WO2001018630A2 - Systeme et procede d'inclusion de contenu dynamique dans des pages web - Google Patents

Systeme et procede d'inclusion de contenu dynamique dans des pages web Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2001018630A2
WO2001018630A2 PCT/US2000/024771 US0024771W WO0118630A2 WO 2001018630 A2 WO2001018630 A2 WO 2001018630A2 US 0024771 W US0024771 W US 0024771W WO 0118630 A2 WO0118630 A2 WO 0118630A2
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
display
dynamic content
document
formatting
fields
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PCT/US2000/024771
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English (en)
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WO2001018630A3 (fr
Inventor
Barry Reynolds
Vernon R. Imrich
William Langlais
Paul Howard
Anastasios Giakouminakis
Rammohan Vangapalli
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Percussion Software, Inc.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
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Publication date
Application filed by Percussion Software, Inc. filed Critical Percussion Software, Inc.
Priority to AU73639/00A priority Critical patent/AU7363900A/en
Publication of WO2001018630A2 publication Critical patent/WO2001018630A2/fr
Publication of WO2001018630A3 publication Critical patent/WO2001018630A3/fr

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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
    • G06F40/10—Text processing

Definitions

  • the present invention relates generally to the field of creating interactive World Wide Web display documents for use over the Internet and more particularly to simplifying the creation and serving of web pages which allow for dynamic as well as static content.
  • FIG. 2A shows the different types of IT skill levels that this might entail.
  • the simplest IT skill level is shown at level AA, where WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) design tools such as DREAMWEAVERTM and FRONTPAGETM provided by Microsoft, allow graphic designers to design web pages and to control the contents of them.
  • WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get
  • design tools such as DREAMWEAVERTM and FRONTPAGETM provided by Microsoft
  • HTML Hypertext Markup Language
  • WYSIWYG tools allow a designer to manipulate symbols and graphics in such a way that as the designer places them on a webpage, they can be viewed as they will appear to a user. For the typical static content of most websites these tools have eliminated the need for training the web designer in the details of IT and more advanced programming skills.
  • HTML only defines formatting - -XML allows a user to classify the data using tags. For example, HTML only allows a user to format the appearance of the words "Charles Dickens", while XML allows a user to tag those words to indicate he is an author.
  • the business application being developed for the Internet may require that the web page designer and the data access designer allow a user to conditionally extract data for certain kinds of queries.
  • one field in the webpage may need to relate back to many columns of data in the database 00 backend or vice versa, depending on the data values or the context of the query.
  • the business wants to enable the web browser user to update a database 00, additional complications can arise. Is the update an addition, a deletion, or a change? How is the data sent to the web server handling the webpage and the database to be used? What formats are required?
  • the web server protocol HTTP used by designers of HTML documents operates on the principle of "request and return".
  • web servers can deliver rich formatted information inside the web pages they serve, but they can only accept relatively simple information from within a request that is sent by a user at a web browser. Specifically, when a web server receives information, it natively accepts only a simple list of HTML parameters and their values. These parameters are either attached to the URL directly or are sent separately from the URL when submitted from a form using the POST method. Present attempts to address this problem with existing tools require even more special programming and exceptions.
  • the application allows the user at a web browser to submit requests that "drill down" through multiple levels of data detail in the backend database 00 to find very specific data knowing only general information about its location.
  • the problem faced by the data access IT person and the graphics person occurs when they try to make the system automatically determine the navigational information required about the location of the specific data, so that each successive request can be defined and altered independently of the other requests, but in such a way that the links between them are automatically maintained.
  • the database contains a list of employees
  • the user at a web browser only knows that she wants to find an employee named Joe, who lives in the Northeast
  • the user might request all those named Joe Smith.
  • the user sees the list she sees one living in Boston Massachusetts and one in Nashua, New Hampshire. If she remembers the area code, she can ask again to see the one with area code 603, which is the New Hampshire Joe Smith. Retrieving all the necessary information required so that a user can perform this kind of search is a significant challenge for present tools.
  • Recent industry projections indicate that the creation of a simple website with static displays can cost a company anywhere from several thousand US dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many business organizations may also have existing internal databases and applications programs they have spent thousands or millions of dollars developing.
