Correlation, association, or correspondence of electronic forms

• US 9,268,760 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2013
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Stanciu, Constantin, Halstead, Patrick H., Shur, Andrey, Essey, Edward G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Queler, Adam M
• Application Number:
  US13/867,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20130238967A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,037 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Determining correspondence, association, and/or correlation between nodes of electronic forms based on schemas of those forms is described. Importing, merging, and/or annotating data from one electronic form into another electronic form based on correspondence, association, and/or correlation between nodes is also described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

applying a transformation file on a plurality of first electronic forms written in a markup language, the plurality of first electronic forms governed by a same schema, the applying the transformation file on the plurality of first electronic forms to annotate the plurality of first electronic forms with instructions; and

importing data included within the plurality of first electronic forms into a plurality of second electronic forms, the plurality of second electronic forms written in the markup language, the importing based on the instructions, the instructions comprising instructions to insert, delete, or replace one or more nodes in the plurality of second electronic forms.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying is performed without user interaction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the importing is performed without user interaction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first electronic forms are governed by said same schema having first schema fragments and the second electronic forms are governed by a second schema that includes a second schema fragment that is capable of association with the first schema fragment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first electronic forms are governed by said same schema having a first root node and the second electronic forms are governed by a second schema having a second root node, the said schema and the second schema having the first root node and the second root node capable of association but not having non-root nodes capable of association.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the importing further comprises accessing and executing code modules associated with the instructions.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises annotating each of the first electronic forms with an instruction to insert the data as a child node to a parent node in each of the second electronic forms.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises annotating one of the first electronic forms with an instruction to merge attributes associated with the data with attributes associated with a node of a respective one of the second electronic forms.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises annotating one of the first electronic forms with an instruction to replace one or more nodes of a respective one of the second electronic forms with a node associated with the data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises annotating one of the first electronic forms with an instruction to delete one or more nodes of a respective one of the second electronic forms.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises annotating one of the first electronic forms with an instruction to not import the data into a respective one of the second electronic forms.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises annotating one of the first electronic forms with an instruction to associate a set of nodes of a respective one of the second electronic forms with one or more nodes associated with the data of the one of the first electronic forms.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises annotating one of the first electronic forms with an instruction to associate a particular node of a set of nodes of a respective second electronic form of the second electronic forms with a node associated with the data of the one of the first electronic forms.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying comprises annotating the one of the first electronic forms with an instruction to insert a node associated with the data at a particular point in an order of a set of nodes in a respective on of the second electronic forms.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is written in XML.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the first electronic forms and the second electronic forms are written in part in XML.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the transformation file is written in part in XSLT.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processors to perform acts comprising;

applying a transformation file on a plurality of first electronic forms, the plurality of first electronic forms written in a markup language, the plurality of first electronic forms governed by a same schema, the applying to annotate the plurality of first electronic forms with instructions; and

importing data included within the plurality of first electronic forms into a plurality of second electronic forms, the plurality of second electronic forms written in the markup language, the importing based on the instructions, the instructions comprising instructions to insert, delete, or replace one or more nodes in the plurality of second electronic forms.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the applying annotating the first electronic form with an instruction comprising one or more of:

inserting the data as a child node to a parent node in the second electronic form;

merging attributes associated with the data with attributes associated with a node of the second electronic form;

replacing one or more nodes of the second electronic form with a node associated with the data;

deleting one or more nodes of the second electronic form;

not importing the data into the second electronic form;

associating a set of nodes of the second electronic form with one or more nodes associated with the data of the first electronic form;

or

inserting a node associated with the data at a particular point in an order of a set of nodes in the second electronic form.

20. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

applying a transformation file on a plurality of first electronic forms, the plurality of first electronic forms governed by a same schema, the applying to annotate the plurality of first electronic forms with instructions, the first electronic forms written in XML and the transformation file written in XSLT; and

importing data included within the plurality of first electronic forms into a plurality of second electronic forms, the plurality of second electronic forms written in XML, the importing based on the instructions, the instructions comprising instructions to insert, delete, or replace one or more nodes in the plurality of second electronic forms.