Patent Grant
8983929
Modern data processing systems, such as general purpose computer systems, allow the users of such systems to create a variety of different types of data files. For example, a typical user of a data processing system may create text files with a word processing program such as Microsoft Word or may create an image file with an image processing program such as Adobe's PhotoShop. Numerous other types of files are capable of being created or modified, edited, and otherwise used by one or more users for a typical data processing system. The large number of the different types of files that can be created or modified can present a challenge to a typical user who is seeking to find a particular file which has been created.
Modern data processing systems often include a file management system which allows a user to place files in various directories or subdirectories (e.g. folders) and allows a user to give the file a name. Further, these file management systems often allow a user to find a file by searching for the file's name, or the date of creation, or the date of modification, or the type of file. An example of such a file management system is the Finder program which operates on Macintosh computers from Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Another example of a file management system program is the Windows Explorer program which operates on the Windows operating system from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Both the Finder program and the Windows Explorer program include a find command which allows a user to search for files by various criteria including a file name or a date of creation or a date of modification or the type of file. However, this search capability searches through information which is the same for each file, regardless of the type of file. Thus, for example, the searchable data for a Microsoft Word file is the same as the searchable data for an Adobe PhotoShop file, and this data typically includes the file name, the type of file, the date of creation, the date of last modification, the size of the file and certain other parameters which may be maintained for the file by the file management system.
Certain presently existing application programs allow a user to maintain data about a particular file. This data about a particular file may be considered metadata because it is data about other data. This metadata for a particular file may include information about the author of a file, a summary of the document, and various other types of information. A program such as Microsoft Word may automatically create some of this data when a user creates a file and the user may add additional data or edit the data by selecting the “property sheet” from a menu selection in Microsoft Word. The property sheets in Microsoft Word allow a user to create metadata for a particular file or document. However, in existing systems, a user is not able to search for metadata across a variety of different applications using one search request from the user. Furthermore, existing systems can perform one search for data files, but this search does not also include searching through metadata for those files.
Indexing of the content of files can take a considerable amount of time. The content of the files is typically not available for searching until the indexing process is completed. Some software developers, such as developers of full text indexing software, have distributed demonstration versions of their software with some files and a previously created index of the files; however, the files are of the same type (e.g. the files are all word processing files) and the medium (e.g. CD) which is the mechanism of the distribution does not include an operating system which can be used to boot a computer system. Some manufacturers and/or distributors of computer systems have included on a storage volume (e.g. hard drive) help files which were indexed and an operating system. However, other user related files (e.g. template files for a word processing program) were not indexed and the help files were the same type of files. While such systems provided the benefit of searchable help files even when the computer was first used, the other files still had to be indexed to be able to use index software to search through an index database of the content of these other files.
Methods for managing data in a data processing system and systems for managing data are described herein.
Many of these methods and systems include the distribution of user related files and the preindexed content of these user related files and at least a portion of an operating system which is used to boot a computer system.
In one aspect of the inventions described herein, an exemplary method for managing data includes storing on a machine readable volume files and an index database created from the files and an Operating System (OS) and making the volume, after the storing, available for distribution to licensees and customers. In certain embodiments, the index database is searchable and the volume is a bootable volume which boots a data processing system to run the OS on the volume and wherein the volume also stores metadata for the files. Further, the files may be user editable (for example, the existing text in the files may be edited or modified or new text may be added and then the file is saved in a nonvolatile storage medium) and there may be many different types of files, such as word processing files, spreadsheet files, portable document format (PDF) files, graphics files (e.g. jpeg or gif), web page files (e.g. html files), presentation files (e.g. “.ppt” files), email files, etc. In certain embodiments, in the metadata database, the type of information in metadata for a first type of file differs from the type of information in metadata for a second type of file.
According to another aspect of the inventions described herein, an exemplary method for managing data includes storing on a volume an index database created for all or substantially all user related files which are normally accessible to a user through user application software, with the user related files and an Operating System (OS) and making the volume, after the storing, available for distribution to licensees or customers.
In certain embodiments, the volume is a bootable volume which boots a data processing system to run the Operating System on the volume and wherein the index is searchable and wherein the volume also stores metadata for the files. The metadata may be for a plurality of different file types such that the type of information in metadata for one type of file differs from the type of information in metadata for another type of file.
