CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is the Regular U.S. Application of Provisional U.S. Application Ser. No. 60/396,439, filed Jul. 16, 2002 by the same inventor under the title: System, Method and Software for Dynamic, Automatic Organization, Archiving, Retrieval, Indexing and Viewing of Information Objects from Multiple Sources. The benefit of the filing date of that Provisional Application is claimed under 35 U.S. Code Â§Â§ 119 and 120, and the international treaties and conventions to which the United States is a signatory.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to computer data processing systems that include central processing units configured with novel software-based information management systems, including but not limited to: file system browsers; personal information management systems; database storage, organization, accessing and retrieval systems; digital asset management systems; email client and server operation; integrated software development environments; internet- or intranet-based search engines; and similar information services and systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE ART

A primary use of computer information systems is the creation, organization, transmission and storage of information of a variety of types in the form of content data, including but not limited to word processing documents; spreadsheets; images; drawings; photographs; sounds; music; email; software source code; web pages, both local and remote; application programs; name and address lists; appointments; notes; calendar schedules; task lists; personal finance management data; corporate customer, department, employee, stocking and accounting data; and so on.

Generally, this information data is stored in either individual file system entities (files) of proprietary formats stored on a local or LAN or WAN network disk drive or accessed via the Internet, such as a word processing document or databases with specialized access software. For example, email messages are often stored bundled together in a single file, and new messages are retrieved from a remote server via an Internet protocol; access requires a specific email client to manage these messages. Similarly, accessing information in a database requires specialized programs that are compatible with the database format or network access protocol to communicate with a server to store or retrieve the information and display it in a useful format.

Although file data strings (the string of digital bits that comprise the content data or object) are generally accompanied by a small, rudimentary amount of metadata about the file, i.e., data that represents properties describing the file contents (such as one or more of: the file's name, the creation date, the last modification date, access privileges, and possibly a comment), there is typically very little or no metadata conveying information as to the internal structure or meaning of the file's contents, that is, no metadata about the content data. Some files do have internal descriptions of the contents, but this data is often difficult to access, requiring special applications to read and not otherwise generally available to the user. Similarly, records in a database lack information that is needed for use in file systems. In general, database records cannot be manipulated in the same way as files in a file system.

Thus, the differences in the nature and manner in which content data is stored in individual files and in proprietary databases, and the lack of useful metadata about the files or the database content data, makes them closed and partitioned. This closed and partitioned nature of files and databases poses numerous, significant organizational, archival and retrieval problems.

File system browsers, due to their bounded (strictly limited) knowledge of file contents created by various and possibly unknown software applications, are limited to organizing files by the basic metadata properties provided by the file system itself: by name, various dates, and by directory or folder.

Finally, there is no general software mechanism (program) in contemporary operating systems to link or group information from diverse independent sources when they are managed by separate applications. This problem with presently available operating systems and application programs was succinctly set forth by Mr. Mundie of Microsoft as follows (referring to Bill Gates):

- The scenario is the dream, not something defined in super-gory detail,â€ says Mundie. â€œIt's what Bill and I focus on more than the business plans or P&Ls. For a project as big as Longhorn, there could have been 100 scenarios, but Bill does this thing with his mind where he distills the list down to a manageable set of factors that we can organize developer groups around.â€ Gates' scenarios usually take the form of surprisingly simple questions that customers might have. Here's a sampling from our interviews:
- â€œWhy are my document files stored one way, my contacts another way, and my e-mail and instant-messaging buddy list still another, and why aren't they related to my calendar or to one another and easy to search en masse? . . . â€ (Quote from Fortune Magazine, available on the Internet at: http://www.fortune.com/ fortune/ceo/articles/0,15114,371336-3,00.html

In addition, data stored in computer systems does not have, as a fundamental aspect, relationship information other than the most trivial of forms. For example, files may be grouped together within folders or directories, or they may be labeled with a color, but otherwise there is very little functionality to allow the grouping or linking of disparate pieces of information within the system.

In particular, when a file or other piece of information is logically involved in multiple groupings, linking, cross-referencing or relating the groupings is cumbersome at best with current systems. For example, where a given file â€œmyCarFinances.docâ€ logically should be grouped in both a â€œFinancesâ€ group and an â€œAutosâ€ group, there are no truly easy choices for accomplishing such multiple grouping. Either a copy of the file must be made in two separate â€œFinancesâ€ and â€œAutosâ€ folders, in which case the user must be careful to update both files when changes are made; or a shortcut or alias file must be created and placed in these folders. Both currently available approaches involve tedious, repetitive manual effort to create and manage that becomes exponentially more difficult as the number of groupings or cross-references increases.

Because of this, cross-referencing and filing objects in multiple locations is difficult, error-prone, and time-consuming. If copies are made for each location, valuable disk space is wasted, and the user is left with having to manage changes by making new copies whenever the original is modified and remembering every location of every copy. Many cross-references require many copies, further complicating the task. And even if the user decides to create alias files instead of making actual copies, the alias files still take up space, and the management issue is equally complex and time-consuming.

