Web controls validation

• US 6,915,454 B1
• Filed: 06/12/2001
• Issued: 07/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Moore, Anthony J., Guthrie, Scott D., Warren, Susan M., Isaac, Steven A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US09/879,790
• Time in Patent Office: 1,484 Days
• Field of Search: 714/38, 714/37, 714/47, 717/124, 717/116, 717/127, 717/141
• US Class Current: 714/38.14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0754 by exceeding limits

Abstract

Web control validation may be defined using one or more declarations that are included in an ASP+ file by the web page author. The declarations specify server-side objects that validate the input data received in the web page and provide error handling in the event of a validation failure error. Validation declaration parameters specify the validation criteria against which the input data is validated. Example validation operations involve regular expressions, required fields, data comparison, range comparison and custom validation. Validation parameters can also specify- either server-side validation or client-side validation, depending on the client browser'"'"'s capabilities. In a server-side scenario, a server-side validation object processes the input data received in an HTTP request from the client. In a client-side scenario, a server-side validation object renders the appropriate client-side code to validate the input data without a round trip between the client and the server.

Claims

1. A computer program product encoding a computer program for executing on a computer system a computer process for validating input data received through at least one client-side input control element in a Web page, each client-side input control element being associated with a server-side input control object declared in a server-side resource, the computer process comprising:

detecting a validator declaration in the server-side resource, the validator declaration being associated with a server-side input control object;

generating a server-side validation object having a validation criterion, responsive to the detecting operation; and

evaluating at least a portion of the input data to determine whether the portion of the input data satisfies the validation criterion, the portion of the input data being received through the client-side input control element associated with the server-side input control object;

wherein the validation criterion defines a required field of the server-side input control object, and wherein the portion of the input data is required to populate the required field to be valid.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the computer process further comprises:

designating a property of the server-side control object as a validation property;

associating the server-side validation object with the server-side input control object; and

receiving the portion of the input data into the validation property of the server-side input control object,

wherein the evaluating operation comprises evaluating the portion of the input data stored in the validation property against the validation criterion.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the associating operation comprises:

storing an identifier of the server-side input control object in the server-side validation object.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the computer process further comprises:

passing the portion of the input data to a server-side process, if the portion of the input data satisfies the validation criterion.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the computer process further comprises:

withholding the portion of the input data from the server-side process, if the portion of the input data fails to satisfy the validation criterion.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the input data is received from a client computer system and computer process further comprises:

transmitting to the client computer system an error message indicating a validation failure associated with the portion of the input data, if the portion of the input data fails to satisfy the validation criterion.

7. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the validation criterion defines a format against which the portion of the input data is evaluated.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the format is defined by one or more regular expressions.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the validation criterion defines a requirement that the portion of the input data received through the client-side input control element be different than an initial value.

10. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the validation criterion defines a validity range against which the portion of the input data is evaluated.

11. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the validation criterion defines a comparison operation against which the portion of the input data is evaluated.

12. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the server-side resource is stored on a server computer system and the validation criterion defines a server-side validation function executing on the server computer system to evaluate the portion of the input data.

13. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a validation summary object for displaying on the Web page an error message of one or more validation objects associated with the Web page.

21. The method computer program product of claim 1 wherein the server-side resource is stored on a server computer system and the validation criterion defines a server-side validation function executing on the server computer system to evaluate the portion of the input data.

14. A computer program product encoding a computer program for executing on a computer system a computer process for validating input data received through at least one client-side input control element in a Web page, each client-side input control element being associated with a server-side input control object declared in a server-side resource, wherein the server-side resource is stored on a server computer system, and the computer process comprising:

detecting a validator declaration in the server-side resource, the validator declaration being associated with a server-side input control object;

generating a server-side validation object having a validation criterion, responsive to the detecting operation;

evaluating at least a portion of the input data to determine whether the portion of the input data satisfies the validation criterion, the portion of the input data being received through the client-side input control element associated with the server-side input control object; and

rendering client-side validation code associated with the client-side input control element, the client-side validation code being adapted to execute on a client computer system and to determine whether the portion of the input data satisfies the validation criterion before the portion of the input data is transmitted from the client computer system to the server computer system.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the evaluating operation is performed by the client computer system by executing the client-side validation code rendered by the server-side validation object.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein validation criterion defines a client-side validation script adapted to execute on a client computer system and evaluate the portion of the input data.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the authoring language code is further adapted to withhold transmission of the portion of the input data from the client computer system to the server computer system, if the portion of the input data fails to satisfy the validation criterion.

18. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the authoring language code is further adapted to generate an error message, if the portion of the input data fails to satisfy the validation criterion.

19. A method of validating input data received through at least one client-side input control element in a Web page, each client-side input control element being associated with a server-side input control object declared in a server-side resource, the method comprising:

detecting a validator declaration in the server-side resource, the validator declaration being associated with a server-side input control object;

generating a server-side validation object having a validation criterion, responsive to the detecting operation;

evaluating at least a portion of the input data to determine whether the portion of the input data satisfies the validation criterion, the portion of the input data being received through the client-side input control element associated with the server-side input control object; and

rendering client-side validation code associated with the client-side input control element, the client-side validation code being adapted to execute on a client computer system and to determine whether the portion of the input data satisfies the validation criterion before the portion of the input data is transmitted from the client computer system to the server computer system.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

designating a property of the server-side control object as a validation property;

associating the server-side validation object with the server-side input control object; and

receiving the portion of the input data into the validation property of the server-side input control object,

wherein the evaluating operation comprises evaluating the portion of the input data stored in the validation property against the validation criterion.