File formats, methods, and computer program products for representing workbooks

• US 7,617,444 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2004
• Issued: 11/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rothschillwe, Chad B., Wu, Su-Piao B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Faber; David
• Application Number:
  US11/018,912
• Publication Number:
  US 20060136433A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 715/500.1, 715/503, 715/504, 715/200, 715/201, 715/209, 715212-220, 715/234, 715/272
• US Class Current: 715/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

File formats, methods, and computer program products are provided for representing a workbook in a modular content framework. The modular content framework may include a file format container associated with modular parts. A file format includes logically separate modular parts that are associated with each other by one or more relationships where each modular part is associated with a relationship type. The modular parts include a workbook part operative as a guide for properties of the workbook and a worksheet part associated with the workbook part and operative to specify a definition of cells within a worksheet associated with the worksheet part. The modular parts may also include a document properties part containing built-in properties associated with the file format and a thumbnail part containing associated thumbnails. Each modular part is capable of being interrogated separately, extracted from the workbook, and/or reused in a different workbook.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having encoded thereon a file format representative of a workbook within a spreadsheet application, the file format representing the workbook in a modular content framework implemented within a computing apparatus, the computer apparatus being operative to:

establish a relationship between a plurality of logically separate modular parts associated with at least the workbook within the spreadsheet application, wherein the relationship is within a relationship hierarchy for the plurality of logically separate modular parts, the hierarchy comprising at least one indication of optional relationships with respect to validation and at least one indication of a one to many relationship, wherein each modular part is associated with a relationship type, wherein at least one of the plurality of logically separate modular parts is a global modular part used without limitation in the file format, wherein at least one of the plurality of logically separate modular parts is a non-global modular part which is shared on a limited basis in the file format, and wherein the modular parts include;

a workbook part operative as a guide for properties of the workbook; and

at least one of the following;

a worksheet part associated with the workbook part and operative to specify a definition of cells within a worksheet associated with the worksheet part;

a sheet part containing data associated with a macro sheet;

a chart sheet part containing data associated with defining a chart;

a dialog sheet part containing data associated with workbook dialog; and

interrogate each modular part separately without the spreadsheet application and without other modular parts being interrogated to facilitate locating the contents of a worksheet cell within the spreadsheet application, wherein each modular part is one of extracted from and copied from the workbook and reused in a different workbook along with associated modular parts identified by traversing inbound and outbound relationships of the modular part reused.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the modular content framework includes a file format container associated with the modular parts wherein the modular parts further include:

a document properties part containing properties associated with the file format; and

a thumbnail part containing thumbnails associated with the file format.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the modular parts further include at least one of the following:

a style sheet part representing a theme in the workbook;

a style part containing data associated with a style at a cell level in the workbook;

a comments part containing comments associated with the workbook;

a markup maps part containing visuals depicting a markup language format associated with the workbook;

a schemas part containing schemas associated with the markup maps part;

a shared strings part containing a string associated with a plurality of cells in the workbook;

a workbook connections part containing data associated with interfacing with the workbook;

a mail envelope part containing envelope data where a user of the workbook has sent the workbook via electronic mail; and

a code file part containing code associated with the workbook.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the modular parts further include at least one of the following:

an image part containing image data associated with the workbook;

an embedded object part containing an object associated with the workbook;

a user data part containing customized data capable of being read into the workbook and changed; and

a drawing object part containing an object built using a drawing platform.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the modular parts further include at least one of the following:

a table index part containing data defining a table index associated with the worksheet;

a list part containing data defining a list associated with the worksheet;

a pivot table part containing data defining a pivot table associated with the worksheet;

a pivot cache definition part containing data defining a cache associated with the pivot table; and

a pivot cache records part containing data associated with the pivot cache definition part.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein at least some of the modular parts are organized in collection types and wherein the collection types include at least one of the following:

a chart sheet collection including the chart sheet part;

a dialog sheet collection including the dialog sheet part;

a worksheets collection including the worksheet part;

a pivots collection including the pivot table part;