Accordingly, there is a long felt need in the art to provide a truly open computer system having data structures, input interfaces, displays and operational systems that permits the organization of information, as data objects, in a wide variety of files and databases, which computer system is independent of the source of the information objects, is dynamic and automatic, permitting faster archiving, retrieval and viewing of the information and providing more meaningful and useful links for better organization and indexing of the information. What is needed is a simple-to-use data structure and operating mechanism to link information together in a dynamic, memory-and-space-efficient manner, without modifying the original information or propagating numerous, storage-space-robbing duplicates, each of which individually must be updated as new versions arise.

THE INVENTION

Definition of Terms

It is to be understood that references to the following terms in this application shall have the corresponding meaning provided (even when used in lower case and not in bold):

Metadata Filing System, abbreviated herein MFS: means the inventive integrated software system for the management of informational objects on a computer system through the comprehensive use of metadata as defined herein, for recognizing, organizing, creating and viewing relationships between such objects which comprises one or more software applications that provide both a user-interface and an underlying component architecture for the management and display of the user's information.

Annotation or annotation metadata: means metadata that was not originally associated with an object, but which is defined or specified by either the user or the system for organizational purposes.

B-Tree: means a data structure by which information may be stored efficiently on disk, with a minimum of disk accesses to fetch a particular piece of information using an ordered key such as a numeric identifier or a sortable string of text.

Cache: means a special storage location in memory or on disk where objects and their associated metadata properties may be very quickly retrieved.

Catalog: means a special database built upon the object store that stores and retrieves reference objects addressed by UUID and their special metadata properties of this invention; performs queries on objects by specified metadata property selection or designation; notifies other processes of the metadata property changes; and maintains a dependency graph of objects.

Classifier: means a process by which objects are examined and assigned to one or more containers or collections for the purpose of gathering together objects with similar or the same properties specified in a Boolean-type metadata expression and/or key phrase match.

Collection: means a grouping of objects based on a metadata specification describing properties that all objects in the group have in common, or objects that were grouped together specifically by the user as having some shared meaning or logical grouping.

Container: means an object in which other objects may be grouped together for the purpose of organization. A collection is a special type of container, and containers may contain other containers.

Domain: means an object that includes processes for creating and managing reference objects of specific types, including new classes of objects, in a consistent manner. Domains permits grouping objects by nature, class of information in them, or processes of dealing with them. For example, a domain designated â€œEMailâ€ may define reference objects for email messages; a mailbox object; a mailbox signature; and so on. The EMail domain also provides a 1-cation and retrieval process by which messages are retrieved from a central server and stored locally in the system. A domain designated â€œFileâ€ may define reference objects, explained below, for files, directories, and volumes, as well as a scanning and matching process that creates a mirrored representation within MFS of a directory subtree specified in a Working Set.

Event: an occurrence of note that may be acted upon by a thread (defined below) to perform a task.

Link or link metadata: means metadata that is specifically defined, updated, and accessed for the purpose of linking together and organizing reference objects logically in collections and other containers.

Metadata: means data representing a set of properties of a given type and meaning, that is user-definable and selectable data about the contents of an object, possibly including but having more data than conventional, ordinary, presently used â€œmetadataâ€ . Examples of metadata properties in the inventive application software system include, but are not limited to, names; dates and times; comments; locations; descriptions; markers; icons; sizes; dimensions, exposure data, and copyright of images; keywords and phrases; colors; annotations; links; groups; containment; ownership; access restrictions; and so on. Metadata as referred to herin is to be distinguished from currently used â€œordinary metadataâ€ , which is rudimentary data that identifies or names an object, such as a file (e.g. â€œmiscellaneousâ€ or â€œphotosâ€ ), but that does not include data about the contents of an object (about the content data of the object). Metadata as used herein more particularly includes specially formulated and used â€œannotation metadataâ€ and â€œlink metadataâ€ , defined in detail in the description below, including by context and example.

Object: means any piece of information stored in a digital format, including but not limited to file system entities such as files and folders; specific entities such as documents, applications, images, sounds, music files, and the like; contact or name/address records, which may be stored as individual files or multiple records within a single file; received and sent email messages; and objects that act as containers to hold other objects.

Object Store: means a special database that stores and retrieves object data by unique identifier (UID).

Property: means a user definable or selected descriptor of a certain kind for the purpose of attributing characteristics or values to an object in the form of content information metadata that can be used to classify objects into collections. A group of properties set, created or selected by the user or a Domain for a particular object is considered the object's metadata. In the inventive system, specific link metadata is a special property of all reference objects in the MFS, provided to organize reference objects logically in collections and other containers.

Reference Object: means an object internally created and stored in the catalog and object store, which represents data originating externally (such as files or email messages) that are managed within MFS, the inventive metadata filing system.

Thread: means a software entity that performs a particular task simultaneously, and asynchronously, with other threads.

Unique Identifier, UID: means an identifier that is unique within the scope of an object store.

Universally Unique Identifier, UUID: means an identifier which is used to uniquely specify reference objects within the inventive metadata filing system, as well as provide a one-to-one mapping between external data (for example, files in the file system) and reference objects.

