Managing user clips
First Claim
1. A method for hierarchically organizing files of a selected type that are stored accessed by a computing device, said storage including a plurality of other different types of files, to enable a user to efficiently access desired files from among the files of the selected type, comprising the steps of:
- (a) identifying any content folders in which files of the selected type are included;
(b) creating a separate collection hierarchy based upon the content folders that were identified, each content folder being represented as a collection in the collection hierarchy, and each collection in the collection hierarchy being associated with a folder path that indicates where the collection is located;
(c) including selected empty folders in the collection hierarchy that do not include any files of the selected type, but which may include any of the other different types of files, said empty folders being selected by applying a sibling rule and being included in the collection hierarchy to delineate branches in the collection hierarchy that are employed to distinguish between branches in the folder paths associated with the collections, in order to locate the collections; and
(d) importing files of the selected type that are included in each collection into the collection hierarchy for efficient access by a user, said collection hierarchy differing from a general directory structure that includes folders for all types of files, by being flattened to include the selected empty folders and the folders identified by scanning as including files of the selected type.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Media clips on a hard drive or other storage are automatically organized in collections and metadata automatically assigned to facilitate subsequent searching for media clips. A Clip Organizer software application initially scans a user'"'"'s hard drive to identify folders containing user files of sound, picture, clip art, video and other media clips. Predefined types of folders are omitted in the scan to avoid identifying media clips that do not belong to the user or are part of another application program. A partially “flattened” collection hierarchy is created to simplify browsing the media clips. Sufficient empty files are included to enable a user to readily locate the collections, and metadata comprising keywords derived from the path of each media clip are associated with each of the media clips to facilitate subsequent searching for the files. In addition, the collection hierarchy is automatically updated as changes are made.
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Citations
58 Claims
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1. A method for hierarchically organizing files of a selected type that are stored accessed by a computing device, said storage including a plurality of other different types of files, to enable a user to efficiently access desired files from among the files of the selected type, comprising the steps of:
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(a) identifying any content folders in which files of the selected type are included;
(b) creating a separate collection hierarchy based upon the content folders that were identified, each content folder being represented as a collection in the collection hierarchy, and each collection in the collection hierarchy being associated with a folder path that indicates where the collection is located;
(c) including selected empty folders in the collection hierarchy that do not include any files of the selected type, but which may include any of the other different types of files, said empty folders being selected by applying a sibling rule and being included in the collection hierarchy to delineate branches in the collection hierarchy that are employed to distinguish between branches in the folder paths associated with the collections, in order to locate the collections; and
(d) importing files of the selected type that are included in each collection into the collection hierarchy for efficient access by a user, said collection hierarchy differing from a general directory structure that includes folders for all types of files, by being flattened to include the selected empty folders and the folders identified by scanning as including files of the selected type. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for automatically indexing a collection of files of a selected type to enable searching for desired files within the collection based upon index data produced by indexing the collection, comprising the steps of:
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(a) associating a folder path for each file included in the collection, with the file;
(b) parsing the folder path for each file to extract metadata for the file, each folder name in the folder path of the file comprising a separate index in the metadata for the file that is independently searchable and maintained in a collection hierarchy separately from a directory structure for files; and
(c) associating the metadata that were thus extracted, with files in the collection, so that for each such file, the metadata extracted by parsing the folder path for the file comprise index data employable to subsequently automatically locate the file by searching for an index included in the metadata for the file. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A machine-readable memory medium having machine instructions that are executable by a computing device to carry out a plurality of functions, including:
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(a) identifying any content folders in which files of a selected type are included among a plurality of different types of files;
(b) creating a separate collection hierarchy, based upon the content folders that were identified, each content folder being represented as a collection in the collection hierarchy, and each collection in the collection hierarchy being associated with a folder path that indicates where the collection is located;
(c) including selected empty folders in the collection hierarchy that do not include any files of the selected type, but which may include any of the other different types of files, said empty folders being selected by applying a sibling rule and being included in the collection hierarchy to delineate branches in the collection hierarchy that are employed to distinguish between branches in the folder paths associated with the collections; and
(d) importing files of the selected type that are included in each collection into the collection hierarchy for efficient access by a user, said collection hierarchy differing from a general directory structure that includes folders for all types of files available, by being flattened to include the selected empty folders and the folders identified as including files of the selected type. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A machine-readable memory medium having machine instructions that are executable by a computing device to carry out a plurality of functions, including:
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(a) associating a folder path for each file of a specific type included in a collection of files of the specific type;
(b) parsing the folder path for each file of the specific type to extract metadata for the file, each folder name in the folder path of the file comprising a separate index in the metadata for the file that is independently searchable and maintained in a collection hierarchy separately from a directory structure for files; and
(c) associating the metadata from the step of parsing with files of the specific type in the collection, so that for each such file, the metadata produced by parsing the folder path for the file is associated with the file and comprise index data used for automatically locating the file by searching for an index included in the metadata for the file in the index data. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A system for hierarchically organizing files of a selected type that are stored in a storage accessed by a computing device, said storage including a plurality of other different types of files, to enable a user to efficiently access desired files from among the files of the selected type in the storage, comprising:
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(a) a computing device having logical processing capabilities;
(b) a storage coupled to the computing device, said storage providing non-volatile storage of files and data; and
(c) a memory that is coupled to the computing device, said memory storing machine instructions, which when executed by the computing device, cause the following functions to be implemented;
(i) scanning the storage with the computing device to identify any content folders in which files of a selected type are included;
(ii) creating a separate collection hierarchy on the storage, based upon the content folders that were identified, each content folder being represented as a collection in the collection hierarchy, and each collection in the collection hierarchy being associated with a folder path that indicates where the collection is located in the storage;
(iii) including selected empty folders in the collection hierarchy that do not include any files of the selected type, but which may include any of the other different types of files, said empty folders being selected by applying a sibling rule and being included in the collection hierarchy to delineate branches in the collection hierarchy that distinguish between branches in the folder paths associated with the collections; and
(iv) importing files of the selected type that are included in each collection into the collection hierarchy for efficient access by a user, said collection hierarchy differing from a general directory structure that includes folders for all types of files in the storage, by being flattened to include the selected empty folders and the folders identified by scanning as including files of the selected type. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. A system for hierarchically organizing files of a selected type that are stored in a storage accessed by a computing device, to enable a user to efficiently access desired files from among the files of the selected type in the storage, comprising:
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(a) a computing device having logical processing capabilities;
(b) a storage coupled to the computing device, said storage providing non-volatile storage of files and data; and
(c) a memory that is coupled to the computing device, said memory storing machine instructions, which when executed by the computing device, cause the following functions to be implemented;
(i) associate a folder path for each file included in the collection;
(ii) parse the folder path for each file to extract metadata for the file, each folder name in the folder path of the file comprising a separate index in the metadata for the file that is independently searchable and maintained in a collection hierarchy separately from a directory structure for files; and
(iii) associate the metadata that were extracted, with files in the collection, so that for each such file, the metadata extracted by parsing the folder path for the file are used to provide index data employed to subsequently automatically locate the file by searching for an index included in the metadata for the file. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
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Specification