The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 15, 2006
Filed:
Jun. 29, 2001
Peter W. Wong, Woodinville, WA (US);
Amanda Gian-tien Nguyen, Bothell, WA (US);
Peter W. Wong, Woodinville, WA (US);
Amanda Gian-Tien Nguyen, Bothell, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method is provided for use in a computer system to describe and obtain arbitrary data relating to a subject. The method provides a meta-language 'Generic Object Oriented Description of Structured Data (GDL)' and a Parser. GDL allows a user to organize, define and describe subjects through the use of a schema known as a Template. Templates can be used to define the semantics for each subject element as well as, to define how each element fits into a larger data framework. Through the concept of Inheritance, Templates can be extended and defined to various levels of nesting, while still having a common core of properties. GDL allows the features and attributes of a subject to be quickly and readily extended or modified by altering a source file. A GDL parser provides a structured and hierarchical representation of the information, validation of text-entry semantics and a means to traverse through information obtained from the source file.