  • Another object of the present invention is to allow the processing of the document to be automated.
  • a method and apparatus tor providing access to dynamic data over a network through a display document.
  • the invention separates data access logic from the display document and converts the formatted display document into a style sheet (which will produce the same formatting when applied to different document content) and a content definition (which identifies which parts of the original document are dynamic.)
  • a virtual server of the invention automates the retrieval of the dynamic content using the style and content definition sheets.
  • an HTML document is converted by the dynamic content identifier of the invention into an XSL style sheet document containing the static formatting and an XML DTD document defining the dynamic content.
  • the user identifies which parts of the formatted document should be considered dynamic content and which should be considered as static.
  • the user also specifies how the style sheet should be defined to repeat related formatting context when dynamic content is repeated.
  • the invention automatically generates and serves virtual, hierarchically structured documents from structured data stored in a variety of data schemas.
  • the embodiment shown also allows data transformations to be defined visually. Data retrieval and processing are pre-compiled and optimized when the virtual server process is started. No run-time code is generated nor is any code interpreted while processing run-time requests.
  • Figure 1A is a block diagram of the present invention.
  • Figure IB is a schematic drawing of the present invention in use.
  • Figure IC is a block diagram of illustrative syntax used by the invention.
  • Figure ID is a block diagram of illustrative syntax used by the invention.
  • Figure IE is a block diagram of illustrative syntax used by the invention.
  • Figure IF is a block diagram illustrating the formatting of repeating rows.
  • Figure 1G is a block diagram illustrating the formatting of nested tables.
  • Figure IH is a block diagram illustrating the formatting of nested tables.
  • Figure II is a block diagram illustrating the formatting of repeating bulleted lists.
  • Figure 1J is a block diagram illustrating the formatting of repeating form elements.
  • Figure 2A(P ⁇ or Art) is a block diagram of skill levels required by the prior art.
  • Figure 2B(Prior Art) is a block diagram of prior art techniques.
  • Figure 3 (Prior Art) is a schematic diagram of a prior art access to a database, illustrating a problem.
  • Figure 4A is a block diagram of server processing in the prior art.
  • Figure 4B is a block diagram of server processing using the present invention.
  • Figure 4C is a block diagram of the present invention in operation at runtime
  • Figure 4D is a block diagram of a visual mapper of the present invention.
  • FIGS. 5 - 15 are flow and block diagrams of the present invention. Detailed Description of the Invention
  • FIG 1A an overview of the present invention is shown.
  • Web pages such as input page 15 designed in standard HTML for the World Wide Web usually contain formatting definitions 15a and static content 15b.
  • the present invention's dynamic content identifier (DCI) 18 evaluates the syntax used by the designer to create the page. Using a special, simplified syntax and context analysis discussed below, DCI 18 splits input page 15's elements into those which are static content and those which are dynamic content. In the embodiment shown, DCI 18 creates an XSL compliant style sheet 25, which describes the formatting 26 of the static content of input page 15.
  • DCI 18 also creates a dynamic content definition 28, in XML compliant Document Type Definition (DTD) format.
  • DTD Document Type Definition
  • a data access designer uses page request definition generator 19 of the invention to create data access definitions 32b, which are input parameters for the invention's page request object handler 32.
  • data access definitions 32b are input parameters for the invention's page request object handler 32.
  • the invention's server applies style sheet 25 and dynamic content definition 28 to the content retrieved dynamically from a database to produce a fully formatted HTML page.
  • server objects 30, include server and data access core code 31 and a page request object handler 32.
  • Page request object handler 32 in the embodiment shown includes a handler routine which accepts parameters generated at design time by page request definition generator 19. These parameters define how to access the data in a database and how to map that data into XML format. The parameters also define how to connect to the database, how to login, how to generate queries against it, and so on.
  • DCI 18 allows designers to define all formatting for dynamic content using existing standard HTML tags, using any type of HTML editor or designer tool 13.
  • DCI 18 operates as a separate tool from designer tool 13. However, it could also operate as a subset or extension of a designer tool 13.
