Patent Application
20060074981
Data forms are a fundamental component of building web-based applications. Data forms provide an interface for end users to contribute information to an application and to control the information received from the application. A data form is a section of a document containing normal content, markup, special elements called form controls (e.g., checkboxes, radio buttons, menus), and labels on the controls. Users generally complete a data form by modifying the form controls (e.g., entering text, selecting menu items) before submitting the data form for processing (e.g., to a web server or a mail server).
Each form control has both an initial value and a current value. A form control's initial value may be specified with a value associated with the form control. The form control's current value is first set to the initial value. Thereafter, the form control's current value may be modified through user interaction. A form control may have a field name paired with the current value such that when a form control is submitted for processing the field name and the current value of the form control are also submitted. Data views provide display functionality such that a user may view dynamic data from a data source. However, the user's interaction with the dynamic data is limited to read-only functionality with the data source.
A web-based data form enables modifications made to values in a data form to be dynamically reflected in a data source. Form fields of the data form are associated with records in the data source using data binding information. Data from a data source (e.g., an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file, a web service, or a database) is transformed into intermediate code using an Extensible Style Language Transform (XSLT). In one embodiment, the intermediate code is compatible with ASP.NET functionality developed by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington. Form controls of the data form are instantiated using the intermediate code. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is generated from the intermediate code including the instantiated form controls.
A data binding process maintains the relationship between the data form and the corresponding records in the data source such that modified values in the data form may be updated in the data source. When a user modifies the form field values, the modifications are posted back to a server. Evaluation of the XSL transform creates form controls corresponding to fields in the data source and obtains data binding information associated with the form controls. The data binding information is used to compare data in the data form to data associated with an item in the data source to determine the changed values. The item corresponding to the modified form fields is updated with the changed values using the data binding information.
A web-based data form enables modifications made to values in the data form to be dynamically implemented in a data source. Form fields of the data form are associated with items in the data source using data binding information. Data from a data source, such as an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file, associated with a requested web page is transformed into intermediate code using an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transform (XSLT). In one embodiment, the intermediate code is compatible with ASP.NET functionality developed by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Form controls of the data form are instantiated using the intermediate code. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is generated from the intermediate code including the instantiated form controls.
A data binding process maintains the relationship between the data form and the corresponding items in the data source such that modified values in the data form may be updated in the data source. When a user modifies the form field values, the modifications are posted back to a server. Evaluation of the XSL transform creates form controls corresponding to the items in the data source and obtains data binding information associated with the form controls. The data binding information is used to compare data in the data form to data associated with an item in the data source to determine the changed values. The item corresponding to the modified form fields is updated with the changed values using the data binding information.
Illustrative Operating Environment
With reference to
Computing device 100 may have additional features or functionality. For example, computing device 100 may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in
Computing device 100 also contains communication connections 116 that allow the device to communicate with other computing devices 118, such as over a network. Networks include local area networks and wide area networks, as well as other large scale networks including, but not limited to, intranets and extranets. Communication connection 116 is one example of communication media. Communication media may typically be embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. The term computer readable media as used herein includes both storage media and communication media.
Web-Based Data Forms
Data form object 222 includes form fields 224, 225, 226 and XSLT code 230. Each form field 224, 225, 226 stores a value and is associated with a form control. The value may be a value entered by a user, a default value, a value from data source 212, or an empty value. Examples of form fields 224, 225, 226 include a text box, a drop down menu, a calendar, a date, or any other object-oriented form control. The form control is code that provides functionality for viewing, deleting, updating, and inserting values in form fields 224, 225, 226. The form control is extensible such that the code can be modified to customize the form control for a specific use. For example, a form field corresponding to a social security number can be formatted to display three fields separated by a dash. Some form fields are associated with more than one form control. For example, a date form field may have one form control for the day, another form control for the month, and yet another form control for the year.
Each form field 224, 225, 226 corresponds to a data field within record 214, 215, 216 in data source 212. Data source 212 may be tabular (e.g. a database) or hierarchical (e.g., an XML file). Record 214 includes data binding information associated with form field 224 including identifier (ID1), name of the form field (Name1), and the original value (Value1) entered in the form field. The data binding information is also stored in data form object 222. The data binding information maintains the relationship between form fields 224, 225, 226 of data form object 222 and corresponding records 214, 215, 216 in data source 212.
