author of the referenced document.

65. The method of claim 58, wherein the document description file is significantly smaller in size relative to the referenced document.

66. The method of claim 58, wherein the referenced document is a multimedia file.