System and method for facilitating content display on portable devices

• US 8,151,183 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Issued: 04/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lonsou Technologies Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Lonsou Technologies Company Limited
• Inventors: Chen, Yi, He, Yuliang
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton, Jr., Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mercado, Ariel
• Application Number:
  US12/296,493
• Publication Number:
  US 20090125802A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,831 Days
• Field of Search: 715/239
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• 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

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating a universal file conversion hub to convert structured or unstructured data to structured data suitable for display on mobile or hand-held devices. During operation, the system receives a file which contains structured or unstructured data, or a mixture of both. The system determines a type of the received file and analyzes content, formatting style, or both, of the received file based on the file type. The system further generates a processable extensible markup language file, which substantially retains a layout of the received file, thereby facilitating display of the file on mobile or hand-held devices.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating a universal file conversion hub to convert structured or unstructured data to structured data suitable for display on mobile or hand-held devices, the method comprising:

receiving a file which contains structured or unstructured data, or a mixture of both;

determining a type of the received file;

analyzing content, formatting style, or both, of the received file based on the file type;

generating a processable extensible markup language file, wherein the processable extensible markup language file retains a layout of the received file, thereby facilitating display of the file on mobile or hand-held devices; and

defining the following elements in the processable extensible markup language;

XMLSTREAM, HEAD, DMETATAGS, DMETA, EMETATAGS, EMETA, DSTYLES, DSTYLE, DSTRUCTURE, BODY, SECTION, PAGE, PARAGRAPH, SPECIALTEXT, TEXT, IMAGE, LINK, FOOTNOTE, ENDNOTE, HEADER, FOOTER, ANCHOR, TAB, HR, MARKER, TABLE, TGROUP, TBODY, THEAD, TFOOT, ROW, CELL, COLUMN, COLUMN-DEF, LIST, LI, LABEL, BLOCKQUOTE, PRE, BREAK, FRAME, SVG, FIELD, and INDEXITEM;

wherein each element has one or more of the following attributes;

style, css-style, number, font, font-size, font-fixed, origfont, emphasis, emphasis-bold, emphasis-italic, emphasis-underline, emphasis-superscript, emphasis-subscript, x, y, height, width, top, left, align, valign, leftindent, rightindent, spacebefore, spaceafter, textindent, border-left, border-right, border-top, border-bottom, top-padding, left-padding, right-padding, bottom-padding, rowspan, colspan, width-type, and height-type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received file comprises one or more of the following files:

a text file;

a hyper-text file;

a portable rendered document file;

a formatted text file;

a spreadsheet file;

a presentation file;

a publisher file;

a LaTex file; and

a program source code file.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the received file contains structured data;

and

wherein generating the processable extensible markup language file involves applying an extensible stylesheet language transformation tool.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein applying the extensible stylesheet language transformation tool involves transforming the processable extensible markup language file to one or more of the following files:

a DocBook XML file;

a LegalXML file;

a VoiceXML file;

a MathXML file;

a WML file; and

an XHTML-MP file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing content of the received file comprises:

selectively converting images within the received file to a pre-determined format and marking a converted image with an IMAGE element;

marking a bookmark, break character, field, header, footer, and footnote in the received file with an ANCHOR, BREAK, FIELD, HEADER, FOOTER, SECTION, and FOOTNOTE element, respectively, wherein the break character can be of a page, column, or section type;

analyzing a text formatting style of the received file and assigning corresponding values to the attributes of a PARAGRAPH element;

analyzing a special object embedded in the received file and marking the special object with a SPECIALTEXT element;

marking a link within the received file with a LINK element;

marking a list within the received file with a LIST element;

marking a table within the received file with TABLE, TGROUP, TBODY, THEAD and COLUMN elements; and

marking a layered structure within the received file with one or more FRAME elements.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the received file includes a piece of program source code.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically loading a file analyzer based on the file type.

8. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for facilitating a universal file conversion hub to convert structured or unstructured data to structured data suitable for display on mobile or hand-held devices, the method comprising:

receiving a file which contains structured or unstructured data, or a mixture of both;

determining a type of the received file;

analyzing content, formatting style, or both, of the received file based on the file type;

generating a processable extensible markup language file, wherein the processable extensible markup language file retains a layout of the received file, thereby facilitating display of the file on mobile or hand-held devices; and

defining the following elements in the processable extensible markup language;

XMLSTREAM, HEAD, DMETATAGS, DMETA, EMETATAGS, EMETA, DSTYLES, DSTYLE, DSTRUCTURE, BODY, SECTION, PAGE, PARAGRAPH, SPECIALTEXT, TEXT, IMAGE, LINK, FOOTNOTE, ENDNOTE, HEADER, FOOTER, ANCHOR, TAB, HR, MARKER, TABLE, TGROUP, TBODY, THEAD, TFOOT, ROW, CELL, COLUMN, COLUMN-DEF, LIST, LI, LABEL, BLOCKQUOTE, PRE, BREAK, FRAME, SVG, FIELD, and INDEXITEM;

wherein each element has one or more of the following attributes;

