1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied therein software configured to implement a method of finding service documents stored in a database that match a request XML document, the XML document containing a plurality of XML nodes the method comprising the steps of:
forming a Path and Parent Associated Node (PPAN) element for each XML node in the request XML document, each PPAN element being a data structure containing path level of a current node in the request XML document, a name and value pair associated with the current element, and a name and value pair of a parent element of the current element, the PPAN element not containing additional information about the structure of the XML document other than the path level of the current node and the parent child relationship of the current node and its parent node;
using the PPAN elements from the request XML document to identify a subset of service documents that contain data and structure that match the PPAN elements.
2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein each PPAN element further comprises attribute name and value pairs associated with the current node and the parent node.
3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising forming a PPAN chain from the PPAN elements.
4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the service documents are created using a structured language, and wherein the request document is created using the same structured language.
5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising forming a PPAN chain from the PPAN elements, and wherein the step of using the PPAN elements comprises using the PPAN chain to search for a subset of service documents that contains the PPAN chain.
6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the request document has a tree structure including a root node and a plurality of subservient nodes at levels below the root node, and wherein the path level of the current node describes a level of the current-node in the tree structure below the root node.
7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the current element value of at least one of the PPAN elements is a wildcard.
8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the structured language is XML.
9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied therein software configured to implement a method of finding service documents stored in a database that match a request XML document, the XML document containing a plurality of XML nodes, the method comprising the steps of:
forming a Path and Parent Associated Node (PPAN) elements for each XML node in an XML request document, each PPAN element being a data structure containing path level of a current node in the request XML document, a name and value pair associated with the current element, and a name and value pair of a parent element of the current element, the PPAN element not containing additional information about the structure of the XML document other than the path level of the current node and the parent child relationship of the current node and its parent node;
forming a PPAN chain from at least a subset of the PPAN elements; and
using the PPAN chain to identify a subset of XML service documents, in a collection of XML service documents, that contain the data and structure that match the PPAN elements in the PPAN chain.
10. A network element, comprising:
a processor containing control logic configured to implement a method of finding service documents from a collection of structured service documents that match a particular XML document, the particular XML document containing a plurality of XML nodes, the method comprising the steps of:
forming Path and Parent Associated Node (PPAN) elements for each XML node in the particular XML document, each PPAN element being a data structure containing path level of a current node in the particular XML document, a name and value pair associated with the current element, and a name and value pair of a parent element of the current element, the PPAN element not containing additional information about the structure of the particular XML document other than the path level of the current node and the parent child relationship of the current node and its parent node; and
using the PPAN elements to identify a subset of structured service documents, from the collection of structured service documents, that contain the data and structure that match the PPAN elements.
11. The network element of claim 10, further comprising a database containing the collection of structured service documents.
12. The network element of claim 10, wherein the current element data of at least one of the PPAN elements is a wildcard.
13. The network element of claim 10, wherein the control logic is further configured to form a PPAN chain from the PPAN elements.
14. The network element of claim 11, wherein the structured service documents are XML documents, and wherein the database is a native-XML database.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An image forming apparatus that operates according to given operational conditions, comprising:
a target power consumption receiving unit configured to receive a target value for power consumption;
an option receiving unit configured to receive options selected by a user from among a plurality of options defining the operational conditions;
a basic data storage unit storing therein basic data for each of the plurality of options, the basic data being used for calculating estimated power consumption;
a calculation unit configured to calculate the estimated power consumption from the basic data according to the options selected by the user;
an excess informing unit configured to inform the user when the estimated power consumption is greater than the target value; and
an alternative option informing unit configured to inform the user of an alternative option among the plurality of options when the estimated power consumption is greater than the target value, the alternative option reducing the estimated power consumption to be equal to or less than the target value.
2. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
a standard power consumption storage unit storing therein a standard value for the power consumption;
a standard option storage unit storing therein standard options among the plurality of options, the standard options being options for adjusting the estimated power consumption to be the same as the standard value; and
a determination unit configured to determine whether the target value is greater than the standard value, wherein
the option receiving unit displays the standard options and receives options selected by the user from among the plurality of options when the determination unit determines that the target value is greater than the standard value.
3. The image forming apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:
an operation panel configured to display information to the user and to receive input from the user, wherein
the target power consumption receiving unit receives the target value for the power consumption from a screen that is different from a screen from which the option receiving unit receives the options selected by the user.
4. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein
both the target value for the power consumption and the estimated power consumption are related to power consumption for a same period.
5. The image forming apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:
a period receiving unit configured to receive a length of the period.
6. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein
after the excess informing unit informs the user,
the target power consumption receiving unit receives the target value for the power consumption again,
the option receiving unit receives alternative options selected by the user from among the plurality of options,
the calculation unit calculates the estimated power consumption from the basic data according to the alternative options selected by the user, and
the excess informing unit informs the user again when the estimated power consumption is still greater than the target value.