The following patent application assigned to the assignee of the present invention and filed on Jun. 16, 2005, covers subject matter related to the subject matter of the present invention and is entitled: “A SYSTEM FOR CREATING MARKUP LANGUAGE DOCUMENTS AT A RECEIVING DISPLAY STATION HAVING MULTIPLE CONTENTS FROM MULTIPLE SECURED ON A COMMUNICATION NETWORK, E.G. THE WEB WITH VISUAL INDICATORS FOR IDENTIFYING CONTENT AND SECURITY”, Hately et al., (Attorney Docket No. AUS920050245US1), and copending Patent Application entitled: “A SYSTEM FOR CREATING MARKUP LANGUAGE DOCUMENTS AT A RECEIVING DISPLAY STATION HAVING MULTIPLE CONTENT PORTIONS FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES WITH IMPLEMENTATION FOR DISPLAYING THE STATE OF SETS OF CONTENT REVIEWS TO WHICH CONTENT PORTIONS SUBJECTED” (Attorney Docket No. AUS920050407US1), also assigned to assignee of the present Application and filed contemporaneously herewith.
The present invention relates to a system, method and program for creating markup language documents, the contents of which are obtained from multiple sources from computer networks, such as the World Wide Web (Web) or Internet.
The past decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has driven technologies that have been known and available and relatively quiescent over the years. Two of these technologies are the Internet related distribution and object oriented programming systems. Both of these technologies are embodied in the use of object oriented technology and the Java programming system, in particular, for a wide variety of consumer and business purposes over the Internet or Web or like private networks.
With the development and rapid expansion of the Web and other like networks, markup languages became the primary vehicle for distribution of data over such networks. A basic hypertext markup language, HTML, is described in detail in the text entitled Just Java, 2nd Edition, Peter van der Linden, Sun Microsystems, 1997, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealing with the handling of Web pages; and also in the text, Mastering the Internet, G. H. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc., Alameda, Calif., 1996, particularly at pp. 637-642, on HTML in the formation of Web pages. The Web pages are implemented so as to be used for the distribution of Web documents containing text, images, both still and moving, and sound, as well as programs.
The rapid expansion of people, businesses and organizations with Web or Internet (used interchangeably) access has resulted in the widespread use of the Web for business, e.g. e-business and like electronic business, educational, medical and legal transactions. The complexity of the interrelationships involved in these transactions has made it common to handle and distribute Web or like private network documents having multiple contents respectively from multiple sources on the network. Such sources may be individual users at network display stations, as well as network databases that provide already developed and stored content. With the greater reliance on the impersonal network communication, there is less personal contact between the contributors of the content of these network documents. This makes it much harder for a participating user in a network transaction to recognize who contributed what to the document. The above cross-referenced copending application, “A SYSTEM FOR CREATING MARKUP LANGUAGE DOCUMENTS AT A RECEIVING DISPLAY STATION HAVING MULTIPLE CONTENTS FROM MULTIPLE SECURED ON A COMMUNICATION NETWORK, E.G., THE WEB WITH VISUAL INDICATORS FOR IDENTIFYING CONTENT AND SECURITY”, Hately et al., (Attorney Docket No. AUS920050245US1) provides an implementation for tracking, storing and displaying via visual indicators, the sources of the various content portions in any markup language document created or rendered from multiple sources.
While this is an effective implementation in tracking Web or like network sources of document content portions, further problems are encountered when the document being created from multiple content sources has content portions that require sets of content reviews. The results of these content reviews are very important to both the host controlling the document sources, as well as to those creating the multiple content portions for the multiple content network document. In today's electronic commerce, for example, in the creation of network documents with content portions from multiple sources, the content portions of the variety of sources may have been subjected to sets of content reviews for many purposes. For example, a business company preparing to ship thousands of a specially designed and manufactured device may be generating a multi-content Web document having sets of reviews including approved legal reviews, approved accounting reviews, approved quality reviews, as well as time stamps and like commitments. Accordingly, in such multiple content portioned network, e.g. Web documents, it is important not only to be enabled to identify the sources of the portions but to be able to present to the user or viewer at a display terminal a user friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) that shows the status of reviews.
Consequently, “A SYSTEM FOR CREATING MARKUP LANGUAGE DOCUMENTS AT A RECEIVING DISPLAY STATION HAVING MULTIPLE CONTENT PORTIONS FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES WITH IMPLEMENTATION FOR DISPLAYING THE STATE OF SETS OF CONTENT REVIEWS TO WHICH CONTENT PORTIONS SUBJECTED” (Attorney Docket No. AUS920050407US1) provides an implementation for a user at a network display station who is reviewing or developing a network, e.g. Web document, that will easily indicate the status of sets of content reviews to which each content portion has been subjected to in a multiple content portion displayed document. A set of displayable non-alphanumeric visual indicators associated with each content portion, each indicator respectively representing the status of one of said set of content reviews. Then an implementation is provided enabling a user at the receiving display station to sequentially and collectively proceed through said sets of content reviews.
While both of these two copending patent applications provide excellent visual aids for enabling the user of a Web document at a receiving display station to distinguish sources of content and current verification status of required reviews of received displayed Web Documents, we have recognized a need to separate the visual indicator data from the data content of the network, e.g. Web documents, so that verification, e.g. signature and time stamps, may be dynamically updated without intruding upon or entering the content of the network documents themselves.
