System and method for manipulating and managing computer archive files

• US 20060143237A1
• Filed: 02/21/2006
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PKWARE, Inc. (PKW Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PKWARE, Inc. (PKW Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peterson, James C., Basin, Yuri, Beirne, Michael J., Peterson, Karen L.
• Application Number:
  US11/358,497
• Publication Number:
  US 20060143237A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2209/30 Compression, e.g. Merkle-Damgard construction
• 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: H04L 9/3231 Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide an archive management application that operates within a host application to provide access to an archive and/or allow access to and/or modification of files in an archive using the host application'"'"'s interface, instead of operating as a separate standalone archive management application. In an embodiment of the present invention, a file archiving system may include a user interface component, a file management component and a compression/extraction engine component. The user interface component may include an enhanced user interface of a host application that provides an interface for a user. The file management component may include a central directory that provides a representation of the contents of an archive. The compression/extraction engine component may include a file size module and/or a security module. The file size module may be used to compress and/or decompress a file in an archive. The security module may be used to encrypt, decrypt, digitally sign and/or authenticate a file in an archive.

Claims

1. A system for email attachment management, said system including:

an email application; and

an email attachment management application, wherein said email attachment management application is usable using said email application without leaving said email application.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said email attachment management application allows a user to configure an email attachment compression option using said email application.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said email attachment management application allows a user to compress an archive using said email application.

4. The system of claim 3 compressing said archive includes compressing contents of said archive.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said contents of said archive includes a file.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said email attachment management application allows a user to modify an archive using said email application.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein modifying said archive includes modifying a file in said archive.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said email attachment management application allows a user to access contents of an archive using said email application.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein accessing an archive includes viewing contents of said archive.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said email attachment management application allows a user to configure an email attachment security option using said email application.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein said email attachment security option is encryption.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein said email attachment security option is digital signing.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein said email attachment management application allows a user to encrypt an archive.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein encrypting said archive includes encrypting contents of said archive.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said contents of said archive includes a file.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein said email attachment management application allows a user to digitally sign an archive.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein digitally signing said archive includes digitally signing contents of said archive.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein said contents of said archive includes a file.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application operates on a personal computer.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application operates on a portable device.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein said portable device is a wireless device.

22. The system of claim 20 wherein said portable device is a portable digital assistant.

23. The system of claim 20 wherein said portable device is a portable music playing device.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein said portable music playing device allows replay of pre-recorded music.

25. The system of claim 20 wherein said portable device is a portable storage device.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein said portable storage device operates using a Universal Serial Bus.

27. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application operates on a telephonic device.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein said email application operates on a cellular phone.

29. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application operates on a gaming device.

30. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application operates on an electronic game device.

31. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application operates on a television system.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein said email application operates on a satellite television system.

33. The system of claim 31 wherein said email application operates on a cable television system.

34. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application operates on an image capture device.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein said image capture device is a camera.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein said image capture device is a video recorder.

37. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application is one of Microsoft Outlook.

38. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application is Lotus Notes.

39. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application is Thunderbird.

40. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application is Versamail.

41. The system of claim 1 wherein said email application is Novell Groupwise.

42. A method for viewing the contents of a .ZIP archive e-mail attachment, said method including:

providing a user interface using an e-mail management application;

providing a .ZIP archive management application; and

operating said .ZIP archive management application to form an enhanced version of said e-mail management application, wherein said enhanced version of said e-mail management application allows a user to view contents of a .ZIP archive e-mail attachment using said user interface.

43. A method for accessing a file in a .ZIP archive e-mail attachment, said method including:

providing a user interface using an e-mail management application;

providing a .ZIP archive management application; and

operating said .ZIP archive management application to form an enhanced version of said e-mail management application, wherein said enhanced version of said e-mail management application allows a user to access a file in a .ZIP archive e-mail attachment using said user interface.