Claims
- 1. A meta-document comprising an object conveying document information, processing information, wherein the processing information comprises information pertaining to processing of the meta-document, and metadata for indexing and retrieving the processing information, wherein each time the meta-document is processed during its entire lifetime, processing information pertaining thereto and associated metadata is stored on the meta-document.
- 2. The meta-document of claim 1, wherein processing information comprises information pertaining to transformation of the document information.
- 3. The meta-document of claim 1, wherein the processing information comprises a user comment to the document information.
- 4. The meta-document of claim 1, wherein the processing information comprises information pertaining to distribution of the meta-document.
- 5. The meta-document of claim 1, further comprising a tool, embedded on the object, responsive to a processing of the meta-document, for generating and storing processing information and associated metadata on the meta-document.
- 6. A method of managing a meta-document comprising:
creating a meta-document, wherein the meta-document comprises an object conveying document information, processing information pertaining to processing of the meta-document, and metadata for indexing and retrieving the processing information; processing the meta-document comprising generating and storing on the meta-document processing information pertaining thereto and associated metadata; transmitting the meta-document to a source; parsing the meta-document for extracting stored processing information and metadata; and wherein each time the meta-document is processed during its entire lifetime, processing information pertaining thereto and associated metadata is stored on the meta-document.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the meta-document further comprises a tool, embedded on the object, responsive to a processing of the meta-document, for generating and storing processing information and associated metadata on the meta-document, wherein the parsing step is performed by the tool.
- 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the source comprises a tool, responsive to a processing of the meta-document, for generating and storing processing information and associated metadata on the meta-document, wherein the parsing step is performed by the tool.
- 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the meta-document further comprises a second tool, embedded on the object, for parsing and extracting selected processing information stored on the meta-document, and further comprising the step of:
parsing the meta-document for extracting the selected processing information and associated metadata; and distributing the extracted selected processing information to the source.
- 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the source further comprises a second tool for parsing and extracting selected processing information stored on the meta-document, and further comprising the step of:
parsing the meta-document for extracting the selected processing information and associated metadata; and distributing the extracted selected processing information to the source.
- 11. A system for managing document information comprising a meta-document and a plurality of sources, each source located at a different location,
wherein the meta-document comprises an object conveying document information, processing information, wherein the processing information comprises information pertaining to processing of the meta-document, and metadata for indexing and retrieving the processing information, wherein each time the meta-document is processed during its entire lifetime, processing information pertaining thereto and associated metadata is stored on the meta-document; and wherein each time the meta-document is received by a source, processing information and its associated metadata is parsed and extracted from the meta-document at the source.
- 12. The system of claim 11, wherein processing information comprises information pertaining to transformation of the document information.
- 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing information comprises a user comment to the document information.
- 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing information comprises information pertaining to distribution of the meta-document.
- 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the meta-document further comprises a tool, embedded on the object, responsive to a processing of the meta-document, for generating and storing processing information and associated metadata on the meta-document.
- 16. The system of claim 11, wherein a source further comprises a tool, responsive to a processing of the meta-document, for generating and storing processing information and associated metadata on the meta-document.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/404,174 filed September 24, 1999, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09404174 |
Sep 1999 |
US |
Child |
10766675 |
Jan 2004 |
US |