Methods and systems for managing data

• US 20050289107A1
• Filed: 04/22/2005
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chaudhri, Imran, Ording, Bas, Giampaolo, Dominic, Arrouye, Yan, Cisler, Pavel, van Os, Marcel, Tiene, Kevin, Christie, Gregory, Lemay, Stephen
• Application Number:
  US11/112,253
• Publication Number:
  US 20050289107A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/168 Details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems, e.g. browsing and visualisation, 2d or 3d GUIs query results presentation G06F16/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing data, such as metadata. In one exemplary method, a selection of at least one file having metadata stored in a metadata database is received, and a selection of a command to search, using at least a portion of the metadata, is received, and a search through the metadata database is performed. Methods and data processing systems and machine readable media are also described.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method of processing data, the method comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one file having metadata stored in a metadata database;

receiving a selection of a command to search using at least a portion of the metadata of the at least one file;

searching through the metadata database using the at least a portion of the metadata.

2. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

displaying results of the searching, and wherein the receiving a selection of at least one file and the receiving a selection of a command occur through a single user interaction.

3. A method as in claim 1 wherein, in the metadata database, the type of information in metadata for files of a first type differs from the type of information in metadata for files of a second type.

4. A method as in claim 3 wherein the searching further comprises searching through an index database using the at least a portion of the metadata used to search the metadata database.

5. A method as in claim 3 wherein the searching uses a BOOLEAN OR operator among attributes of the at least a portion of the metadata.

6. A method as in claim 1 further comprising:

displaying results of the searching in a ranked manner based on an order of selected attributes within at least a portion of the metadata of the at least one file.

7. A method as in claim 1 wherein the selection of at least one file selects a plurality of files each having metadata stored in the metadata database and wherein a Boolean operator is selected for performing the searching with metadata of the plurality of files.

8. A method as in claim 6 wherein a set of selected attributes for metadata of a first type of file differ from a set of selected attributes of metadata of a second type of file and wherein results of the searching are ranked based on an order of the set of selected attributes for metadata of the first type if the first type of file is selected or an order of the set of selected attributes for metadata of the second type if the second type of file is selected.

9. A machine readable medium providing instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method of processing data, the method comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one file having metadata stored in a metadata database;

receiving a selection of a command to search using at least a portion of the metadata of the at least one file;

searching through the metadata database using the at least a portion of the metadata.

10. A medium as in claim 9, the method further comprising:

displaying results of the searching.

11. A medium as in claim 9 wherein, in the metadata database, the type of information in metadata for files of a first type differs from the type of information in metadata for files of a second type.

12. A medium as in claim 11 wherein the searching further comprises searching through an index database using the at least a portion of the metadata used to search the metadata database.

13. A medium as in claim 11 wherein the searching uses a BOOLEAN OR operator among attributes of the at least a portion of the metadata.

14. A medium as in claim 9, the method further comprising:

display results of the searching in a ranked manner based on an order of selected attributes within at least a portion of the metadata of the at least one file.

15. A medium as in claim 9 wherein the selection of at least one file selects a plurality of files each having metadata stored in the metadata database and wherein a Boolean operator is selected for performing the searching with metadata of the plurality of files.

16. A medium as in claim 14 wherein a set of selected attributes for metadata of a first type of file differ from a set of selected attributes of metadata of a second type of file and wherein results of the searching are ranked based on an order of the set of selected attributes for metadata of the first type if the first type of file is selected or an order of the set of selected attributes for metadata of the second type if the second type of file is selected.

17. A data processing system comprising:

means for receiving a selection of at least one file having metadata stored in a metadata database;

means for receiving a selection of a command to search using at least a portion of the metadata of the at least one file;

means for searching through the metadata database using the at least a portion of the metadata.

18. A system as in claim 17 further comprising:

means for displaying results of the searching.

19. A system as in claim 17 wherein, in the metadata database, the type of information in metadata for files of a first type differs from the type of information in metadata for files of a second type.

20. A system as in claim 19 wherein the searching further comprises searching through an index database using the at least a portion of the metadata used to search the metadata database.

21. A system as in claim 19 wherein the searching uses a BOOLEAN OR operator among attributes of the at least a portion of the metadata.

22. A system as in claim 17 further comprising:

means for displaying results of the searching in a ranked manner based on an order of selected attributes within at least a portion of the metadata of the at least one file.

23. A system as in claim 17 wherein the selection of at least one file selects a plurality of files each having metadata stored in the metadata database and wherein a Boolean operator is selected for performing the searching with metadata of the plurality of files.

24. A system as in claim 22 wherein a set of selected attributes for metadata of a first type of file differ from a set of selected attributes of metadata of a second type of file and wherein results of the searching are ranked based on an order of the set of selected attributes for metadata of the first type if the first type of file is selected or an order of the set of selected attributes for metadata of the second type if the second type of file is selected.

25. A machine implemented method of processing data, the method comprising:

performing a search through a metadata database using, as a search query, metadata of at least one selected file;

ranking search results from the search based on a predefined order of attributes in the metadata of the at least one selected file.

26. A method as in claim 25 wherein the predefined order of attributes depends upon the type of file which is the at least one selected file.

27. A method as in claim 26 wherein a first type of file has a first predefined order and a second type of file has a second predefined order which is different than the first predefined order.

28. A method as in claim 27 further comprising:

displaying the search results.

29. A method as in claim 25 wherein, in the metadata database, the type of information in the metadata for files of a first type differs from the type of information in metadata for files of a second type.

30. A method as in claim 25 wherein the search further comprises a search through a full text index database using the metadata of the at least one selected file.

31. A machine readable medium providing instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method of processing data, the method comprising:

performing a search through a metadata database using, as a search query, metadata of at least one selected file;

ranking search results from the search based on a predefined order of attributes in the metadata of the at least one selected file.

32. A medium as in claim 31 wherein the predefined order of attributes depends upon the type of file which is the at least one selected file.

33. A medium as in claim 32 wherein a first type of file has a first predefined order and a second type of file has a second predefined order which is different than the first predefined order.

34. A medium as in claim 33, the method further comprising:

displaying the search results.

35. A medium as in claim 31 wherein, in the metadata database, the type of information in the metadata for files of a first type differs from the type of information in metadata for files of a second type.

36. A medium as in claim 31 wherein the search further comprises a search through a full text index database using the metadata of the at least one selected file.

39. A system as in claim 36 wherein a first type of file has a first predefined order and a second type of file has a second predefined order which is different than the first predefined order.

40. A system as in claim 39 further comprising:

means for displaying the search results.

37. A data processing system comprising:

means for performing a search through a metadata database using, as a search query, metadata of at least one selected file;

means for ranking search results from the search based on a predefined order of attributes in the metadata of the at least one selected file.

38. A system as in claim 37 wherein the predefined order of attributes depends upon the type of file which is the at least one selected file.

41. A system as in claim 37 wherein, in the metadata database, the type of information in the metadata for files of a first type differs from the type of information in metadata for files of a second type.

42. A system as in claim 37 wherein the search further comprises a search through a full text index database using the metadata of the at least one selected file.