Method and system for handling references in markup language documents

1. A computer-implemented method for processing links in a markup language document, comprising:

providing a specification in computer memory, the specification comprising:

at least one link description rule; and

at least one link processing rule for processing links which satisfy the link description rule, the at least one processing rule including at least one link transformation rule comprising an initial link state expressed in a matching language, and a final link state expressed in a matching language;

inputting a markup language document to computer memory;

processing links in the markup language document in accordance with the at least one link description rule and the at least one link processing rule of the specification to generate processed data, the processed data comprising at least one of a modified markup language document and data derived from the markup language document; and

outputting the processed data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the outputting of the processed data includes outputting the processed data to at least one of:

a visual display; and

a file system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one link description rule comprises:

a valid link typology which defines the type of link; and

a valid link localization which defines the relative location of the link within the markup language document.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing of the links in the markup language document further comprises:

parsing the markup language document.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one link processing rule further includes at least one of:

a) at least one link validation rule, each link validation rule including expected properties of the link; and

b) at least one dependency extraction rule, each dependency extraction rule including a search pattern expressed in the matching language.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing of the links in the markup language document in accordance with the at least one dependency extraction rule comprises:

for each link description rule:

extracting all links from the markup language document satisfying the dependency extraction rule, optionally normalizing each link extracted, and storing the optionally normalized extracted link values, and any related meta-information in computer memory.

7. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which a control program is recorded which, when executed by a computer, performs the method of claim 1 .

8. A storage medium containing, in a computer readable form, a specification, the specification comprising:

a link description section, comprising at least one link description;

a link transformation description section, comprising at least one link transformation rule description comprising an initial link state expressed in a matching language and a final link state expressed in a matching language;

and, optionally, one of the following:

a link validation description section, comprising at least one link validation description; and

a dependency extraction description section, comprising at least one dependency extraction description.

9. A computer-implemented method for processing links in a markup language document, comprising:

providing a specification in computer memory, the specification comprising:

at least one link description rule; and

at least one link processing rule for processing links which satisfy the link description rule, the at least one link processing rule being selected from the group consisting of:

a) at least one link transformation rule, each link transformation rule including:

an initial link state expressed in a matching language, and

a final link state expressed in the matching language;

b) at least one link validation rule, each link validation rule including expected properties of the link; and

c) at least one dependency extraction rule, each dependency extraction rule including a search pattern expressed in the matching language;

inputting a markup language document to computer memory;

processing links in the markup language document in accordance with the at least one link description rule and the at least one link processing rule of the specification to generate processed data, the processed data comprising at least one of a modified markup language document and data derived from the markup language document, wherein the processing of the links in the markup language document in accordance with the at least one link transformation rule comprises:

for each link transformation rule:

extracting all links in the markup language document described by the link transformation rule;

optionally, normalizing each link extracted;

rewriting each optionally normalized link according to the link transformation rule;

optionally, normalizing the rewritten link;

optionally, handling any forbidden characters within the link, in accordance with its type; and

inserting the optionally normalized and optionally handled rewritten link into an output document in place of the original link extracted; and

outputting the processed data.

10. A computer-implemented method for processing links in a markup language document, comprising:

providing a specification in computer memory, the specification comprising:

at least one link description rule; and

at least one link processing rule for processing links which satisfy the link description rule, the at least one link processing rule being selected from the group consisting of:

a) at least one link transformation rule, each link transformation rule including:

an initial link state expressed in a matching language, and

a final link state expressed in the matching language;

b) at least one link validation rule, each link validation rule including expected properties of the link; and

c) at least one dependency extraction rule, each dependency extraction rule including a search pattern expressed in the matching language;

inputting a markup language document to computer memory;

processing links in the markup language document in accordance with the at least one link description rule and the at least one link processing rule of the specification to generate processed data, the processed data comprising at least one of a modified markup language document and data derived from the markup language document, wherein the processing of the links in the target document instance in accordance with the at least one link validation rule comprises:

for each link validation rule:

extracting all links from the markup language document described by the link validation rule;

optionally, performing a partial normalization on each link extracted;

determining whether each optionally normalized link meets the requirements described in the link validation rule; and

storing the determined data into computer memory; and

outputting the processed data.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing of the links in the markup language document additionally includes:

extracting any base-uri attributes from the markup language document.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing links in the markup language document comprises parsing the markup language document to identify links.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the markup language is an XML markup language.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the output document is a copy of the markup language document in which at least one link is modified.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the valid link typology is based on a standard selected from at least one of:

Uniform Resource Locator (URL),

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI),

Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI),

Uniform Resource Name (URN), and

Extensible Resource Identifier (XRI).

16. A computer-based system for processing links in a markup language document, comprising:

memory which stores:

an optional specification parser;

an optional markup language document parser;

a link validation module;

a link transformation module; and

a dependency extraction module;

wherein the link validation module, link transformation module, and dependency extraction module are configured to perform a process on a markup language document in accordance with the rules provided by an associated specification and wherein at least one of:

a) the link validation module is configured to perform at least the following:

optionally, extract any base-uri attributes from the markup language document;

for each link validation rule provided by a specification, perform at least the following:

extract all links from the markup language document described by the link validation rule;

optionally, perform a partial normalization on each link extracted;

determine whether each optionally normalized link meets the requirements described in the link validation rule; and

store each determination to computer memory; and

b) the link transformation module is configured to perform at least the following:

optionally, copy a markup language document to an output document;

for each link transformation rule provided by a specification, perform at least the following steps:

extract all links from the markup language document described by the link transformation rule;

optionally, normalize each link extracted;

rewrite each optionally normalized link according to the information in the link transformation rule;

optionally, normalize the rewritten link;

optionally, handle forbidden characters within the link, as required by its type; and

insert the rewritten link into the output document in replacement of the original link extracted; and

a processor in communication with the memory configured for implementing the link validation module; link transformation module; and dependency extraction module.

17. A computer-based system for processing links in a markup language document, comprising:

memory which stores:

an optional specification parser;

an optional markup language document parser;

a link validation module;

a link transformation module configured to, for each link transformation rule provided by a specification, perform at least the following steps:

extract all links from the markup language document described by the link transformation rule;

rewrite each link according to the information in the link transformation rule; and

insert the rewritten link into the output document in replacement of the original link extracted; and

a dependency extraction module;

wherein the link validation module, link transformation module, and dependency extraction module are configured to perform a process on a markup language document in accordance with the rules provided by an associated specification; and

a processor in communication with the memory configured for implementing the link validation module; link transformation module; and dependency extraction module.

18. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which a control program is recorded which, when executed by a computer, performs the method of claim 10 .

19. In combination, the system of claim 17 and the specification.

20. The system according to claim 17 , wherein all of the following are stored in computer memory:

a link validation module;

a link transformation module; and

a dependency extraction module.

21. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which a control program is recorded which, when executed by a computer, performs the method of claim 9 .

22. A links processing system comprising memory which stores instructions for performing the method of claim 1 and a processor in communication with the memory for executing the instructions.

23. The system according to claim 17 , wherein the dependency extraction module is configured to perform at least the following:

for each link description rule provided by the specification, perform at least the following:

extract all links from the markup language document satisfying the dependency extraction rule;

optionally, normalize each link extracted; and

store the optionally normalized extracted link values, along with the related meta-information, to computer memory.