Systems and methods for uniformly identifying e-mail attachments

• US 20040078375A1
• Filed: 10/16/2002
• Published: 04/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Milestone IP LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Johnson, Swen R. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,107,276 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A uniform identifier record for a digital file comprises a unique identifier field and a textual identifier field. The unique identifier field may comprise a uniform resource locator. Alternately, the unique identifier field may comprise an integer. In one embodiment, the unique identifier is created by adding a constant value to a last prior unique identifier. The textual information is a user-friendly string identifying the file. In applications where the file identified by the uniform identifier record is associated with a separate file, the uniform identifier record is appended to the associated file.

Claims

1. A uniform identifier record for an electronic file, comprising at least one of:

a unique identifier for the file; and

a textual identifier for the file.

2. The uniform identifier record of claim 1, wherein the unique identifier field comprises a text string.

3. The uniform identifier record of claim 2, wherein the text string is inserted into a computer file associated with the electronic file.

4. The uniform identifier record of claim 3, wherein the text string is appended to the computer file.

5. The uniform identifier record of claim 1, wherein the textual identifier field comprises a text string.

6. The uniform identifier record of claim 5, wherein the text string is inserted into a computer file associated with the electronic file.

7. The uniform identifier record of claim 6, wherein the text string is appended to the computer file.

8. The uniform identifier record of claim 1, wherein the unique identifier is a uniform resource locator.

9. The uniform identifier record of claim 1, wherein the unique identifier is an integer.

10. The uniform identifier record of claim 1, wherein the unique identifier is generated by adding an increment to a previous unique identifier.

11. The uniform identifier record of claim 1, wherein the unique identifier is not present and the textual identifier uniquely identifies the electronic file.

12. A method for uniformly identifying an electronic file, comprising:

generating at least one of a unique identifier and a textual identifier for the electronic file;

concatenating the at least one of the unique identifier and the textual identifier into a record; and

inserting the record into a computer file associated with the electronic file.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the unique identifier is a uniform resource locator.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the unique identifier is an integer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein generating the unique identifier comprises:

determining a base unique identifier; and

adding an increment to the base unique identifier.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the record is appended to the end of the computer file.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the unique identifier is not generated and the textual identifier uniquely identifies the electronic file.

18. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein usable to cause a computer to uniquely identify an electronic file, the computer readable program code of the computer program product comprising:

at least one of;

computer readable program code usable to cause the computer to generate a unique identifier for the electronic file, and computer readable program code usable to cause the computer to generate a textual identifier for the electronic file;

computer readable program code usable to cause the computer to concatenate the at least one of the unique identifier and the textual identifier into a record; and

computer readable program code usable to cause the computer to insert the record into a computer file associated with the electronic file.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the unique identifier is a uniform resource locator.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the unique identifier is an integer.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the computer readable program code usable to cause the computer to generate a unique identifier for the electronic file further comprises:

computer readable program code usable to cause the computer to determine a base unique identifier; and

computer readable program code usable to cause the computer to add an increment to the base unique identifier.

22. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the computer readable program code usable to cause the computer to insert the record into the computer file further causes the computer to append the record to the end of the computer file.

23. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the unique identifier is not generated and the textual identifier uniquely identifies the electronic file.

24. An information storage medium having information that uniformly identifies an electronic file, comprising:

at least one of information that generates a unique identifier for the electronic file, and information that generates a textual identifier for the electronic file;

information that concatenates the at least one of the unique identifier and optional textual identifier into a record; and

information that inserts the record into a computer file associated with the electronic file.

25. The information storage medium of claim 24, wherein the unique identifier is a uniform resource locator.

26. The information storage medium of claim 24, wherein the unique identifier is an integer.

27. The information storage medium of claim 26, wherein the information that generates the unique identifier for the electronic file further comprises:

information that determines a base unique identifier; and

information that adds an increment to the base unique identifier.

28. The information storage medium of claim 24, wherein the information that inserts the record into the computer file appends the record to the end of the computer file.

29. The information storage medium of claim 24, wherein the unique identifier is not generated and the textual identifier uniquely identifies the electronic file.

30. A system that uniformly identifies an electronic file, comprising

at least one of a unique identifier generating circuit, routine or application that generates a unique identifier for a computer file, and a textual identifier generating circuit, routine or application that generates a textual identifier for the electronic file;

a record generating circuit, routine or application that concatenates the at least one of the unique identifier and the textual identifier into a record; and

a file modifying circuit, routine or application that inserts the record into the computer file associated with the electronic file.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the unique identifier is a uniform resource locator.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the unique identifier is an integer.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the unique identifier generating circuit, routine or application further comprises:

a base unique identifier generating circuit, routine or application to determine a base unique identifier; and

an incrementing circuit, routine or application that adds an increment to the base unique identifier.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the file modifying circuit, routine or application appends the record to the end of the computer file.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein the unique identifier is not generated and the textual identifier uniquely identifies the electronic file.