  • DCI 18 recognizes specially prefixed field names and attributes, and contextual data to automatically generate an XSL compliant style sheet from the HTML input page 15.
  • Figure IC illustrates some of the general types of specially prefixed field names and attributes.
  • a default prefix 80 such as "psx" can be used by the web designer to identify dynamic content. While the examples shown here use psx, another prefix could be supplied by the designer at the initial configuration of the system.
  • a web designer can use the default prefix 80 with any field names 82 that conform to the XML syntax. Note that these field names are written in HTML by the designer, but conform to XML syntax. Since XML field name syntax requires all fields to share a common "root" node name, the present invention automatically generates a "root" node name for all fields in the HTML document.
  • the root node name comes from the base names of the HTML display document that is being analyzed by DCI 18. For example, assume that in Figure IC, field 82c "psx-name/first" is contained in an input page 15 called person.htm.
  • the present invention gives field 82c the full name 84 of "person/name/first" and the associated DTD document 86 is called "person.dtd”.
  • the root node name is "person.” Any field names 82 in the HTML document input page 15 which already use the correct root node name are not altered by DCI 18.
  • Figure ID illustrates exposed syntax
  • Figure IE illustrates hidden syntax
  • the present invention enables the web designer to use the default prefix 80 with fields which are inserted directly inside existing HTML tags 91 or attributes 92.
  • any dynamic links, images, or other page properties mav appear broken to the designer until the actual run-time page is served.
  • Generic tag content 90 illustrates the use of an exposed, specially prefixed fieldname 82 inserted between two tagnames 91.
  • Generic tag attribute 92 shows use of a specially prefixed fieldname 82 as an attribute 92.
  • Figure IE shows the use of hidden syntax.
  • field names 82 are hidden as either generic tag content 100 or generic tag attributes 102.
  • hidden syntax the designer is free to use "dummy" data throughout input page 15 for a better sense of how the runtime document will look.
  • the actual values of the field names 82 will be supplied.
  • a browser does not send the web server the same information that it receives from a web server.
  • the browser sends only the information in a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a simple list of HTML parameters and their values. These are either attached to the URL or are sent separately along with the URL when submitted from a Form using the "POST" method. See Figure 4A(P ⁇ or Art).Thus, if a page has both queries and updates, the specially prefixed fields will be used by the present invention to populate data into web pages that are served. However, the browser at the user's location doesn't send back those same fields to the web server when it submits the form, because HTTP does not permit them. Instead, the browser only sends back the HTML parameter list based on the names defined in the HTML FORM. These parameter names are standard HTML and do not use or need the special prefix syntax of the present invention.
  • the present invention supports this situation by allowing one set of mappings to be active when the web page is served from a query, and a different set of mappings to be active when a form is used to update.
  • the invention maps the specially prefixed fields.
  • the invention maps the HTML parameters defined by the form.
  • the present invention also allows a query definition to set default values, attributes, and selection lists for all the form's fields, as well as the form's action attribute and other page properties.
  • Other client programs such as special Java application programs can send back data m any format, including files, which can also be handled by the present invention Usually, such special programs will use the same sets of fields as the input page
  • FIG. 1F-1J the syntax and context analysis used by the present invention to format repeating fields is illustrated
  • the same field in a document may be repeated in the display document multiple times, each time having a different value.
  • the virtual server of the present invention creates an XML document from back-end data, (database 00) at run-time, it may repeat the same field in that document multiple times, each time with a different value
  • the DCI 18 of the present invention generates, at design time, style sheets 25 capable of repeating both the fields and the surrounding HTML formatting tags
  • DCI 18 also allows nesting of repeated fields and formatting within other repeating fields and formatting
  • a designer controls repeating formatting for fields based on placement of the fields in an HTML page and on the structure of the hierarchical node names shared by the repeated fields DCI 18 and virtual server 54 of present invention analyze the prefixes and the context of these formats to determine the repeat patterns
  • table 114 only the second row 112 has a specially prefixed fieldname 82.
  • the fieldname 82 has a single node Nl called here "itemfeature". The second row will therefore be repeated once for each occurrence of "itemfeature" in the run-time XML document.
