System and method for processing extensible markup language (XML) documents

• US 20050014494A1
• Filed: 05/21/2004
• Published: 01/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Knowles, Michael, Yuan, Bill, Lifchits, Andrei A., Owen, Russell N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,565 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions

Abstract

Systems and methods for processing documents are disclosed. Documents received at a data server are transcoded using locally stored or generated code books. Code books for transcoded documents received at a wireless mobile communication device are either retrieved from a memory on the device or requested from a data server. In response to a code book request, a data server retrieves a requested code book from a local memory or generates the requested code book and returns the requested code book to a requestor. A wireless mobile communication device may also generate and transcode XML documents using a locally stored code book, a locally generated code book, or a code book received in response to a code book request.

Claims

1. A method of processing extensible markup language (XML) documents on a wireless mobile communication device, comprising the steps of:

receiving a processed document from a data server, wherein the processed document is generated by transcoding an XML document using a code book;

determining whether the code book is stored on the wireless mobile communication device;

requesting the code book from the data server where the code book is not stored on the wireless mobile communication device;

receiving the code book from the data server; and

transcoding the processed document using the code book to recover the XML document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed document is generated by an information source and provided to the data server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed document is generated by the data server.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the XML document is associated with a document definition, and wherein the data server retrieves the document definition and generates the code book based on the external definition.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

at the data server,

receiving the XML document from the information source;

retrieving the code book;

transcoding the XML document using the code book to generate the processed document; and

sending the processed document to the wireless mobile communication device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed document comprises an identifier, and wherein the step of determining comprises the step of:

determining the identifier in the processed document; and

determining whether a code book corresponding to the identifier is stored on the wireless mobile communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of requesting comprises the step of sending a code book request to the data server, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

at the data server,

receiving the code book request;

retrieving the code book in response to the code book request; and

returning the code book to the wireless mobile communication device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of retrieving comprises the steps of:

determining whether the code book is stored in a memory at the data server; and

retrieving the code book from the memory where the code book is stored in the memory.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of retrieving comprises the steps of:

where the code book is not stored in the memory,

retrieving a definition associated with the XML document; and

generating the code book from the definition.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of storing the generated code book to the memory.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the received code book on the wireless mobile communication device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed document comprises a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Binary XML (WBXML) document.

13. A system of processing extensible markup language (XML) documents on a wireless mobile communication device, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a processed document from a data server, wherein the processed document is generated by transcoding an XML document using a code book;

a code book system comprising a cache for storing code books; and

a transcoding system coupled to the receiver and to the code book system and configured to parse the processed document, to request the code book from the code book system, and to transcode the processed document using the code book to recover the XML document,

wherein the code book system is configured to determine whether the code book is stored in the cache when the code book is requested by the transcoding system, to provide the code book to the transcoding system where the code book is stored in the cache, and to request the code book from the data server, receive the code book from the data server, and provide the code book to the transcoding system where the code book is not stored in the cache.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processed document includes an identifier, wherein the transcoding system is configured to request the code book from the code book system in a code book request comprising the identifier, and wherein the code book system determines whether a code book corresponding to the identifier is stored in the cache.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the transcoding system comprises a string parser configured to parse and transcode the processed document.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the transcoding system comprises:

a binary parser configured to parse the processed document into parsed elements; and

an application handler associated with a software application on the wireless mobile communication device and configured to transcode the parsed elements.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a second application handler having an embedded encoding scheme and associated with a second software application on the wireless mobile communication device, wherein:

the receiver is further configured to receive a second processed document associated with the second software application;

the binary parser is configured to parse the second processed document into second parsed elements; and

the second application handler is configured to transcode the second processed document based on the embedded encoding scheme.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the code book system is further configured to store the code book received from the data server in the cache.

