System and method for platform and language-independent development and delivery of page-based content

• US 20030225829A1
• Filed: 09/30/2002
• Published: 12/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Pena, Armando, Hamoui, Omar, Hjelming, Andreas, Hsui, Galvin, Spring, Leslie, Hollenbeck, Todd
• Granted Patent: US 7,490,167 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

A system and method for platform and language-independent delivery of page-based content. Content defined in a relatively abstract format is rendered into multiple platform formats in client-side applications'"'"' user interfaces in multiple human languages. The relatively abstract format is a subset of XML and is used to define user interface elements to be displayed on a page. A Model-View-Controller architecture is implemented comprising a plurality of servlet filters, a servlet pipeline and a plurality of rendering processors for client detection, client tracking, relatively abstract format preprocessing, relatively abstract format processing and validating, and transforming and rendering of the relatively abstract format into multiple platform formats in client-side applications'"'"' user interfaces in multiple human languages. A creation, modification and management tool is also disclosed for creating, modifying and managing platform and language-independent page-based content.

Claims

1. A system with at least one server and a plurality of client network enabled devices communicating content to and from the at least one server via a network such that the content is displayed in a user interface of each of the plurality of client network enabled devices, at least one of the plurality of client network enabled devices displaying the content in one of multiple platform formats or in one of multiple human languages that is different from that of at least one other of the plurality of client network enabled devices, the system comprising:

a plurality of renderers; and

a processor programmed for;

parameterizing user interface (UI) elements of a user interface in a relatively abstract format;

accepting requests for content from the network enabled devices;

determining platform formats and human languages used by the network enabled devices to display the content on the user interface;

delegating the requests to the plurality of renderers for rendering the determined platform formats and human languages; and

outputting rendered content to the network enabled devices for display on the user interface based on the determined platform formats and human languages.

2. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the user interface (UI) elements include at least one of user interface (UI) components, actions, copy, and rendering elements.

3. The system recited in claim 1, further comprising at least one data source for providing the content.

4. The system recited in claim 3, wherein the at least one data source is a database.

5. A system with at least one server and a plurality of client network enabled devices communicating content to and from the at least one server via a network, the system comprising:

at least one data source for providing content in a relatively abstract format; and

a rendering layer comprising a plurality of rendering processors for accepting the content in the relatively abstract format from the at least one data source and transforming the content in the relatively abstract format into content in multiple platform formats in multiple human languages and for outputting the content in the multiple platform formats for display on the network enabled devices.

6. The system recited in claim 5, further comprising:

a plurality of object filters for detecting a request from the network enabled devices and for determining platform formats of the network enabled devices; and

a plurality of objects for delegating the request to appropriate rendering objects based on the platform formats of the network enabled devices determined by the plurality of object filters.

7. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the plurality of rendering processors comprise a user interface (UI) preprocessor for recursively resolving external references in the content in the relatively abstract format in a source document and dynamically inserting the resolved references into an output document.

8. The system recited in claim 7, wherein the user interface (UI) preprocessor resolves primitive paths, resource paths and copy element texts in the content and dynamically inserts the resolved primitive paths, resource paths and copy element texts into the output document.

9. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the plurality of rendering processors comprise a user interface (UI) processor for accepting content in a relatively abstract format and resolving scriptlet elements and handling taglibs.

10. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the plurality of rendering processors comprise an Extensible Style Sheet Transformations (XSLT) processor for dynamically building a list of Extensible Style Sheet Transformations (XSLT) references for a generalized mark-up language stylesheet given an input of content in the relatively abstract format, and for performing a transformation of the content in the relatively abstract format into content in multiple platform formats.

11. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the generalized mark-up language is at least one of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).

12. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the Extensible Style Sheet Transformations (XSLT) processor finds primitives paths, builds Extensible Style Sheet Transformations (XSLT) references using primitive paths, and runs the relatively abstract format with the Extensible Style Sheet Transformations (XSLT) references through an Extensible Style Sheet Transformations (XSLT) transformer.

13. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the multiple platform formats comprise at least one of HyperText Markup Language (“

HTML”

), Wireless Markup Language (“

WML”

), compact HTML (“

cHTML”

), Flash, Clie'"'"', Playstation 2 (PS2), and Wireless Application Protocol (“

WAP”

).

14. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the content in multiple platform formats is displayed on the network enabled devices as user interfaces.

15. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the content comprises rendering elements for defining user interfaces on the network enabled devices.

16. The system recited in claim 15, wherein the rendering elements comprise rendering primitives that act as functional elements of the user interfaces.

17. The system recited in claim 15, wherein the rendering primitives include render locations that define locations of the of at least one of the rendering elements.

18. The system recited in claim 15, wherein the rendering primitives include rendering resources that act as graphical elements of the user interfaces.

