Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Daniel Emerson

Oliver H Foehr

Jerry Jay Dunietz

David Ornstein

Andrey Shur

Sarjana Sheth

Josh Pollock

Brian M Jones

Jean Paoli

Wei Zhu

Mike Hillberg

Sriram Subramanian

Bruce A MacKenzie

Joe King

Khaled Salah Sedky

Feng Yue

Harvinder Pal Singh

Craig I McLuckie

Joseph Spencer King

Greg D Schechter

Michael John Hillberg

Joseph Ternasky

David C Brown

Mikhail V Leonov

Michael Bourgoin

Adrian F Maxa

Young Gah Kim

Benjamin Kuhn

Amanda Giang-Tien Nguyen

Device and operational management using bi-directional communication can be performed by a system that includes a service requesting component that generates first metadata, and a service provider component that receives the first metadata and generates second metadata in response thereto for processing by the service requesting component. In other aspects, device and operational management can be performed by determining a status of a given management operation related to a given workflow relative to a given component, and communicating the status of the given management operation to another component that is downstream of the given component in the given workflow. This communication can prevent the other component from repeating the management operation, leading to erroneous results for the workflow.

Management of document content processing using bi-directional communication

Spooling strategies are described for producing job information that conforms to a hierarchical structure, and then storing the job information in a spool storage. The job information is then retrieved from the spool storage and consumed. The structured job information includes a multi-level hierarchy of nodes, including a job level that represents the entire job, a document level that represents a document to be processed within the job; a rendition level that represents a rendition of the document to be processed; and a page level that represents a page associated with the rendition. The hierarchical structure can also include resource nodes and metadata nodes associated with any level of the hierarchy, respectively representing resources and metadata. The hierarchy can optionally be composed using one or more selection and sequence parts. Program logic implements the production and consumption of the job information by providing a collection of logic modules for selectively adding and retrieving elements to the hierarchically structure. The program logic also provides logic for enumerating the contents of the job information and for signaling the occurrence of various events associated with the processing of the job information.

Strategies for simultaneous peripheral operations on-line using hierarchically structured job information

A hierarchical spooling data structure includes a plurality of nodes. In accordance with certain aspects, the plurality of nodes include at least four nodes: a first node representing a fixed page of the job; a second node representing a fixed document of the job, the second node including a reference to the first node; a third node containing data representing a fixed sequence of documents of the job, the third node including a reference to the second node; and a fourth node containing data representing a root of the job, the fourth node including a reference to the third node.

Hierarchical arrangement for spooling job data

Modular content framework and document format methods and systems are described. The described framework and format define a set of building blocks for composing, packaging, distributing, and rendering document-centered content. These building blocks define a platform-independent framework for document formats that enable software and hardware systems to generate, exchange, and display documents reliably and consistently. The framework and format have been designed in a flexible and extensible fashion. In addition to this general framework and format, a particular format, known as the reach package format, is defined using the general framework. The reach package format is a format for storing paginated documents. The contents of a reach package can be displayed or printed with full fidelity among devices and applications in a wide range of environments and across a wide range of scenarios.

Packages that contain pre-paginated documents

A job completion architecture, includes content that is specified as a hierarchical tree of related content units and a set of multilevel tickets associated with instances of the hierarchically arranged content units. The job manager applies the multilevel tickets, specifying property settings at potentially multiple levels within the hierarchical tree, according to a qualified inheritance rule wherein settings applicable to a set of lower level properties that are specified within a first (higher level) ticket are incorporated into the merged settings to the extent a second (lower level) ticket does not specify settings for the set of lower level properties. If a same property is specified in both a higher and lower level ticket, during merging a setting specified in the lower level ticket overrides the higher level ticket setting.

Multilevel ticket-based job management architecture for computing devices

Systems, methods, and/or techniques ('tools') for specifying and managing consolidated ticket packages in workflows are provided. In some aspects, the tools may request and receive indications of capabilities of devices that may participate in a workflow, and may generate ticket packages based on the device capabilities, with the ticket packages being consolidated across the workflow. In other aspects, the tools may provide the device capabilities upon request, and may receive job requests that include the ticket packages. In still other aspects, the tools may present a user interface that includes representations of one or more workflows, may receive from a user a selection of one of the workflows, and may present information from a ticket package related to the selected workflow.

Specification and management of consolidated ticket packages in workflows

Method and apparatus for maintaining relationships between parts in a package

Systems and methods are described for support of various computing device and target entity capabilities. In an implementation, a method includes determining one or more processing capabilities of a computing device to process data for rendering by a rendering device. A selection is made, based on the determining, of one or more filters to provide data configured for rendering by the rendering device and that provides at least one processing capability that is not included in the one or more processing capabilities of the computing device.

Systems and methods for support of various processing capabilities

Methods and systems for defining documents with selectable and/or sequenceable parts

Modular document format

Conversion of spool files to a PDL within a pipeline of modular filters. A spooler is adapted to receive content to be rendered on a destination device, and one or more filters are adapted to render the content on the destination device. In other embodiments, the filters are arranged in a pipeline configuration to execute a variety of functions in connection with rendering the content on the destination device. The filters can convert content in a spool file format into corresponding PDL representations, and vice versa.

Conversions between spool files and PDL within a pipeline of modular filters

Document mark up methods and systems

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Daniel Emerson