a pivot cache collection including at least one of the pivot cache definition part and the pivot cache records part;

a styles collection including at least one of the styles sheet part and the styles part;

a markup maps collection including the markup maps part;

a lists collection including the lists part; and

an embeddings collection including at least of the embedded object part and the user data part.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, where the relationship types associated with the modular parts comprises at least one of a code file relationship capable of identifying code files, a user data relationship, a hyperlink relationship, a style sheet relationship, a comments relationship, an embedded object relationship, a drawing object relationship, an image relationship, a mail envelope relationship, a document properties relationship, a thumbnail relationship, a schema relationship, a chart sheet relationship, a dialog sheet relationship, a worksheet relationship, and a pivot table relationship, a shared string relationship, a lists relationship, a pivot cache records relationship, a styles relationship, a markup maps relationship, and a pivot cache metadata relationship.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein content of the worksheet is one of extracted from and copied from the workbook and reused in a different workbook.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein each modular part is locked separately while the other modular parts remain available for locking.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the modular parts provide semantics about content within the workbook when a modular part is interrogated.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein at least one of the modular parts is authored in an authoring context of the workbook and wherein the at least one modular part in the workbook is one of extracted from and copied from the workbook and moved to a different workbook and wherein the at least one modular part is further capable of being altered to appear as though the at least one modular part was authored in an authoring context of the different workbook.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the file format is formatted according to at least one of a markup language format and a binary format.

13. A method for representing a workbook in a file format wherein modular parts associated with the workbook include each part written into the file format, comprising:

writing a workbook part of the file format;

querying the workbook part for a worksheet relationship type;

writing a worksheet part of the file format separate from the workbook part; and

establishing a relationship between the worksheet part and the workbook part, wherein the relationship is within a relationship hierarchy for the modular parts, the hierarchy comprising at least one indication of optional relationships with respect to validation and at least one indication of a one to many relationship, wherein at least one of the modular parts is a global modular part used without limitation in the file format, wherein at least one of the modular parts is a non-global modular part which is shared on a limited basis in the file format, and wherein each of the modular parts associated with the workbook is one of extracted from and copied from the workbook and reused in a different workbook along with associated modular parts identified by traversing inbound and outbound relationships of the modular part reused.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising establishing a relationship between the workbook part and a file format container wherein the file format container includes at least one of the following:

a document properties part containing properties associated with the file format; and

a thumbnail part containing a thumbnail associated with the file format.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

writing other modular parts associated with relationship types wherein the other modular parts that are to be shared are written only once; and

establishing relationships to the other modular parts written.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein writing the other modular parts associated with the relationship types comprises:

a) examining data associated with the workbook;

b) determining whether the data examined has been written to a modular part;

c) when the data examined has not been written to the modular part, writing the modular part to include the data examined, examining other data associated with the workbook, and repeating b) through c) until all of the data associated with the workbook has been examined; and

d) when the data examined has been written to the modular part, examining other data associated with the workbook and repeating b) through d) until all of the data associated with the workbook has been examined.

17. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having control logic stored therein for causing a computer to represent a workbook in a file format comprising modular parts associated with the workbook wherein the modular parts of the file format include each part written into the file format, the control logic comprising computer-readable program code for causing the computer to:

write a workbook part of the file format;

query the workbook part for a worksheet relationship type;

write a worksheet part of the file format separate from the workbook part; and

establish a relationship between the worksheet part and the workbook part, wherein the relationship is within a relationship hierarchy for the modular parts, the hierarchy comprising at least one indication of optional relationships with respect to validation and at least one indication of a one to many relationship, wherein at least one of the modular parts is a global modular part used without limitation in the file format, wherein at least one of the modular parts is a non-global modular part which is shared on a limited basis in the file format, and wherein each of the modular parts associated with the workbook is one of extracted from and copied from the workbook and reused in a different workbook along with associated modular parts identified by traversing inbound and outbound relationships of the modular part reused.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the file format comprises at least one of a markup file format written in a markup language and a binary format.