The present invention offers an implementation for effectively visually displaying requisite review verifications for content portions of a displayed markup language, e.g. Web document, that verifications may be dynamically modified without altering document content. The invention is applicable to the network, e.g Web documents, of the above-mentioned copending Application wherein the document has content portions from multiple sources, as well as to network documents from single sources.
Accordingly, there is provided a system for providing verifications on a markup language document, from a source on the network, received and displayed at one of said display stations comprising means for reviewing said markup language document at a display station remote from said receiving display station combined with means responsive to said reviewing means for providing review verifications for said reviewed markup language document. The implementation selectively superimposes a transparent displayed layer over said displayed received markup language document. Then there are means for indicating said review verifications of said displayed markup language document by non-alphanumeric visual indicators within said transparent displayed layer. The visual indicators may have specific colors.
Preferably, the system provides for storing the content of said transparent layer independent of the storage of the content of said markup language document whereby the content of said transparent layer may be modified independently of the markup language document content. In this manner, the visual indicators may be readily modified responsive to changes in review verifications with affecting network document content even after the document has been transmitted to a user over the network.
In a preferred embodiment, the network is the Web, and said document is created with XML protocols. Also, the markup language document may include multiple content portions, respectively, from multiple sources on said network and the review verifications are provided from sources on said network independent of said sources of said markup language document. Also, one or more of the review verifications may be a verified electronic signature.
The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:
Referring to
Display adapter 36 includes a frame buffer 39 that is a storage device that holds a representation of each pixel on the display screen 38. Images may be stored in frame buffer 39 for display on monitor 38 through various components, such as a digital to analog converter (not shown) and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capable of inputting information to the system through the keyboard 24 or mouse 26 and receiving output information from the system via display 38.
A generalized example of the practice of the present invention wherein color indicators in a separable overlay layer independent of the underlying markup language (e.g. Web) document are used to represent the states of review verifications, accessed from sources on the Web, for statements and other content portions in the markup language document will be considered with respect to
The Internet or Web is a global network of a heterogeneous mix of computer technologies and operating systems. Higher level objects are linked to lower level objects in the hierarchy through a variety of network server computers. These network servers are the key to network distribution, such as the distribution of Web pages and related documentation.
Web documents are conventionally implemented in a markup language, e.g. HTML, which is described in detail in the above-referenced text, Just Java, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealing with the handling of Web pages; and also in the text, Mastering the Internet, particularly at pp. 637-642, on HTML in the formation of Web pages. In addition, aspects of this description will refer to Web browsers. A general and comprehensive description of browsers may be found in the above-mentioned Mastering the Internet text at pp. 291-313. More detailed browser descriptions may be found in the text, Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition, M. L. Young et al., Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Berkeley Calif., 1999, Chapter 19, pp. 419-454, on the Netscape Navigator; Chapter 20, pp. 455-494, on the Microsoft Internet Explorer; and Chapter 21, pp. 495-512, covering Lynx, Opera and other browsers.
Within this environment, Web Services distribution has evolved in recent years. Web Services are based on both suppliers of the data in the form of XML based messages and documents and applications consuming such data conforming to several industry standards developed by the W3C. The primary standard is XML (Extended Markup Language) for defining data and creating markup languages in the form of XML tags. The resulting XML documents are text based and, thus, may be processed on any platform in the distribution of the Web Services. In light of this background, reference is made to
It will also be understood that instead of any conventional Web server, system 51 may replaced by a server system of a service provider 47 that will conventionally perform this Web server function along with other Web service provider functions.
As will be hereinafter described with respect
It should be noted that in the dynamic processes of electronic business, when a Web document is received at a receiving station 56, it may not have all of the needed review verifications, e.g. signatures. In such situations, the signature may be readily incorporated into the stored and displayed overlayer without changing the content of the underlying Web document. This would also be the case where there is change in a review verification.
With reference to
Content paragraphs 68 provide data relative to a shipment of widgets. This data is in the underlying Web document. The status of the various required review verifications 61-63, i.e. the colored borders, are in a separate overlayer superimposed upon the Web document. These colored borders, each representing a different review verification status as defined in the bottom LEGEND, blue border 63 represents an illustrative shipping department (SP) verification; green border 62 represents an accounting (AC) verification signature; and red border 70 a verification signature (Rc) from the receiving department. It should be noted that the item: “Widgets are licensed under Zeon patent portfolio.” has no color indication of a review verification. Let us assume that a verification is due from the legal department. When such a verification finally arrives, only the overlayer will have to be changed to include an appropriate color indicator to reflect the legal verification.
The “transparent” overlay 67 is diagrammatically shown in
Now, with reference to
In a Web network with a plurality of interactive display stations for receiving and transmitting Web document content, provision is made for the display at an appropriate requesting station of a Web document having content contributed from a single or multiple Web sources including databases and other display stations, step 70. Provision is made for the overlay of a transparent layer in the display superimposed over the received Web document, step 71. Provision is made for the review of the Web document by requisite reviewers who provide review verifications, step 72. Provision is made for the storage of the review verifications in step 72 separate and apart from the content of the Web document so as to be accessible to the Web document when the document is displayed, step 73. Provision is made for the indication of the stored review verifications through visual indicators, e.g. colors arranged in the overlaying transparent layer, so as to indicate the review verifications and the underlying document content sections to which the review verification are applicable, step 74. Provision is then made for indicating step 74 to be carried out when the underlying document sections that make up the Web document are from multiple sources, step 75. Provision is made for the modification of displayed review verifications even while the overlaid Web document is displayed at a station, step 76.
An illustrative run of the process set up in
Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.