19. A system of processing documents, comprising:

a code book system configured to receive code book requests and to provide a code book responsive to each code book request;

a memory in the code book system configured to store code books;

a transcoder system configured to receive documents, and, for each received document, to request a corresponding code book from the code book system and to use the code book to transcode the received document; and

a code book builder configured to generate code books,

wherein the code book system is further configured to determine whether a requested code book is stored in the memory, and to initiate the code book builder to build the requested code book and to receive the requested code book from the code book builder where the requested code book is not stored in the memory.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a connection handler configured to receive documents from an information source and to provide the documents to the transcoder system.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the connection handler is further configured to receive transcoded documents from the transcoder system, and to send the transcoded documents to a wireless mobile communication device via a wireless transport.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the connection handler is further configured to receive connection requests from the wireless mobile communication device via the wireless transport, and wherein the documents are requested from the information source responsive to the connection requests.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising a protocol translator configured to convert the connection requests from a first protocol associated with the wireless transport to a second protocol associated with the connection handler and the information source.

24. The system of claim 19, further comprising a code book servlet which receives code book requests for code books from a wireless mobile communication device via a wireless transport, requests the code book from the code book system, and returns the requested code books to the wireless mobile communication device via the wireless transport.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein the code book builder is further configured to retrieve a document definition for a received document and to generate a code book based on the document definition when the code book system initiates the code book builder.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the code book system is further configured to determine a document identifier associated with the document definition of a received document and to provide the document identifier to the code book builder where the requested code book is not stored in the memory.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the document identifier is a resource address from which the document definition is available.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the document definition is embedded in the received document and extracted from the received document.

29. The system of claim 19, wherein the code book system is further configured to store code books generated by the code book builder to the memory.

30. A method of processing documents comprising the steps of:

receiving a document from an information source;

determining whether a code book for transcoding the document is stored in a code book system;

generating the code book where the code book for transcoding the document is not stored in the code book system; and

transcoding the document using the code book to generate a transcoded document.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising the step of transmitting the transcoded document to a wireless mobile communication device via a wireless network.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for the document from the wireless mobile communication device via the wireless network; and

requesting the document from the information source.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the step of receiving a request, the step of requesting, the step of receiving the document, the step of determining, the step of generating, the step of transcoding, and the step of transmitting are performed at a data server, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

at the wireless mobile communication device,

receiving the transcoded document from the data server;

determining whether the code book is stored on the wireless mobile communication device;

requesting the code book from the data server where the code book is not stored on the wireless mobile communication device; and

transcoding the transcoded document using the code book to recover the received document on the wireless mobile communication device.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of requesting the code book from the data server comprises the step of sending a code book request to the data server, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

at the data server,

receiving the code book request;

determining whether the code book is stored in the code book system;

retrieving the code book from the code book system where the code book is stored in the code book system;

generating the code book where the code book is not stored in the code book system, and

returning the code book to the wireless mobile communication device.

35. The method of claim 30, wherein the step of generating the code book comprises the steps of:

retrieving a document definition associated with the received document; and

generating the code book based on the document definition.

36. The method of claim 30, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the document is associated with a referenced document definition; and

transcoding the document and generating a code book as the document is transcoded where the document is not associated with a referenced document definition.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising the steps of:

where the document is associated with a referenced document definition,

retrieving the referenced document definition; and

generating the code book based on the referenced document definition.

38. The method of claim 36, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting the transcoded document to a recipient system;

transmitting the code book to the recipient system where the document is not associated with a referenced document definition; and

transmitting the code book to the recipient system in response to a code book request from the recipient system where the document is associated with a referenced document definition or where the code book is stored in the code book system.

39. The method of claim 30, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting the transcoded document to a recipient system;

receiving a code book request for the code book from the recipient system; and

returning the code book to the recipient system in response to the code book request.

40. A system of providing a code book in response to a code book request, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a code book request from a requester, the code book request identifying a requested code book;

a code book cache storing a plurality of code books;

a code book system configured to determine whether the requested code book is stored in the code book cache;

a code book builder configured to generate the requested code book and to store the requested code book in the code book cache where the requested code book is not stored in the code book cache; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the requested code book to the requester.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the code book request comprises a document type identifier to identify the requested code book, and wherein the code book builder is further configured to retrieve a document definition corresponding to the document type identifier and to generate the requested code book using the document definition.

