Correlation, association, or correspondence of electronic forms

• US 7,971,139 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Essey, Edward G., Stanciu, Constantin, Halstead, Patrick, Shur, Andrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Queler; Adam M
• Application Number:
  US11/931,730
• Publication Number:
  US 20080052287A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,336 Days
• Field of Search: 715/237, 715/236, 715/230
• US Class Current: 715/237
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Determining correspondence, association, and/or correlation between nodes of electronic forms based on schemas of those forms is described. Importing, merging, and/or annotating data from one electronic form into another electronic form based on correspondence, association, and/or correlation between nodes is also described.

Claims

1. A method implemented at least in part by a computer comprising:

determining a correlation between a first node of a first electronic form and a node of a plurality of nodes of a second electronic form based on an annotation to the first node of the first electronic form, the annotation indicating that a first schema fragment governing the first node and a second schema fragment governing the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form indicate that the first node and the node of the plurality of nodes are capable of association; and

importing, based on this correlation between the first node of the first electronic form and the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form, data between the first node of the first electronic form and the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the act of determining, applying a transformation file on the first electronic form to add the annotation to the first node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation includes instructions regarding how to make data in the first node of the first electronic form compatible with the second schema fragment governing the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of importing includes merging the data of the first node of the first electronic form into the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form if a parent node of the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form is bounded to one occurrence of data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of importing includes adding the data of the first node of the first electronic form as a child node to the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form if the second schema fragment allows additional child nodes.

6. One or more computer-readable storage media having instructions thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to perform acts comprising:

determining a correlation between a first node of a first electronic form and a node of a plurality of nodes of a second electronic form based on an annotation to the first node of the first electronic form, the annotation indicating that a first schema fragment governing the first node and a second schema fragment governing the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form indicate that the first node and the node of the plurality of nodes are capable of association; and

importing, based on this correlation between the first node of the first electronic form and the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form, data between the first node of the first electronic form and the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form.

7. The media of claim 6, the instructions further causing the processors to apply, prior to determining the correlation, a transformation file on the first electronic form to add the annotation to the first node.

8. The media of claim 6, wherein the annotation includes instructions regarding how to make data in the first node of the first electronic form compatible with the second schema fragment governing the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form.

9. The media of claim 6, wherein importing includes merging the data of the first node of the first electronic form into the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form if a parent node of the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form is bounded to one occurrence of data.

10. The media of claim 6, wherein importing includes adding the data of the first node of the first electronic form as a child node to the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form if the second schema fragment allows additional child nodes.

11. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, implement an import engine configured to perform acts comprising;

determining a correlation between a first node of a first electronic form and a node of a plurality of nodes of a second electronic form based on an annotation to the first node of the first electronic form, the annotation indicating that a first schema fragment governing the first node and a second schema fragment governing the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form indicate that the first node and the node of the plurality of nodes are capable of association; and

importing, based on this correlation between the first node of the first electronic form and the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form, data between the first node of the first electronic form and the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the import engine is further configured to apply, prior to determining the correlation, a transformation file on the first electronic form to add the annotation to the first node.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the annotation includes instructions regarding how to make data in the first node of the first electronic form compatible with the second schema fragment governing the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein importing includes merging the data of the first node of the first electronic form into the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form if a parent node of the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form is bounded to one occurrence of data.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein importing includes adding the data of the first node of the first electronic form as a child node to the node of the plurality of nodes of the second electronic form if the second schema fragment allows additional child nodes.