19. The system recited in claim 15, wherein the rendering elements comprise action elements for parameterizing actions performed by a user on the user interfaces.

20. The system recited in claim 15, wherein the rendering elements comprise user interface (UI) elements for parameterizing the user interfaces.

21. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the at least one data source is a database.

22. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the at least one data source is an external application.

23. The system recited in claim 5, further comprising a gateway object for delegating object requests to particular ones of the plurality of rendering processors.

24. The system recited in claim 5, further comprising a user interface (UI) preprocessor object for invoking the user interface (UI) preprocessor when an input document having content in the relatively abstract format is received.

25. The system recited in claim 6, wherein the objects are Java objects.

26. The system recited in claim 25, wherein the Java objects are Java servlets.

27. The system recited in claim 6, wherein the plurality of object filters comprises at least one object filter for determining whether or not the network enabled devices are known and can be tracked.

28. The system recited in claim 27, wherein when the network enabled devices are known and can be tracked, the at least one object filter logs this information.

29. The system recited in claim 6, wherein the plurality of object filters and the plurality of objects are Java objects.

30. The system recited in claim 29, wherein the Java objects are Java servlets.

31. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the request is an HTTP request.

32. The system recited in claim 5, further comprising an object bridge layer for relating data tables to objects and automatically implementing object persistence to the data source.

33. The system recited in claim 5, further comprising a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) interface for allowing exchanges of information over the network.

34. The system recited in claim 33, wherein the information is exchanged based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) standard.

35. The system recited in claim 5, further comprising schema domain managers for providing standardized logic to different application servers.

36. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic is based on an Enterprise Java Beans (“

EJB”

) specification.

37. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes an asset manager EJB for creating, removing and updating content.

38. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a content manager EJB for creating, removing and updating content and for retrieving associated metadata.

39. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a metadata manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a Metadata item.

40. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a metadata type manager EJB for creating, removing and updating metadata types.

41. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a country manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a country record.

42. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a file manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a file item.

43. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a file extension manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a file type and an associated extension.

44. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a user manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a user record.

45. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a user interface (UI) copy manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a user interface (UI) copy record.

46. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a renderer resource manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a RendererResource record.

47. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a renderer primitive manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a RendererPrimitive item.

48. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a renderer type manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a RendererType item.

49. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a language manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a Language item.

50. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a relatively abstract format user interface (UI) manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a RelativelyAbstractFormat user interface (UI) item.

51. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a relatively abstract format scriptlet manager EJB for creating, removing and updating relatively abstract format Scriptlet item.

52. The system recited in claim 35, wherein the standardized logic includes a relatively abstract format action manager EJB for creating, removing and updating a relatively abstract format Action item.

53. A system with at least one server and a plurality of client network enabled devices communicating content to and from the at least one server via a network such that the content is displayed in a user interface of each of the plurality of client network enabled devices, at least one of the plurality of client network enabled devices displaying the content in one of multiple platform formats or in one of multiple human languages that is different from that of at least one other of the plurality of client network enabled devices, the system comprising:

means for parameterizing user interface (UI) elements of the user interface in a relatively abstract format;

means for accepting requests for content from the network enabled devices;

means for determining platform formats and human languages of the network enabled devices;

means for delegating the requests to renderers for rendering the determined platform formats and human languages; and

means for outputting rendered content to the network enabled devices based on the determined platform formats and human languages.

54. A computer program product, comprising:

a storage medium; and

program instructions stored on the storage medium for;

parameterizing user interface (UI) elements of a user interface in a relatively abstract format;

accepting requests for content from network enabled devices for display on associated user interfaces;

determining platform formats and human languages for displaying the content on the associated user interfaces;

delegating the requests to renderers for rendering the determined platform formats and human languages; and

outputting rendered content to the network enabled devices for display on the associated user interfaces based on the determined platform formats and human languages.

55. In a system with at least one server and a plurality of client network enabled devices communicating content to and from the at least one server via a network, a method for platform and language-independent delivery of page-based content, the method comprising:

accepting content in a relatively abstract format from at least one data source; and

transforming the content in the relatively abstract format into content in multiple platform formats in multiple human languages and outputting the content in the multiple platform formats and multiple human languages for display on the network enabled devices.

56. The method recited in claim 55, wherein the content is output to the network enabled devices in response to a request.

57. The method recited in claim 56, wherein the request is an HTTP request.

58. The method recited in claim 56, further comprising:

detecting the request from the network enabled devices;

determining platform formats of the network enabled devices; and

delegating the request to appropriate renderers based on the determined platform formats of the network enabled devices.