style, css-style, number, font, font-size, font-fixed, origfont, emphasis, emphasis-bold, emphasis-italic, emphasis-underline, emphasis-superscript, emphasis-subscript, x, y, height, width, top, left, align, valign, leftindent, rightindent, spacebefore, spaceafter, textindent, border-left, border-right, border-top, border-bottom, top-padding, left-padding, right-padding, bottom-padding, rowspan, colspan, width-type, and height-type.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8,

wherein the received file comprises one or more of the following files:

a text file;

a hyper-text file;

a portable rendered document file;

a formatted text file;

a spreadsheet file;

a presentation file;

a publisher file;

a LaTex file; and

a program source code file.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8,

wherein the received file contains structured data;

and

wherein generating the processable extensible markup language file involves applying an extensible stylesheet language transformation tool.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein applying the extensible stylesheet language transformation tool involves transforming the processable extensible markup language file to one or more of the following files:

a DocBook XML file;

a LegalXML file;

a VoiceXML file;

a MathXML file;

a WML file; and

an XHTML-MP file.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein analyzing content of the received file comprises:

selectively converting images within the received file to a pre-determined format and marking a converted image with an IMAGE element;

marking a bookmark, break character, field, header, footer, and footnote in the received file with an ANCHOR, BREAK, FIELD, HEADER, FOOTER, SECTION, and FOOTNOTE element, respectively, wherein the break character can be of a page, column, or section type;

analyzing a text formatting style of the received file and assigning corresponding values to the attributes of a PARAGRAPH element;

analyzing a special object embedded in the received file and marking the special object with a SPECIALTEXT element;

marking a link within the received file with a LINK element;

marking a list within the received file with a LIST element;

marking a table within the received file with TABLE, TGROUP, TBODY, THEAD and COLUMN elements; and

marking a layered structure within the received file with one or more FRAME elements.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the received file includes a piece of program source code.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises dynamically loading a file analyzer based on the file type.

15. A computer system for facilitating a universal file conversion hub to convert structured or unstructured data to structured data suitable for display on mobile or hand-held devices, the computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a receiving mechanism configured to receive a file which contains structured or unstructured data, or a mixture of both;

a file-type detection mechanism configured to determine a type of the received file;

a file analyzer configured to analyze content, formatting style, or both, of the received file based on the file type;

a file generation mechanism configured to generate a processable extensible markup language file, wherein the processable extensible markup language file retains a layout of the received file, thereby facilitating display of the file on mobile or hand-held devices; and

an element defining mechanism configured to define the following elements in the processable extensible markup language;

XMLSTREAM, HEAD, DMETATAGS, DMETA, EMETATAGS, EMETA, DSTYLES, DSTYLE, DSTRUCTURE, BODY, SECTION, PAGE, PARAGRAPH, SPECIALTEXT, TEXT, IMAGE, LINK, FOOTNOTE, ENDNOTE, HEADER, FOOTER, ANCHOR, TAB, HR, MARKER, TABLE, TGROUP, TBODY, THEAD, TFOOT, ROW, CELL, COLUMN, COLUMN-DEF, LIST, LI, LABEL, BLOCKQUOTE, PRE, BREAK, FRAME, SVG, FIELD, and INDEXITEM;

wherein each element has one or more of the following attributes;

style, css-style, number, font, font-size, font-fixed, origfont, emphasis, emphasis-bold, emphasis-italic, emphasis-underline, emphasis-superscript, emphasis-subscript, x, y, height, width, top, left, align, valign, leftindent, rightindent, spacebefore, spaceafter, textindent, border-left, border-right, border-top, border-bottom, top-padding, left-padding, right-padding, bottom-padding, rowspan, colspan, width-type, and height-type.

16. The computer system of claim 15,

wherein the received file comprises one or more of the following files:

a text file;

a hyper-text file;

a

portable rendered document file;

a formatted text file;

a spreadsheet file;

a presentation file;

a publisher file;

a LaTex file; and

a program source code file.

17. The computer system of claim 15,

wherein the received file contains structured data;

and

wherein while generating the processable extensible markup language file, the file generation mechanism is configured to apply an extensible stylesheet language transformation tool.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein while applying the extensible stylesheet language transformation tool, the file generation mechanism is further configured to transform the processable extensible markup language file to one or more of the following files:

a DocBook XML file;

a LegalXML file;

a VoiceXML file;

a MathXML file;

a WML file; and

an XHTML-MP file.

19. The computer system of claim 15, wherein while analyzing content of the received file, the file analyzer is configured to:

selectively convert images within the received file to a pre-determined format and marking a converted image with an IMAGE element;

mark a bookmark, break character, field, header, footer, and footnote in the received file with an ANCHOR, BREAK, FIELD, HEADER, FOOTER, SECTION, and FOOTNOTE element, respectively, wherein the break character can be of a page, column, or section type;

analyze a text formatting style of the received file and assigning corresponding values to the attributes of a PARAGRAPH element;

analyze a special object embedded in the received file and marking the special object with a SPECIALTEXT element;

mark a link within the received file with a LINK element;

mark a list within the received file with a LIST element;

mark a table within the received file with TABLE, TGROUP, TBODY, THEAD and COLUMN elements; and

mark a layered structure within the received file with one or more FRAME elements.

20. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the received file includes a piece of program source code.

21. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising a file analyzer selecting mechanism configured to dynamically load a file analyzer based on the file type.