Incrementally designing electronic forms and hierarchical schemas

• US 8,117,552 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2006
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Paoli, Jean D., Mollicone, Laurent, Friend, Ned B., Kotler, Matthew J., Lawrence, Thomas R., Lai, Shuk-Yan, Hendel, Sharma K., Whitmarsh, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Sax, Steven
• Application Number:
  US11/567,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094589A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,897 Days
• Field of Search: 715762-763, 715/780, 715853-855, 715/810, 715771-773, 715/866, 715744-747, 715/707, 717/125, 717/109, 707101-102, 709/219
• US Class Current: 715/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

A system and method that enables a designer to build electronic forms and corresponding hierarchical schemas are described. Displays of hierarchical schemas, electronic forms, and components used to build the hierarchical schemas and electronic forms are provided to the designer. The designer selects components and arranges them on a display to visually build an electronic form. As the form is built, the corresponding hierarchical schema is incrementally updated to reflect changes made to the electronic form.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying an electronic form in a form-design area, the electronic form including an existing component, the existing component having a data-entry field;

displaying, in a hierarchical schema display area, a first representation of a hierarchical schema, the hierarchical schema corresponding to the electronic form and having XML code;

receiving an input through a graphical user interface to add a new component at a location in the form-design area;

responsive to receiving the input;

inferring as follows;

if the location is within a subordination area of the existing component, that the new component is subordinate to the existing component;

if the location is below the existing component, that the new component is subordinate to the existing component;

or

if the location is above the existing component, that the new component governs the existing component;

incrementally changing both XSLT code used to display the electronic form and the hierarchical schema to reflect the received new component, the incrementally changing as follows;

if the location is below the existing component, as being subordinate to the existing component and altering an existing XML schema part associated with the existing component to include, as subordinate, a new schema part associated with the new component-to be subordinate to the existing XML schema part;

if the location is within the subordination area, as being subordinate to the existing component and altering the existing XML schema part associated with the existing component to include, as subordinate, the new schema part associated with the new component to be subordinate to the existing XML schema part;

or

if the location is above the existing component, as governing the existing component and altering the existing XML schema part associated with the existing component to to be subordinate to the new schema part; and

displaying, in the hierarchical schema display area, a second representation of the hierarchical schema, the second representation showing as follows;

if the location is below the existing component, the new schema part associated with the new component to be subordinate to the existing XML schema part;

if the location is within the subordination area of the existing component, the new schema part associated with the new component to be subordinate to the existing XML schema part;

or

if the location is above the existing component, altering the existing XML schema part to be subordinate to the new schema part.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a second input to alter a style of the existing component or the new component and incrementally changing the style of the existing component or the new component in the form-design area.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a second input to alter the existing component or the new component by moving the existing component or the new component within the form-design area and incrementally changing responsive to only the moving of the existing component or the new component.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the act of incrementally changing responsive to only the moving of the existing component or the new component makes the existing component or the new component subordinate to another component in the electronic form.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein incrementally changing is performed in part by linking the electronic form and the corresponding hierarchical schema.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the input is received through a selection made to a screen in which a list of one or more components is provided.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the input is received through a selection made to the first representation of the corresponding hierarchical schema.

8. A method comprising:

enabling placement, through a graphical user interface, of a first component on a form-design area, the first component representing a first data-entry field governed by a first XML schema part and the form-design area displaying an electronic form having a second component representing a second data-entry field that is an XSLT transformation of a second XML schema part;

inferring, inferring as follows;

if a location for the first component on the form-design area is beneath the second component, that the first component is subordinate to the second component;

if the location for the first component on the form-design area is within the second component, that the first component is subordinate to the second component;

or

if the location for the first component on the form-design area is above the second component, that the first component governs the second component;

altering a hierarchical schema governing the electronic form to include the first XML schema part corresponding to the first component, the altering as follows;

if the location for the first component on the form-design area is below the second component, subordinating the first XML schema part to the second XML schema part;

if the location for the first component on the form-design area is within the second component, subordinating the first XML schema part to the second XML schema part;

or

if the location for the first component on the form-design area is above the second component, subordinating the second XML schema part to the first XML schema part; and

displaying, in a hierarchical schema display area, a representation of the hierarchical schema governing the electronic form, the representation showing as follows;

if the location for the first component on the form-design area is below the second component, the subordinating of the first XML schema part to the second XML schema part;

if the location for the first component on the form-design area is within the second component, the subordinating of the first XML schema part to the second XML schema part;

or

if the location for the first component on the form-design area is above the second component, the subordinating of the second XML schema part to the first XML schema part.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

displaying, in the electronic form on the form-design area, the first data-entry field as subordinate to the second data-entry field.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

displaying, in the electronic form on the form-design area, the second data-entry field as subordinate to the first data-entry field.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the act of enabling placement comprises enabling placement of the first component within the subordination area and beneath the second component.