Enabling electronic documents for limited-capability computing devices

• US 9,210,234 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2011
• Issued: 12/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Rivers-Moore, Jonathan E., Moldovanu, Petru M., Singh, Balbir
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): AMIN, MUSTAFA A
• Application Number:
  US13/159,239
• Publication Number:
  US 20110239101A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 715/205
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

System(s), method(s), and/or techniques (“tools”) are described that enable electronic document functionality for a limited-capability computing device. The tools may enable a computing device with limited display capabilities to present and enable navigation through nested items or hierarchical view levels of an electronic document. The tools may also build renderable view information by which a device may enable electronic document functionality based on the capabilities of that device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a first server separate and remote from a computing device, a request from the computing device to edit an electronic document stored at a second server;

causing the electronic document to be edited responsive to input received from the computing device by;

receiving, from the computing device, a full-page postback that includes postback name-value pairs;

translating, at the first server, the postback name-value pairs from the full-page postback into an event log; and

sending the event log to a second server, separate and remote from the first server and the computing device, to enable editing of the electronic document based at least in part on the event log; and

receiving results of the editing of the electronic document;

determining capabilities of the computing device, including one or more capabilities that indicate the computing device is a limited-capability computing device which is incapable, without external assistance, of rendering at least some view information of the electronic document; and

building, at the first server, renderable view information for the electronic document based at least in part on the results of the editing and in response to said determining of the capabilities of the computing device, the renderable view information including a selectable indicia of an electronic form associated with a hierarchical view of one or more nested items, the one or more nested items including information from the postback name-value pairs.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request includes an indication to treat the computing device as a limited-capability device for purposes of editing the electronic document.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document comprises a hierarchical view of the one or more nested items, the computing device is incapable of rendering the entire hierarchical view, and wherein the request comprises a request to edit only a particular sub-level of the hierarchical view that the computing device is capable of rendering.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a request to execute business logic associated with the electronic document that the computing device is incapable of executing, and wherein said causing the electronic document to be edited comprises executing the business logic via the second server.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the computing device does not store a complete version of the electronic document, the second server stores the complete version of the electronic document, and said causing the electronic document to be edited comprises causing the complete version of the electronic document stored at the second server to be edited.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said causing the electronic document to be edited comprises causing a single portion of the multiple portions of the electronic document to be edited, and wherein said sending only sends an edited version of the single portion of the electronic document to the computing device for display.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document comprises an electronic form with at least one fillable field, at least one of the postback name-value pairs includes an indication of a value for the at least one fillable field, and said editing comprises filling the at least one fillable field based at least in part on the value.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document comprises multiple hierarchical view levels and the method further comprises:

receiving a request from the computing device for the electronic document;

providing to the computing device, in response to the request, only a first hierarchical view level of the multiple hierarchical view levels; and

providing to the computing device a second hierarchical view level of the multiple hierarchical view levels in response to an indication of an interaction at the computing device with the first hierarchical view level, including selection of the selectable indicia.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the hierarchical view includes a set of relationships derived from a data model of the electronic.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at an intermediary server, a request from a remote device to edit an electronic document stored at a network computing server, the request including a full-page postback that includes postback name-value pairs;

translating, at the intermediary server, the postback name-value pairs from the full-page postback into an event log;

sending the event log to the network computing server to enable the network computing server to edit the electronic document based at least in part on the event log;

receiving, at the intermediary server, results of editing the electronic document;

determining capabilities of the remote device, including one or more capabilities that indicate the remote device is a limited-capability computing device which is incapable, without external assistance, of rendering at least some view information of the electronic document; and

building, at the intermediary server, renderable view information for the electronic document based at least in part on said editing and in response to said determining of the capabilities of the remote device, the renderable view information including a selectable indicia of an electronic form associated with a hierarchical view of one or more nested items, the one or more nested items including information from the postback name-value pairs;

the intermediary server, the remote device, and the network computing server each being separate and remote from one another.

11. The one or more computer storage media of claim 10, wherein the electronic document comprises multiple portions and the request indicates that the remote device can only render a single portion of the multiple portions and further comprises a request to edit the single portion of the multiple portions.

12. The one or more computer storage media of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

causing the network computing server to edit the single portion of the multiple portions of the electronic document; and

sending, from the intermediary server, only an edited version of the single portion to the remote device for display.

13. The one or more computer storage media of claim 10, wherein the request comprises a request to execute business logic on the electronic document that the remote device is incapable of executing, and wherein the operations further comprise causing the network computing server to edit the electronic document by executing the business logic on the electronic document.

14. The one or more computer storage media of claim 10, wherein the electronic document comprises an electronic form with at least one fillable field, at least one of the postback name-value pairs includes an indication of a value for the at least one fillable field, and wherein at the operations further comprise causing the network computing server to edit the electronic document by filling the at least one fillable field based at least in part on the value.

15. The one or more computer storage media of claim 10, wherein the electronic document comprises multiple portions and wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, at the intermediate server, a request for the electronic document from the remote device;

determining that the remote device is incapable of rendering a complete version of the electronic document; and

sending, from the intermediate server to the remote device, only a portion of the multiple portions that the remote device is capable of rendering.

16. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a hardware memory storing computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a remote device, a full-page postback including one or more edits to an electronic document stored at a network computing server, the one or more edits including postback name-value pairs, the postback name-value pairs indicating one or more requests to execute business logic associated with the electronic document that the remote device is incapable of executing;

translating, at an intermediate server, the postback name-value pairs from the full-page postback into an event log;

sending the event log to the network computing server to enable the network computing server to edit the electronic document by executing the business logic on the electronic document based at least in part on the event log;

receiving at the intermediate server results of editing the electronic document by the network computing server;

determining capabilities of the remote device, including one or more capabilities that indicate the remote device is a limited-capability computing device which is incapable, without external assistance, of rendering at least some view information of the electronic document;

building, at the intermediary server, renderable view information for the electronic document based at least in part on the results of the editing and in response to said determining of the capabilities of the remote device, the renderable view information including a selectable indicia of an electronic form associated with a hierarchical view of one or more nested items, the one or more nested items including information from the postback name-value pairs; and

sending, to the remote device, the renderable view information to enable rendering of the electronic document by the remote device;

the remote device, the intermediate server, and the network computing server each being separate and remote from one another.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein executing the business logic comprises performing one or more calculations on the electronic document using data from at least one of the postback name-value pairs.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the electronic document comprises an electronic form with at least one fillable field and wherein executing the business logic comprises performing one or more calculations on a value for the at least one fillable field.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the electronic document comprises a hierarchical view of the one or more nested items, the remote device is incapable of rendering the entire hierarchical view, and wherein the request comprises a request to edit only a particular sub-level of the hierarchical view that the remote device is capable of rendering.

20. The system of claim 19, the operations further comprising:

receiving a request from the remote device for the electronic document; and

sending only a viewable edited version of the particular sub-level to the remote device.