Method and apparatus for providing in place editing within static documents
A method and apparatus for in-place editing of static documents is described. The method comprises sending a “post” to the document itself, to update the display, in response to receiving a control signal.
1 . A method for providing in-place editable static documents comprising:
generating a static document including at least one activating area, the activating area designed to cause the static document to post a message to itself, the posting enabling interaction with the static document.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
upon receiving an indication on an activating area, sending an associated post message; and
interpreting the post message at a server; and
returning an update to the static document.
3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
returning only an alteration data to the static document, because a majority of data associated with the static document display is cached on the user's system.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the static document is an HTML document.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the message includes a Java Server Page command, for interpretation by a server.
6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
providing user feedback indicating an editing is taking place.
7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing an echo-back feature for typing on a static document.
8 . A server comprising:
a static document generation logic to generate a static document including at least one activating area;
a communications logic to make the static document available to a client;
a receiving logic to receive a post from the client, caused by an interaction with the activating area of the static document;
an interpreter to interpret a servlet associated with the post to generate an update to the static document; and
the communications logic to send the update of the static document to the client.
9 . The server of claim 8 , wherein the static document is an HTML document.
10 . The server of claim 8 , wherein the servlet is a Java serviet.
11 . The server of claim 10 , wherein the Java serviet is generated by a Java Server Page (JSP).
12 . The server of claim 8 , wherein the update to the static document does not include content cached by the client.
13 . The server of claim 8 , wherein the static document includes multiple frames, and the update to the static document updates only frames affected by the activating area.
14 . A system comprising:
a client to display a static document including at least one activating area, the activating area designed to cause the static document to post a message to itself, and enable a user to interact with the activating area;
a server to generate the static document, receive the message from the client, and generate an update to the static document based on the message.
15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the server further comprises:
an interpreter to interpret a servlet associated with the post to generate the update to the static document.
16 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the client further comprises:
an interaction detection logic to detect a user's interaction with the activating area, and in response generate the post.
17 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the client further comprises:
a receiving logic to receive an update to the static document from the server, the update generated in response to the message from the client; and
a display updating logic to refresh the static document with the update.