According to another aspect of the inventions described herein, an exemplary method of processing data includes adopting a previously created index database, which is stored on a storage volume, as a database managed by an index management software component, which is also stored on the storage volume, as an initialization process of the index management software component. In certain embodiments, user search queries may be received and a search may be performed of the index database without having to require the user to index the files which are being search before attempting to do a search. In certain embodiments, the adopting occurs upon first execution of the index management software component on the data processing system, and the previously created index database has an index of all user files on the storage volume which stores the user files and the index database and an operating system. User files which are indexed into the index database are beyond merely help files which specify how to operate a program. The User files which have been indexed contain user content such as sample files, template files, reference materials such as dictionaries or encyclopedias or famous literature and these user files are normally editable by the user (e.g. text may be added to the files or the existing text may be modified and then the files may be saved on the storage volume).
Other aspects of the present invention includes various data processing systems which perform these methods and machine readable media which perform various methods described herein.
The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements.
The subject invention will be described with reference to numerous details set forth below, and the accompanying drawings will illustrate the invention. The following description and drawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, in certain instances, well known or conventional details are not described in order to not unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail.
The present description includes material protected by copyrights, such as illustrations of graphical user interface images. The owners of the copyrights, including the assignee of the present invention, hereby reserve their rights, including copyright, in these materials. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever. Copyright Apple Computer, Inc. 2004.
As shown in
It will be apparent from this description that aspects of the present invention may be embodied, at least in part, in software. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computer system or other data processing system in response to its processor, such as a microprocessor, executing sequences of instructions contained in a memory, such as ROM 107, RAM 105, mass storage 106 or a remote storage device. In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in combination with software instructions to implement the present invention. Thus, the techniques are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructions executed by the data processing system. In addition, throughout this description, various functions and operations are described as being performed by or caused by software code to simplify description. However, those skilled in the art will recognize what is meant by such expressions is that the functions result from execution of the code by a processor, such as the microprocessor 103.
Capturing and Use of Metadata Across a Variety of Application Programs
The method of
The method of
One particular field which may be useful in the various metadata formats would be a field which includes an identifier of a plug in or other software element which may be used to capture metadata from a data file and/or export metadata back to the creator application.
Various different software architectures may be used to implement the functions and operations described herein. The following discussion provides one example of such an architecture, but it will be understood that alternative architectures may also be employed to achieve the same or similar results. The software architecture shown in
The software architecture 400 also includes a file system directory 417 for the metadata. This file system directory keeps track of the relationship between the data files and their metadata and keeps track of the location of the metadata object (e.g. a metadata file which corresponds to the data file from which it was extracted) created by each importer. In one exemplary embodiment, the metadata database is maintained as a flat file format as described below, and the file system directory 417 maintains this flat file format. One advantage of a flat file format is that the data is laid out on a storage device as a string of data without references between fields from one metadata file (corresponding to a particular data file) to another metadata file (corresponding to another data file). This arrangement of data will often result in faster retrieval of information from the metadata database 415.
The software architecture 400 of
The method of
It will be appreciated that the notification, if done through the OS kernel, is a global, system wide notification process such that changes to any file will cause a notification to be sent to the metadata processing software. It will also be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, each application program may itself generate the necessary metadata and provide the metadata directly to a metadata database without the requirement of a notification from an operating system kernel or from the intervention of importers, such as the importers 413. Alternatively, rather than using OS kernel notifications, an embodiment may use software calls from each application to a metadata processing software which receives these calls and then imports the metadata from each file in response to the call.
As noted above, the metadata database 415 may be stored in a flat file format in order to improve the speed of retrieval of information in most circumstances. The flat file format may be considered to be a non-B tree, non-hash tree format in which data is not attempted to be organized but is rather stored as a stream of data. Each metadata object or metadata file will itself contain fields, such as the fields shown in the examples of
A flexible query language may be used to search the metadata database in the same way that such query languages are used to search other databases. The data within each metadata file may be packed or even compressed if desirable. As noted above, each metadata file, in certain embodiments, will include a persistent identifier which uniquely identifies its corresponding data file. This identifier remains the same even if the name of the file is changed or the file is modified. This allows for the persistent association between the particular data file and its metadata.