Value: means a Boolean, float, integer, date, time, text string, image, or other measure or metric of a property of an object.

Working Set: means the set of sources of information, either created internally or imported from or received from external originators, that the inventive MFS, metadata filing system, manages. This includes data from file systems, either local or remote on a network; web addresses; email servers; and the like.

SUMMARY, INCLUDING OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

The invention comprises a computer data processing system, described in more detail below, that includes a central processing unit configured with operating system and applications software, the latter which includes a novel integrated computer control software system for the management of informational objects including recognizing, organizing, creating and viewing relationships between multiple objects. The overall inventive computer control system, given the shorthand term â€œMFSâ€ for metadata filing system, includes one or more novel software applications that provide both a user-interface and underlying component architecture, including an object-oriented database structure, or object store, and a metadata database structure, or catalog, for the management and rendering of these objects to a display viewable by a user in response to user input, regardless of the source or nature of the object.

The inventive MFS computer data processing system for automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information objects from multiple sources is characterized by: at least one central processing unit configured with client operating system and applications software; (and/or in the case of Internet operations the MFS system is configured with server software to host a site on the Internet including the serving of both static, generally informational Web pages, and dynamic Web pages, of information to individuals including information that may be generated on the fly in response to individual requests, routers and interfaces including at least one client and/or network interface to at least one network data communication device for exchange of data among computers, routers and input devices); and peripheral input and output devices linked to said client/server central processing unit in an architecture so as to provide client and/or site operation and functionality; said central processor unit includes at least one memory coupled to a bus; said memory including selected program structures stored therein, including an operating system program structure, at least one client and/or server system management program structure, at least one hierarchical data storage management system program structure, and selected application program code structures including the novel MFS code structure described herein; said central processing unit reading data input so as to implement system functionality selected from operational, computational, archival, sorting, screening, classification, formatting, rendering, printing and communication functions and processes; and data record structures selectably configurable in object, metadata, relational or hierarchical databases and which data records are selectably associatable, correlatable and callable; said central processing unit reading from user, network or Internet server input devices data relating to objects received by, created by or selected by individual users, and processing such data in said central processing unit so as to generate and manage informational objects by special metadata linking to reference objects created, received or selected and/or input by users, and so as to provide information management tools that facilitate communication to generate, transmit and receive, archive, search, order, retrieve and render objects, including information organization personalized for each individual user based on preferences selected by the user.

The inventive MFS computer data processing system apparatus for automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information objects from multiple sources includes a computer-readable memory structured to store object information in an object oriented database and metadata in a catalog database, a computer display connected to said memory means for displaying said objects, a computer-operator (user) interface device for inputting information to specify objects or properties of objects, sources of external objects for management by the inventive MFS system, a computer processor connected to said memory for transferring said specifying information to storage in said memory, link metadata in a second catalog database in said memory linking said specifying information to said objects to provide rendering thereof on a display for viewing by the computer system users.

The computer(s) of the invention can be configured in a system architecture, for example, as one or more client or server computer(s), database computer(s), routers, interfaces and peripheral input and output devices, that together implement the system and network(s) to which a client computer system may be connected. A computer used in the inventive system typically includes at least one processor and memory coupled to a bus. The bus may be any one or more of any suitable bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, peripheral bus, and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures and protocols. The memory typically includes volatile memory (e.g., RAM) and fixed and/or removable non-volatile memory (e.g., ROM, Flash, hard disk including in RAID arrays, floppy disc, mini-drive, Zip, Memory stick, PCMCIA card, tape, optical (CD-ROM, etc.), DVD, magneto-optical, and the like), to provide for storage of information, including computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, operating systems, and other data used by the computer(s). A network interface is coupled to the bus to provide an interface to the data communication network (LAN, WAN, and/or Internet) for exchange of data among the various local network users, site computers, routers, and other computing devices. The system also includes at least one peripheral interface coupled to the bus to provide communication with individual peripheral devices, such as keyboards, keypads, touch pads, mouse devices, trackballs, scanners, printers, speakers, microphones, memory media readers, writing tablets, cameras, modems, network cards, RF, fiber-optic and IR transceivers, and the like,

A variety of program modules can be stored in the memory, including OS, server system programs, HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management) system programs, application programs including the MFS control system program(s), other programs modules and data. In a net-worked environment, the program modules may be distributed among several computing devices coupled to the network, and used as needed. When a program is executed, the program is at least partially loaded into the computer memory, and contains instructions for implementing the operational, computational, archival, sorting, screening, classification, formatting, rendering, printing and communication functions and processes described herein for the inventive MFS operation of automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information objects from multiple sources.

The inventive information object management system manages these objects, in the applications control program CPU-configured aspect, by scanning the created, selected or incoming objects' source data, whether files on disk or data provided by remote servers. When individual objects are recognized as contained in the source data, reference objects within the MFS system are created and tagged with UUIDs to provide a one-to-one mapping between external data and MFS reference objects. Specific knowledge of the data formats is used to extract any relevant information from the objects (e.g. ID3 tags for artist, genre, and so on for music files) to be used as metadata. This metadata is attached to the reference objects, which are stored in the catalog for fast access. As reference objects are created or are updated by MFS, they are collected into system and user-defined collections, which provide a logical grouping of objects based on one or more of three criteria: 1) user-defined categorization; 2) user or system-defined metadata query specification(s); and 3) user or system-defined key phrase matching.

