Virtual server system for dynamic content in world wide web pages

• Main Authors: PAUL HOWARD, WILLIAM LANGLAIS, ANASTASIOS GIAKOUMINAKIS, BARRY REYNOLDS, VERNON R. IMRICH
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.04.2001
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; PHYSICS

A virtual server (54) which automates the retrieval of dynamic content for a web page and applies previously generated style (25) and content definition (28) sheets to format the content is disclosed. In the embodiment shown, an HTML document converted into an XSL style sheet document containing the static formatting and an XMLDTD document defining the dynamic content are created at design time. These identify which parts of the formatted document should be considered dynamic content and which should be considered as static. At run time, the invention automatically generates and serves virtual, hierarchically structured documents from structured data stored in a variety of data schemas. The style sheet (25) and content definitions (28) are applied to the data so that a virtual display document is created and sent in response to a user's request. The embodiment shown also allows data transformations to be defined visually. Data retrieval and processing are pre-compiled and optimized when virtual server process is started.