The form controls are instantiated when a user requests a web page for the first time. Client 200 requests web page 220 from server 210. Server 210 calls to data form object 222 to request data from data source 212 as specified by data form object 222. XSLT code 230 of data form object 222 includes a list of markup commands that provide instructions on how to transform XML data associated with form fields 224 to obtain the corresponding form controls. Server 210 uses XSLT code 240 of data form object 222 to transform XML data associated with the requested web page. Intermediate code is generated from the XSL transformation. The intermediate code includes formatting information for the form controls. In one embodiment, the intermediate code is compatible with ASP.NET functionality developed by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Server 210 sends the intermediate code associated with the requested XSLT code to data form object 222.
Data form object 222 instantiates the form controls associated with form fields 224, 225, 226 within the intermediate code such that the current values of the form controls are generated. The data binding information associated with the instantiated form controls is stored in data form object 222. Server 210 processes the intermediate code with the instantiated form controls into Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). Server 210 then returns the HTML to client 200 for display in a web browser.
A post back occurs when a user submits a data form to server 210 with a modified value associated with form fields 224, 225, 226. In one embodiment, the user submits the data form by activating a button on the data formThe data binding information of the previous, unmodified form control is available from form fields 224, 225, 226 of data form object 222. The modified form values are available upon post back. The form controls are expanded to include the modified values by evaluating the XSLT code associated with the form controls. The form controls are expanded in accordance with the form control instantiation process described above. The expanded form control values are stored in server 210 along with data binding information that associates the form controls of form fields 224, 224, 226 with records 214, 215, 216 in data source 212.
As part of the post back process, server 210 calls an event handler to determine which form controls have been modified. The event handler compares the data binding information associated with the expanded form controls in data form object 220 to the data binding information associated with the previous form controls in records 214, 215, 216 of data source 212. Data source 212 is then updated to include the modifications. The data items corresponding to the modified form fields may be updated with the changed values using the data binding information. The data binding information allows multiple data items to be updated. In one embodiment, multiple data items are updated simultaneously. In another embodiment, multiple data items are updated in a transacted manner such that failure to update one data item prevents the other data items from being updated. The items in data source 232 may be changed in ways other than updating modified values. For example, new values may be inserted into an item, a new item may be created, or an obsolete item may be deleted.
Moving to block 300, the server retrieves data from the data source specified by the data form object associated with the requested web page. The data form object includes the XSLT code associated with the requested web page. The XSLT code includes a list of markup commands that provide instructions on how to transform XML data associated with the form fields to obtain the corresponding form controls.
Proceeding to block 310, the server executes the XSLT code to transform XML data associated with the requested web page into intermediate code (e.g., an ASP.NET file). The intermediate code includes formatting information associated with the form controls. Advancing to block 320, the intermediate code is stored in the data form object.
Continuing to block 330, the form controls are instantiated such that current values of the form controls are generated. Transitioning to block 340, the server transforms the intermediate code with the instantiated form controls to HTML for display in a web browser. Processing then terminates at an end block.
Moving to block 400, the server recognizes that a post back has been submitted. Modifications to form controls may be submitted by entering new values in the form fields and then clicking a “save” button on the web page. In one embodiment, intermediate updates may be buffered until the user invokes a final update command to submit the post back to the server.
Proceeding to block 410, a function is called to create form controls. The form control creation process is similar to the process for instantiating the form controls as described with reference to
Advancing to block 420, the data binding information associated with the modified form fields is stored in the server. The data binding information includes the form field identifier, the name of the form field, and the value of the form field.
Transitioning to decision block 430, a determination is made if the value of the form field has changed. The data binding information is used to compare data in the data form to data associated with a data item in the data source to determine the changed values. In one embodiment, the value stored in the data source may be a previously stored value such that the modification is implemented by updating an old value. In another embodiment, the value stored in the data source may be a default/empty value such that the modification is implemented by inserting a new value. In yet another embodiment, the value stored in the data source may be a previously stored value and the value stored in the data form object may be empty such that the modification is implemented by deleting an old value. If the value of the form field has been modified, processing advances to block 450. If the value of the form field has not been modified, processing proceeds to block 440 where the web page is refreshed in the browser, and processing terminates at an end block.
Continuing to block 450, an event handler is called when form field values are changed. The event handler processes user updates to the data form object for insert, update, and delete operations. The event handler compares the data binding information associated with the expanded form controls with the previous form controls to determine the modifications made to the form fields. Processing proceeds to block 460 where the changed form fields are stored in the data form object.
Moving to block 470, the data source is updated for the changed form fields using the stored data binding information. Updates may be made to one item in the data source or to a group of items. The update may insert a new item or delete an existing item. The update may also allow repeating data to be entered into different items. Processing then terminates at the end block.
The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended.
