Patent ID: 6925597

Claim:
A method for representing digital content, comprising the steps: providing a plurality of document agents each adapted to translate source data in at least one of a predetermined number of formats associated with a plurality of source applications into a predetermined internal representation format which is independent of the source data format so that the internal representation may be processed to display the digital content independently of the source applications; receiving source data representative of the digital content in one of the predetermined formats generated by a first of the plurality of source applications; identifying a particular document agent from among said plurality of document agents that is suitable for translating the source data into said internal representation format; using the identified document agent to translate the source data into an internal representation of the digital content, the translation including: identifying objects that occur within the source data, for each object identified within the source data, creating a document object that represents an internal representation of the identified object and that separates the structure of the object from the data content of the object, organizing the document objects into a document structure that represents the structure of the digital content, organizing the data content of the objects into a data content structure, and providing a set of pointers that associate the document objects within the document structure with the data content stored in the data content structure.