XSL dynamic inheritance

• US 7,107,521 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2001
• Issued: 09/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Santos, Julio
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stork, Kyle
• Application Number:
  US09/898,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20040205551A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,897 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715/531, 715/500, 715/523, 715/517, 715/530
• US Class Current: 715/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A system, method, and a computer program product for dynamically generating rules for XSL transformations by operating on an XML/XSL DOM representing a tree structure of an XML document in memory. User generated properties are received and transformed into XML/XSL nodes in memory. XML/XSL DOM is modified with the transformed XML/XSL nodes containing XSL rules of transformation with a variable dynamically generated by the user. The modified XML/XSL DOM is processed to generate a document in a specified format. Newly generated dynamic XSL rules override imported rules in the XML/XSL DOM.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically generating rules for extended stylesheet language (XSL) transformations, wherein an extensible markup language (XML) document object model (DOM) represents an XML document, and an XML/XSL DOM represents an XSL file, said XML/XSL DOM comprising one or more nodes that contain an XSL rule describing how XML data should be transformed, wherein at least one of said nodes contains an imported default XSL rule describing how XML data should be transformed with an imported variable, the method comprising:

receiving a user generated property having a form of a key-value pair;

transforming the user generated property to an XML/XSL node, the XML/XSL node containing a dynamically generated XSL rule of XML data transformation with a dynamic variable based on said user generated property having the form of the key-value pair;

modifying the XML/XSL DOM by attaching the XML/XSL node containing said dynamically generated XSL rule with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property to said XML/XSL DOM, wherein the XML/XSL node containing said dynamically generated XSL rule with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property has a higher priority than any node of the XML/XSL DOM that contains the imported default XSL rule with the imported variable for that property; and

applying said modified XML/XSL DOM to said XML DOM to produce an XSL formatted object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

converting said XSL formatted object to a specified data format.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the specified data format is portable document format.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the specified data format is a markup language.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more nodes of said XML/XSL DOM representing said XSL file contain imported XSL rules.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user generated property is a page orientation.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the page orientation is associated with a width and a height, and said dynamically generated XSL rule comprises a width tag associated with said width, and another dynamically generated XSL rule comprises a height tag associated with said height.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user generated property is a margin.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said dynamically generated XSL rule for said margin comprises one tag.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user generated property is a paper size.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the paper size is associated with a height, width and master name, and said dynamically generated XSL rule comprises a tag associated with said height, and another dynamically generated XSL rule comprises another tag associated with said width, and yet another dynamically generated XSL rule comprises yet another tag associated with said master name.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the user generated property is a date.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the user generated property is a time.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the user generated property is a company logo.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the user generated property is a page number.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the user generated property is a total number of pages.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying a graphical user interface to allow a user to enter said user generated property.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising converting said SL formatted object to a specified data format.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said nodes of said ML/SL DOM representing said SL file contain imported SL rules.

20. A system for dynamically generating rules for extended stylesheet language (XSL) transformations, wherein an extensible markup language (XML) document object model (DOM) represents an XML document, and an XML/XSL DOM represents an XSL file, said XML/XSL DOM comprising one or more nodes that contain an XSL rule describing how XML data should be transformed, wherein at least one of said nodes contains an imported default XSL rule describing how XML data should be transformed with an imported variable, the system comprising:

a module for receiving a user generated property having a form of a key-value pair;

a module for transforming the user generated property to an XML/XSL node, the XML/XSL node containing a dynamically generated XSL rule of XML data transformation with a dynamic variable based on said user generated property having the form of said key-value pair;

a module for modifying the XML/XSL DOM by attaching the XML/XSL node containing said dynamically generated XSL rule with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property to said XML/XSL DOM, wherein the XML/XSL node containing said dynamically generated XSL rule with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property has a higher priority than any node of the XML/XSL DOM that contains the imported default XSL rule with the imported variable for that property; and

a module for applying said modified XML/XSL DOM to said XML DOM to produce an XSL formatted object.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a module for converting said XSL formatted object to a specified data format.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the specified data format is portable document format.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the specified data format is a markup language.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein said nodes of said XML/XSL DOM representing said XSL file contain imported XSL rules.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the user generated property is a page orientation.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the page orientation is associated with a width and a height, and said dynamically generated XSL rule comprises a width tag associated with said width, and another dynamically generated XSL rule comprises a height tag associated with said height.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the user generated property is a margin.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein said dynamically generated XSL rule for said margin comprises one tag.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein the user generated property is a paper size.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the paper size is associated with a height, width and master name, and said dynamically generated XSL rule comprises a tag associated with said height, and another dynamically generated XSL rule comprises another tag associated with said width, and yet another generated XSL rule comprises yet another tag associated with said master name.

