WO2011084065A2

WO2011084065A2 - A server and method for presenting and capturing data

Info

Publication number: WO2011084065A2
Application number: PCT/NO2010/000011
Authority: WO
Inventors: Rune Johansen
Original assignee: Metafocus As
Priority date: 2010-01-11
Filing date: 2010-01-11
Publication date: 2011-07-14
Also published as: DK201270463A; SE1250889A1; DK177686B1; DE112010005113T5; WO2011084065A3; SE537814C2

Abstract

A server and method is disclosed for adding HTML functionality to XSL-FO standard document templates. Clients supporting the extended XSL-FO standard may enter information interactively in documents produced from said templates, while other clients will process the documents as common XSL-FO format documents.

Description

A SERVER AND METHOD FOR PRESENTING AND CAPTURING DATA

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a server and method for producing documents in a data system, in particular for interactive presentation and capturing of data from a user.

Background

Most data systems need to present data as printouts (reports, certificates, receipts, etc.) and accept user entry of data (forms/GUI).

This task is solved by several different standards and programming languages. For example, J2EE/ASP/PHP and similar frameworks are often used to produce HTML interfaces in a Web application. In addition, XSL-FO may be used for producing printouts, as well as other proprietary systems such as JasperReports, QuickReport, Repor Mill, etc.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) may be used for printing, but lacks properties such as accurate layout spanning several real pages. HTML is neither suitable for certificates as the format allows changing the content of the text.

XSL-FO (Extendible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects, a markup language for XML document formatting (XML = Extendible Markup Language) proposed by the W3C group, currently in version 1.1) has become a market standard for printouts as this standard is particularly developed for solving problems with printing. However, in its native form this format does not allow data capture or user controls as in HTML. XSL- FO only allows production of PDF pages which may be locked for further changes. In other words, the original XSL-FO format does not support interactive documents that may receive information entered by a user for direct loading into e.g. a database, the user must instead enter his/her data into a form that is printed as a PDF-document and post the paper printout to the receiver.

This is a major shortcoming of XSL-FO and there have been presented several proprietary extensions of the XSL-FO format for solving this problem. However, such solutions restrict document production to a few proprietary products, as standard tools cannot understand the proprietary format code. Summary of the Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a solution for interactively capturing and presenting user entered data in the XSL-FO data format that overcomes the problems mentioned above.

Specifically, the solution should provide an extension to the XSL-FO format that takes advantage of HTML mechanisms for providing interactivity, while allowing tools based on the current XSL-FO standard to produce documents as usual.

This is achieved in a system and methods as claimed in the following claims.

In particular, in a first aspect, the invention relates to a server for presenting and capturing data, including means for storing at least one document template, said template being based on a layout definition for markup format, wherein the format is extended with interactive elements, the server being adapted to receive requests for said template and process the template to provide a presentation of the template with support for interactive elements, and means for collecting interactively captured information, as claimed in claim 1.

According to a second aspect, the invention relates to a method for presenting and capturing data, the method including the steps of:

storing at least one document template, said template being based on layout definition for markup format commands extended with interactive elements, processing the template to provide a presentation of the template with support for interactive elements, and collecting interactively entered information, as claimed in claim 5.

Several embodiments of the invention appear from the associated dependent claims.

Brief Description of the Drawing

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the appended drawing (one only) that schematically illustrates a system involving the present invention. Detailed Description

The drawing illustrates a situation where a number of users working on clients 1, 2, 3 are accessing a company or public server 4, via a network 6 such as Internet. The server 4 stores a number of documents, such as forms intended to be retrieved by clients 1, 2, 3 for filling-in and filing at the authorities running the server 4. Thus, a client may request a particular form for viewing and filling-in information.

The clients may be of different kinds, with different demands and capabilities. Thus, the server 4 must be able to present information in several different formats suiting the individual client. As an example, client 1 may be a mobile phone wanting to access information from the server 4 as WAP pages. Client 2 may be using a Personal

Computer running a standard Web-reader. Client 2 would like to receive information from the server 4 in an interactive format. This means that any information entered by the user may be sent directly to a storage means, such as a database in the server 4, without having to print out the completed form and mailing it to the recipient. However, when finished with the form, a user will often need to print out a receipt, and thus the server 4 must also be able to produce the document in a standard PDF format. An example of the document in question may be a tax return form.

