Methods and systems for defining documents with selectable and/or sequenceable parts

• US 7,549,118 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2004
• Issued: 06/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pollock, Josh, Foehr, Oliver H., Shur, Andrey, Zhu, Wei, Emerson, Daniel F., Sheth, Sarjana, Dunietz, Jerry, King, Joe, Ornstein, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Basehoar; Adam L
• Application Number:
  US10/836,608
• Publication Number:
  US 20050251739A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• Field of Search: 715/517, 715/513, 715/514, 715/515, 715/523, 715/500.1, 715/516, 715/530, 715234-237, 715/239, 715/243, 707/100, 707/101, 707/104.1, 717/168, 717/169, 717/175
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/114 Pagination
• 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 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

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. A method comprising:

building a package that defines a document, the package comprising a plurality of parts that make up the document and which are described in markup that refers to different representations of the document, each part of the plurality of parts having an associated content type including at least one member of a group comprising a text type and an image type, wherein at least some of the different representations include the same content, the package further containing a plurality of relationship elements, each relationship element being associated with one of the plurality of parts and defining a relationship between the one of the plurality of parts and one or more of another of the plurality of parts, and enabling the relationship to be discoverable independently of the content of the associated part;

including, in the package, one or more composition parts including at least one member of a group of parts comprising selector type and sequence type, wherein the selector type composition part selects between a plurality of other parts based on the content types associated with the plurality of other parts, and the sequence type composition part sequences the plurality of other parts based, at least in part, on whether software is available that understands a particular content type of the plurality of other parts;

processing the package to identify the one or more composition parts; and

performing an action associated with one or more of the composition parts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of including comprises representing the one or more composition parts as XML elements.

3. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed, implement the method of claim 1.

4. A computing system embodying the computer-readable storage media of claim 3.

5. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a package that defines a document, the package comprising a plurality of parts that make up the document and which are described in markup that can refer to different representations of the document, wherein at least some of the different representations include the same content, the package comprising one or more composition parts, wherein the composition parts can perform at least one of document part selection or document part sequencing, the package further comprising a plurality of relationship elements, each relationship element being associated with one of the plurality of parts and defining a relationship between a source part and a target part, and enabling the relationship to be discoverable independently of an associated part, each relationship element comprising a target attribute that indicates the target part to which the source part is related, and a name attribute which indicates the type or nature of the relationship;

processing the package to identify the one or more composition parts; and

performing an action associated with the one or more composition parts.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more composition parts are represented as XML elements.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein every part of the plurality of parts has an associated type, and wherein said one or more composition parts are configured to perform based on part type.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least some of those composition parts are configured to perform document part selection and can perform selection based on content types associated with parts between which selection is to be made.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a content type selection is based, at least in part, on whether software is available that understands a particular content type.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed, implement the method of claim 9.

11. A computing system embodying the computer-readable storage media of claim 10.

12. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed, implement the method of claim 5.

13. A computing system embodying the computer-readable storage media of claim 12.

14. A computer-implemented method comprising:

building a package that defines a document, the package comprising a plurality of parts that make up the document and which are described in markup that can refer to different representations of the document, wherein at least some of the different representations include the same content, each part having an associated type, the package further comprising a plurality of relationship elements, each relationship element being associated with one of the plurality of parts and defining a relationship between the one of the plurality of parts and one or more of another of the plurality of parts and enabling the relationship to be discoverable independently of an associated part, at least one of the relationship elements creating a relationship between a source part and a target part without modifying either the source part or the target part;

including, in the package, one or more composition parts, wherein some of the composition parts can perform at least one of document part selection or document part sequencing, and wherein the composition parts that perform document part selection perform said selection based on at least one of language type, color type, page size type or content type;

processing the package to identify one or more of the composition parts; and

performing an action associated with one or more of the composition parts.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the act of including comprises representing the one or more composition parts as XML elements.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein a content type selection is based, at least in part, on whether software is available that understands a particular content type.

17. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed, implement the method of claim16.

18. A computing system embodying the computer-readable storage media of claim 17.

19. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed, implement the method of claim 14.

20. A computing system embodying the computer-readable storage media of claim 19.

21. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a package that defines a document, the package comprising a plurality of parts that make up the document and which are described in markup that can refer to different representations of the document, wherein at least some of the different representations include the same content, each part having an associated type, the package comprising one or more composition parts, wherein the composition parts can perform at least one of document part selection or document part sequencing, and wherein the composition parts that perform document part selection can perform said selection based on at least one of language type, color type, page size type or content type, the package further comprising a types stream that includes;

one or more default elements that define default mappings from part name extensions to content types, and one or more override elements that specify content types for parts that are not consistent with the default mappings;

processing the package to identify the one or more composition parts;

performing an action associated with the one or more composition parts; and

discovering one or more relationships between two or more of the plurality of parts that make up the document without looking at content within the two or more of the plurality of parts that make up the document.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the one or more composition parts are represented as XML elements.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein one or more of the composition parts can perform document part selection and a content type selection is based, at least in part, on whether software is available that understands a particular content type.

24. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed, implement the method of claim 23.

25. A computing system embodying the computer-readable storage media of claim 24.

26. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed, implement the method of claim 21.

27. A computing system embodying the computer-readable storage media of claim 26.