SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING DYNAMIC DOCUMENT REFERENCES

Abstract

Document fragments are managed by the use of fragment objects. Fragment objects contain a reference to a portion of a source document. Referencing documents contain a reference to a fragment object which delivers the content of the fragment of the source document to the referencing document. The source document can be directly updated through updating the fragment of the source document contained in the referencing document via the use of the fragment object. Source document deletion is controlled by storing the references to the source document by fragment objects so that no fragment object has a reference to a nonexistent source document. A process for organizing document fragments within a document management system wherein source documents comprise duplicates of the document fragments includes replacing a duplicate fragment with a reference to a single fragment object the fragment object including a reference to a fragment of a source document and an object class method for deletion of the fragment object including instructions to remove the reference to the fragment object from the metadata of the source document to which the fragment object refers.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating an embodiment and is not to be construed as limiting, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the system described herein;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a result of a process for organizing document fragments within a document management system;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart describing a process for retrieving a document fragment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart describing a process for updating a source document;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart describing a process for deleting a source document;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart describing a process for organizing document fragments within a document management system;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart describing a process for creating a fragment object;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart describing a process for causing a referencing document to reference a document fragment; and

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a possible scenario for the use of encryption.

Claims

1. A method for preserving data associated with a document fragment of a document to be deleted, comprising: (a) determining if a document is to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object, the fragment object including a first set of data corresponding to a document fragment of the document to be deleted and a second set of data corresponding to a transformation of the document fragment of the document to be deleted;(b) replacing, in the fragment object, the first set of data corresponding to a document fragment of the document to be deleted with actual data of the document fragment of the document to be deleted when it is determined that the document to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object; and(c) deleting the document to be deleted after the first set of data, in the fragment object, corresponding to a document fragment of the document to be deleted is replaced with the actual data of the document fragment of the document to be deleted.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determination of the document to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object determines whether the document to be deleted contains data indicating that the document is referenced by the fragment object.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising: (d) removing data indicating that the document is referenced by the fragment object.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determination of the document to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object whether a fragment object contains a reference to a document fragment within the document to be deleted.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, the determination of the document to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object determines whether the document to be deleted is identified in a list of referenced documents.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising: (d) removing the document to be deleted from the list of referenced documents.

7. A method for preserving data associated with a document fragment of a document to be deleted, comprising: (a) determining if a document is to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object, the fragment object including a first set of data corresponding to a document fragment of the document to be deleted and a second set of data corresponding to a transformation of the document fragment of the document to be deleted;(b) copying actual data of the document fragment of the document to be deleted to a second document when it is determined that the document to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object; and(c) replacing, in the fragment object, the first set of data corresponding to a document fragment of the document to be deleted with a reference to the document fragment of the second document.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the determination of the document to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object determines whether the document to be deleted contains data indicating that the document is referenced by the fragment object.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising: (d) removing data indicating that the document is referenced by the fragment object.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the determination of the document to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object whether a fragment object contains a reference to a document fragment within the document to be deleted.

11. The method as claimed in claim 7, the determination of the document to be deleted includes a document fragment referenced by a fragment object determines whether the document to be deleted is identified in a list of referenced documents.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising: (d) removing the document to be deleted from the list of referenced documents.

13. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the second document is a pre-existing document.

14. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein copying the document fragment of the document to be deleted to the second document includes creating the second document.

15. A method for organizing document fragments within a set of documents, comprising: (a) identifying a first document fragment of a first document;(b) identifying a second document fragment within the set of documents that is identical to the first document fragment of the first document;(c) determining, from a set of fragment objects, whether one of the set of fragment objects has a set of data corresponding to the first document fragment of the first document;(d) creating a new fragment object having a set of data corresponding to the first document fragment of the first document when it is determined that no fragment objects within the set of fragment objects have a set of data corresponding to the first document fragment of the first document;(e) replacing the second document fragment with a reference to the created fragment object when it is determined that no fragment objects within the set of fragment objects have a set of data corresponding to the first document fragment of the first document; and(f) storing the created fragment object in a memory device.

16. A method for organizing document fragments within a set of documents, comprising: (a) identifying a first document fragment of a first document;(b) identifying a second document fragment within the set of documents that is identical to the first document fragment of the first document; and(c) replacing the second document fragment with a reference to a fragment object, the fragment object including the set of data corresponding to the first document fragment of the first document.