Conditional Style Inheritance for Document Rendering

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current cascading style sheets lack the ability to provide style isolation, leading to unintended 'styling bleed' when multiple authors collaborate on documents, especially in scenarios involving Shadow DOMs, where styles can default to full 'bleed', causing conflicts and loss of stylistic cohesion.

Innovation Solution

Implementing enhanced style control mechanisms within cascading style sheets that allow granular permission controls, such as styling permissions and property exceptions, to determine whether a target node can inherit style properties from a parent node, thereby preventing unwanted styling and maintaining stylistic cohesion.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Stability of the object's composition

If cascading style sheets allow full style inheritance from parent nodes to child nodes, then styling cohesion is maintained across the document, but style isolation is lost causing unintended 'styling bleed' between components created by different authors

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestyling cohesionVSAvoidstyling bleed
Core Design Contradiction:
Stability of the object's compositionVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements local quality by allowing different inheritance behaviors at different nodes in the document tree. Each target node can have its own styling permission settings that override the default cascade behavior, enabling precise control over which styles are inherited and which are isolated at each specific location in the document hierarchy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the style inheritance control into discrete permission units that can be applied individually to different nodes. By dividing the document tree into separate controllable units with independent styling permissions, the system allows granular control over style propagation, preventing unwanted bleeding while maintaining desired inheritance in other areas.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Object-affected harmful factors

If multiple authors collaborate on document components with independent style control, then style isolation is improved, but the complexity of managing styling permissions increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestyling bleedVSAvoidstyling permission management
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements dynamic style permission control where the inheritance behavior is not fixed but can be adjusted at each node. The system dynamically determines whether to apply parent styles based on the specific styling permissions set at each target node, allowing flexible adaptation to different collaboration scenarios without requiring complex manual configuration.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

Each target node in the document tree is equipped with its own styling permission attributes that automatically control its inheritance behavior. The nodes self-manage their style isolation needs through内置 permissions, reducing the need for external intervention or complex centralized management of styling rules across multiple authors.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

3Manufacturing precision

If style properties are conditionally applied based on inheritance determination, then styling precision is improved, but the processing time for rendering increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestyling application precisionVSAvoidrendering processing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-determining the styling permissions and inheritance rules at each node before rendering occurs. The styling permissions are established as part of the document structure, allowing the rendering engine to quickly determine style applicability without complex runtime calculations, thus maintaining precision while reducing processing overhead.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3271831B1Method and apparatus for conditionally controlled styling
Publication Date: 2021.09.29 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC
  • EP3271831B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3271831B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3271831B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

In one example, a document rendering device may create a document from a document tree by determining whether a style property of a source node of the document tree may be applied to a target node of that document tree. The document rendering device may store a document tree having multiple nodes describing a document having component arranged hierarchically in a parent-child relationship. The document rendering device may identify a styling permission describing whether a target node representing a child component of the document tree permits application of a style property to the target node. The document rendering device may execute an inheritance determination for the target node based on the styling permission to determine whether the target node inherits the style property from a source node representing a parent component. The document rendering device may render the target node based on the inheritance determination to create a document component of the document.