The inventive MFS-configured CPU(s) streamline information management by providing a view of information objects of all domain natures (varieties) from different sources, with a simple, direct, shared and unified storage and linkage system that comprises the salient functionality of storage of only one object, the MFS reference object, and linking it to one or more collection groups by special user-created or selected MFS link metadata, including a UUID, which is in turn stored in a special MFS catalog database. The link metadata, including the UID and UUID, are aliased to the various MFS collections selected, set or created by the user in order to create the retrieval links from the various relevant collections to the reference object. The inventive MFS-configured system automatically updates stored reference objects' metadata (names, sizes, and the like) and links (collection and container membership), classifying incoming and changed objects by their content data and metadata, thereby automatically updating and creating new links to the growing number of objects in the various collections.

The inventive MFS-configured system provides an organizational structure and methodology for information management, including archival storage, retrieval, indexing, cross-referencing, logically grouping, and display of informational objects of all kinds. Objects may be created within MFS directly by the user, or within MFS through software components that create representations of information not stored directly within MFS, such as files and folders on a storage medium.

From the perspective of process, or method of operation of the MFS-configured computer system the CPU is caused to process as follows (by reference to an â€œexternal objectâ€ is meant an object outside MFS, although it can be one created by the client computer system or could be an incoming foreign object, that is, one sent from a distant server). When an external object is to be managed by MFS (whether incoming or locally created), MFS creates an internal representation of the object and stores the representation in the MFS object oriented database (OODB), called the object store, which assigns an internal unique identifier (UID), upon which it is termed the â€œreference objectâ€ (RO). The RO is simultaneously scanned and metadata is created (including a desktop icon) and/or extracted, and this metadata is associated (bit strings added to the object data) with the reference object. Only this metadata (including unique reference information for finding the external object, called the universally-unique ID, or UUID) is stored in the catalog database, not the entire external object itself This process is â€œmirroringâ€ , with the reference object identified within the system by internal UID, and the association properties metadata being the â€œimageâ€ (or â€œvirtual imageâ€ ) in the catalog. The system, as metadata are created upon selection or creation of collections or containers, â€œreflectsâ€ the reference object in them through tagging additional â€œpathâ€ and â€œhierarchyâ€ link metadata to the properties metadata that is automatically associated with the reference object and stored in the catalog. Updates and changes to the reference objects also update the metadata in the catalog with the changes rippling throughout all the images in all collections instantly and simultaneously. User identification, selection, or creation of a collection writes the metadata for the selected object; dragging and dropping an object into a collection or container also auto-writes to the metadata, adding the relevant link. Searching the metadata, via automatic or user selected or created queries recalls the single reference object from the OODB, and if selected, the external object is retrieved from the external source (hard drive or other data storage), permitting a comprehensive desktop interface.

The inventive MFS-configured computer system application programs may be written in a wide range of computer languages, a suitable exemplary language being the C++ language. A number of equivalent versions of the inventive MFS program(s) can be written by a person skilled in the art of software development upon an understanding of the architecture, methodology and functional features disclosed herein. The inventive MFS applications can be run on a standard computer system architecture including a standard industry computer processor, input/output devices, a bitmapped display, and at least one primary defined physical data storage area for temporary and permanent storage of data objects.

The following summary of the features of the inventive MFS-configured computer system(s) and how these features are functionally realized will enable one skilled in the art to write suitable code for applications that realize the MFS functionality.

Collections: The inventive MFS-configured CPU control program simultaneously classifies objects into multiple containers using link metadata rather than duplication, thereby allowing users to categorize objects in ways that most clearly reflect different approaches and ways of viewing the same information. Users can select predetermined collections provided in a basic menu, such as Family, Friends, Work, To Do, Activities, and Vacation when running the MFS program for the first time, and can create and set up user-defined collections as well.

Drag-And-Drop Categorization: Another feature of the inventive MFS-configured computer system enables the user to organize all kinds of information, not merely simple files, through a drag-and-drop windows-and-icons software functionality, making it easy to organize objects and cross-reference them from place to place using a desktop-style interface. That is, clicking on the icon or list reference to an object in one collection window and dragging it into another collection window establishes a new link; the object is now accessible from both collections. And, rather than being duplicated in an object database, only the link metadata is placed in the catalog, with that catalog being updated for retrieval of the reference object from either collection. This drag-and-drop linkage creation without duplication is an extremely powerful function of the inventive application program.

Dynamic Queries: Another function of the inventive MFS-configured computer system provides novel ways to show relationships between information objects based on shared properties by querying the MFS metadata and creating links dynamically, including but not limited to matching key phrases in an object's textual properties; matching dates and times, including date and time ranges or exact matches; filtering on sizes, ordering, or type; and so forth.

