Enabling access to rich data by intercepting paste operations

• US 8,296,671 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2008
• Issued: 10/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Narayanan, Raman, Liu, Ming, Suthar, Paresh S
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton, Jr., Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): KELLY, SCOTT MARTIN
• Application Number:
  US12/113,214
• Publication Number:
  US 20090276723A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• Field of Search: 715/770
• US Class Current: 715/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/543 User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32

Abstract

Systems and methods for enabling access to data, including data represented using a variety of “richer” data formats, are disclosed. Such systems and methods may be useful, among a variety of cases, with applications or entities that may not typically be able to access such richer data. In at least some implementations, data copied to a clipboard and formatted using a variety of formats may be provided or accessed by a destination application as part of a paste operation even when the destination application may not natively provide the ability to access all of the data formats that might exist on a clipboard. In at least some implementations, such access may be provided without modifying or augmenting the data placed on the clipboard.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying one or more existing paste targets;

registering to be notified when a paste operation associated with an identified paste target is initiated;

receiving a paste notification;

generating, in response to receiving the paste notification, destination data, using an adapter application, based upon source data copied to a clipboard; and

providing the destination data to a destination application that initiated the paste operation, the source data on the clipboard not changed and not expanded or augmented on the clipboard.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

using the destination data to at least one of;

update a user interface associated with the destination application to display at least a portion of the destination data;

or

perform data processing using at least a second portion of the destination data.

3. The method of claim 1, the source data associated with plain text, the destination data associated with a format richer than plain text.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

registering to be notified when a new paste target is created.

5. The method of claim 1, access to the destination data enabled through execution of the method without requiring an entity executing the method on a computer system to have elevated privileges as part of an installation of the adapter application and without requiring the entity to have elevated privileges when executing the method.

6. The method of claim 1, the destination data comprising at least one of:

structured data, feed data, or presentation data.

7. The method of claim 6, the structured data comprising a structured data item and the presentation data comprising a presentation data item that corresponds to the structured data item and provides a display representation of the structured data item.

8. The method of claim 6, the feed data comprising a feed reference associated with change data that comprises changes to the structured data.

9. The method of claim 1, the identified paste target associated with an edit control, providing the destination data to the destination application comprising setting text associated with the edit control.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying a data format of the source data, and the generating the destination data comprising translating from the data format of the source data to an alternative data format associated with the destination data, information expressed in the alternative data format able to be processed by the destination application.

11. The method of claim 1, the identified paste target comprising an HTML div element that includes a not visible edit control, the not visible edit control comprising one of:

an HTML textarea element or an HTML input element that has a type attribute set to text.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising:

enumerating one or more windows and identifying one or more possible windows as being windows that may contain one or more paste targets; and

examining information associated with at least one of the one or more possible windows to identify the identified paste target.

13. The method of claim 12, respective one or more possible windows associated with a particular attribute that is associated with all of the one or more possible windows.

14. The method of claim 12, comprising using an accessibility interface to obtain the information.

15. The method of claim 12, the at least one of the one or more possible windows comprising a web browser control, the information comprising a representation of content displayed by the web browser control.

16. A system, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory operatively coupled to at least one of the one or more processors;

a registration module configured to;

identify one or more existing paste targets; and

register to be notified when a paste operation associated with an identified paste target is initiated;

a converter module configured to;

generate destination data based upon source data retrieved from a clipboard, the source data not changed and not expanded or augmented on the clipboard; and

an input/output module configured to;

receive a paste notification when the paste operation is initiated; and

provide the destination data to a destination application that initiated the paste operation.

17. The system of claim 16, the source data associated with plain text, the destination data associated with a format richer than plain text.

18. The system of claim 16, the generating the destination data comprising translating from a data format of the source data to an alternative data format associated with the destination data, information expressed in the alternative data format able to be processed by the destination application.

19. The system of claim 16, the destination data comprising at least one of:

structured data, feed data, and presentation data.

20. One or more computer-readable storage devices containing executable code for performing a method comprising:

identifying one or more existing paste targets;

registering to be notified when a paste operation associated with an identified paste target is initiated;

receiving a paste notification;

generating, in response to receiving the paste notification, destination data, using an adapter application, based upon source data copied to a clipboard; and

providing the destination data to a destination application that initiated the paste operation, the source data not changed and not expanded or augmented on the clipboard.