Leveraging markup language data for semantically labeling text strings and data and for providing actions based on semantically labeled text strings and data

• US 7,739,588 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2003
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Ziyi, Jones, Brian, Reynar, Jeff
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula; Cesar B
• Application Number:
  US10/608,267
• Publication Number:
  US 20040268237A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,545 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715515-516, 715707-708, 715/234, 715209-210, 715/760
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

Markup language data applied to text or data is leveraged for providing helpful actions on certain types of text or data such as names, addresses, etc. Selected portions of text or data entered into a document and any associated markup language data are passed to an action dynamically linked library (DLL) for obtaining actions associated with markup language elements applied to the text or data. The text or data may be passed to a recognizer DLL for recognition of certain data types. The recognizer DLL utilizes markup language data associated with the text or data to assist recognition and labeling of text or data. After all applicable text and/or data is recognized and labeled, an action DLL is called for actions associated with the labeled text or data.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for at least one of creating, editing and viewing an electronic document, actions on a string of text or data in the electronic document, the method comprising:

receiving a text string that includes at least one annotated portion and at least one unannotated portion with markup language data in a recognizer dynamic link library (DLL);

parsing markup language data associated with the at least one annotated portion to assist the recognizer DLL TO DETERMINE AT LEAST ONE LABEL for the at least one unannotated portion of the text string by;

comparing the elements of the markup language data with a plurality of stored markup language elements associated with stored labels to determine a match; and

if a one or more markup language elements matches one or more stored markup language elements associated with stored labels, then labeling the text string with the associated stored label of the matched one or more markup language elements;

transmitting the text string, and the markup language data, and the one or more labels associated with at the least one annotated and the at least one unannotated portions to a plurality of action plug-ins, wherein the action plug-ins are determined based on the at least one label;

determining, in the action plug-ins, at least one action based on the markup language data and the at least one label;

passing the at least one action to an application program module for displaying the at least one action in association with the text string; and

displaying the at least one action in association with the text string.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, in the action plug-ins, at least one action based on the markup language data comprises:

for each markup language element of the markup language data, parsing a namespace library for equivalent markup language elements that include the at least one label;

obtaining at least one action associated with the equivalent markup language elements for displaying with the plurality of actions received from the plurality of action plug-ins.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein parsing the markup language data to determine at least one label comprises:

comparing the text string with a plurality of stored text string with an associated stored label to determine a match; and

if a the text string matches a stored text string with an associated label, then labeling the text string with the associated stored label of the matched stored text string.

comparing the elements of the markup language data associated with the text string with a plurality of stored markup language elements associated with associated stored labels to determine a match; and

if a one or more markup language elements associated with the text string matches one or more stored markup language elements with associated stored labels, then labeling the text string with the associated stored label of the matched one or more markup language elements.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the content of an electronic document to reflect the at least one label.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

causing the application program module to fire an event within an object model of the application program module;

causing software instructions associated with the event to be executed when the at least one label is determined.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising examining the content of the electronic document surrounding the text string to aid in parsing the text string to determine a plurality of labels.

7. A method for labeling a string of text in an electronic document as the electronic document is created in an application program module, the method comprising:

as a string of text having an associated at least one Extensible Markup Language (XML) element is entered into the electronic document, determining whether the string of text matches one of a plurality of stored strings;

if so, then designating a label associated with the matched stored string for application to the entered string of text, wherein the label is to be transmitted to at least one action plug-in for determining a set of actions associated with the string of text, and wherein the action plug-ins to receive the label are also determined based on the label;

if the string of text does not match one of a plurality of stored strings, determining whether the at least one XML element associated with the string of text is associated with a label for use with the entered string of text utilizing at least one label associated with another string in the electronic document;

if so, then designating a label associated with the at least one XML element for application to the entered string of text; and

displaying an indication indicating that the label has been found for the string of text.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

if a label associated with the matched stored string is designated for application to the entered string of text, determining the set of actions associated with the label associated with the matched stored string; and

if a label associated with the at least one XML element is designated for application to the entered string of text, determining the set of actions associated with the label associated with the one or more XML elements.

9. The method of claim 8, whereby determining a set of actions associated with the label associated with the at least one XML element, further comprises:

for each label associated with the at least one XML element, parsing a namespace library for equivalent markup language elements;

obtaining zero or more actions associated with the equivalent XML elements for combining with the set of actions associated with the label associated with the matched stored string.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining that a user has selected the string of text; and

in response, displaying the combined set of actions to the user.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving an indication that one of the plurality of actions has been selected; and

in response to receiving an indication that one of the plurality of actions has been selected, then causing the application program module to execute the selected action.

12. The method recited in claim 11, wherein the application program module executes the selected action by determining whether an action plug-in among the at least one action plug-in in an action dynamically linked library assigned to the action is available;

and

if so, then receiving instructions from the action dynamically linked library assigned to the selected action.

13. The method recited in claim 12, further comprising:

if an action plug-in dynamic link library is not available, then using a Uniform Resource Locator assigned to the action to navigate to a Web site and download the action plug-in dynamic link library.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining whether the at least one XML element associated with the string of text is associated with a label for use with the entered string of text based on a label associated with another string of text adjacent to the string of text.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the label associated with the string of text is an “

address”

label and the label associated with the other string of text is a “

ZIP code”

label.

16. A system for providing helpful actions on a string of text in an electronic document as the string is entered into the electronic document, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is configured to execute;

an application program module for creating the electronic document;

an action dynamically linked library connected to the application program module operative to provide one or more actions associated with at least one markup language element applied to the string of text;

a namespace library associated with the application program module for providing at least one equivalent markup language element that has been designated as equivalent to the one at least one markup language element applied to the string of text in the electronic document;

at least one recognizer dynamically linked library for providing semantic labeling to at least one portion of the string of text based on the at least one markup language element applied to the string of text and based on at least one markup language element associated with other strings of text in the electronic document, wherein the at least one recognizer dynamically linked library is operative to;

receive the string of text,

receive the at least one markup language element applied to the string of text in the recognizer dynamically linked library,

to transmit the string of text and associated markup language elements to a plurality of recognizer plug-ins based on the semantic labels, and

wherein the action dynamically linked library is further operative to provide an additional at least one actions action associated with the at least one markup language element.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of recognizer plug-ins being operative:

to parse the string of text to determine a plurality of labels;

to parse the associated markup language elements to assist each of the plurality of recognizer plug-ins to determine a plurality of labels for the string of text;

to transmit the plurality of labels to the recognizer dynamically linked library; and

the recognizer dynamically linked library being further operative to transmit the plurality of labels and the associated markup language data to the application program module.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the recognizer dynamically linked library is further operative prior to transmitting the plurality of labels from the recognizer plug-ins to the recognizer dynamically linked library, to transmit the string of text, the associated markup language elements and the plurality of labels back to the plurality of recognizer plug-ins;

and

the plurality of recognizer plug-ins being further operative to parse the string of text, the associated markup language elements and the plurality of labels to determine a plurality of labels for the string of text not previously determined for the string of text.