System and method for interfacing and separating formatted content and program code

• US 6,574,790 B1
• Filed: 12/10/1998
• Issued: 06/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle OTC Subsidiary LLC (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Art Technology Group Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Abramson, Nathan, Vroom, Jeffrey J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Application Number:
  US09/209,151
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• Field of Search: 717/5, 717/11, 717/100, 717/101, 717/110, 717/120, 717/107, 707/101, 707/102, 707/509, 707/513, 707/516, 705/26, 705/102, 709/201, 709/203
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The system and method interface and separate formatted content and program code in connection with a content server system. The system includes a document preprocessor, a compiler, and an execution context manager. The document preprocessor parses and analyzes a formatted content document that contains program invocations and translates the program invocations into a procedure having program code suitable for compilation or intepretation. The preprocessor also encodes designated segments of the content document as subprocedures which are invoked within a context managed by the execution context manager. The execution context manager allows values to be mapped to named parameters so that the values are available to the invoked procedures and programs. As a result, the content server system provides separation between the formatted content and program code.

Claims

1. A method including:

a server processing a hypertext document containing formatting instructions and instructions to invoke program code, and

in response to a request from a user,

executing the program code,

storing values resulting from the program code execution, and

using the formatting instructions to deliver the stored values to the user in a desired format.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the program code is compiled.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the program code is interpreted.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the program code is embedded in the hypertext document.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing includes parsing the hypertext document into static content, context display, program invocation, and procedural parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the formatting instructions deliver the values through context display directives.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the formatting instructions for delivering the values are encapsulated as a procedural parameter which is made available to the program code, and which the program code may invoke to produce output.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the formatting instructions for delivering the values are encapsulated as a procedural parameter which is made available to the program code, and which the program code may invoke to produce output.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the values produced by the execution of the program code is associated with a parameter name.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the values produced by the execution of the program code and their associated parameter names are stored in a table.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the formatting instructions obtain the values produced by the execution the program code by referring to the values by their associated parameter names.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the formatting instructions deliver the values through context display directives.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the formatting instructions for delivering the values are encapsulated as a procedural parameter which is made available to the program code, and which the program code may invoke to produce output.

14. A system including:

a preprocessor for processing a hypertext document that has formatting instructions and instructions to invoke program code; and

a request handler and execution context manager, responsive to a request from a user, for executing the program code, storing values resulting from the program code execution, and causing the formatting instructions to use the stored values to deliver to the user in a desired format.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the preprocessor has a parser and encoders for providing program code for static content, context display, program invocation, and procedural parameters.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the preprocessor produces Java program code and HTML formatting instructions.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the execution context manager includes a table for holding parameter names and values.

18. A method including processing a hypertext document with formatting instructions and instructions to invoke program code, wherein in response to a user request, the program code is executed to produce values for display, and the formatting instructions format the values for display, wherein the program code does not include formatting instructions so that the formatting instructions can be changed without changing the program code.

19. A method including:

processing a first hypertext document in response to a request from a user, the processing including identifying static content and dynamic content, the dynamic content being associated with program code;

executing the program code to obtain dynamic content values;

storing values resulting from the program code execution; and

using formatting instructions not included in the program code to deliver to the user the stored values in a desired format, thereby separating the program code from the formatting instructions and allowing the formatting instructions to be changed without changing the program code used to obtain the values.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the values returned by the execution of the program code are stored in a table including the parameter name and value.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the processing includes parsing the hypertext document and dividing content into static content, context display, program invocation, and procedural parameters.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein each of the static content, context display, program invocation, and procedural parameters are provided to a respective encoder, the static content encoder transforming the static content into instructions that output the content verbatim, the context display encoder emitting instructions that look up and output the value of a named context parameter, the program invocation encoder emitting instructions that set up an execution context and invoke a program code module, and the procedural parameter encoder emitting instructions that bind a context parameter to a program code procedure generated by the document processor.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the document has Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tags, including a first tag for indicating the invocation of a program component identified within that tag, a second tag that has a procedural parameter directive that indicates that program code generated by processing text enclosed within the tag is a procedure bound to a named output, and a third tag that is a context display directive encoded as instructions to look up named variables.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the values returned by the execution of the program code are stored in a table including the parameter name and value.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the values returned by the execution of the program code are stored in a table including the parameter name and value.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the values returned by the execution of the program code are stored in a table including the parameter name and value.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the formatting instructions include one or more of boldface type or italics.

28. A system including:

program code which, when executed, generates values for one or more parameters;

a first hypertext document with static and dynamic content and including a program code invocation directive for identifying the program code; and

a table for storing the values for the one or more parameters;

formatting instructions for displaying the one or more parameters;

wherein the formatting instructions are separate from the program code, such that the formatting instructions can be changed without altering the program code.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the formatting instructions can be changed without changing the program code.

30. The system of claim 28, further comprising a second hypertext document, different from the first hypertext document, for calling the program code having formatting instructions different from those in the first hypertext document, the first and second hypertext documents using the same program code but providing outputs with different formats.

31. The system of claim 28, further comprising a processor for processing the first hypertext document including parsing the hypertext document and dividing content into static content, context display, program invocation, and procedural parameters.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein each of the static content, context display, program invocation, and procedural parameters are provided to a respective encoder, the static content encoder transforming the static content into instructions that output the content verbatim, the context display encoder emitting instructions that look up and output the value of a named context parameter, the program invocation encoder emitting instructions that set up an execution context and invoke a program code module, and the procedural parameter encoder emitting instructions that bind a context parameter to a program code procedure generated by the document processor.