User Interface Aspects
Various different examples of user interfaces for inputting search parameters and for displaying search results are provided herein. It will be understood that some features from certain embodiments may be mixed with other embodiments such that hybrid embodiments may result from these combinations. It will be appreciated that certain features may be removed from each of these embodiments and still provide adequate functionality in many instances.
The combination of text entry region 709 and the search parameter menu bar allow a user to specify a search query or search parameters. Each of the configurable pull down menus presents a user with a list of options to select from when the user activates the pull down menu. As shown in
It will also be appreciated that the various options in the pull down menus may depend upon the fields within a particular type of metadata file. For example, the selection of “images” to be searched may cause the various fields present in the metadata for an image type file to appear in one or more pull down menus, allowing the user to search within one or more of those fields for that particular type of file. Other fields which do not apply to “images” types of files may not appear in these menus in order reduce the complexity of the menus and to prevent user confusion.
Another feature of the present invention is shown in
The window 1001 includes an additional feature which may be very useful while analyzing a search result. A user may select individual files from within the display region 1005 and associate them together as one collection. Each file may be individually marked using a specific command (e.g. pressing the right button on a mouse and selecting a command from a menu which appears on the screen, which command may be “add selection to current group”) or similar such commands. By individually selecting such files or by selecting a group of files at once, the user may associate this group of files into a selected group or a “marked” group and this association may be used to perform a common action on all of the files in the group (e.g. print each file or view each file in a viewer window or move each file to a new or existing folder, etc.). A representation of this marked group appears as a folder in the user-configurable portion 1003A. An example of such a folder is the folder 1020 shown in the user-configurable portion 1003A. By selecting this folder (e.g. by positioning a cursor over the folder 1020 and pressing and releasing a mouse button or by pressing another button) the user, as a result of this selection, will cause the display within the display region 1005 of the files which have been grouped together or marked. Alternatively, a separate window may appear showing only the items which have been marked or grouped. This association or grouping may be merely temporary or it may be made permanent by retaining a list of all the files which have been grouped and by keeping a folder 1020 or other representations of the grouping within the user-configurable side bar, such as the side bar 1003A. Certain embodiments may allow multiple, different groupings to exist at the same time, and each of these groupings or associations may be merely temporary (e.g. they exist only while the search results window is displayed), or they may be made permanent by retaining a list of all the files which have been grouped within each separate group. It will be appreciated that the files within each group may have been created from different applications. As noted above, one of the groupings may be selected and then a user may select a command which performs a common action (e.g. print or view or move or delete) on all of the files within the selected group.
The window 1201 shown in
A column 1211 of window 1201 allows a user to select various search parameters by selecting one of the options which in turn causes the display of a submenu that corresponds to the selected option. In the case of
The window 1301 shown in
The search results user interface shown in
It will be appreciated that this method may employ various alternatives. For example, a window may appear after the command option 2232 or 2233 has been selected, and this window asks for a name for the new folder. This window may display a default name (e.g. “new folder”) in case the user does not enter a new name. Alternatively, the system may merely give the new folder or new storage facility a default path name. Also, the system may merely create the new folder and move or copy the items into the new folder without showing the new window as shown in
When a volume has not been previously indexed, the user may still cause the volume to be indexed by selecting a command to begin indexing. This may happen automatically as a consequence of the attaching the volume, which may be a portable hard drive to a computer system through a port, such as a USB port, etc. or as a result of the user instructing the system to begin indexing through a command or a graphical user interface. In either case, it may take some time to index the volume, and a progress bar may be displayed while the indexing is being performed. In one implementation, no searching may be allowed while the indexing is being performed. In an alternative implementation, a search of the files which have been indexed so far may be allowed, and the results of the search (possibly a partial list of the results) may be displayed before indexing is completed.
In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/112,255, filed on Apr. 22, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,160,837 which is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/877,584, filed on Jun. 25, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,012. This application also claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/643,087 filed on Jan. 7, 2005, which provisional application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety; this application claims the benefit of the provisional's filing date under 35 U.S.C. §119(e). This present application hereby claims the benefit of these earlier filing dates under 35 U.S.C. §120.
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| 20120173539 A1 | Jul 2012 | US |
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| 60643087 | Jan 2005 | US |
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| Parent | 11112255 | Apr 2005 | US |
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| Parent | 10877584 | Jun 2004 | US |
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