Partitioned Storage: Another function of the inventive MFS applications program structure provides a unique and efficient mechanism for storage of objects and their properties, for fast and dynamic updating and retrieval, a partitioned storage organization comprising a catalog (a metadata database) and object store (an object database for storing object data, including B-Tree nodes, foundation and reference objects).

View By Reference: Another function of the inventive MFS program provides a novel mechanism for presenting non-apparent or unexpected relationships between objects by leveraging both the system's and the user's categorization mechanisms to show only relevant information through filtering and cross-referencing.

Sticky Paths: Another function of the inventive MFS program provides a variety of hierarchical views of objects and their containment relationships and/or location paths within the user's computer system, including but not limited to list views whereby the visible objects' containment hierarchies are continuously made visible in a dynamically-updating portion of the window.

People, Activities, Time Orientation: Another function of the inventive MFS-configured computer system provides a basic set of organization principles so users can intuitively manage their information in a way that reflects the information's relationships as they occur in the real world, including organizations based on people, projects, activities, time, places, etc.

Consistency Maintenance: Another function of the inventive MFS-configured system keeps all object relationships up to date automatically, so that any changes in the user's information space (e.g., desktop) results in timely and appropriate changes to any object views.

Automatic Hypertext Linking: Another function of the inventive MFS-configured system utilizes the existing organizational structures and data to automatically create links between objects, including but not limited to hypertext inks in textual properties of objects such as the bodies of email messages or the contents of a document.

Extensible Domains: Another function of the inventive MFS-configured system provides a plug-in mechanism for other applications to take advantage of the features of the invention: MFS provides interfaces to permit one or more client applications to actively create new objects for, apply properties to, store, link, and classify the client application's information such that it may be viewed and collected in the same way as any other objects in the system. MFS provides the software functionality to dynamically restructure and link preexisting file systems, files, and databases in a way that is modular, scalable, and extensible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES AND DRAWINGS

The invention is described in more detail by reference to the figures and drawings in which:

FIG. 1

is an overview of the inventive system's major features;

FIG. 2

is a depiction of the Mirrored Object System;

FIG. 3

describes the Property-Based Information Access;

FIG. 4

is a display depicting the MFS inventive system desktop interface;

FIG. 5

is a display showing the preview viewing mode for images;

FIG. 6

is a display of the list viewing mode;

FIGS. 7

a, 7b and 7c show several displays of the small and large icon views, with added property tags;

FIG. 8

includes two displays depicting the view scaling mechanism;

FIGS. 9

a and 9b include two displays of the image and text window views;

FIGS. 10

a and 10b show two displays of the Information windows for image and music files;

FIGS. 11

a and 11b show two displays of the content view mode, for images and email;

FIGS. 12

a and 12b describe the sticky path mechanism for viewing hierarchies in a list format;

FIG. 13

depicts link metadata between objects and collections;

FIG. 14

shows two displays of creating a collection of JPEG image files;

FIG. 15

shows two displays of creating a collection of objects related to Scandinavia by key phrase;

FIGS. 16

a and 16b depict the hyperlinking mechanism for objects with textual properties;

FIG. 17

shows an information window displaying the multiple classification of an image;

FIG. 18

shows a contact object and its corresponding collection;

FIG. 19

depicts creation of a new object, and dynamic updating of a collection classifying same;

FIG. 20

is a display depicting the Today collection, showing all objects that had activity today;

FIG. 21

is a display of Today, cross-referenced by collection;

FIG. 22

is a refinement of

FIG. 21

, Today cross-referenced by Received email;

FIG. 23

is a depiction of the domain mechanism for extending MFS;

FIG. 24

shows adding folders to the MFS working set;

FIGS. 25

a and 25b show the workspace during and after folders have been added;

FIG. 26

shows the workspace view;

FIG. 27

shows the standard container and content views;

FIG. 28

shows a sticky path view;

FIG. 29

shows creation of a collection;

FIG. 30

shows manually adding objects to a collection;

FIG. 31

shows a metadata query specification for a collection;

FIG. 32

is a schematic describing an overview of consistency maintenance: how objects are processed within the inventive system to update properties, classified into collections, and notified of changes by other objects;

FIG. 33

is a schematic describing in detail the updater process: how objects' properties are updated and their values stored into the metadata catalog;

FIG. 34

is a schematic describing in detail the synchronizer process: how changed metadata is written back to the object store;

FIG. 35

is a schematic describing in detail the notifier: how objects are notified of changes in metadata, and when the classifier and updater are notified of changes;

FIG. 36

is a schematic describing the classifier process: how objects are processed for classification into collections; and

FIG. 37

is a schematic describing in detail the classification of a single object.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTIONS, INCLUDING THE BEST MODE

The following detailed description illustrates the invention by way of example, not by way of limitation of the principles of the invention. This description will clearly enable one skilled in the art of computer programming and software design to make and use the invention, and describes several embodiments, adaptations, variations, alternatives, and uses of the inventions, including what we presently believe is the best mode of carrying out the invention.