59. In a system with at least one server and a plurality of client network enabled devices communicating content to and from the at least one server via a network such that the content is displayed in a user interface of each of the plurality of client network enabled devices, at least one of the plurality of client network enabled devices displaying the content in one of multiple platform formats or in one of multiple human languages that is different from that of at least one other of the plurality of client network enabled devices, the method comprising:

parameterizing user interface (UI) elements of the user interface in a relatively abstract format;

accepting requests for content from the network enabled devices;

determining platform formats and human languages for displaying the content on the user interface;

delegating the requests to renderers for rendering the determined platform formats and human languages; and

outputting rendered content to the network enabled devices for display on the user interface based on the determined platform formats and human languages.

60. The method recited in claim 59, further comprising storing the parameterized user interface (UI) elements in at least one data source.

61. The method recited in claim 59, wherein the user interface (UI) elements include at least one of user interface (UI) components, actions, copy, and rendering elements.

62. The method recited in claim 59, wherein the relatively abstract format is an interface definition mark-up language (IDML) which is based on a generalized markup language.

63. The method recited in claim 62, wherein the generalized markup language is at least one of eXstensible Mark-up Language (XML) and Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).

64. The method recited in claim 62, wherein the interface definition mark-up language (IDML) comprises a primitive tag for parameterizing primitives to be displayed in the user interface.

65. The method recited in claim 64, wherein the primitive tag contains at least one of rendering resources and text.

66. The method recited in claim 64, wherein the primitive tag comprises attributes including at least one of a business name, a render location, and an IDML element identification (ID).

67. The method recited in claim 64, wherein the primitive tag comprises nested tags including at least one of a copy text tag and a resource tag.

68. The method recited in claim 62, wherein the interface definition mark-up language (IDML) comprises a resource tag for specifying rendering resources to be displayed in the user interface.

69. The method recited in claim 62, wherein the resource tag comprises attributes including at least one of a business name and a render location.

70. The method recited in claim 62, wherein the interface definition mark-up language (IDML) comprises a text tag for specifying copy text to be displayed in the user interface.

71. The method recited in claim 70, wherein the text tag comprises attributes including at least one of a business name and a render location.

72. The method recited in claim 62, wherein the interface definition mark-up language (IDML) comprises a collection tag for parameterizing collections to be displayed in the user interface.

73. The method recited in claim 72, wherein the collection tag contains at least one of primitives, other collections, rendering resources and text.

74. The method recited in claim 72, wherein the collection tag comprises attributes including at least one of a business name, a render location, an IDML element identification (ID) and a action identification (ID).

75. The method recited in claim 72, wherein the collection tag comprises nested tags including a copy text tag, a resource tag, another collection tag, and a primitive tag.

76. The method recited in claim 62, wherein the interface definition mark-up language (IDML) comprises a primitive list tag for parameterizing iterative collections.

77. The method recited in claim 76, wherein the primitive list tag comprises a nested item tag.

78. The method recited in claim 76, wherein the interface definition mark-up language (IDML) further comprises a list wrapper tag for wrapping the primitive list tag.

79. The method recited in claim 76, wherein the primitive list tag comprises a type=“

array”

attribute for Flash compatibility.

80. The method recited in claim 62, wherein the interface definition mark-up language (IDML) comprises an item tag for wrapping individual items in a primitive list.

81. The method recited in claim 80, wherein the item tag comprises nested tags including at least one of a primitive tag, a collection tag, a list wrapper tag, and a primitive list tag.

82. A user interface for use with a content creation, modification and management system, comprising a user interface (UI) elements list interface including means for displaying user interface (UI) elements representing content stored in at least one data source in a relatively abstract format.

83. The user interface recited in claim 82, further comprising:

means for searching the user interface (UI) elements according to designated search criteria;

means for sorting the user interface (UI) elements by categories;

means for linking the user interface (UI) elements to editing interfaces; and

means for adding selected user interface (UI) elements to a publishing list.

84. The user interface recited in claim 82, further comprising:

means for creating new user interface (UI) elements; and

means for deleting selected user interface (UI) elements.

85. The user interface recited in claim 82, further comprising:

a “

View/Edit”

user interface (UI) elements interface comprising;

means for viewing and editing user interface (UI) elements; and

means for saving new and edited user interface (UI) elements to the at least one data source as content in a relatively abstract format.

86. The user interface recited in claim 85, further comprising means for entering metadata to be associated with selected user interface (UI) elements including at least one of a name, a description, content, filepath, filename and text, wherein the user interface (UI) elements are saved along with the associated metadata.

87. The user interface recited in claim 82, wherein the user interface (UI) elements include at least one of user interface (UI) components, actions, copy, and rendering elements.

88. The user interface recited in claim 82, wherein the user interface (UI) elements are user interface (UI) components and further comprising means for determining whether the user interface (UI) components are referenced by other user interface (UI) components.

89. The user interface recited in claim 88, further comprising a “

Verify”

user-selectable operator selectable for updating the status field.

