Method and apparatus for maintaining relationships between parts in a package

• US 7,752,235 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2006
• Issued: 07/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hillberg, Mike, MacKenzie, Bruce, Paoli, Jean, Emerson, Daniel, Ornstein, David, Shur, Andrey, Jones, Brian, Pollock, Josh, Foehr, Oliver, Sheth, Sarjana, Dunietz, Jerry
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Shahid A
• Application Number:
  US11/275,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20060149785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,623 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/3, 707/5, 707/6, 707/8, 707/9, 707/10, 707/100, 707/104.1, 707/802, 707/803, 705/8, 705/10, 700/105, 715/204, 715/234, 709/203
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Modular content framework and document format methods and systems are described. The described framework and format define a set of building blocks for composing, packaging, distributing, and rendering document-centered content. These building blocks define a platform-independent framework for document formats that enable software and hardware systems to generate, exchange, and display documents reliably and consistently. The framework and format have been designed in a flexible and extensible fashion. In addition to this general framework and format, a particular format, known as the reach package format, is defined using the general framework. The reach package format is a format for storing paginated documents. The contents of a reach package can be displayed or printed with full fidelity among devices and applications in a wide range of environments and across a wide range of scenarios.

Claims

1. An application program interface embodied on one or more computer-readable storage media, the application program interface comprising:

calling a first method to create a package that defines a document, wherein the package holds together a plurality of parts which represent different aspects of the document;

calling a second method to create a relationship between the package and a particular part in the package;

calling a third method to identify one or more relationships between the plurality of parts in the package, wherein each relationship identifies at least one connection between an associated part and at least one other of the plurality of parts, each relationship being stored in a relationships part independent of the plurality of parts, wherein the connections are discovered by analyzing relationships associated with the plurality of parts without looking at the content of the parts; and

wherein the plurality of parts facilitates at least displaying the document independent of a platform on the computer.

2. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, further comprising calling a fourth method to delete existing relationships.

3. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, further comprising calling a fourth method to retrieve information regarding existing relationships.

4. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, further comprising a property that identifies a source part associated with a particular relationship.

5. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, further comprising a property that identifies a target uniform resource identifier associated with a particular relationship.

6. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, further comprising a property that identifies a name associated with a particular relationship.

7. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, wherein each relationship is described using an extensible markup language (XML).

8. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, wherein the document and the plurality of parts are described using an extensible markup language (XML).

9. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of parts has an associated name.

10. An application program interface as recited in claim 1, wherein each relationship of an associated part has a name derived from the name of the associated part.