International Business Machines Corporation

Malcolm H M Holloway

Jason M Brown

Christopher Johan Schaubach

Richard Stephen Szulewski

Lisa M Wood

Lisa M Wood Bradley

Using a bounding language to control or restrict the changes that can be made to contents of a structured document (e.g., a document encoded in the Extensible Markup Language, or 'XML'), and also includes the bounding language and documents encoded according to the bounding language. A Document Type Definition ('DTD') is defined as a &#x201c;bounding DTD&#x201d;, and one or more structured documents containing editing restrictions are defined according to this DTD. A processing component uses a structured document containing editing restrictions as input, and programmatically determines which fields of another structured document can be edited, which fields should be hidden, and so forth. By restricting the parts of the file that can be edited, users who need to do the editing are shielded from irrelevant details, and can carry out their task with less risk of making errors (and without needing to understand the details of the structured document markup language).

Structured document bounding language

Using a bounding language to control or restrict the changes that can be made to contents of a structured document (e.g., a document encoded in the Extensible Markup Language, or 'XML'), and also the bounding language and documents encoded according to the bounding language. A Document Type Definition ('DTD') is defined as a &#x201c;bounding DTD&#x201d;, and one or more structured documents containing editing restrictions are defined according to this DTD. A processing component uses a structured document containing editing restrictions as input, and programmatically determines which fields of another structured document can be edited, which fields should be hidden, and so forth. By restricting the parts of the file that can be edited, users who need to do the editing are shielded from irrelevant details, and can carry out their task with less risk of making errors (and without needing to understand the details of the structured document markup language).

Methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business by using a meta-editor to generate components (e.g., a specification of a rules language that restricts editing operations on structured documents, a specification of rules according to this language, and a graphical user interface editor that operates according to the specified rules) for use in controlling or restricting the changes that can be made to contents of a structured document (e.g., a document encoded in the Extensible Markup Language, or 'XML'). A Document Type Definition ('DTD') is generated as a &#x201c;bounding DTD&#x201d;, based on editing choices made using the meta editor, and one or more structured documents containing editing restrictions are generated according to this DTD and these editing choices. An editor (or editing component) is generated that programmatically determines which elements of another structured document can be edited, which elements should be hidden, and so forth. By restricting the parts of the file that can be edited, users who need to do the editing are shielded from irrelevant details, and can carry out their task with less risk of making errors (and without needing to understand the details of the structured document markup language).

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Durham, NC, United States of America

Malcolm H M Holloway