In this regard, the invention is illustrated in the several figures, and is of sufficient complexity that the many parts, interrelationships, and sub-combinations thereof simply cannot be fully illustrated in a single patent-type drawing. For clarity and conciseness, several of the drawings show in schematic, or omit, parts that are not essential in that drawing to a description of a particular feature, functionality, aspect or principle of the invention being disclosed. Thus, the best mode embodiment of one feature may be shown in one drawing, and the best mode of another feature will be called out in another drawing.

All publications, patents and applications cited in this specification are herein incorporated by reference as if each individual publication, patent or application had been expressly stated to be incorporated by reference.

The Inventive System Implementation

The operation of the inventive MFS-configured computer system is enabled, and by way of example, embodied in one or more software program(s) that configure the CPU to provide(s) the functionalities described above. The overview of the system architecture is shown in

FIG. 1

as implementing a Mirrored Object System providing Property-Based Information Access, through a Comprehensive Desktop Interface, with Collections Providing Logical Groupings, with a unique method of Viewing By Reference, as an Extensible Platform. Each of these functionalities is described below, with reference to corresponding figures and discussion.

FIG. 1

illustrates a computer system comprising a computer 101 with an output display screen, an input keyboard and a memory unit, such as a hard drive, 110, and one or more network link(s) via an e-mail server 114. MFS, 1 comprises code modules, described in detail below, that interact as shown by the arrows, including: classifier 102, notifier 103, updater 104, synchronizer 105, a display, layout and input/output manager 106, the catalog metadata database 107, and the object store reference object database 108. Representative domains viewable on the desktop include a file domain 109, a music domain 111, images domain 112 an e-mail domain 113 and a personal information domain 115. The e-mail domain is linked through a network for the communication of files, music and images to and from a network link, e.g. the Internet.

Mirrored Object System. MFS, by which is meant the inventive system disclosed herein, comprises one or more application(s) for organizing all types of text and image information-from word processing documents and spreadsheets; to web pages and multimedia; to illustrations, images, movies, and photographs; to contacts, notes, and appointments; to sounds and music; or anything else that is stored and retrieved on a computerâ€”using the concept of extensible properties and link information stored as unified metadata (annotation and link metadata) associated with a reference object.

Many of the different instances of information that a user may want to organize are already stored as different types of files in the file system, or otherwise external to the user's client computer or the user's MFS, such as web pages on the World Wide Web or records in an online database. Some information is stored one-for-one: that is, a single file represents a single piece of information (say, a text file). Other information is aggregated into a single file, or is spread across multiple files: for example, email messages are typically stored many to a file due to their small size, and records in a database may be stored across multiple files as well. MFS provides the software-enabled computer system functionality so that the user can manage all of these different sizes and types of information through portable and replicatable links to reference objects without repetitive duplication and with automatic updating. Only one of each reference object is stored in the object store, and the reference objects mirror one-for-one the pieces of information found externally (external to MFS as described above).

MFS may be used concurrently with other software or applications that operationally configure the computer system to modify the external data sources; these sources do not notify MFS of any changes, nor do the other applications that make changes in the system. MFS provides an internal client computer mechanism for noticing external changes in data sources such as individual files that may contain objects of interest, and for creating, deleting, or updating the appropriate reference objects within MFS as necessary, by comparing external data sources with the reference objects and making the appropriate additions, deletions and changes in the reference objects and metadata. (See

FIG. 2

).

Property-based Information Access. A property is information about an object. Currently properties are used in conventional metadata format in a primitive form on computers: filenames, modification dates, folders, and possibly comments. The MFS inventive system, through the use of unified metadata (locally-stored, having been extracted from the original object, as well as links and annotations created by MFS) makes possible the attachment of system-defined as well as user-selected or created extensible properties about the content data of, or in, the object for different types of objects, thereby organizing information, regardless of the nature of the object, based on the unified metadata values stored in the catalog by the MFS inventive system.

MFS maintains for each kind of object the conventional, ordinary types of properties that common operating systems supportâ€”name and modification date, and the folder in which the file is storedâ€”as well as links and annotations in the form of corresponding metadata defined by the MFS itself. In addition, for images, MFS stores and maintains up to date in the catalog metadata representing the image dimensions in pixels and the pixel size, as well as resolution, size, and quality. For music files, MFS stores as metadata the album, artist, song title, genre and length of song in the catalog. For contacts, the metadata information stored is the typical contact record: first and last name, phone numbers, and so on in the catalog. For Adobe documents, special Adobe-specific properties called XMP (Extended Metadata Protocol) is read from each document and stored in the metadata database catalog as well. These properties may be available by examining the images, music files, Adobe files, and so on, but are not available in a way that makes it easy to organize these pieces of information due to the data being embedded in the files in proprietary and changeable formats. MFS extracts the selected properties and stores them in the catalog in the form of metadata, where they may be viewed, modified, and used for classification into collections. These are only a few of the different types of objects managed by MFS, and the types of objects managed is unlimited by the system architecture.

