Method and system for supporting dynamic document content expressed in a component-level language

• US 6,578,192 B1
• Filed: 10/20/1999
• Issued: 06/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boehme, Richard F., Kesselman, Joseph J., Epstein, David A., Weerawarana, Sanjiva, Duftler, Matthew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ingberg, Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wood, William
• Application Number:
  US09/421,376
• Time in Patent Office: 1,329 Days
• Field of Search: 717/115, 717/120
• US Class Current: 717/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells

Abstract

This invention provides a computer-method for parsing by enabling scripts to be expressed in a language which is syntax-compatible with the document surrounding them. A document is loaded having script and non-script components. Script components are identified and delineated, and are then passed to an interpreter, which returns an object corresponding to each script component. Then, script elements in the original document are replaced with the last returned object from the interpreter. If the returned object is a suitable Document Object Model (DOM) Node, it replaces the script element in the document structure. If the object is not a DOM node, the server invokes its string conversion method to obtain a textual representation, and replaces the script element with that text. After all BML markup block elements in the document have been processed, the altered document is delivered to the client.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for parsing by enabling scripts to be expressed in a language which creates, configures, and connects separately developed software objects to perform the scripted tasks, comprising the steps of:

loading a document having a structure comprised of script and non-script components, where the script is a general-purpose nonprocedural software-component language whose base syntax is the same as the non-script components;

identifying the script components;

delineating the script components;

handing the script components to an interpreter;

returning an object from the interpreter corresponding to each script component;

replacing script components in the document structure with the object returned from the interpreter; and

updating the document structure.

2.The method of claim 1, wherein the scripts are Bean Server Page (BSP) scripts.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying step is done by structural delineation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the delineation step comprises enclosing Bean Markup Language (BML) code in a <

BSP>

wrapper.

2. The method of claim 2, wherein the interpreter processes the BSP scripts as blocks of Bean Markup Language (BML) code.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the replacing step replaces each BSP script with a Document Object Model (DOM) node.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the replacing step replaces each BSP script with text resulting from a string conversion method.

7. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium for parsing by enabling scripts to be expressed in a language which creates, configures, and connects separately developed software modules (objects) to perform the scripted tasks, the computer program product having;

first computer program code for loading a document having a structure comprised of script and non-script components, where the script is a general-purpose nonprocedural software-component language whose base syntax is the same as the non-script components;

second computer program code for identifying the script components;

third computer program code for delineating the script components;

fourth computer program code for handing the script components to an interpreter;

fifth computer program code for returning an object from the interpreter corresponding to each script component;

sixth computer program code for replacing script components in the document structure with the object returned from the interpreter; and

seventh computer program code for updating the document structure under direct script control.

8. The computer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein the second computer program code identifies script components by means of structural delineation.

9. The computer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein the script components are Bean Server Page (BSP) scrips and the fourth computer program code processes the BSP scripts as blocks of Bean Markup Language (BML) code.

10. A system for processing a servelet which can be utilized in conjunction with a web server to give it the ability to recognize and process Bean Server Page (BSP) files, said system comprising:

a BSP processor;

an Extensible Markup Language (XML) serializer;

means for recognizing a HyperTest Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request;

means for parsing the HTTP request;

means for retrieving a specified source file associated with the HTTP request from a storage repository; and

means for passing the source file through said BSP processor and returning a resulting data stream from said XML serializer to a web server and a client.

11. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein said means for parsing is a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) parser.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein said means for parsing is an XML parser.

13. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein said BSP processor comprises:

means for passing the source file to a parser for rendering a Document Object Model (DOM) representation;

means for searching a DOM representation for <

BSP>

elements;

means for passing any child elements associated with each respective <

BSP>

element to a Bean Markup Language (BML) interpreter, where BML is a general-purpose nonprocedural software-component language whose base syntax is the same as the non-script components;

means for evaluating the context of a Java object or a null reference returned from the interpreter;

means for replacing each <

BSP>

element in the DOM representation with either the evaluated object if is a suitable DOM node, or its string value; and

means for passing the altered DOM representation to a serializer which generates an SML or HyperText Markup Language (HTML) representation of the resulting document.