  • row 132 has two static fields (Product Name and Product Features) and row 134 has two dynamic fields, as indicated by the special prefix 82, psx in this example.
  • the formatting specified by the designer for these fields will be as seen at runtime in Table 140, when the dynamic data for them has been retrieved and served.
  • the static row 142 is not repeated, but for each dynamic occurrence of a product name, one or more product features 146 are shown and formatted as originally specified by the web page designer. Each product appears on a new row and within that row the features are listed.
  • the formatting shown here which includes the prefix and node names is the formatting defined by the designer at design time - -in Figure 1G, that is table 130.
  • the results - -here table 140 of Figure 1G- - are provided by virtual server 54 of the present invention in a display document in response to that formatting and to the actual results from database 00.
  • table 150 is defined at design time.
  • the outermost table row 152 repeats for the first shared node Nl (from left to right), the second table row 154 inward repeats for the second shared node N2 (continuing to right) and so on continuing inward until either all nested tables or shared nodes are exhausted.
  • This formatting is described by DCI in an XSL style sheet and the dynamic data is identified by DCI 18 in a DTD format dynamic content definition 28.
  • Figure IJ illustrates how the DCI 18 of the present invention can be used to format forms from a browser, applying the same analysis.
  • FIG. IB virtual server 54 of the present invention is shown.
  • a standard web server 52 such as Microsoft Corporation's Internet Information Server (IIS) web server is used, and Microsoft's standard Windows NTTM operating system 50 is used as well.
  • IIS Internet Information Server
  • Figure IB illustrates the relationship of the invention's design time tools - -data access page request definition generator 19 and web page designer's DCI 18- - with actual runtime programs, such as the present invention's virtual server 54, and other web applications 60, web browser 70, and database 00.
  • FIG. 4B an overview of the operation of virtual server 54 of the present invention is shown.
  • a query request is made from a user at UU, it is translated by the web browser into standard http protocol requests S5, such as GET URL, POST Body, and forwarded to the webserver machine S15.
  • standard http protocol requests S5 such as GET URL, POST Body
  • the webserver 52 maps the URL to find the predefined request object handler 32 of the present invention's virtual server 54.
  • Predefined request object handler 32 uses the dynamic content definition 28 created at web page design time in DTD format, and data access definitions 32b created at data access design time to find a database 00, to get the data at block 25, and then to generate the reply in XML format that will be combined by virtual server 54 with the previously defined XSL style sheet to create a web page display document DD that has all the dynamic fields requested and formatted as the web page designer intended.
  • virtual server 54 automatically generates and serves virtual, hierarchically structured documents from structured data stored in a variety of data schemas (relational, tabular, indexed, hierarchical) in a database 00,
  • all data transformations necessary to map from the storage schema of database 00 into the front-end display document DD hierarchy schema may be defined visually without the need for any code, (as described below) thus simplifying the data access logic as well.
  • the data retrieval and data processing logic are pre-compiled and optimized when the virtual server 54 process is started. No run-time code is generated nor is any code interpreted while processing runtime requests.
  • the transformation mappings done by virtual server 54 allow structured data organized in rows and columns to be automatically repeated or collapsed as necessary to fit a hierarchical document's content structure.
  • an input web page 15 in the present invention is a virtual document described by XSL style sheet 25 and dynamic content definition 28. Consequently, in the present invention, a request for such a virtual document appears the same (uses the same request syntax) as a request for an actual physical document being served from disk, although the document in the case of the present invention is entirely virtual. Because the document is virtual, no physical web page document need be stored on, or requested from disk in order for the final display document DD to be served.
  • the present invention's virtual server 54 generates a virtual document at runtime, based on the parameters stored in the predefined request definition object data access definitions 32b and XSL style sheet 25.
  • Virtual server 54 of the present invention both generates and serves XML and HTML documents via the HTTP protocol from various back end data sources- - database 00 - -including relational SQL (Standard Query Language) databases, other XML or HTML files, hierarchical databases (AS/400), and file systems, among others. This allows the data access logic and design to be completely separated from the "look and feel" of the web page design.
