Grouping and nesting hierarchical namespaces

• US 6,993,714 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2002
• Issued: 01/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kaler, Christopher G., Lucco, Steven E., Atkinson, Robert G., Brown, Allen L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): HONEYCUTT, KRISTINA B
• Application Number:
  US10/264,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20040068694A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715/514, 715/501.1, 715/531
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9027 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• 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

A group identifier represents an association between each of a number of different abbreviated namespace identifiers with a corresponding hierarchical namespace (e.g., an XML namespace). A hierarchically-structured document (e.g., an XML document) is accessed by a computing system that determines that the group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document. Hence, when using the abbreviated namespace identifiers in the hierarchically-structured document, the computing system knows that the corresponding namespace is associated with the designated portions of the hierarchically-structured document. Also, a schema description language document (e.g., an XSD document) may specify multiple target namespaces for a single element. Accordingly, groupings of elements may be included in different namespaces to creating overlapping or even nested namespaces.

Claims

1. In a computing system that has access to a hierarchically-structured document having a plurality of elements that may each be associated with one or more namespaces, a method for establishing a plurality of abbreviated namespace identifiers for a hierarchically-structured document, the method comprising the following:

an act of associating each of a plurality of hierarchical namespaces with an associated abbreviated namespace identifier;

an act of accessing a hierarchically-structured document;

an act of determining that at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document, the group identifier representing that when any of the abbreviated namespace identifiers are found associated with an element in the hierarchically-structured document, that the associated namespace is also associated with that element; and

at least one of;

an act of associating each of the plurality of hierarchical namespaces with the associated abbreviated namespace identifier before the act of accessing the hierarchically-structured document, and

an act of reading a pre-processor directive that indicates that the at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of associating each of a plurality of hierarchical namespaces with an associated abbreviated namespace identifier occurs before the act of accessing a hierarchically-structured document.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of associating each of a plurality of hierarchical namespaces with an associated abbreviated namespace identifier occurs after the act of accessing a hierarchically-structured document.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of associating each of a plurality of hierarchical namespaces with an associated abbreviated namespace identifier comprises the following:

an act of reading an association of each of the plurality of hierarchical namespaces with the associated abbreviated namespace identifier from the hierarchically-structured document.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of determining that at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document comprises the following:

an act of reading a pre-processor directive that indicates that the at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the act of accessing a hierarchically-structured document comprises the following:

an act of receiving an electronic message that includes the hierarchically-structured document; and

an act of reading the hierarchically-structured document from the electronic message.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the act of reading a pre-processor directive comprises the following:

an act of reading the pre-processor directive from the electronic message.

8. A method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the act of accessing a hierarchically-structured document comprises the following:

an act of reading the hierarchically-structured document from persistent memory.

9. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of determining that at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document comprises the following:

an act of reading the at least one group identifier from the hierarchically-structured document.

10. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of determining that at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document comprises the following:

an act of determining that there is a default group identifier associated with any of a plurality of hierarchically-structured documents including the hierarchically-structured document.

11. A method in accordance with claim 10, wherein the act of determining that at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document further comprises the following:

an act of determining that the default group identifier is not overwritten.

12. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of determining that an at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document comprises the following:

an act of determining that there is a default group identifier associated with at least one element of the hierarchically-structured document.

13. A method in accordance with claim 12, wherein the act of determining that there is a default group identifier associated with any of a plurality of hierarchically-structured documents including the hierarchically-structured document comprises the following:

an act of reading the default group identifier from a schema definition document that defines the structure of the element.

14. A method in accordance with claim 13, wherein the act of reading the default group identifier from the schema definition document that defines the structure of the element comprises the following:

an act of reading the default group identifier from an extensible markup language schema description (XSD) language document.

15. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of accessing a hierarchically-structured document comprises the following:

an act of accessing an extensible markup language (XML) document.

16. A computer program product for use in a computing system that has access to a hierarchically-structured document having a plurality of elements that may each be associated with one or more namespaces, the computer program product for implementing a method for establishing a plurality of abbreviated namespace identifiers for a hierarchically-structured document, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having stored thereon the following:

computer-executable instructions for associating each of a plurality of hierarchical namespaces with an associated abbreviated namespace identifier;

computer-executable instructions for causing a hierarchically-structured document to be accessed;

computer-executable instructions for determining that an at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document, the group identifier representing that when any of the abbreviated namespace identifiers are found associated with an element in the hierarchically-structured document, that the associated namespace is also associated with that element; and

computer-executable instructions for performing at least one of;

associating each of the plurality of hierarchical namespaces with the associated abbreviated namespace identifier before accessing the hierarchically-structured document, and

reading a pre-processor directive that indicates that the at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document.

17. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein the one or more computer-readable media are physical storage media.

18. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions for associating each of a plurality of hierarchical namespaces with an associated abbreviated namespace identifier comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for reading an association of each of the plurality of hierarchical namespaces with the associated abbreviated namespace identifier from the hierarchically-structured document.

19. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions for determining that an at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for reading a pre-processor directive that indicates that the group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document, wherein the computer-executable instructions for associating each of a plurality of hierarchical namespaces with an associated abbreviated namespace identifier comprise the following;

computer-executable instructions for executing the pre-processor directive.

20. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions for determining that an at least one group identifier is associated with the hierarchically-structured document comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for determining that there is a default group identifier associated with at least one element of the hierarchically-structured document.

21. A computer program product in accordance with claim 20, wherein the computer-executable instructions for determining that there is a default group identifier associated with any of a plurality of hierarchically-structured document including the hierarchically-structured document comprise the following:

computer-executable instructions for causing the default group identifier to be read from a schema definition document that defines the structure of the element.