System and method for manipulating and managing computer archive files

• US 20050138088A1
• Filed: 10/21/2004
• Published: 06/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PK Ware Incorporated
• Original Assignee: PK Ware Incorporated
• Inventors: Peterson, James C., Basin, Yuri, Beirne, Michael J., Peterson, Karen L.
• Application Number:
  US10/970,897
• Publication Number:
  US 20050138088A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1744 using compression, e.g. sparse files
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/30 Compression speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N; Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A computer program for managing and manipulating archive zip files of a computer. The program includes a system and method for opening, creating, modifying, and extracting zip archive files. The program is fully integrated into Microsoft Windows Explorer and is accessed via Explorer menus, toolbars, and/or drag and drop operations. An important feature of the program is the archive manager which may be used to open a zip file, create a new zip file, extract zip files, modify zip files, etc. The program is integrated into Microsoft Windows Explorer using the shell name space extension application program interface developed by Microsoft.

Claims

1. A system for managing and manipulating computer archive files comprising:

a user interface integrated with Microsoft Windows Explorer interfacing to a central directory;

an file manager including the central directory interfacing with archive files and data object files;

a compression/extraction engine interfacing with the file manager for compressing, extracting, encrypting and decrypting archive files and data object files.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a shell, a graphical user interface and a call level interface.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the file manager includes the central directory which holds the archived files.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the compression/extraction engine includes compression and extraction algorithms.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface, file manager and compression/extraction engine are integrated into Microsoft Windows Explorer.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a mail attachment compressor module for automatically compressing email attachments.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the mail attachment compressor module is implemented within Microsoft Outlook and integrated with the compression/extraction engine.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the mail attachment compressor module integrates compression into the standard Microsoft Outlook mail message edit form.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the mail attachment compressor module provides the ability to digitally sign attachments as they are sent.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the mail attachment compressor module adds a Toggle Compression button and an Options button to Microsoft Outlook'"'"'s standard toolbar.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the Options button includes parameters for configuration of digital certificates, passwords and compression method options.

12. A method of managing and manipulating computer archive files, the method comprising the steps of:

integrating a software utility program into Microsoft Windows Explorer; and

accessing the software utility program to manage and manipulate compressed archive files stored in computer memory.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein managing archive files includes opening and viewing the contents of the archive files.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein manipulating archive files includes creating a new archive file.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein manipulating archive files includes modifying an existing archive file.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein manipulating archive files includes extracting archive files.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein manipulating archive files includes encrypting archive files.

18. The method of claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

installing a mail attachment compression module onto a user'"'"'s computer;

initiating Microsoft Outlook; and

enabling the mail attachment feature.