90. The user interface recited in claim 85, wherein the user interface (UI) elements include at least one of user interface (UI) components and actions and further comprising a relatively abstract format editing window for editing relatively abstract format code.

91. The user interface recited in claim 82, wherein the categories include at least one of name, description, status, text, identification (ID), language, renderer, file type, size, item ID, and UI element type.

92. The user interface recited in claim 87, wherein the actions include embedded data for defining links to user interface (UI) elements including at least one of sub-actions, copy, assets, and rendering elements.

93. The user interface recited in claim 85, wherein the user interface (UI) elements include copy elements and further comprising a copy text editing window for editing copy text.

94. The user interface recited in claim 93, wherein at least two items of copy text are associated with a named copy element.

95. The user interface recited in claim 93, further comprising means for selecting one or more languages for which the copy text will be used during rendering.

96. The user interface recited in claim 93, further comprising means for selecting one or more renderers for rendering the copy text.

97. The user interface recited in claim 94, wherein the rendering elements contain contextual information for displaying content within a page defined in the relatively abstract format.

98. The user interface recited in claim 92, wherein the rendering elements include subsets of rendering elements including at least one of rendering resources and rendering primitives.

99. The user interface recited in claim 92, wherein the rendering elements include at least one sub-item grouped by at least one of file, language and renderer.

100. The user interface recited in claim 85, wherein the user interface (UI) elements include rendering elements and further comprising means for selecting one or more languages for which the rendering element will be used during rendering.

101. The user interface recited in claim 85, wherein the user interface (UI) elements include rendering elements and further comprising means for selecting one or more renderers for rendering the renderiing element.

102. The user interface recited in claim 82, further comprising a files list interface including means for displaying files list in the at least one data source.

103. The user interface recited in claim 102, further comprising:

means for searching the files according to designated search criteria;

means for sorting the files by categories;

means for linking the files to editing interfaces; and

means for adding selected files to a publishing list.

104. The user interface recited in claim 102, further comprising:

means for creating new files; and

means for deleting selected files.

105. The user interface recited in claim 102, further comprising:

a “

View/Edit”

files interface comprising;

means for viewing and editing files; and

means for saving new and edited files to the at least one data source.

106. The user interface recited in claim 105, further comprising means for entering metadata to be associated with selected files including at least one of a name, a description, content, filepath, and a filename, wherein the files are saved along with the associated metadata.

107. The user interface recited in claim 82, further comprising a publishing list interface including means for displaying publishing list items.

108. The user interface recited in claim 107, further comprising means for moving publishing list items from the at least one data source to at least one other data source.

109. The user interface recited in claim 108, further comprising means for selecting the at least one other data source.

110. The user interface recited in claim 107, further comprising:

means for sorting the publishing list items by categories; and

means for linking the publishing list items to editing interfaces.

111. The user interface recited in claim 107, further comprising means for determining a publication status of the publishing list items.

112. The user interface recited in claim 107, further comprising means for removing selected publishing list items from the publishing list interface.

113. The user interface recited in claim 107, further comprising means for removing all publishing list items from the publishing list interface.

114. The user interface recited in claim 82, further comprising a “

View/Edit”

configuration interface for setting global configuration data for the content creation, modification and management system.

115. The user interface recited in claim 114, wherein the global configuration data includes at least one of IP addresses for various environments in a publishing pipeline and root file system paths used to create and manage relative file path data for file objects within the at least one data source.

116. The user interface recited in claim 114, further comprising means for setting an error checking level that is applied whenever at least one of a user interface (UI) component and action is saved to the at least one data source.

117. The user interface recited in claim 116, wherein the error checking level includes at least one of ignoring errors, warning about errors and trapping errors.

118. The user interface recited in claim 114, further comprising means for selecting for direct editing at least one of an active environment and a data source environment.

119. The user interface recited in claim 115, further comprising means for entering an IP address, wherein the IP address defined a location of instances of services of the content creation, modification and management system for each stage in the publishing pipeline.

120. The user interface recited in claim 119, wherein the system services are a set of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)-based APIs enabling at least one of the content creation, modification and management system and network enabled devices to communicate with the at least one data source in a controlled and well defined manner.

121. The user interface recited in claim 115, wherein the publishing pipeline includes multiple stages and wherein for each stage in the publishing pipeline, a disk-based file system is used to store physical files that are used by the content creation, modification and management system.

122. The user interface recited in claim 121, wherein relative file paths are stored in file objects in the at least one data source and wherein the user interface further comprises means for entering root file paths of at least one of an active environment and a source environment for searching and selecting files in the at least one of an active environment and a source environment.

123. The user interface recited in claim 122, wherein when files are selected, the root file paths are stripped from full file paths of the file to provide the relative file paths, the relative file paths being saved to the at least one data source.

124. The user interface recited in claim 82, further comprising means for applying changes made in the user interface.