Patent ID: 7698636

Claim:
A software-based method for performing an editing operation on a component within an original hosting file, based on input received from a user, the method comprising: accessing the original hosting file using a hosting file editor having specific editing features for editing the original hosting file, the original hosting file associated with a hosting context, wherein the original hosting file comprises original hosting file content and at least one of a plurality of components, the plurality of components hosted within the original hosting file, the at least one of the plurality of components comprising a re-usable block of programming code associated with a component context and created by a component editor, wherein the original hosting file and the at least one of the plurality of components are separately editable by the hosting file editor and the hosting file editor provides all of the specific editing features available in the original hosting file for editing the at least one of the plurality of components; accessing the at least one component using the hosting file editor without creating a sub-document for editing the at least one component through an editing area within the context of the original hosting file; performing the editing operation on the at least one component using the hosting file editor within the context of the original hosting file, the editing operation generating an update to the at least one component, wherein the original hosting file is wrapped in a non-persistable holding element and hidden during the editing operation of the at least one component; and closing the hosting file editor and restoring the original hosting file content from the non-persistable holding element, wherein the update to the at least one component replaces the at least one component in the original hosting file, the update to the at least one component being visible in the original hosting file.