Delivering a graphical object to a browser
Techniques are provided for delivering a graphical object to a browser including the steps of receiving a request that requires delivery of the graphical object to the browser, wherein the graphical object is not a table; and in response to the request, generating a script which, when executed by the browser, causes the browser to render the graphical object as a particular table.
1. A method of delivering a graphical object to a browser comprising the steps of:
receiving a request that requires delivery of the graphical object to the browser; and
in response to the request, performing the steps of:
constructing the graphical object,
converting the constructed graphical object into a table definition, and
generating a script, based on the table definition, which, when executed by the browser, causes the browser to render the graphical object as a particular table.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the browser is a particular browser that has not been supplemented by application dependant functionality or a browser-executable script.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of generating the script comprises:
accessing a logical canvas containing the graphical object; and
generating the script based on said logical canvas.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the step of generating the script based on said logical canvas includes generating a table definition and generating the script based on said table definition, wherein said table definition defines the particular table.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the particular table contains a set of rows, and wherein the step of generating the particular table based on the graphical object in the logical canvas comprises:
determining whether the graphical object in the logical canvas overlaps a row in the set of rows; and
if the graphical object completely overlaps the row, then coloring the row a particular color.
6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of choosing the particular color based on the graphical object.
7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the steps of:
if the graphical object partially overlaps the row, subdividing the row into one or more subdivided rows, wherein each of the one or more subdivided rows is either fully overlapped by the graphical object, partially overlapped by the graphical object, or not overlapped by the graphical object; and
for each partially overlapped row of the one or more subdivided rows, subdividing the particular partially overlapped row horizontally.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more subdivided rows include a particular partially overlapped row that comprises one or more cells, and wherein the step of subdividing the particular partially overlapped row horizontally comprises:
determining whether the graphical object overlaps each cell of the one or more cells in the particular partially overlapped row; and
if the graphical objects completely overlap a first cell of the one or more cells in the particular partially overlapped row, then coloring the first cell the color of the graphical object.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the step of:
if the graphical object partially overlaps a second cell of the one or more cells in the particular partially overlapped row, subdividing the second cell into two or more cells so that each of the two or more cells are either fully overlapped by the graphical object or fully non-overlapped by the graphical object.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the script is a tag-delimited script containing a table definition, the particular table definition comprises one or more rows, and each row of the one or more rows comprises one or more cells.
11. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 1 .
12. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 2 .
13. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 3 .
14. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 4 .
15. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 5 .
16. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 6 .
17. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 7 .
18. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 8 .
19. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 9 .
20. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 10 .
21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphical object is not a table.
22. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 21 .
23. A method of delivering a graphical object to a browser comprising the steps of:
receiving a request that requires delivery of the graphical object to the browser,
wherein the graphical object is not a table, and
in response to the request, generating a script which, when executed by the browser,
causes the browser to render the graphical object as a particular table,
wherein the step of generating the script comprises the steps of:
accessing a logical canvas containing the graphical object, and
generating the script based on said logical canvas.
24. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 23 .