Patent ID: 7287218

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 a list of content item properties having assigned IDs, positions and types and being generated for each property by selecting a 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 in said content item property list, 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 on content definition and content editor screens, respectively, in separate 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; (d) a publication scheduler that controls when a particular content item is published by the publisher according to a set of predetermined publication criteria; and wherein the formatting information comprises extensible mark-up language (XML) fragments.