  • page request definition generator 19 is used by the data access designer to create the data access definitions 32b that are stored in page request object data access definitions 32b.
  • a request R when a request R is made by a user UU, it travels using standard HTTP protocol over the Internet II to computer S15, which is running an operating system 50, a webserver 52 and the present invention's virtual server 54.
  • Virtual server 54 executes the page request object handler 32 which is associated with the fields in the request R, and uses the data access definitions 32b, which were created by the page request definition generator 19, to access database 00 and find data 01 which meets the request R.
  • the data access definitions 32b can be defined to work with data 01 in a number of common formats, or schemas, such as relational databases, flat fields databases and so on.
  • the data access definitions 32b are used to find the database 00 and make the appropriate read or write requests against it.
  • virtual server 54 maps the data 01 found into XML format using the dynamic content definition 28 created by DCI 18 at web page design time.
  • the formatting defined in style sheet 25 is applied to both the dynamic and the static content of the data found and the virtual display document DD being created.
  • virtual web page display document DD is sent back to the user UU over the Internet II, using the standard webserver software 52.
  • display document DD is not stored at the webserver site or in the database 00 but is created dynamically in accordance with the parameters that are stored in page request object XML mappings 32a and data access definitions 32b, XSL style sheet 25 and dynamic content definition 28.
  • page request object handler 32 includes handler code which accepts the information in the data access definitions 32b, dynamic content definition 28 and XSL style sheet 25 as parameters to be used in satisfying the request R.
  • handler code which accepts the information in the data access definitions 32b, dynamic content definition 28 and XSL style sheet 25 as parameters to be used in satisfying the request R.
  • mapping to XML format performed by the invention 's virtual server 54 is also simplified by use of the current invention's visual mapper 33, shown in Figure 4D.
  • the data access designer can use visual mapper 33 to specify how data 01 found in database 00 should be mapped into XML fields and formats stored in XML mapping 32a. Since this mapping is done at data access design time, it turns the actual mapping at runtime into the application of predefined parameters.
  • FIG. IG an example of XML 141 generated by page request object handler 32 in virtual server 54 of the present invention is shown.
  • page request object handler 32 applies the XSL style sheet 25 formatting, and the dynamic content definition 28 at runtime, the results will appear as table 140 when that particular request is handled.
  • page request definition generator 19 of the present invention is used by the data access designer, at design time to create data access definitions 32b of the page request object handler 32.
  • page request object handler 32 will have as input parameters the XML mapping resulting from dynamic content definition 28 and the data access definitions 32b, as well as XSL style sheet 25.
  • Dynamic content definitions 28 can also contain information regarding the repehhveness of the data elements. For instance, if there is a table m database 00 called orders with the following structure: order_ ⁇ d Item
  • Orders As a root node which contains Order elements.
  • Orders element declaration indicates that Order is a repeating entry.
  • Order contains a single attribute, the order id. That maps to an order_ ⁇ d column.
  • ItemList element which contains item elements. The item elements map to the item column.
  • the id attribute of the Order element must be the identifier for item entries. This means that for each matching id (order_id in the back-end) the invention creates one ItemList entry. It then collapses multiple item entries into their matching ItemList entry. Since the id attribute (order_id column) is the key, the back-end query must be sorted on order_id. If "Use WHERE table" is specified in the data selector on the query pipe and no sorted columns have been specified, the present invention will define orderings (ORDER BY) in the SQL statement issued to the back-end database 00. If sorted columns have been specified, or "Manually enter SQL" has been chosen, the user must be sure to properly sort the data. In the above example, the user wants to collapse items based upon their order id. Consequently, the invention will sort on the order_id column.
  • Orders is a root node which contains Order elements.
  • Order contains the order id, but now it contains the item element directly.
  • This structure indicates there are repeating Order elements, but id and item are now a one to one match.
  • the invention makes no assumptions about sorting requirements. It would now generate the following XML: ⁇ Orders>
  • the data may contain conditionals which can change the way data is mapped.
  • conditionals which can change the way data is mapped.
  • the data contains a phones table as follows:
  • the Contacts /Contact element is repeating. It's id attribute maps to the cont_id column. This tells the present invention it will be sorting on cont_id and collapsing phone records into the Phones element.