Because of the use of a special metadata data storage structure in the MFS, the catalog, it is very easy and fast to find the information needed. Objects may be quickly retrieved by any expression denoting desired property values stored in the MFS metadata. Since MFS provides a separate location to store this metadata and relationships, MFS may be used with any operating system regardless of the metadata supported by the operating system directly. (See

FIG. 3

) Comprehensive Desktop Interface. MFS presents information in a familiar desktop-style interface, with windows that show objects as icons or list views, among others. Window and icon sizes and locations are maintained persistently, to preserve the user's spatial arrangements.

FIG. 4

shows a list of folders (401), an icon view of Photoshop files (402), a list of user-defined collections and the counts of objects within (403), a list of domains (404), a partially-hidden text view (405), a contact record (406), a note (407), and an appointment (408).

MFS goes much farther than other desktop interfaces, however, in providing new and innovative viewing mechanisms that leverage the ability of MFS to store and retrieve arbitrary metadata.

For example, preview images are created and stored by MFS as annotations, and can be very quickly displayed in a slide view.

FIG. 5

shows a typical MFS window with the object name (501), a type identifier showing that it is a collection (502), a count of the objects displayed (503), a get info button (504), and a content region in which the objects are shown (505).

In a list view,

FIG. 6

, appropriate properties are shown for the types of objects being viewed; no longer is the user limited to viewing only the basic name-size-and-date list view. For example, music properties are shown when appropriate, since they are stored as metadata in the catalog and can be quickly retrieved.

FIG. 6

shows the Music collection (601), with columns for filename (602), song title (603), artist (604), and genre (605). List views may be sorted ascending or descending; the control (606) determines this, while clicking on the column headers determine the property on which to sort.

In the icon views of

FIGS. 7

a, 7b and 7c, arbitrary layouts of icons and their related properties are possible; this can be done programmatically, or laid out by user preference. The standard view adornments (701 through 704) are available, and the content may be viewed either as large icon (705), large icon with additional properties available (706), or small icon (707).

As shown in

FIG. 8

, all views may be scaled within the window, regardless of view type (icon or list). Window (801) is scaled at 100%, while window (802) is scaled at 150%. Views may also be sorted by a variety of properties that are shared by most objects: by name, by date, by size, by count (for folders and other containers); and by kind. This is also extensible by MFS to new property types.

As illustrated in

FIGS. 9

a and 9b, objects may also be viewed directly in their own windows. Images and text files in particular are easily examined within MFS, allowing the user direct access to the data. The image window has the typical adornments (901-904; note that 903 displays the image size and percentage zoom) and the content region (905) displays the image itself. Resizing the window also resizes the image to fit the window. A text window has the standard adornments (906-909; note that 908 displays the text file size) and the content region (910) displays the file's text.

Because each object type may have different MFS-usable metadata that can be extracted or synthesized from the original content data, the information window changes depending on the type of object being viewed. For example,

FIG. 10

a and 10b show that image files present their metadata properties (resolution, dimensions, and so on) differently than music files (artist, song title, genre). An image file information window displays the file name (1001), tabs for file and photo data (1002 and 1003), and image-file-specific information such as width, height, resolution, and depth (1004). All information windows have a tab to show comments (1005) as well as a view of containers in which the object resides (1006), and relevant contacts and projects. A Music file information window displays the filename (1007), common file information (1008), and custom properties for music files including title, artist, album, and genre (1009).

Sometimes it is convenient to view objects in a single window without opening new windows for each. MFS provides this through the content view, illustrated in

FIGS. 11

a and 11b. For example, when viewing images, the content view is divided into a view of the objects in the container (1101) and the content of the selected object (1102). Of course, this is not limited to showing individual objects. Folder contents, contacts, email, and so on may also be viewed in this way. A list of email messages (1103) may be examined one at a time by selecting them; the contents are shown in the right hand pane (1104).

Finally, MFS provides a unique list view feature. List views can have arbitrary columns for property values, depending on the type of objects being displayed; these can be determined programmatically or by user preference. As is common in list-type views of data, objects in the view that are containers for other objects may be expanded, showing their contents in-line with the other objects in the list, and generally indented to indicate depth in the hierarchy.

One of the problems with a list view is that it is easy to lose one's place when scrolling through a hierarchical list of containers. When the user is looking at an item in the list, how does the user know what that item's container is if it has scrolled off the top? The hierarchical path is easily forgotten. The unique sticky path view functionality of MFS, shown in

FIGS. 12

a and 12b, displays hierarchies in list format, while also maintaining a current-path view at the top of the window (1201) that keeps the user oriented as to location in the hierarchy (on the path) as scrolling occurs. In this way the user always knows what the path is to the items and where the items (or, conversely, the user) are in the hierarchy. As the user scrolls through the list, MFS maintains a Sticky Path Pane at the top of the window that always displays the path to the topmost item in the list (1202, 1204, 1206), updating dynamically. When the path changes (branches) due to scrolling, the sticky path redraws to correctly identify the new current path. Only the bottom part of the window (1203, 1205, 1207) scrolls while the path is updated as required. Each branch successively â€œsticksâ€ in a multi-line window at the top of the scroll window.