This document is stored as one of several templates in the server 4, typically stored in a database 5. The templates have been created using software supporting an XSL-FO format according to the present invention. Thus, the templates include proprietary commands in addition to standard XSL-FO format commands. The clients 1, 2 may access the server 4 and request a fill-in presentation of a particular template. The server 4 will then process the template, produce the fill-in presentation and return this to the client in a format that may be read by the client. During the processing, the server 4 will come across extended XSL-FO format commands in the template. These commands will extend the XSL-FO presentation to enable HTML specific features adding interactivity to the document. Data filled in such a form is separated from the layout and may be collected for transmittal to an external party or stored directly in a database. When retrieving the template, the server 4 will typically also retrieve other information regarding the client, such as address information, from the database 5 or other sources 7 and include this information in the form presented to the client. The client may then perhaps correct this information and complete the form with other information before it is entered in a database 8 (which may be local or remote from the server 4, e.g. located at an external party). This database 8 may be a separate database or identical with the database 5 storing the templates. As mentioned above, the client may also ask for a receipt of the completed form, and the server will then use standard XSL-FO

interpretation to produce a PDF page.

Client 3 is a large enterprise running an industrial computer system. They may retrieve a blank template from the server 4 to process in their own system. Typically, they will fill in relevant information for a number of customers or employees, and then produce PDF files that are printed out and mailed to the recipients. The enterprise client 3 employs documents processing software, such as Apache Fop, RenderX, Antenna XSL

Formatter, which supports standard XSL-FO, but not the extended version according to the present invention. When processing a template retrieved from the server 4, the client 3 will not understand the extended commands embedded in the template. In fact, the client 3 will not notice the presence of said commands, but process the template as any other XSL-FO based document. Thus, the extensions of the XSL-FO format are transparent for software not supporting the inventive extended format.

The transparent extension of the XML-FO standard may be realized in several ways:

1. XSLT comments extended with additional semantics

In XSL-FO, lines starting with an exclamation mark are interpreted as comments added for the benefit of readers, i.e. for making the template document easier to read. Such lines are skipped by document processing programs as the content is of no use in processing of template. According to the present invention, a specific namespace (xfo:) is added immediately after the exclamation mark telling the document processing program the comment line should be processed as well.

The following program listing shows an example of user control/fill-in fields realized as a comment line:

<fo: block-container position- 'absolute" left="19.05mm" top="10.05mm" >

<fo:block text-align="start" font-family="Helvetica" font-size="10.00pt">

<xsl:value-of select="fornavn"/>

</fo:block>

</fo:block-container> The bold line is a comment line, which is stated by the exclamation mark. However, in this case the line includes extended format commands, which any document processing program supporting the extended format will understand, here defining a fill-in box where the user may enter his forename. The following lines define the box in the standard way, which may be inteipreted by conventional programs as well (i.e. the conventional programs will understand this as a definition of a box as such, but not assign any interactive or data-binding properties to the box).

As used in the present invention, the structure of the comment lines provides the possibilities of:

• classifying an element based on a collection of XSL-FO syntax (appearance) meaning it may be interpreted for creating corresponding HTML or

corresponding protocol for GUI/user control. In the example this element is described by xfo:text-box. This provides the possibility of making the box interactive, i.e. the content entered by the user may be taken as input parameters.

• providing references to subordinate data elements (XML) independent of the implementation in XSL-FO. In the example this is described by ref="fornavn". This means that the server 3 may skip reading FO syntax describing the appearance of the box other than as a comment. This provides large freedom for future changes in the implementation.

• giving the element specific identity/class allowing CSS control in HTML (CSS = Cascading Style Sheets, a language used to define the look of files written in HTML or XML). In the example this is described by id="id-0aa7396f-012ffad0". An alternative is to use the ID field on the elements in the XSL-FO code.

However, this means that the ID not always will be unique, and will produce unnecessary large HTML documents. For example, when listing elements, an unambiguous classification of ID for each element should be avoided to prevent several CSS elements describing the same appearance, an appearance which is common for all the repeated elements.

• additional attributes in the comment field covering other features, such as

tabular succession, standard values for fill in fields, support for blind people, etc. • using comments at different levels in the XSL-FO document as support for page titles in HTML, support for translations (to be described later).

2. XSLT variables extended with additional functionality as needed

An alternative teclinique for providing transparent extensions of the XSL-FO fomiat may be realized by using nested XSLT variables. These will nomially be processed by the XSLT motor, but not produce output to PDF. (XSLT = Extendible Stylesheet Language Transformations is a part of the XSL suite of tools defined by the W3C group, used for transforming XML elements in a document to HTML). The following example shows user control with support for events and validation:

<!-xfo:text-box id="id-0aa7396f-012ffad0" ref="fornavn" expression^'" taborder="0"-->

<fo:block-container position- 'absolute" left="19.05mm" top- '10.05mm" width="46.90mm" ...> <xs I. variable name="event">

<xsl:variable name="Event!d"><![CDATA[OnClick]]></xsl:variable>

<xsl:variable name="EventType"><![CDATA[Submit]]></xsl:variable>

<xsl:variable name="EventHandler"><![CDATA[cmd_pdf]]></xsl:variable>

<xsl:variable name="EventParameter"><![CDATA[]]></xsl:variable>

</xsl:variable>

<fo:block text-align="start" font-family="Helvetica" font-size="10.00pt"> <xsl:value-of select="fornavn"/>  <xsl:variable name="validation">

