Hierarchical drag and drop structure editor for web sites

摘要

A method and apparatus for a structure editor implementing a “top-down” approach to designing a Web page. The user uses a “drag and drop” interface to add, delete, and move display elements to define the hierarchy of the site and to define the layout of each page in the site. The present invention automatically generates a layout for each page. This layout contains display elements that represent the links between pages of the site. The present invention automatically adds, removes, and deletes the appropriate links between the pages of the site as the user moves display elements. After the user has defined the hierarchy of the site and the layout of each page in the site, the user “publishes” the site. The publish function automatically generates HTML for each page of the site in accordance with the display elements of each page, yielding true WYSIWYG pages for the site.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for publishing a hierarchically-defined web site comprising the steps of:
providing, by a processor, a graphical user interface; receiving input defining a hierarchy of pages of a web site to be published, the hierarchy of pages defined in response to input manipulating icons representing pages of the web site in the graphical user interface; storing, in memory, a representation of the hierarchy of the web site based on the received input; identifying, based on the stored representation, a connection between a first page of the web site and a second page of the website; generating a hypertext mark-up link from the first page to the second page based on the identified connection; and publishing the website by generating hypertext mark-up for at least the first page, wherein publishing comprises including the generated hypertext mark-up link from the first page to the second page in the generated hypertext mark-up for the first page.