42. The system of claim 41, further comprising a connection handler for receiving a document definition request from the code book builder, retrieving the document definition from a document definition source, and returning the document definition to the code book builder.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the document definition source is a document type definition (DTD) server.

44. The system of claim 40, wherein the receiver and the transmitter comprise a code book servlet.

45. The system of claim 40, implemented in a data server.

46. The system of claim 40, implemented in a wireless mobile communication device.

47. A method of processing extensible markup language (XML) documents, comprising the steps of:

receiving a processed document from a first data server, wherein the processed document is generated by transcoding an XML document using a code book;

determining whether the code book is stored in a code book cache;

requesting the code book from a second data server where the code book is not stored in the code book cache;

receiving the code book from the second data server; and

transcoding the processed document using the code book to recover the XML document.

48. The method of claim 47, further comprising the steps of:

at the first data server,

receiving the XML document from an information source;

determining whether a code book for transcoding the XML document is stored at the first data server;

generating the code book where the code book for transcoding the document is not stored at the first data server;

retrieving the code book where the code book is stored at the first data server;

transcoding the document using the code book to generate the processed document; and

transmitting the processed document.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the step of requesting the code book the step of sending a code book request to the second data server, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

at the second data server,

receiving the code book request;

retrieving the code book; and

returning the code book in response to the code book request.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the step of retrieving the code book at the second data server comprises the steps of:

determining whether the code book is stored at the second data server; and

generating the code book where the code book is not stored at the second data server.

51. The method of claim 49, further comprising the step of:

at the first data server, storing the code book to a code book store accessible to the second data server,

wherein the step of retrieving the code book at the second data server comprises the steps of;

determining whether the code book is stored at the second data server; and

retrieving the code book from the code book store where the code book is not stored at the second data server.

52. A method of processing documents at a wireless mobile communication device for transmission via a wireless network, comprising the steps of:

generating a document at the wireless mobile communication device;

determining whether the document is associated with a referenced document definition;

where the document is associated with a referenced definition,

determining whether a code book for the referenced definition is stored in a code book cache;

retrieving the code book from the code book cache where the code book is stored in the code book cache; and

requesting the code book from a data server and receiving the code book from the data server where the code book is not stored in the code book cache;

transcoding the document using the code book to generate a transcoded document; and

transmitting the transcoded document via the wireless network.

53. The method of claim 52, further comprising the steps of:

where the document is not associated with a referenced definition,

transcoding the document;

generating a code book as the document is transcoded; and

transmitting the code book with the transcoded document via the wireless network.

54. The method of claim 52, wherein the step of generating a code book as the document is transcoded comprises the step of generating the code book based on a document definition embedded in the document.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the step of transmitting the transcoded document comprises the step of transmitting the transcoded document to a receiver, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

at the receiver,

receiving the transcoded document from the wireless mobile communication device;

determining whether a code book associated with the transcoded document was transmitted with the transcoded document by the wireless mobile communication device;

extracting the code book from the transcoded document where a code book was transmitted with the transcoded document;

retrieving the code book at the receiver where a code book was not transmitted with the transcoded document;

transcoding the transcoded document using the code book to recover the document at the receiver.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the step of retrieving the code book at the receiver comprises the steps of:

determining whether the code book is stored in a memory at the receiver; and

retrieving the code book from the memory where the code book is stored in the memory.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the step of retrieving the code book at the receiver further comprises the steps of:

where the code book is not stored in the memory,

requesting the code book from the wireless mobile communication device; and

receiving the code book from the wireless mobile communication device.

58. The method of claim 56, wherein the step of retrieving the code book at the receiver further comprises the step of retrieving the code book from a code book store external to the receiver where the code book is not stored in the memory.

59. The method of claim 56, wherein the step of retrieving the code book at the receiver further comprises the steps of:

where the code book is not stored in the memory,

retrieving a document definition associated with the document;

generating the code book based on the document identifier; and

storing the code book to the memory.

60. The method of claim 52, wherein the step of transmitting the transcoded document via the wireless network comprises the step of transmitting the transcoded document to a second wireless mobile communication device via the wireless network.