<xsl:variable name="ErrorMessage"><![CDATA[Feltet ma fylles ut!]]></xsl:variable> <xsl:variable name="Required"><![CDATA[true]]></xsl:variable> <xsl:variable name="ValidatioiiType"><![CDATA[none]]></xsl:variab!e> <xsl:variable name="NumberOfCharacters"><![CDATA[0,0]]></xsl:variable> <xsl:variable name="CompareWith"><![CDATA[]]></xsl:variable>

</xsl:variable> </fo:block>

</fo:block-container>

Nested variables provide the possibilities of:

• creating several levels as is common in XML. This is done by placing variables inside other variables. In the example above, a superordinate level is created for an event, and all specific attributes/features of the event are defined in additional variables. The outer level is shown in bold print in the example.

• using several levels/nested elements provides the possibility of extending the format in a simple way in the future.

• separation of information from the general format. Then, standard tools for

PDF/print will skip this information.

• allowing the information to be read in logical levels.

• simple addition of new commands and functions. Support for translations to different languages

The extensions to the XSL-FO format are based on assigning identities to the various elements (id). This provides the possibility of retrieving translations of the elements when needed.

Software tools supporting the extended format may easily extract translatable information based on the structure of the format. This information may then be translated using a common text editor.

An example of export of translatable information for user control: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<digiforms_locale documentld="id-0a6c8386-013c1e00" language="no_NO" ..>

</fieldvalidate>

</default>

</fieldvalidate>

</translation>

</element>

</digiforms_locale>

Note that this listing continues from the previous examples. The example shows that the element (user control) defined in a superordinate comment (extension) in the original format, <!--xfo:text-box id="id-0aa7396f-012ffad0", may export infonnation that is regarded as translatable.

The elements are organized with a part showing the original infonnation in its original language providing a simple starting point for the translation.

The ID of the element allows translated information to be relocated into the document when displayed or produced in the desired language. This is done by setting a parameter in the processing software stating which language fields that are to be retrieved from the support server.

The structure prevents the person undertaking the translation to change the original format, appearance or functions in the document.

The translator may use any available editor or text processing software. The inventive use of XSLT vaiiables allows one template to be used both for interactive filling-in of forms and document production, in different languages. These functions demand the availability of a support server. However, the format may also be used by clients to create output based on the original format and is not dependent on said support server.

Even though the invention has been described in a specific embodiment using HTML elements to provide interactivity, a person skilled in the art will appreciate that there exist several alternatives for this aim available from other markup languages such as XHTML, WML, etc.

One embodiment of the invention provides interactivity employing the otherwise unused comment field of the template. When processing the template, the server is informed of the presence of an interactive command by a specific namespace following the comment declaration mark (exclamation mark). However, any pattern that may be recognized by the server may be used for this puipose.

Another embodiment is to use nested XSLT variables to provide interactivity. The expression 'variable' is meant to cover any command to any party involved and in the present disclosure of the invention, the term 'command' is used in a broad sense. A command may e.g. be an event handler starting an action if the user places a cursor in a specific field (or when he/she removes the cursor from said field) such as providing a comment/explanation to the user or an instaiction to the server for reading information entered in a field, for modifying the content of the field or for opening another page, etc.

Claims

C l i m s

1. A server (4) for presenting and capturing data, including

means (5) for storing at least one document template, said template being based on a layout definition for markup format,

c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that the layout definition for markup format is extended with interactive elements,

the server (4) being adapted to receive requests for said template and process the template to provide a presentation of the template with support for interactive elements, and means (8) for collecting interactively captured information.

2. A server as claimed in claim 1, wherein said layout definition for markup format is XSL-FO and said interactive elements are HTML elements.

3. A server as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said storing means (5), and/or said means (8) for collecting information, includes one or more databases.

4. A server as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means (8) for collecting

infomiation is adapted to forward collected information to an external system or service.

5. A server as claimed in claim 1, the server further being adapted to incorporate infomiation from other sources in said presentation.

6. A method for presenting and capturing data,

c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that the method includes the steps of:

storing at least one document template, said template being based on layout definition for markup format commands extended with interactive elements,

processing the template to provide a presentation of the template with support for the interactive elements, and

collecting interactively entered infomiation.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said layout definition for markup format is XSL-FO and said interactive elements are HTML, XHTML or WML elements.

8. A method as claimed in claim 6, further including incorporating information from other sources in said presentation.

9. A method as claimed in claim 6, including providing an interactive element in a comment field in said template.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, including providing a pattern or namespace identifying the comment field as including one or more interactive elements.

1 1. A method as claimed in claim 6, including embedding said interactive element in a command, as a variable inside another variable.

12. A method as claimed in any of the claims 6 - 11, including providing each of said interactive elements with a specific identity.

13. A method as claimed in claim 12, comprising the step of including language specific information in said presentation.