  • the pipe character in the Phones element declaration signifies that the Phones element contains home, business or fax elements. Furthermore, the asterisk signifies that there may be many of these.
  • the data access designer builds a mapping such as the following:
  • the invention processes the data, in the embodiment shown, it will first create the Contacts /Contact element and set the id to the cont_id column value. For each matching cont_id value, it will then look at the conditionals phone_type column value to determine what to do. If the column contains ⁇ as it's value, it will create a Contacts/Contact/Phones/home element containing the phone_no column's value and set the id attribute to the phone_id column's value. If the phone_type column contains 'B' or 'F' it will create the business or fax element in the same fashion. Based upon the data specified above, the following XML document is generated:
  • update mappings rely heavily upon the XML mapping definitions 32a and the input data structure. For example with the following XML document:
  • Enabling users to navigate, link, or "drill down” from one page to the next is also provided for by the present invention.
  • the data access designer can simply use a request URL on the "source" (current) page to point to the next successive "target” page.
  • the request URL to the"target" page needs to supply more information in order to get the right type of dynamic content.
  • the source page is designed to show people by name, it would have to "know ahead of time" that it is linked to a target page which requires the employee ID number and not the person's name. Otherwise, the source page would be delivered without the employeelD and it would not be possible to link it to the target page. Furthermore, if the target page is changed to use something other than employee ID, then the source page would have to be kept in synch or the links could be broken.
  • the data access designer visually links the "source” data request 1400 to all the other possible “target” data requests, 1402,1404,1406 etc., that could be linked to from that source.
  • the "source” request handler auto-generates all the possible URLs required to link from the source web page to the target pages. Each of these URLs are placed in the "source”, in addition to the other data defined by that source request. If a linked target resource definition is altered to require a new type of request URL, the source request handler is also altered so as to generate the new URL to the target resource.
  • URLs may be used however the designer wishes in the actual pages returned. Most often, the URL is placed as the contents of the HREF attribute on the A (anchor) tag to allow for hypertext linking between documents. However, it is also commonly used in the SRC attribute of the IMG tag (for navigation links attached to non-text resources), or the ACTION attribute of the FORM tag (for navigation links attached to update resources), or anywhere else a standard URL is used in an HTML page or other client application.
  • the subsequent request handler for the "source” is created with additional properties as follows for each linked target.
  • the "source” request must always be a query.
  • the target request definition is examined to determine any required request parameters. 2. If the target is a query: a. The data selection properties for the target are determined. b. Required data for selection is mapped to request parameters for the URL c. The source request handler is updated to include processing of the additional parameters into valid URL syntax. 3. If the target is an update the links may be defined to allow updates, inserts, or deletes. There are two cases to be considered: a. URLs for inserts i. Only the request properties for the target are mapped to request parameters for the URL. ii. The source request handler is updated to include processing of the additional parameters into valid URL syntax, b. URLs for updates or deletes i. The data update properties for the target are determined. ii. Required key data for the update is mapped to request parameters for the URL iii. The source request handler is updated to include processing of the additional parameters into valid URL syntax.
  • the request handler for the "source" page now includes the necessary mechanisms to generate all the URLs to each linked target.
  • the additional URL generation takes place, and the URLs are included with the source document when it is served.
  • DCI 18's processing of the HTML nodes is shown.
  • An input page 15, here shown as HTML 1500 is analyzed HTML node by HTML node, as illustrated at step 1502.
  • DCI 18 checks to see if it has child nodes at decision block 1504. If it does, DCI 18 loops through each HTML childnode until the last or innermost is found. When that is found, processing proceeds at step 1510, to process all the HTML node information from static text at 1512, to other attributes at 1538. The prefix and context analysis described above is applied to each, as appropriate.
  • DCI 18 corrects the node context at step 1540, transforms the HTML node to an XSL node at 1510, and replaces the older one, if any. Processing continues in this manner at 1506 for each HTML node in the child node list. When processing is completed, an XSL style sheet 25 and a dynamic content definition 28 have been created.
  • step 500 the webserver hook of virtual server 54 receives a request.
