Systems and methods for assembling form fragments and templates into a form package

• US 7,734,995 B1
• Filed: 12/01/2005
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Saikaly, Danny
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): AMIN, MUSTAFA A
• Application Number:
  US11/293,625
• Time in Patent Office: 1,650 Days
• Field of Search: 715/212, 715/21, 715/222, 715/224, 705/51, 705/80
• US Class Current: 715/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

Systems and methods receive link fragments and component fragments for assembly into a template. The component fragments comprise editable portions of a document. The link fragments comprise references to other component fragments. A further aspect of the systems and methods includes assembling multiple templates into a formset. The templates included in the formset may be dynamically selected at runtime. Conflicts between references in the templates that make up the formset are resolved and a new form may be created.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a memory;

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory;

a repository to maintain a plurality of templates, the templates having form fragments;

a selection interface to receive a selection of templates from the plurality of templates; and

a processor-implemented assembly component to;

retrieve the selection of templates from the repository;

assemble the selection of templates into a formset;

merge, in the memory and using the processor, the form fragments in the selection of templates in the formset to a new template; and

resolve, using the processor, a conflict between object references for the form fragments in the new template.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the form fragments are defined using a version of XDP (eXtensible markup language Data Packaging).

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the object reference comprises an object index.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the object reference comprises a page number reference.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the object reference comprises a page orientation reference.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assembly component obtains a component fragment referred to by a link fragment.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the component fragment comprises a latest version of the component fragment.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a form server to receive the new template and to prepare the new template for distribution.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the form server prepares the new template for distribution by fax.

10. A method comprising:

providing a plurality of templates, the templates including form fragments having object references;

receiving a selection of first templates from the plurality of templates;

creating a formset from the first templates;

assembling, in a memory of a machine and using a processor of the machine, the form fragments in the first templates to a second template; and

resolving, using the processor, a conflict between object references for the form fragments in the second template.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein resolving object references includes recalculating index references.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein resolving object references includes resolving a page reference.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein resolving object references includes resolving a page orientation reference.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein merging the form fragments includes merging a component fragment referred to by a link fragment.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein merging a component fragment includes obtaining a latest version of the component fragment.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising generating a document from the second template.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein generating the document generates a PDF Portable Document Format (PDF) document.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein generating the document generates a Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) document.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing a plurality of form fragments;

receiving a selection of first form fragments from the plurality of form fragments; and

assembling the first form fragments to create a template in the plurality of templates.

20. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

providing a plurality of templates, the templates including form fragments having object references;

receiving a selection of first templates from the plurality of templates;

creating a formset from the first templates;

assembling, in a memory of the machine and using the one or more processors of the machine, the form fragments in the first templates to a second template; and

resolving, using the one or more processors, a conflict between object references for the form fragments in the second template.

21. An apparatus comprising:

first means for providing a plurality of templates, the templates including form fragments having object references;

second means for receiving a selection of first templates from the plurality of templates; and

third means for;

creating a formset from the first templates;

assembling the form fragments in the first templates to a second template; and

resolving a conflict between object references for the form fragments in the second template.