Conversion of a collection of data to a structured, printable and navigable format

摘要

A system for converting a collection of data to a structured, printable and navigable document includes: an analyzer and a layout unit. The analyzer is coupled to receive a data collection source such as a web page associated with a wiki and other user parameters, and generates a representation of content associated with the data collection source. The output of the analyzer is coupled to an input of the layout unit to provide the representation of content. The layout unit is also coupled to receive a style sheet or other user preferences. The linearizer of the layout unit retrieves the necessary content using the representation of content. The retrieved content is then formatted by the layout selector of the layout unit to generate a paginated document and metadata. This output can then be printed on any conventional printer or manipulated and interacted with using applications or a web browser.

主权项

1. A method for converting a collection of data to a structured, printable and navigable format, the method comprising:
receiving a reference to the collection of data; generating a set of references to individual items contained in the collection; analyzing the individual items in the collection to generate a representation of hierarchical relationships between the individual items; analyzing a plurality of parameters associated with each individual item in the set of references to modify the representation of hierarchical relationships between the individual items by weighting each of the individual items based at least in part on a cost of reaching the individual items, the cost being associated with the parameters including authorship information; generating linearized content by creating a document object model having a plurality of nodes, adding at least some of the collection of data to the document object model including adding data to form a new node of the document object model, and adding formatting instructions to the document object model based on the representation of hierarchical relationships between the individual items, wherein adding the data to form the new node includes fetching content of an attachment corresponding to an existing node of the plurality of nodes, processing the attachment and inserting the processed attachment as the new node; and formatting the linearized content to generate a structured printable document, the structured printable document including a marker that reflects a level of hierarchy of the new node in the document object model and an index of the attachment.