Generation of Combined Documents from Content and Layout Documents Based on Semantically Neutral Elements

A method for managing markup documents each having a definition conforming to a pre-defined specification, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a software application executing on a web server, a request to access a web site hosted on the web server;
• dispatching, by the software application executing on the web server, the request to a web application executing on the web server;
• retrieving, by the web application executing on the web server, a definition of a content markup document from a web page repository that maintains web pages for the web site, the definition of the content markup document comprising a set of one or more content portions each enclosed within a content element of semantically neutral type and having a corresponding content identifier;
• returning, by the web application executing on the web server, the definition of the content markup document to a combiner application executing on the web server;
• retrieving, by the combiner application interacting with the web application executing on the web server, a definition of a layout markup document, the definition of the layout markup document comprising a set of one or more layout elements of semantically neutral type each having a corresponding layout identifier;
• generating, by the combiner application executing on the web server, a definition of a combined markup document from the definition of the layout markup document and the definition of the content markup document, wherein generating the definition of the combined markup document comprises inserting the content portion enclosed within each content element of the content markup document into the definition of the layout markup document in correspondence to each layout element with the corresponding layout identifier matching the corresponding content identifier of the content element;
• and
• returning, by the combiner application executing on the web server, the definition of the combined markup document to the software application.