Collections Providing Logical Groupings. The MFS system tags objects of various kinds with the special attributes, links, and general descriptive metadata described above. Users may leverage this MFS metadata information to logically group related objects through special containers called collections. Collections permit selection of objects and contain objects that are logically-grouped by 1) user-defined categorization; 2) user or system-defined metadata query; and 3) user or system-defined key phrase matching.

User-defined categorization is enabled by a user directly specifying that a given object belongs to a given collection; this is generally achieved through dragging the object to the collection's icon in a window, though there are additional ways to provide user-defined categorization. This updates specific link metadata in both the object and the collection to indicate the relationship between the objects. (

FIG. 13

)

User-defined metadata queries, as shown in

FIG. 14

, provide automatic grouping of objects that share certain property values. These are Boolean metadata expressions used by MFS to define which objects should belong to the collection (in addition to those that were categorized by the user). For example, a collection of all JPEG files may be created by the user selecting (via a MFS-provided popup menus, and/or a type-in query line) all objects in the system that have names that end in .jpg or .jpeg, or have a file type of JPEG. The objects are immediately retrieved and displayed in the collection window. The collection's metadata query is specified in an information window, which consists of the collection name (1401) and a pane of terms (1402) which must be satisfied for objects to be collected. When the information window is closed, the collection window is shown with the collected objects (1403). Time-based collections, such as â€œTodayâ€ , dynamically modify their metadata queries to reflect the meaning of the collection. For example, Today will update the metadata query each day to correctly specify only those objects whose modification date is during the current day. Time-based collections are particularly applicable to viewing by reference.

User- or system-defined Key Phrase Matching shown in

FIG. 15

provides for automatic grouping of objects whose textual contents contain certain key phrases. For example, to group all emails, text files, etc. that mention cities and countries in Scandinavia, a collection may be created for that purpose with a query based on key words or phrases that are related to Scandinavia, and MFS will collect them together. As before, the collection's Information window specifies the collection definition; its name (1501) and a list of key phrases (1502), at least one of which must exist in an object for it to be collected. The result collection is displayed in a standard MFS icon window (1503).

As shown in

FIGS. 16

a and 16b, because collections can group objects based on key phrases as well as by metadata properties, examining the objects can provide automatic cross-indexing and hypertext linking based on the collections defined. Text windows (1601) are annotated by underlining and coloring hypertext-linked phrases (1602). Clicking on a link will provide a popup of the collections that specify that key phrase (1603); choosing one will open that collection. If more than one collection specifies the same key phrases, all appropriate collections will be listed.

An important aspect of the inventive MFS-enabled computer system control program is shown in

FIG. 17

. Since it simply modifies the metadata links to indicate collection and container membership, and does not move or copy the original objects may be classified into several different collections at once. For example, this image is in the Images collection; it is taken from the air and so was categorized in the Flying collection; it is a JPEG file so it is in the JPEG collection; it's a photo of children, so it is in the Kids collection; it was taken during a trip to Mono Lake, so it is in the Mono Lake (Blake) folder; and finally, the children in the photo are in the Ward family. All the containers that contain the object are listed (1701) and can be opened directly. In this way the user is spared from having to decide what single folder the file or object should be stored; collections can have MFS metadata links to many objects, and object links may be stored in many different collections. For example, an automobile repair bill can be filed in Auto, Repairs, and Bills simultaneously.

By way of further enabling example, a typical logical grouping involves People, Places and Activities. As part of the Personal Information Management Domain, MFS provides the ability to create named collections for places, as well as contacts and projects, around which objects may be grouped. A collection is defined for each contact, and for every project currently being worked on.

As shown in

FIG. 18

, MFS automatically creates such collections and organizes your email and files by examining them for the contact or project name. Automatic collections may be extended as desired; for example, if contacts have nicknames it would be appropriate for their collections to search for their nicknames as well. In a Contact window (1801) a Collection button (1802) opens the Collection that is automatically linked (1803). Note how the Bruce Horn collection has collected together all emails that reference â€œBruce Hornâ€ as well as all of the source files that were written by Bruce Horn in the development of MFS.

While metadata-query specification and key phrase matching can be viewed as database queries, collections are also dynamic: when new objects appear, or objects are edited by the user that then satisfy the metadata query, the collections are updated immediately. The collections need not be visible for this to occur, as MFS operates in the background. All collections are kept up to date at all times.

For example, as shown in

FIG. 19

, creating a new note regarding a trip to Norway this summer is automatically added to the Scandinavia collection. The original collection (1901) does not include the note (1902) until it is created and the word Norway is noted by MFS; then it is added (1903) and hyper-linked automatically (1904).

One easy way to leverage MFS's metadata capability is to write meaningful descriptions in the comment field for files that can be searched by collections. While some operating systems, such as Mac OS9, provide direct support for storage of comments, MFS supports comments for all objects whether or not the operating system does. All metadata created for objects within MFS is available, whether or not the host operating system provides such a feature.

Viewing by Reference. Because a collection specifies what objects should appear in the collection, objects may be in many different collections simultaneously if they satisfy each of the collections' specifications. This is a great benefit in that it allows the user to view data in a variety of ways. For example, a car repair bill can appear in the Car collection, the Repairs