Data-driven actions for network forms

• US 7,673,228 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2005
• Issued: 03/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Velzen, Danny van, Rivers-Moore, Jonathan E., Kelkar, Amol S., Aggarwal, Ranjan, Airapetyan, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Campbell, Joshua D
• Application Number:
  US11/095,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20060230338A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,798 Days
• Field of Search: 715221-225
• US Class Current: 715/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Systems and/or methods are described that enable a data-driven action associated with altering a data instance of a network form without altering and/or having access to the data instance. These systems and/or methods, in one embodiment, render a result of a data-driven action for a network form without transforming the network form'"'"'s data instance. In another embodiment, the systems and/or methods map a data-driven action to a view-centric logical representation of the electronic form.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable media storing computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform acts including;

obtaining, over a network from a server configured to maintain a data instance of a network form, a downloaded data instance of the network form;

rendering an editable view of the network form, the editable view of the network form being derived at the computing device from the downloaded data instance of the network form by;

extracting one or more navigation paths configured to map one or more data-centric data driven actions to the data instance; and

transforming the one or more data-centric data driven actions to corresponding view-centric data driven actions to enable data-driven actions through the editable view of the network form by replacing the extracted one or more navigation paths with corresponding view template paths to map the one or more data-centric data-driven actions to a view template;

receiving data through the editable view of a network form, the data capable of driving an action associated with the data instance of the network form maintained at the server if the data alters the data instance; and

performing the action through the editable view of the network form using a corresponding said view-centric data driven action without altering the data instance maintained at the server.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising determining which node of a view-centric logical representation of the network form the data is associated with, and wherein the act of performing the action comprises performing the action associated with the node.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the act of performing the action is performed without accessing the data instance following the act of receiving the data.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising determining that the data is capable of driving the action.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising determining if a result of the action is capable of driving another action associated with the data instance if the result alters the data instance and, if the result of the action is capable of driving another action, performing the other action without altering the data instance.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising rendering a result of the act of performing the action without transforming the data instance.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising updating locally stored data for the network form with a result of the act of performing the action.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising determining if a result of performing the action is capable of altering the editable view.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the action comprises a validation operation.

10. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts comprising:

obtaining, over a network from a server configured to maintain a data instance of a network form, a downloaded data instance of the network form;

outputting an editable view of the network form, the editable view of the network form derived at the computing device from the downloaded data instance of the network form by;

determining one or more navigation paths to map one or more data-centric data-driven actions to the data instance;

extracting the one or more navigation paths; and

transforming the one or more data-centric data driven actions to corresponding view-centric data driven actions to enable data-driven actions through the editable view of the network form by replacing the extracted one or more navigation paths with corresponding view template paths to map the one or more data-centric data-driven actions to a view template;

receiving a result of a said data-driven action for the network form that is performed through the editable view of the network form using a said view-centric data driven action; and

rendering the result of the data-driven action in the editable view of the network form without altering the network form'"'"'s data instance maintained at the server.

11. The media of claim 10, further comprising performing the data-driven action without altering the network form'"'"'s data instance.

12. The media of claim 10, wherein the act of rendering is performed without accessing the network form'"'"'s data instance.

13. The media of claim 10, wherein the acts of receiving and rendering are performed without a roundtrip to a network computer having the network form'"'"'s data instance.

14. The media of claim 10, wherein the act of rendering the result comprises re-rendering a portion of the editable view associated with a node having the result.

15. The media of claim 10, further comprising marking a node of a view-centric logical representation of the network form that is associated with the result and wherein the act of rendering the result comprises re-rendering the node.

16. A method performed by a client computing device comprising:

obtaining, over a network from a server configured to maintain a data instance of a network form, a downloaded data instance of the network form;

outputting an editable view of the network form, the editable view of the network form derived at the computing device from the downloaded data instance of the network form by;

determining one or more navigation paths to map one or more data-centric data-driven actions to the data instance;

extracting the one or more navigation paths;

transforming the one or more data-centric data driven actions to corresponding view-centric data driven actions to enable data-driven actions through the editable view of the network form by replacing the extracted one or more navigation paths with corresponding view template paths to map the one or more data-centric data-driven actions to a view template;

receiving a result of a said data-driven action for the network form that is performed through the editable view of the network form using a said view-centric data driven action; and

rendering the result of the data-driven action in the editable view of the network form without altering the network form'"'"'s data instance maintained at the server.