System and method for transforming legacy documents into XML documents
A method for converting a legacy document into an XML document, includes decomposing the conversion process into a plurality of individual conversion tasks. A legacy document is decomposed into a plurality of document portions. A target XML schema including a plurality of schema components is provided. Local schema are generated from the target XML schema, wherein each local schema includes at least one of the schema components in the target XML schema. A plurality of conversion tasks is generated by associating a local schema and an applicable document portion, wherein each conversion task associates data from the applicable document portion with the applicable schema component in the local schema. For each conversion task, a conversion method is selected and the conversion method is performed on the applicable document portion and local schema. Finally, the results of all the individual conversion tasks are assembled into a target XML document.
1. A method for converting a legacy document into an XML document, comprising:
decomposing the legacy document into a plurality of document portions;
providing a target XML schema comprising a plurality of schema components for defining an output XML document;
generating a plurality of local schema from the target XML schema, each local schema comprising at least one of the schema components;
generating a plurality of conversion tasks T by associating a local schema S and an applicable document portion D, wherein each conversion task associates data from the applicable document portion with a schema component in the local schema;
validating the plurality of conversion tasks, wherein each conversion task T i in the plurality of conversion tasks T is a pair (D i , S i ) where D i is the applicable document portion associated with local schema S i and wherein validating the plurality of conversion tasks comprises determining if T is complete, wherein T is complete if all T i are data disjoint or schema independent, wherein T i is data disjoint if all D i and D j do not overlap and T i is schema independent if all S i and S j have no joint components;
for each validated conversion task, selecting a conversion method and performing the conversion method; and
assembling results from the conversion tasks and the target XML schema into the output XML document.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising converting the legacy document into a standard representation format prior to decomposing it into document portions.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the standard representation format comprises (X)HTML.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of schema components comprise metadata components, logical components and layout components.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting a conversion method comprises selecting a method from a library of methods including ad hot converters, structure recognizers, machine learning methods and intra-document clustering methods.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising prior to assembling results from the plurality of conversion tasks into a target XML document, comprising:
performing a plurality of sub-conversion tasks.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a plurality of local schema from the target XML schema comprises automatically projecting the target XML schema on element sets defined in the conversion tasks.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a legacy document comprises a rendering- or layout-oriented document.
9. A system for converting a legacy document into an XML document, comprising:
a decomposer for decomposing the legacy document into a plurality of document portions;
a memory storing a target XML schema, comprising a plurality of schema components for defining an output XML document, and storing a plurality of conversion methods;
a local schema generator for generating a plurality of local schema from the target XML schema, each local schema comprising at least one of the schema components;
a conversion task generator for generating a plurality of conversion tasks T by associating a local schema S and an applicable document portion D, wherein each conversion task associates data from the applicable document portion with the applicable schema component in the local schema;
a validator for validating the plurality of conversion tasks, wherein each conversion task T i in the plurality of conversion task T is a pair (D i , S i ) where D i is the applicable document portion associated with local schema S i and wherein validating the plurality of conversion tasks comprises determining if T is complete, wherein the validator determines if T is complete, wherein T is complete if all T i are data disjoint or schema independent, wherein T i is data disjoint if all D i and D j do not overlap and T i is schema independent if all S i and S j have no joint components;
a task processor, for each conversion task, for selecting a conversion method from memory and for performing the conversion method; and
an assembler for assembling output from the task processor into the output XML document.
10. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a converter for converting the legacy document into a standard representation format prior to decomposing it into document portions.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the standard representation format is (X)HTML.
12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of schema components comprise metadata components, logical components and layout components.
13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the memory stores a library of methods including ad hot converters, structure recognizers, machine learning methods and intra-document clustering methods.
14. The system of claim 9 , wherein further comprising a processor for performing a plurality of sub-conversion tasks.
15. The system of claim 9 , wherein a legacy document comprises a rendering- or layout-oriented document.