Hierarchical inherited XML DOM

• US 7,873,680 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Meadows, Chad L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil; Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIANG, VEI CHUNG
• Application Number:
  US12/138,562
• Publication Number:
  US 20080270442A1
• Time in Patent Office: 949 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/811
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]

Abstract

A method for providing processed data definition documents (DDDs) or processed document object models (DOMs) for object oriented programming. The use of these processed data definitions simplifies the data structures and streamlines programming to access the data. A standard DDD/DOM has a hierarchical branched structure having a number of levels each with elements/nodes and attributes. The DDD is written in a platform independent markup language. An element/node is selected and its attributes are identified. All ‘children’ of the selected element/node are identified. The attributes of the selected element/node (parent) are then copied to each child for all children in the DDD/DOM. This is repeated for all elements/nodes in the DDD/DOM to result in a processed DDD/processed DOM which is now structured to allow program access to data in a more direct manner.

Claims

1. A method for providing a standard data definition document (DDD) having a hierarchical structure intended to be accessed by an application, said method comprising:

determining raw data and data schema of an electronic document that is not a DDD;

converting the raw data and data schema into a first standard DDD and storing the first standard DDD in a memory of a computer system, said first standard DDD comprising parent elements such that each parent element has attributes and at least one child element;

converting, by a first system comprising a first application, the first standard DDD to generate a first standard document object model (DOM);

processing the first standard DOM to generate a first processed DOM, wherein said processing the first standard DOM comprises identifying at least one parent element of the first standard DOM and for each parent element;

identifying at least one attribute and at least one child element of said each parent element and copying the at least one attribute to each child element of said each parent element;

modifying, by the first application, the first processed DOM to generate a modified first processed DOM; and

converting, by the first system, the modified first processed DOM, to generate a second standard DDD and storing the second standard DDD in the memory of the computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, said method further comprising:

converting, by a second system comprising a second application, the second standard DDD to generate a second standard document object model (DOM);

processing the second standard DOM to generate a second processed DOM, wherein said processing the second standard DOM comprises identifying at least one parent element of the second standard DOM and for each parent element;

identifying at least one attribute and at least one child element of said each parent element and copying the at least one attribute to each child element of said each parent element;

modifying, by the second application, the second processed DOM to generate a modified second processed DOM; and

converting, by the second system, the modified second processed DOM, to generate a third standard DDD and storing the third standard DDD in the memory of the computer system.

3. The method of claim 2, said method further comprising:

converting, by the first system, the third standard DDD to generate a third standard document object model (DOM);

processing the third standard DOM to generate a third processed DOM, wherein said processing the third standard DOM comprises identifying at least one parent element of the third standard DOM and for each parent element;

identifying at least one attribute and at least one child element of said each parent element and copying the at least one attribute to each child element of said each parent element;

modifying, by the first application, the third processed DOM to generate a modified third processed DOM; and

converting, by the first system, the modified third processed DOM, to generate a fourth standard DDD and storing the fourth standard DDD in the memory of the computer system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is a web page.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is a word processing file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first standard DDD is written in a markup language.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first standard DDD is written in eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first standard DDD is written in eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML).

9. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable storage medium having computer readable program code stored therein for providing a processed data definition document (DDD), said computer readable program code including an algorithm configured to implement the method of claim 1.