Data processing: presentation processing of document – operator i – Presentation processing of document – Layout
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-05
2003-12-30
Feild, Joseph H. (Department: 2176)
Data processing: presentation processing of document, operator i
Presentation processing of document
Layout
C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06671854
ABSTRACT:
FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT STATEMENT
This invention was not developed in conjunction with any Federally sponsored contract.
MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not applicable.
The related application, U.S. application Ser. No. 09/435,004, filed on Nov. 5, 1999, by John W. Dunsmoir, et al., is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, including drawings, and hereby are made a part of this application.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the arts of electronic web site technology, and especially to the arts of designing, developing, testing, configuring and commercially exploiting web site pages in HTML which contain multiple-row objects such as tables, check boxes, radio buttons and lists.
2. Description of the Related Art
As described in the related application, the use of the World Wide Web (“WWW”) has grown dramatically and is expected to continue to grow as more businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, and private consumers become web users and web site owners. Hyper Text Markup Language (“HTML”) documents are the most common type of document which are found on the Internet and on intranets today. HTML documents have gained widespread acceptance partly because of the simplicity of the HTML language, but primarily because of the open nature of the standard—it is not a proprietary or closed standard. As a result, several commercially available client browser software packages are available which can receive and interpret/display HTML documents, and even more software packages are available to allow quick, pseudo-what-you-see-is-what-you-get (“WYSIWYG”) document design. In the former category of software packages are popular personal computer web browser software packages such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator. In the later category of software pages are Microsoft's FrontPage and Corel's PageMaker.
As a web browser receives an HTML document, it determines how to display each object, such as a list, table, text paragraph, or graphic image, based on the web browser computer's hardware capabilities and display preferences. For example, the same web page may be visually displayed somewhat differently on a computer with 21-inch high-resolution monitor than on a computer with a 14-inch low-resolution monitor. In some cases of extremely low capabilities of display hardware and software, such as a palm-top computer equipped with a monochrome liquid crystal display (“LCD”), graphics may not be displayed at all.
While a web designer works to define the layout and content of an HTML page, he or she must keep in mind these variations. Even though the web browser software attempts to adapt the display of an HTML page to the system display available, a web designer can significantly enhance the appearance of the web page through careful consideration during the design. This means that each object, including tables, placed in an HTML page must be considered for variations of display.
So, it is often desirable to create the physical “layout” or arrangement of web objects prior to creating the actual information content of the page. In some cases, including situations where dynamic content is expected, definition of the page layout prior to creation of the content may be unavoidably required. For example, a web page which will be using a table to display all stock prices which have changed by more than 5% may require a table with 50 listings one day, and may require a table with 115 listings the next day.
Table 1 shows example HTML code for displaying a table which has 4 rows and 3 columns in each row. As discussed in the related application, the HTML syntax consists of tags which are enclosed in pointed brackets, “<” and “>”, parameters for those tags, and text. In the example HTML document of Table 1, the opening <HTML> tag simply indicates that the rest of the file (until </HTML> is found) is to be interpreted as HTML. The <BODY . . . > tag sets the colors of the display of the document for the background, hyperlinks, and plain text. The definition of the table begins with the <TABLE . . . > tag.
As shown in Table 1, the HTML table tag includes parameters to set the thickness of the border line to 1 pixel, the width of the row to 100% of the display window, and the padding and spacing definition of the cells. The web browser uses these as guidelines when interpreting and displaying the table on the system display.
Each row in the table is started with a <TR> tag and concluded with a </TR> tag. Horizontal justification and vertical placement of the text within cells of a row are optionally specified by the ALIGN and VALIGN parameters. Between the <TR> and </TR> tags are the definitions of the cells and their contents, using the <TD> and </TD> tags to start and end a cell, respectively. The contents to be displayed in the cell is given as plain text located between the <TD> and </TD> tags. This syntax is well-known within the art.
TABLE 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example Table in an HTML Document
<HTML><HEAD>
<META NAME=“Sample Table”>
<TITLE></TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY TEXT=“#000000” LINK=“#0000ff” VLINK=“#551a8b”
ALINK=“#ff0000” BGCOLOR=“#ffffff”>
<P>This is a sample HTML table of 3 columns by 4 rows:</P>
<TABLE BORDER=“1” WIDTH=“100%” CELLPADDING=“1”
CELLSPACING=“1”>
<TR VALIGN=“TOP”><TD>Row 1, Col 1 Contents</TD>
<TD>Row 1, Col 2 contents</TD>
<TD>Row 1, Col 3 contents</TD></TR>
<TR VALIGN=“TOP”><TD>Row 2, Col 1 Contents</TD>
<TD>Row 2, Col 2 contents</TD>
<TD>Row 2, Col 3 contents</TD></TR>
<TR VALIGN=“TOP”><TD>Row 3, Col 1 Contents</TD>
<TD>Row 3, Col 2 contents</TD>
<TD>Row 3, Col 3 contents</TD></TR>
<TR VALIGN=“TOP”><TD>Row 4, Col 1 Contents</TD>
<TD>Row 4, Col 2 contents</TD>
<TD>Row 4, Col 3 contents</TD></TR></TABLE>
<P>End of sample HTML file.</P>
</BODY></HTML>
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FIG. 1
shows a portion of a web browser computer screen (
1
) on which a web browser software package (
2
), such as Netscape's Navigator, is displaying the sample HTML code of Table 1. A standard paragraph (
3
) is shown preceeding the table (
4
) of the example code. The table occupies the full width of the window in which the web browser software is running. If the window were re-sized smaller or larger, the web browser would display each row of the table (
4
) narrower or wider as appropriate.
Web browser software packages, however, only display static, or fixed HTML. So, if a table is to be displayed with 14 rows and three columns, the HTML transmitted to the web browser must include 14 row definitions as 14 <TR> and </TR> pairs, and 3 cell <TD> and </TD> pairs per row.
Other multi-row web objects are similar in nature in HTML to the definition for tables. For example, the HTML for an unordered list is shown in Table 2.
TABLE 2
-------------------------------------------------------------
Example Unordered List in an HTML Document
<ul>
<li> This is the first item in the list </li>
<li> This is the second item in the list </li>
<li> This is the third and last item in the list </li>
</ul>
-------------------------------------------------------------
In the example of Table 2, an unordered, un-numbered list is displayed having three items in it. The <ul> tag starts the list, and the </ul> tag ends the list, with each element or row in the list being started and ended by <li> and </li>
Dunsmoir John W.
Jacobs Sandra H.
Reech Christopher Daniel
Feild Joseph H.
Frantz Robert H.
Mims Jr. David A.
Nguyen Maikhanh
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