System and method for interactive electronic media extraction for web page generation

• US 6,961,897 B1
• Filed: 01/31/2000
• Issued: 11/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Peel, James W. Jr., Langston, Melanie
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUYNH, CONG LAC T
• Application Number:
  US09/494,743
• Time in Patent Office: 2,101 Days
• Field of Search: 715/501.1, 715/530, 715/500, 715/513, 707/1, 707/100
• US Class Current: 715/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A system and method for parsing an electronic media database structure to produce tagged data that preserves the content, links, and electronic media structure. In particular, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) data is generated as an Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) (home page) linked into a relative structure of Web pages to support IETM deployment. An extraction process assesses the functionality associated with each node designated for presentation and builds a virtual Web, based on attributes stored in the IETM database. A series of Web pages with links that hierarchically presents IETM data at run time is produced. The method supports a data warehousing strategy that converts any data type eligible within the relational database. This expands support across multiple types of technical and engineering data. The preferred implementation utilizes a relative addressed pure HTML solution viewable in standard Web browsers. This open system implementation is cross platform and infrastructure independent, requiring no special server software. Retaining the hierarchical structure dictated by the relational database in HTML output enhances the supportability and maintainability of the Web implementation. Updates to this Web implementation can be incrementally applied within the hierarchy (small sections of data) or the entire logical sections of Web data.

Claims

1. A method for generating relative addressed web pages from an electronic media database structure, said method comprising:

connecting to a database structure having data having a hierarchy and defining an original electronic media description;

generating a top level menu of structures from said electronic media description;

selecting, from said menu, a structure to parse;

parsing said selected structure, wherein the step of parsing said selected menu structure further comprises identifying whether a data object is of type menu, narrative, graphic, table, or procedure; and

generating tagged data relative web pages that preserve said hierarchy of said original electronic media description in said database structure.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said hierarchy is preserved by generating links between and among said tagged data relative Web pages which correspond to said original hierarchy of said original electronic media description.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising selecting interoperability options.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, further comprising converting graphics files to a format selected in the step of selecting interoperability options, wherein a user may choose to convert only graphics files actually referenced in said selected menu structure.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying status of generating tagged data relative web pages in real time.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising exporting said relative Web pages to be used in a standalone environment.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the step of exporting is performed by sending web page updates to a user, said user overwriting existing web pages with said web page updates.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying said tagged data relative Web pages using a web browser.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said tagged data relative Web pages are coded in one of the languages selected from the group consisting of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), extensible Markup Language (XML) and HyperText Markup Language (HTML).

10. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein said data object is of type menu, further comprising:

selecting menu information from said database structure;

creating a start menu; and

for each child data class or node, recursively performing said parsing and said generating steps.

11. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein said data object is of type narrative, graphic or table, further comprising:

selecting object information from said database structure; and

saving links found within said information for later processing.

12. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein said data object is of type procedure, further comprising:

selecting procedure information from said database structure;

saving links found within said procedure information for later processing;

if there is an exited-to procedure then

selecting procedure information for an exited-to procedure from said DBMS; and

recursively performing said parsing and said generating steps for said exited-to procedure; and

if there is a decision in said procedure comprising a YES portion and a NO portion then

selecting the YES portion of said procedure and recursively performing said parsing and said generating steps on the YES portion; and

selecting the NO portion of said procedure and recursively performing said parsing and said generating steps on the NO portion.

13. A method for extracting data from a selected menu structure of an electronic media database structure for generating relative addressed Web pages, said method comprising:

(a) identifying whether a data object is of type menu, narrative, graphic, table, or procedure, and if said data object is a menu type, creating a starting menu from said selected menu structure;

(b) selecting data object information from said database structure;

(c) creating an HTML file representing said data object;

(d) selectively saving links found within said information for later processing;

(e) if said data object is a procedure type, then if there is an exited-to procedure then

(1) selecting procedure information for an exited-to procedure from said database structure;

(2) creating an HTML file representing said exited-to procedure;

(3) recursively performing steps (b) to (e) for said exited-to procedure; and

(f) if said data object or said exited-to procedure is a procedure type having no exited-to procedure, then if there is a decision in said procedure comprising a YES portion and a NO portion then

(1) selecting the YES portion of said procedure and recursively performing steps (a) to (f) on the YES portion; and

(2) selecting the NO portion of said procedure and recursively performing steps (a) to (f) on the NO portion;

(g) processing said saved links; and

(h) repeating steps (a) to (g) for each data object in said selected menu structure.

14. A computer readable medium containing code for extracting data from a selected menu structure of an electronic media database structure for generating relative addressed Web pages, the code implementing steps of:

(a) identifying whether a data object is of type menu, narrative, graphic, table, or procedure, and if said data object is a menu type, creating a starting menu from said selected menu structure;

(b) selecting data object information from said database structure;

(c) creating an HTML file representing said data object;

(d) selectively saving links found within said information for later processing;

(e) if said data object is a procedure type, then if there is an exited-to procedure then

(1) selecting procedure information for an exited-to procedure from said database structure;

(2) creating an HTML file representing said exited-to procedure;

(3) recursively performing steps (b) to (e) for said exited-to procedure; and

(f) if said data object or said exited-to procedure is a procedure type having no exited-to procedure, then if there is a decision in said procedure comprising a YES portion and a NO portion then

(1) selecting the YES portion of said procedure and recursively performing steps (a) to (f) on the YES portion; and

(2) selecting the NO portion of said procedure and recursively performing steps (a) to (f) on the NO portion;

(g) processing said saved links; and

(h) repeating steps (a) to (g) for each data object in said selected menu structure.

15. A computer readable medium comprising computer code for extracting data from a selected menu structure of an electronic media database structure for generating relative addressed Web pages, comprising:

a first code section for identifying whether a data object is of type menu, narrative, graphic, table, or procedure, and if said data object is a menu type, creating a starting menu from said selected menu structure;

a second code section for selecting data object information from said database structure;

a third code section for creating an HTML file representing said data object;

a fourth code section for saving links found within said information for later processing;

a fifth code section for recursively processing links and decision branches in procedure type information; and

a sixth code section for processing said saved links.