Markup language stylization

• US 8,006,178 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2005
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Parsell, Ryan D
• Primary Examiner(s): Pesin; Boris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wright; Elizabeth G
• Application Number:
  US11/151,753
• Publication Number:
  US 20060282766A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,261 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715/205, 715/236, 709/217, 719/217, 707/1
• US Class Current: 715/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation

Abstract

Markup language stylizations that may be applied to a source document are defined in overlay documents such that no special tags or markers are required in the source document to enable stylization via the overlay document. A manifest document defines an association between a source document and one or more overlay documents.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request for a markup language source document;

identifying a manifest document associated with the requested markup language source document;

determining to select, from a plurality of overlay documents, at least one overlay document that fulfills an attribute condition specified in the manifest document, wherein the markup language source document specifies one or more overlay document versions with which the markup language source file is compatible, wherein when the markup language source document comprises a section of markup language that specifies that the section is designated as immutable to prevent modification via the at least one overlay document, a directive of immutability is selected from a group comprising;

prevention, of a specified attribute of the section, from modification by the at least one overlay document;

prevention, of specified content of the section, from modification by the at least one overlay document; and

prevention, of a specified structure of the section, from modification by the at least one overlay document;

in an event no overlay document is selected, in response to the request, returning the markup language source document; and

in an event at least one overlay document is selected;

providing an interface for the at least one overlay document to modify the presentation of the markup language source document, wherein when an associated version of the at least one overlay document is not compatible with the markup language source document, the interface utilizes an associated document to upgrade the at least one overlay document to another version, wherein no special tags or other types of markers are required in the markup language source document to enable modification of the presentation of the markup language source document as specified by the at least one overlay document, the interface having a plurality of functions for modifying the presentation of the markup language source document, the functions comprising;

modifying element content;

modifying element attributes;

removing elements;

adding elements;

rearranging elements; and

stylization of elements;

generating a modified markup language source document by applying the at least one overlay document to the requested markup language source document; and

in response to the request, returning the modified markup language source document.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein identifying a manifest document comprises determining that a filename associated with the markup language source document matches a filename specified in the manifest document, wherein the filename specified in the manifest document includes at least one wildcard character.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein identifying a manifest document comprises:

determining that a filename associated with the markup language source document matches a filename specified in the manifest document.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a copy of the modified markup language source document;

receiving a second request for the markup language source document;

determining if the markup language source document has been edited since the modified markup language source document was generated;

in an event the source document has been edited since the modified markup language source document was generated;

generating a new modified markup language source document by applying the at least one overlay document to the markup language source document that has been edited; and

returning the new modified markup language source document;

in an event the markup language source document has not been edited since the modified markup language source document was generated, returning the copy of the modified markup language source document.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a copy of the modified markup language source document;

receiving a second request for the markup language source document;

determining that an overlay document that was selected has been edited since the modified markup language source document was generated;

generating a new modified markup language source document by applying the overlay document that has been edited to the markup language source document; and

in response to the second request, returning the new modified markup language source document.

19. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

maintaining a copy of the modified markup language source document;

receiving a second request for the markup language source document;

in an event the markup language source document has been edited since the modified source document was generated;

generating a new modified markup language source document by applying the at least one overlay document to the markup language source document that has been edited; and

returning the new modified markup language source document;

in an event the markup language source document has not been edited since the modified markup language source document was generated and none of the overlay documents that fulfill the attribute condition specified in the manifest document have been modified, returning the copy of the modified markup language source document; and

in an event an overlay document that fulfills the attribute condition specified in the manifest document has been edited since the modified markup language source document was generated;

generating a new modified markup language source document by applying the overlay document that has been edited to the markup language source document, wherein generating a new modified markup language source document comprises;

generating a landmark hierarchy based on the overlay document that has been edited, where each landmark represents an element that may be present in the markup language source document;

stepping through elements in the markup language source document to identify elements that corresponds to a first landmark in the landmark hierarchy;

identifying an overlay directive associated with the first landmark; and

generating a modified element in the modified markup language source document by applying the identified overlay directive to an element in the markup language source document that is identified as corresponding to the first landmark in the landmark hierarchy.

6. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more memories;

computer executable instructions stored on the one or more memories and executable by the one or more processors, the computer executable instructions comprising;

a source document having hypertext markup language (HTML) content;

an overlay document having extensible hypertext markup language (XHTML) content that specifies changes to be made to an HTML document, wherein the source document specifies an overlay document version with which the source document is compatible, wherein no special tags or other types of markers are required in the source document to enable the changes to be made as specified by the overlay document, wherein when the source document comprises a section of HTML content that specifies that the section is designated as immutable, modification of the section via the overlay document is prevented, the section designated as immutable selected from a group consisting of;

attributes of an HTML element of the source document;

content of an HTML element of the source document; and

structure of an HTML element of the source document;

a manifest document that defines a relationship between the source document and the overlay document such that the overlay document is usable for modifying the source document when an attribute condition in the manifest document related to the source document is fulfilled;

a document used to upgrade the overlay document from one version to another version; and

an interface to utilize the overlay document to modify the presentation of the source document when an associated version of the overlay document is compatible with the source document.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the overlay document has an overlay version.

8. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein when the source document comprises a section of HTML content that is designated as modifiable, the overlay document may only modify the designated section of HTML content.

9. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the overlay document, when applied to the source document, modifies a content of an element in the source document.

10. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the overlay document, when applied to the source document, modifies an attribute of an element in the source document.

11. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the overlay document, when applied to the source document, rearranges elements to modify a structure of the source document.

12. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the overlay document is contained within the manifest document.

20. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the interface has a plurality of functions, the functions comprising:

when the associated version of the overlay document is not compatible with the source document, utilizing the document used to upgrade the overlay document to upgrade the overlay document to another version;

modifying element content;

modifying element attributes;

removing elements;

adding elements;

rearranging elements; and

stylization of elements.

13. One or more computer storage media encoded with computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform acts comprising:

identifying an overlay document to be applied to a source document, wherein the source document specifies one or more overlay versions with which the source file is compatible, wherein when an associated version of the overlay document is not compatible with the source document, an associated document is utilized to upgrade the overlay document to another version, wherein no special tags or other types of markers are required in the source document to enable application of the overlay document, wherein when the source document comprises a section of content that specifies that the section is designated as immutable, modification of the section via the overlay document is prevented, the section designated as immutable selected from a group consisting of;

attributes of an element of the source document;

content of an element of the source document; and

structure of an element of the source document;

generating a landmark hierarchy based on landmark definitions included in the overlay document, where each landmark of the landmark hierarchy represents one of either a deterministic or a relative reference to a location of one or more elements that are present in the source document, wherein the one or more elements each have attributes corresponding to a definition of each landmark in the overlay document;

stepping through elements in the source document to identify an element in the source document that corresponds to a first landmark in the landmark hierarchy;

identifying an overlay directive associated with the first landmark, an overlay directive being chosen from a plurality of directives; and

generating a modified element by applying the identified overlay directive to the element in the source document that corresponds to the first landmark in the landmark hierarchy.

14. The one or more computer storage media as recited in claim 13, the acts further comprising copying the source document to a modified source document, and replacing the element in the source document that corresponds to the first landmark in the landmark hierarchy with the modified element.

15. The one or more computer storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the overlay directive comprises instructions to modify content of the element in the source document that corresponds to the first landmark in the landmark hierarchy.

16. The one or more computer storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the overlay directive comprises instructions to modify an attribute of the element in the source document that corresponds to the first landmark in the landmark hierarchy.

17. The one or more computer storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the overlay directive comprises instructions to modify a location within the source document of the element in the source document that corresponds to the first landmark in the landmark hierarchy.

18. The one or more computer storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the overlay directive comprises instructions to remove, from the source document, the element in the source document that corresponds to the first landmark in the landmark hierarchy.

21. The one or more computer storage media as recited in claim 13, wherein the plurality of directives comprise:

modifying element content;

modifying element attributes;

removing elements;

rearranging elements; and

stylization of elements.