  • decision block 502 it checks to see if the URL specified in the request is in this server's root. If it is not, the event is released untouched at step 504. If the request does have a URL contained in virtual server 54's root, the invention checks to seek if there is at least on application also in the root, and if the rest of virtual server 54 is up and running. If not, the event is either released at step 508, or the checks for maintenance processing at step 512 through 522 are executed. If virtual server 54 is up, the request is handed to its dispatcher at step 520.
  • step 524 the input parameters of the request are parsed and then run through virtual server' 4's request filters, shown below. Checks are made to see if the request is tied to an application, or if SSL (Secure Socket Laver or other encryption technology is required) and appropriate reports are generated. At step 542, the invention can check use statistics to select the most available server for handling the present request and forward the request to that server.
  • SSL Secure Socket Laver or other encryption technology is required
  • Figure 6 is a flow diagram which illustrates some of the pre-processing of the request done by the present invention.
  • the system checks to see if raw input data exits have been defined by the user, and if they have, an exit handler is executed for each one specified at step 610. Exits, as they are defined in the embodiment shown, are custom code a data access designer may have written. While it is a goal of the present invention to minimize the need for any custom code, it also permits such code to be included by a data access designer, if desired. If no special exits are need, the invention proceeds to step 604 to map the input data in the request to the back-end data in database 00, by mapping names, and converting data types as necessary. If this succeeds, processing flows to the statement builder at step 618.
  • the statement builder of the present invention is shown in Figure 7. Essentially, the statement builder determines what kind of data access is required. As seen at block 710, if a simple query is required, processing proceeds to execute the query at step 718. If an insert is requested, that processing is selected, and so on. Figure 8 illustrates the processing to execute a query, Figure 10 illustrates the logic for inserting data, Figure 12 illustrates update processing, and Figure 13, delete processing. Figure 11 shows the processing of an actual transaction against database 00, and Figure 9 illustrates the generation of the results. As seen at step 926 in Figure 9, the results are the generated HTML display document DD.
  • Windows NT- compatible personal computers and workstations are used to implement the present invention.
  • other computer platforms such as SUN Microsystems workstations, or IBM Mainframes could be used as well, either in client server or centralized or distributed network configurations.
  • the embodiments shown are programmed using C++, other programming languages can be used as well.
  • software has been used along with the above computer systems to implement the invention, part or all of the invention could be included in firmware or hardware circuitry without deviating from the spirit of the present invention.

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  • Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)

Abstract

La présente invention concerne un procédé et un appareil permettant l'accès à des données dynamiques dans un réseau via un document d'affichage. Cette invention sépare la logique d'accès aux données du document d'affichage et transforme le document d'affichage mis en forme en une feuille de styles (qui exécutera la même mis en forme lorsqu'elle sera appliquée à différents contenus de documents) et en une définition du contenu dynamique (qui identifie les parties dynamiques du documents original). Un serveur virtuel automatise l'extraction de contenu dynamique en utilisant les feuilles de styles et de définition de contenu. Dans un mode de réalisation mentionné, un document HTML est transformé en document de feuille de styles XSL contenant la mise en forme statique et un document XML DTD définissant le contenu dynamique. Grâce à cette invention, l'utilisateur identifie les parties du document mis en forme qui doivent être considérées comme dynamiques et celles qui doivent être considérées comme statiques. En outre, l'utilisateur spécifie comment la feuille de styles doit être définie pour répéter le contexte de mise en forme correspondant lorsque le contenu dynamique est répété. Par ailleurs, cette invention génère automatiquement et dessert des documents virtuels structurés hiérarchiquement à partir de données structurées mémorisées, selon des schémas de données variés. Ce mode de réalisation permet également de définir visuellement des transformations de données. L'extraction et le traitement de données sont précompilés et optimisés lorsque le programme serveur virtuel est amorcé.
