Method and apparatus for generating structured documents for various presentations and the uses thereof

• US 6,910,182 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2001
• Issued: 06/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xmlcities
• Original Assignee: Xmlcities
• Inventors: Huang, Evan S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Sanjiv
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, PAUL H
• Application Number:
  US09/754,861
• Publication Number:
  US 20010032217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 715/500.1, 715513-523, 705/400
• US Class Current: 715/239
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/157 using dictionaries or tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/216 using statistical methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

The use of a method/apparatus for generating structured documents is disclosed. A counter is coupled for a product implementing the method/apparatus. When the counter is permitted to increment, the structured documents can be generated from unstructured documents. Identifiers in user-defined document type definitions are used to associate selected objects or group objects in the unstructured documents so that association information of the selected objects or group objects can facilitate the generation of files in a markup language suitable for presentations on various media.

Claims

1. A method for providing document conversion process, the method comprising;

activating a counter counting a number of pages being converted in the document conversion process;

converting an unstructured document into an output presentation in a first display, the output presentation including a number of displayable objects and respective decoration attributes about each of the displayable objects;

receiving a definition file including document type definitions (DTD) relating to the unstructured document;

generating a tree structure in a second display showing hierarchical relationships of document elements from the DTD;

displaying in a second disclay next to the first disolay a DTD structure from the DTD showing structures of the document elements and the tree structure showin the hierarchical relationships of the document elements based on a root element;

associating one of the document elements in the tree structure with one of the displayable objects in the output presentation in the first display;

generating a modified output presentation including association information of each one of the displayable objects being associated with one of the definitions in the definition file; and

causing the counter to increment as soon as the modified output presentation is saved.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the numbering system includes a first number from which the counter can increment and a second number the counter can not exceed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein both of the first and second numbers are re-configurable by a business entity.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the business entity charges fees in accordance with the first and second numbers.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein both of the first and second numbers are stored in a dongle that must be consulted every time the modified output presentation is to be saved.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising;

consulting the dongle whenever the modified output presentation is to be saved; and

displaying a message that the first and second numbers are to be reconfigured when the first number is substantially close to the second number in the dongle.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising converting modified output presentation to a markup language file in accordance with a set of mapping rules.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the definition file includes a structure for document elements, each corresponding to one of the displayable objects in the output presentation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least some of the document elements include respectively a number of identifiers, each of the identifiers being assigned to one of the at least some of the document elements.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein some of the identifiers are numerals and/or alphabets.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein some of the identifiers are selected from a group consisting of a font name, a color name, a style, a size and an effect.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein some of the displayable objects are respective groups of characters and/or graphic representations.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein some of the decoration attributes include at least positions, font color, font size, font type, style and effect for each of the groups of characters.

14. A method for providing document conversion process, the method comprising;

activating a product loaded in a computing device, the product controlled by a dongle coupled to the computing device and including a set of instructions to start the document conversion process when an unstructured document is needed to be converted to a file format presentable to a media, wherein the unstructured document includes a number of displayable objects when displayed in a first display in an integrated graphic environment, and respective decoration attributes about each of the displayable objects therein;

receiving a definition file including document type definitions (DTD) relating to the unstructured document;

generating a tree structure from the DTD in a second display, the tree structure showing hierarchical relationships of document elements, wherein a structure of the DTD itself is also displayed independently in the second display, the second display is included in the integrated graphic environment;

associating one of the document elements in the tree structure with one of the displayable objects in the first display;

generating a the file format from the tree structure, the structured file including association information of each one of the displayable objects associated with one of the definitions in the definition file; and

causing a counter in the dongle to increment as soon as the modified metafile is to be saved.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the dangle includes a first number from which the counter can increment and a second number the counter can not exceed.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein both of the first and second numbers are re-configurable by a business entity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the business entity charges fees in accordance with the first and second numbers in the dongle.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising;

converting modified metafile to a markup language file in accordance with a set of mapping rules.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the unstructured document is a metafile generated from a file composed/edited/managed by authoring tool.

20. A method for providing document conversion process, the method comprising;

offering a product executable on a computing device, the product controlled by a dongle coupled to the computing device and including a set of instructions to start the document conversion process when an unstructured document is needed to be converted to an structured file presentable to a media,

wherein the unstructured document includes a number of displayable objects when displayed in a first display and respective decoration attributes about each of the displayable objects therein;

wherein a counter is associated with the dangle that includes a first number from which the counter can increment and a second number the counter can not exceed;

causing the counter to increment as soon as the structured file is saved the structured file generated from a tree structure, the tree structure originally generated from document type definitions relating to the unstructured document and subsequently containing association information of at least one of the displayable objects being associated with one of definitions in the document type definitions by manually associating one of the displayable objects with one of document elements in the tree structure, wherein the tree structure as well as a structure of the document type definitions are both shown in a second display next to the first display.