31. The system of claim 20, wherein the user generated property is a date.

32. The system of claim 20, wherein the user generated property is a time.

33. The system of claim 20, wherein the user generated property is a company logo.

34. The system of claim 20, wherein the user generated property is a page number.

35. The system of claim 20, wherein the user generated property is a total number of pages.

36. A computer program product for dynamically generating rules for extended stylesheet language (XSL) transformations, wherein an extensible markup language (XML) document object model (DOM) represents an XML document, and an XML/XSL DOM represents an XSL file, said XML/XSL DOM comprising one or more nodes that contain an XSL rule describing how XML data should be transformed, wherein at least one of said nodes contains an imported default XSL rule describing how XML data should be transformed with an imported variable, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium;

a module stored on the medium for receiving a user generated property having a form of a key-value pair;

a module stored on the medium for transforming the user generated property to an XML/XSL node, the XML/XSL node containing a dynamically generated XSL rule of XML data transformation with a dynamic variable based on said user generated property having the form of said key-value pair;

a module stored on the medium for modifying the XML/XSL DOM by attaching the XML/XSL node containing said dynamically generated XSL rule with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property to said XML/XSL DOM, wherein the XML/XSL node containing said dynamically generated XSL rule with the dynamic variable has a higher priority than any node of the XML/XSL DOM that contains the imported default XSL rule with the imported variable for that property; and

a module stored on the medium for applying said modified XML/XSL DOM to said XML DOM to produce an XSL formatted object.

37. The computer program product of claim 36, further comprising a module stored on the computer readable medium for converting said XSL formatted object to a specified data format.

38. A method for dynamically generating rules for stylesheet language (SL) transformations, wherein a markup language (ML) document object model (DOM) represents a ML document, and a ML/SL DOM represents a SL file, said ML/SL DOM comprising one or more nodes that contain an SL rule describing how ML data should be transformed, wherein at least one of said nodes contains an imported default SL rule describing how ML data should be transformed with an imported variable the method comprising:

receiving a user generated property having a form of a key-value pair;

transforming the user generated property to a ML/SL node, the ML/SL node containing a dynamically generated SL rule of ML data transformation with a dynamic variable based on said user generated property having the form of said key-value pair;

modifying the ML/SL DOM by attaching the ML/SL node containing said dynamically generated SL rule of ML data transformation with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property to said ML/SL DOM, wherein the ML/SL node containing said dynamically generated SL rule of data transformation with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property has a higher priority than any node of the ML/SL DOM that contains the imported default SL rule describing how ML data should be transformed with the imported variable for that property;

applying said modified ML/SL DOM to said ML DOM to produce an SL formatted object.

39. A computer program product for dynamically generating rules for stylesheet language (SL) transformations, wherein a markup language (ML)/SL document object model (DOM) represents an SL file, said ML/SL DOM comprising one or more nodes that contain an SL rule describing how ML data should be transformed, wherein at least one of said nodes contains an imported default SL rule describing how ML data should be transformed with an imported variable, and an ML DOM represents a ML document, the product comprising:

a computer readable medium;

a module stored on the medium for receiving a user generated property having a form of a key-value pair;

a module stored on the medium for transforming the user generated property to a ML/SL node, the ML/SL node containing a dynamically generated SL rule of ML data transformation with a dynamic variable based on said user generated property having the form of the key-value pair;

a module stored on the medium for modifying the ML/SL DOM by attaching the ML/SL node containing said dynamically generated SL rule with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property to said ML/SL DOM, wherein the ML/SL node containing said dynamically generated XL rule with the dynamic variable based on said user generated property has a higher priority than any node of the ML/SL DOM that contains the imported default SL rule with the imported variable for that property; and

a module stored on the computer readable medium for applying said modified ML/SL DOM to said ML DOM to produce an XL formatted object.

40. The computer program product of claim 39 further comprising a module stored on the computer readable medium for converting said SL formatted object to a specified data format.

41. The computer program product of claim 39, wherein said nodes of said ML/SL DOM representing said SL file contain imported XSL rules.