Patent ID: 7962844

Claim:
An integrated and modular content and format handling publishing system comprising a computer network including various sites connected by communication links, and various corresponding storage devices having computer-readable code embodied therein, including the following program components: (a) a content handling program component, comprising (i) a content definition editor that receives a content definition including one or more data types and one or more parameters for each data type, and being based on one or more content item properties each having an assigned ID and property type and being generated for each property in accordance with the property type and a property action; (ii) a data structure generator that produces a content data structure, the content data structure corresponding to the content definition; (iii) a content item editor that receives content item information, handles each said content item property, and provides the content item information for storage in the content data structure, and in connection with a same content item, the content definition editor and the content item editor are configured for implementation on a display in one or more network browser windows; (b) a format handling program component, comprising a template editor that generates formatting information for the content item information and stores the formatting information separately from the content item information; (c) a publisher program component that generates a formatted output based on a combination of the separately stored content item information and formatting information; and (d) a workflow system component for managing created content items for routing them each to one or more of various sources based on at least one of enumeration properties of the content items, workflow metadata defining properties of the content items to be tracked, and content search results, and (e) wherein a particular content item is published by the publisher program component according to a set of predetermined publication criteria.