Patent ID: 6684370
Filing Date: 2004-01-27
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A computer-readable medium storing computer executable instructions that when loaded in a computer adapts the computer to render a document from: a template which defines a structure for the document, the template comprising zero or more region definitions, each region definition having a region name; zero or more data providers, each data provider comprising one or more regions, each region being associated with a region name, and each data provider being one of either a software data provider and a non-software provider wherein a software data provider provides data resulting from execution of software code and a non-software provider does not provide data resulting from execution of software code; and wherein each region can comprise zero or more further regions and each region can further comprise zero or more further region definitions; byfor each region definition in the template: (a) identifying which data providers, if any, are associated with the region name of the region definition; (b) if no data providers are identified in step (a), then returning a default value; otherwise (c) of the data providers identified in step (a), choosing the data providers to be used to provide data in place of the region definition; and (d) generating data from the data providers chosen in step (c) and replacing the region definition in the template with the generated data.