Method and system for comparing document versions encoded in a hierarchical representation
AssigneeWorkshare, Ltd.
InventorRobin Glover
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention discloses a novel system and method for comparing electronic documents that are created on different software platforms or that are in different data formats by traversing the two hierarchical representations of the documents in a manner so as to selectively ignore nodes in the hierarchy and attempt to resynchronize the sequence of traversing when nodes have no matching content.
Claims22
A method for comparing a first document organized as a data structure comprised of a first hierarchy of nodes and a second document organized as a data structure comprised of a second hierarchy of nodes, comprising:
- generating two cursors, each corresponding to the respective first and second hierarchies and each referencing a first node from the first hierarchy and a second node from the second hierarchy;
- making a first determination whether data type associated with the first node may be ignored, and in dependence, advancing the first cursor to the next node in a search sequence of the first hierarchy;
- making a second determination whether the data type associated with the second node may be ignored, and in dependence, advancing the second cursor to the next node in a search sequence of the second hierarchy;
- in the case where the first and second determinations do not advance either the first or second cursors, making a third determination whether any of the contents of the first and second nodes match and in dependence thereon, storing in a data file data representing the matching contents.
A method for comparing a first document of a first type organized as a data structure comprised of a first hierarchy of nodes and a second document of a second type organized as a data structure comprised of a second hierarchy of nodes, comprising:
- following the correspondence between the first and second hierarchy of nodes by identifying the nodes in the second document that correspond to nodes in the first hierarchy where the content in each respective node meets a predetermined matching test and storing in a data structure a reference to the matching node in the second document.
A computer system for comparing a first document organized as a data structure comprised of a first hierarchy of nodes and a second document organized as a data structure comprised of a second hierarchy of nodes, comprising:
- a component adapted to generate two cursors, each corresponding to the respective first and second hierarchies and each reference a first node from the first hierarchy and a second node from the second hierarchy;
- a component adapted to make a first determination whether data type associated with the first node may be ignored, and in dependence, advance the first cursor to the next node in a search sequence of the first hierarchy;
- a component adapted to make a second determination whether the data type associated with the second node may be ignored, and in dependence, advance the second cursor to the next node in a search sequence of the second hierarchy;
- a component adapted to in the case where the first and second determinations do not advance either the first or second cursors make a third determination whether any of the contents of the first and second nodes match, and in dependence thereon, store in a data file data representing the matching contents.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.