Method for mapping screen display objects with spatial coordinates into an HTML table

• US 6,948,132 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2001
• Issued: 09/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bennett, Craig Alan, Crowley, Timothy Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Application Number:
  US10/015,109
• Publication Number:
  US 20030107594A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,378 Days
• Field of Search: 715/760, 715/764, 715/792, 715/788, 715/762, 715/781, 715/806, 715/513, 715/509, 715/517, 715/520, 715/526, 715/815, 345/619, 345/629, 345/630, 345/634, 345/635
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines

Abstract

A method of mapping screen display objects located by spatial coordinates into a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) table. The spatial coordinates for each screen display object are determined, and an HTML table having rows and columns is created, wherein row heights and column widths are determined by the spatial coordinates. The screen display objects are then loaded into cells of the HTML table for display, as determined by computation based on the spatial coordinates.

Claims

1. A method for including screen display objects in a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) table, said method comprising:

for each screen display object of a plurality of screen display objects, determining two cartesian coordinate pairs that specify a location of the screen display object, each cartesian pair consisting of a x coordinate and a y coordinate relative to a x coordinate and a y coordinate of an origin, respectively;

combining the x coordinate of the origin with all of the x coordinates of the cartesian coordinate pairs of all screen display objects of the plurality of screen display objects to form a set of x coordinates arranged in order of ascending numerical value of x;

combining the y coordinate of the origin with all of the y coordinates of the cartesian coordinate pairs of all screen display objects of the plurality of screen display objects to form a set of y coordinates arranged in order of ascending numerical value of y;

eliminating all duplicate x coordinates in the set of x coordinates, resulting in M being the total number of x coordinates in the set of x coordinates;

eliminating all duplicate y coordinates in the set of y coordinates, resulting in N being the total number of y coordinates in the set of y coordinates;

creating an HTML table having M columns and N rows;

for each screen display object of the plurality of screen display objects, using the set of x coordinates and the set of y coordinates to determine N1 contiguous columns and N1 contiguous rows, followed by identifying a cell of the HTML table as an intersection of the M1 contiguous columns and the N1 contiguous rows;

determining the width of each column of the M columns of the HTML table;

determining the height of each row of the N rows of the HTML table; and

loading each screen display object into its cell of the HTML table.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a first and a second x coordinate of the screen display object is the smallest and largest x coordinate, respectively, in the two cartesian coordinate pairs of the screen display object, wherein a first and a second y coordinate of the screen display object is the smallest and largest y coordinate, respectively, in the two cartesian coordinate pairs of the screen display object, and wherein said using the set of x coordinates and the set of y coordinates to determine the M1 contiguous columns and the N1 contiguous rows for each screen display object comprises:

determining a first column number of the M1 contiguous columns as equal to the number of x coordinates in the set of x coordinates that are less than or equal to the first x coordinate of the screen display object,

determining N1 as equal to the number of x coordinates in the set of x coordinates that are greater than the first x coordinate of the screen display object and less than or equal to the second x coordinate of the screen display object,

determining a first row number of the N1 contiguous rows as equal to the number of y coordinates in the set of y coordinates that are less than or equal to the first y coordinate of the screen display object, and

determining M1 as equal to the number of y coordinates in the set of y coordinates that are greater than the first y coordinate of the screen display object and less than or equal to the second y coordinate of the screen display object.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein said determining the width of each column of the M columns of the HTML table comprises determining the width of column m by subtracting the m^th x coordinate from the (m+1)^th x coordinate in the set of x coordinates for m=1, 2, . . . , M−

1 and setting the width of column M equal to 1, and

wherein said determining the height of each row of the N rows of the HTML table comprises determining the height of row n by subtracting the n^th y coordinate from the (n+1)^th y coordinate in the set of y coordinates for n=1, 2, . . . , N−

1 and setting the height of row N equal to 1.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the HTML to display the plurality of screen display objects on a screen display.

5. The method of claim 4, said using the HTML to display the plurality of screen display objects on a screen display being performed by a web browser.

6. A system for including screen display objects in a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) table, said system comprising:

for each screen display object of a plurality of screen display objects, means for determining two cartesian coordinate pairs that specify a location of the screen display object, each cartesian pair consisting of a x coordinate and a y coordinate relative to a x coordinate and a y coordinate of an origin, respectively;

means for combining the x coordinate of the origin with all of the x coordinates of the cartesian coordinate pairs of all screen display objects of the plurality of screen display objects to form a set of x coordinates arranged in order of ascending numerical value of x;

means for combining the y coordinate of the origin with all of the y coordinates of the cartesian coordinate pairs of all screen display objects of the plurality of screen display objects to form a set of y coordinates arranged in order of ascending numerical value of y;

means for eliminating all duplicate x coordinates in the set of x coordinates, resulting in M being the total number of x coordinates in the set of x coordinates;

means for eliminating all duplicate y coordinates in the set of y coordinates, resulting in N being the total number of y coordinates in the set of y coordinates;

means for creating an HTML table having M columns and N rows;

for each screen display object of the plurality of screen display objects, means for using the set of x coordinates and the set of y coordinates to determine M1 contiguous columns and N1 contiguous rows, followed by identifying a cell of the HTML table as an intersection of the M1 contiguous columns and the N1 contiguous rows;

means for determining the width of each column of the M columns of the HTML table;

means for determining the height of each row of the N rows of the HTML table; and

means for loading each screen display object into its cell of the HTML table.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein a first and a second x coordinate of the screen display object is the smallest and largest x coordinate, respectively, in the two cartesian coordinate pairs of the screen display object, wherein a first and a second y coordinate of the screen display object is the smallest and largest y coordinate, respectively, in the two cartesian coordinate pairs of the screen display object, and wherein said means for using the set of x coordinates and the set of y coordinates to determine the M1 contiguous columns and the N1 contiguous rows for each screen display object utilizes:

a determination of a first column number of the M1 contiguous columns as equal to the number of x coordinates in the set of x coordinates that are less than or equal to the first x coordinate of the screen display object,

a determination of M1 as equal to the number of x coordinates in the set of x coordinates that are greater than the first x coordinate of the screen display object and less than or equal to the second x coordinate of the screen display object,

a determination of a first row number of the N1 contiguous rows as equal to the number of y coordinates in the set of y coordinates that are less than or equal to the first y coordinate of the screen display object, and

a determination of N1 as equal to the number of y coordinates in the set of y coordinates that are greater than the first y coordinate of the screen display object and less than or equal to the second y coordinate of the screen display object.

8. The system of claim 6,

wherein said means for determining the width of each column of the M columns of the HTML table utilizes a determination of the width of column m by a subtraction of the m^th x coordinate from the (m+1)^th x coordinate in the set of x coordinates for m=1, 2, . . . , M−

1 and a setting of the width of column M equal to 1, and

wherein said means for determining the height of each row of the N rows of the HTML table utilizes a determination of the height of row n by a subtraction of the n^th y coordinate from the (n+1)^th y coordinate in the set of y coordinates for n=1, 2, . . . , N−

1 and a setting of the height of row N equal to 1.