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Method of dividing structured documents into several partsRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Presentation Processing Of Document, Operator Interface Processing, And Screen Saver Display Processing, Presentation Processing Of Document, Hierarchical ControlMethod of dividing structured documents into several parts description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070277096, Method of dividing structured documents into several parts. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001] The present invention relates to a method enabling structured documents to be divided into several parts. [0002] It applies particularly but not exclusively to handling, transmitting, storing, and reading structured multimedia documents, digital or video images or image sequences, movies or video programs, and more generally to any transfer of said documents between processor units interconnected by data transmission networks, or between a processor unit and a storage unit, or indeed between a processor unit and a playback unit such as a television set if the document is a video program. [0003] More and more frequently, documents handled and transmitted in this way contain a plurality of different types of data integrated in a structure. A structured document is a connection of data sets each associated with a type and attributes, and interconnected by relationships that are mainly hierarchical. Such documents use a markup language such as Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), or Extensible Markup Language (XML), serving in particular to distinguish between the various subsets of information making up the document. In contrast, in a "linear" document, the content information of the document is mixed in with layout information and type information. [0004] A structured document includes markers for separating different sets of information in the document. For SGML, XML, or HTML formats, these markers are referred to as "tags" and have the form "<XXXX>" and "</XXXX>", the first marker marking the beginning of a set of information called "XXXX", and the second marking the end of said set. A set of information may itself be made up of a plurality of lower-level sets of information. Thus, a structured document presents a tree or hierarchical structure schema, each node representing a set of information and being connected to a node at a higher hierarchical level representing a set of information that contains the sets of information at lower level. The nodes situated at the ends of branches in such a tree structure represent sets of information containing data of predetermined type, themselves not suitable for being resolved into subsets of information. [0005] Thus, a structured document contains separation markers represented in textual or binary data form, said markers defining information sets or subsets that can themselves contain other subsets of information defined by the markers. [0006] A structured document is associated with a structure schema defining the structure in the form of rules together with the type of information in each set of information of the document. A schema is constituted by nested groups of information set structures, these groups possibly being ordered sequences, groups of alternative elements, or groups of necessary elements, ordered or not ordered. [0007] At present, when a structured document is to be transmitted, it is initially compressed so as to minimize the volume of data to be transmitted. For best efficiency in such compression processing, the document structuring data is also compressed, given that the recipient of the document is assumed to know beforehand the structure schema of the document and to be able to use the structure schema to determine at all times what information set is about to be received. It is therefore essential for the structure of the document as transmitted to correspond exactly to the structure schema that the recipient of the document intends to use for receiving and decoding the document, since otherwise the recipient cannot determine the type of data that has been transmitted and is thus in-capable of decoding the data and of reconstituting the original document. [0008] Unfortunately, structured documents for transmission are tending to become more and more voluminous. Proposals have been made, for example, to transmit or broadcast complete descriptions of movies or TV programs in this way. [0009] In this context, if a transmission error should occur while a document is being transmitted, the recipient of the document may no longer be able to determine which subset is being transmitted, in which case the entire document needs to be transmitted again. Furthermore, if it is desired to transmit a movie sequence and display it simultaneously on a screen, it can be necessary to comply with periods of time for transmitting the various elements of the sequence. Certain elements of the sequence must also be capable of being transmitted several times over so as to enable a recipient who was not connected at the beginning of the transmission of the sequence to receive and display the end of the sequence. [0010] It may also be necessary to replace a portion of a document by another, these two portions having the same structure schema. [0011] The solution which consists in retransmitting the entire document leads to a considerable increase in the volume of information that needs to be transmitted. It is therefore desirable to be able to divide a document into a plurality of portions which are transmitted separately. It turns out that present transmission methods are not suitable for transmitting a document in part only. [0012] An object of the invention is to overcome that drawback. This object is achieved by providing a method of dividing a structured document presenting a hierarchical structure defined by a structure schema, the document combining a main set of information including information subsets, at least some of the information subsets being capable of including information subsets of lower hierarchical level, each information subset being associated with a respective information type. [0013] According to the invention, the method comprises the steps of: [0014] dividing the document into portions that can be handled separately, namely a main portion and at least one secondary portion, the main portion containing at least the main set of information, and the secondary portion containing an information subset which is removed from the main set of information, each secondary portion being attached to the main portion or to another secondary portion; and [0015] allocating a predefined value to the information type of each information subset that has been removed from a higher level information set. [0016] In this way, each portion is understandable on its own and can be decoded regardless of the selected partitioning. In addition, when such a portion is transmitted and the transmission fails, the remainder of the document remains valid and only the portion that was not transmitted correctly needs to be retransmitted, there being no need to retransmit the entire document. Furthermore, there is no need to have main portions and secondary portions upstream from a portion in order to be able to decode that portion, since each portion is valid and comprehensible on its own. By means of these dispositions, a transmitted document can be enriched and modified as time progresses. [0017] Advantageously, the document includes a header which is inserted in each portion, the header including a flag whose value specifies whether or not the document is complete. [0018] According to a feature of the invention, each portion has a header containing information giving the location of the portion in the hierarchical structure of the document. [0019] Said information concerning the location of the secondary portion in the hierarchical structure of the document advantageously describes a path in said structure, defining the position of the secondary portion in the document. [0020] Said path may be defined in absolute manner relative to the main set of information of the document. It may also be defined in relative manner relative to the position of a most recently-transmitted secondary portion. [0021] Alternatively, each type of information allocated to the predefined value is followed by a reference to the secondary portion containing the subset of information associated with the type of information, said information concerning the location of the secondary portion in the hierarchical structure of the document being the reference of said secondary portion. [0022] The method may also include transmitting a plurality of document portions associated with the same location in the structure. Under such circumstances, the most recently-transmitted portion replaces the previous portion that was associated with the same location. [0023] Provision may also be made for the header of each portion to contain information specifying a way of processing the portion relative to a portion associated with the same location in the structure. [0024] The structured document may be of the SGML, XML, or HTML type, for example. Continue reading about Method of dividing structured documents into several parts... Full patent description for Method of dividing structured documents into several parts Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Method of dividing structured documents into several parts patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Method of dividing structured documents into several parts or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving information Next Patent Application: Apparatus, system, and method for context-aware authoring transform Industry Class: Data processing: presentation processing of document ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Method of dividing structured documents into several parts patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.29786 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Computers: Graphics , I/O , Processors , Dyn. Storage , Static Storage , Printers 174 |
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