PCT/US2000/024771 1999-09-09 2000-09-08 Systeme et procede d'inclusion de contenu dynamique dans des pages web WO2001018630A2 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

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AU73639/00A AU7363900A (en) 1999-09-09 2000-09-08 System and method for including dynamic content in world wide web pages

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

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US39299499A 1999-09-09 1999-09-09
US09/392,994 1999-09-09

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WO2001018630A3 WO2001018630A3 (fr) 2001-06-14

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GB2381340A (en) * 2001-10-27 2003-04-30 Hewlett Packard Co Document generation in a distributed information network
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GB2382173A (en) * 2001-11-20 2003-05-21 Hewlett Packard Co Document markup for mobile internet devices
EP1443422A1 (fr) * 2001-11-09 2004-08-04 Sony Corporation Appareil de traitement d'informations et procede de traitement d'informations
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Cited By (22)

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GB2359645B (en) * 1999-09-20 2003-03-26 Dell Products Lp XML server pages language
FR2820528A1 (fr) * 2001-02-05 2002-08-09 Koninkl Philips Electronics Nv Procede de transfert d'objet avec adaptation de format
WO2002063494A2 (fr) * 2001-02-05 2002-08-15 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Procede de transfert d'objet a adaptation de format
WO2002063494A3 (fr) * 2001-02-05 2003-10-23 Koninkl Philips Electronics Nv Procede de transfert d'objet a adaptation de format
WO2003012633A1 (fr) * 2001-07-27 2003-02-13 Sap Aktiengesellschaft Procede et systeme informatique permettant de separer et de traiter des informations de mise en page et des donnees d'un document
JP2008198229A (ja) * 2001-07-27 2008-08-28 Sap Ag ブラウザ対応ヒューマンインターフェイスデスクリプションを生成し且つ処理するための方法およびシステム
EP1280054A1 (fr) * 2001-07-27 2003-01-29 Sap Ag Méthode et système informatique pour séparer et traiter de l'information de mise en page et des données d'un document
US8037407B2 (en) 2001-07-27 2011-10-11 Sap Ag Method and computer system for creating and processing a browser compliant human interface description
EP1280055A1 (fr) * 2001-07-27 2003-01-29 Sap Ag Méthode et système informatique pour créer et traiter une description d'une interface humaine conforme à un navigateur
US7890855B2 (en) 2001-07-27 2011-02-15 Sap Ag Method and computer system for separating and processing layout information and data of a document
JP2004537134A (ja) * 2001-07-27 2004-12-09 エスアーペー アクチエンゲゼルシャフト ブラウザ対応ヒューマンインターフェイスデスクリプションを生成し且つ処理するための方法およびシステム
WO2003012634A1 (fr) * 2001-07-27 2003-02-13 Sap Aktiengesellschaft Procede et systeme informatique permettant de creer et traiter une description d'interface humaine compatible avec le navigateur
US7774702B2 (en) 2001-07-27 2010-08-10 Sap Ag Method and computer system for providing and processing a human interface description
AU2002315294B2 (en) * 2001-07-27 2008-02-28 Sap Ag Method and computer system for separating and processing layout informationn and data of a document
GB2381340A (en) * 2001-10-27 2003-04-30 Hewlett Packard Co Document generation in a distributed information network
EP1308856A2 (fr) * 2001-11-01 2003-05-07 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Système de fourniture d'informations et dispositif serveur de fourniture d'informations pour son utilisation, terminal d'information et procédé de fourniture d'informations dépendant d'un profil utilisateur
EP1308856A3 (fr) * 2001-11-01 2006-01-18 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Système de fourniture d'informations et dispositif serveur de fourniture d'informations pour son utilisation, terminal d'information et procédé de fourniture d'informations dépendant d'un profil utilisateur
EP1443422A4 (fr) * 2001-11-09 2005-06-01 Sony Corp Appareil de traitement d'informations et procede de traitement d'informations
US7774426B2 (en) 2001-11-09 2010-08-10 Sony Corporation Information processing apparatus and information processing method
US7330874B2 (en) 2001-11-09 2008-02-12 Sony Corporation Information processing apparatus and information processing method
EP1443422A1 (fr) * 2001-11-09 2004-08-04 Sony Corporation Appareil de traitement d'informations et procede de traitement d'informations
GB2382173A (en) * 2001-11-20 2003-05-21 Hewlett Packard Co Document markup for mobile internet devices

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