Exposing embedded data in a computer-generated document

• US 7,770,180 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2006
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bishop, Andrew, Garg, Sharad, Jump, Dan, Little, Robert, Pollock, Josh, Villaron, Shawn, Jones, Brian, Rothschiller, Chad, Wu, Su-Piao Bill
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho; Andy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kraft; Shih-Wei
• Application Number:
  US11/431,931
• Publication Number:
  US 20060271574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,546 Days
• Field of Search: 707100-102, 707/103.R, 707/104.1, 719/315, 719/316, 719/320, 719/328, 719/329, 717/108, 717/116, 715/200, 715/209, 715212-215, 715/234, 715/239
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications

Abstract

A mechanism is provided for embedding an object in a receiving or client document such that a client application may operate on the embedded object to include interrogation and modification of data contained in the embedded object. When a given document object is embedded into a receiving document, data representing the embedded object is saved to a data stream storage for the receiving document. When the embedded object in the receiving document is subsequently requested in response to an operation executed on the embedded object, the receiving application obtains the data representation of the embedded object from the data stream storage. Once the receiving application obtains the data representation of the embedded object, the receiving application may perform operations on the embedded object by accessing the embedded object via its data representation.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method for exposing data of an embedded object to a receiving software application, comprising:

sending, from the receiving software application, a formats query for a file format manifest comprising information about file formats associated with a requested embedded object, the file formats comprising at least one of formatting properties, methods, and coding utilized by a providing software application for editing the requested embedded object;

parsing the file format manifest to obtain the information about the file formats;

storing a data representation of the embedded object, wherein the object is embedded in a receiving document in a data stream representing the receiving document according to a data format, wherein the object is embedded in the receiving document from a providing document, wherein when the object is embedded from the providing document, the data representation of the object is inserted into the data stream by the providing software application associated with the embedded object for receipt by the receiving software application, wherein the data stream comprises user data, formatting data, file format data, and other data for representing the receiving document and for operating the receiving document containing the embedded object, by the receiving software application, wherein storing the data representation of the object includes storing a markup language representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document;

receiving a program ID and a class ID, associated with the data format, to identify the data representation of the embedded object, wherein the program ID and the class ID are associated with the providing software application;

receiving a request for an operation on the object at the receiving software application;

in response to receiving the request for an operation on the object at the receiving software application, parsing the data stream for the data representation of the object; and

at the receiving software application, utilizing the data representation of the object for processing the operation on the object via a native functionality of the receiving software application, wherein the object comprises a file format utilized by the providing software application for generating a first document type which is different than a file format utilized by the receiving software application for generating a second document type.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, prior to storing the data representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document, receiving a request for embedding the object from a providing document into the receiving document.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising storing a markup language schema associated with the markup language representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein utilizing the data representing the object for processing the operation on the embedded object includes parsing the markup language representation of the object for exposing the object to one or more functionalities of the receiving software application.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising storing the program ID and the class ID for the data representation in the data stream representing the receiving document.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, further comprising maintaining the program ID and the class ID in an operating system registry.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein parsing the data stream for the data representation of the object includes locating the data representation of the object based on the program ID and the class ID.

8. A computer readable storage medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method for exposing data of an embedded object to a receiving software application, comprising:

sending, from the receiving software application, a formats query for a file format manifest comprising information about file formats associated with a requested embedded object, the file formats comprising at least one of formatting properties, methods, and coding utilized by a providing software application for editing the requested embedded object;

parsing the file format manifest to obtain the information about the file formats;

storing an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object in a data stream representing the receiving document, wherein the object is embedded in the receiving document from the providing document, wherein when the object is embedded from the providing document, the XML representation of the object is inserted into the data stream by a providing software application associated with the embedded object for receipt by the receiving software application, wherein the data stream comprises user data, formatting data, file format data, and other data for representing the receiving document and for operating the receiving document containing the embedded object, by the elk &

receiving software application;

receiving a program ID and a class ID to identify the XML representation of the embedded object, wherein the program ID and the class ID are associated with the providing software application;

receiving a request for an operation on the object at the receiving software application;

in response to receiving the request for an operation on the object at the receiving software application, parsing the data stream for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document; and

at the receiving software application, utilizing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object for processing the operation on the object via a native functionality of the receiving software application, wherein the object comprises a file format utilized by the providing software application for generating a first document type which is different than a file format utilized by the receiving software application for generating a second document type.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising storing an XML schema associated with the XML representation of the object in the data stream representing the receiving document.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein utilizing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object for processing the operation on the object includes parsing the XML representation of the object for exposing the object to one or more functionalities of the receiving software application.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising storing the program ID and the class ID for the XML representation in the data stream representing the receiving document.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising maintaining the program ID and the class ID in an operating system registry.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein parsing the data stream for the XML representation of the object includes locating the XML representation of the object based on the program ID and the class ID.

14. A method for exposing an embedded object to a receiving software application, comprising:

sending, from the receiving software application, a formats query for a file format manifest comprising information about file formats associated with a requested embedded object, the file formats comprising at least one of formatting properties, methods, and coding utilized by a providing software application for editing the requested embedded object;

parsing the file format manifest to obtain the information about the file formats;

storing, by a client computer, an Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of an object embedded in a receiving document in a data stream representing the receiving document, wherein the object is embedded in the receiving document from a providing document, wherein when the object is embedded from the providing document, the XML representation of the object is inserted into the data stream by a providing software application associated with the embedded object for receipt by the receiving software application, wherein the data stream comprises user data, formatting data, file format data, and other data for representing the receiving document and for operating the receiving document containing the embedded object, by the receiving software application;

receiving a program ID and a class ID to identify the XML representation of the embedded object, wherein the program ID and the class ID are associated with the providing software application;

receiving, by the client computer, a request for application of a functionality of the receiving software application on the object;

in response to receiving the request for application or a functionality of the receiving software application on the object, retrieving, by the client computer, the Extensible Markup Language (XML) representation of the object;

at the receiving software application, parsing the XML representation of the object for exposing the object to the functionality of the receiving software application; and

utilizing the XML representation of the object for applying the functionality to the object via a native functionality of the receiving software application, wherein the object comprises a file format utilized by the providing software application for generating a first document type which is different than a file format utilized by the receiving software application for generating a second document type.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing the program ID and the class ID the XML representation in the data stream representing the receiving document.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein parsing the XML representation of the object for exposing the object to the functionality of the receiving software application includes locating the XML representation of the object based on the program ID and the class ID.