Method and apparatus for maintaining relationships between parts in a package

• US 7,451,156 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2006
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shur, Andrey, Jones, Brian, Pollock, Josh, Foehr, Oliver, Sheth, Sarjana, Dunietz, Jerry, Hillberg, Mike, MacKenzie, Bruce, Paoli, Jean, Emerson, Daniel, Ornstein, David
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US11/275,724
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206794A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,021 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/3, 707/5, 707/6, 707/8, 707/10, 707/100, 707/101, 707/103.R, 707/104.1, 705/8, 705/10, 700/105, 709/200, 709/203, 709/217, 709/218, 715/500, 715/229, 715/234
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• 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: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Modular content framework and document format methods and systems are described. The described framework and format define a set of building blocks for composing, packaging, distributing, and rendering document-centered content. These building blocks define a platform-independent framework for document formats that enable software and hardware systems to generate, exchange, and display documents reliably and consistently. The framework and format have been designed in a flexible and extensible fashion. In addition to this general framework and format, a particular format, known as the reach package format, is defined using the general framework. The reach package format is a format for storing paginated documents. The contents of a reach package can be displayed or printed with full fidelity among devices and applications in a wide range of environments and across a wide range of scenarios.

Claims

1. An application program interface embodied on one or more computer-readable storage media, comprising:

calling a first method to create a package that defines at least one of a plurality of versioned documents, wherein the package comprises at least a first and a second part that make up the at least one of a plurality of versioned documents, wherein the first and second part are defined in the package, wherein the first and the second part each have an associated name, and wherein the at least one of a plurality of versioned documents and its parts are described using extensible markup language (XML);

calling a second method to create a relationship, wherein the relationship identifies connections to relate the second part to the first part in the package, the relationship being stored in an independent relationship part in the package, wherein the relationship part is associated with the first part, wherein the connections are discovered by analyzing relationships associated with the first and the second part in the package without looking at content in the first and the second part, and wherein the relationship part is written in the extensible markup language (XML); and

calling a third method to identify relationships between relationship parts in the package and store the relationships in the independent relationship part in the package.

2. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, wherein calling the second method comprises defining a target uniform resource identifier in the relationship.

3. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the first part and the associated relationship part are connected by a naming convention.