Global and local entity naming

• US 20070143437A1
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Erlingsson, Ulfar, McSherry, Frank
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/365 Application layer names, e.g. buddy names, unstructured names chosen by a user or home appliance name
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3025 Domain name generation or assignment

Abstract

An improved entity naming scheme employs the use of two sets of names: local names and global names. The local and global naming scheme may be applied to entities that are assigned to a number of different global compartments. Local entities are entities that are assigned to the same compartment, while non-local entities are entities that are assigned to different compartments. Each entity is assigned a local name that is unique among all local entities. Additionally, a number of global entities are identified. Global entities are entities that are referenced by one or more non-local entities. Each global entity is assigned a global name that is unique among all global entities.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

assigning a local name to each entity that is registered to one of a plurality of compartments; and

assigning a global name to each global entity that is registered to one of the plurality of compartments, each global entity being an entity that is referenced by another entity that is registered to a different compartment than the global entity.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

(a) activating local names corresponding to entities that are registered to a first compartment in the plurality of compartments;

(b) performing operations on the entities registered to the first compartment; and

(c) de-activating the local names corresponding to entities that are registered to the first compartment.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the step of:

(d) repeating steps (a) through (c) for each compartment in the plurality of compartments.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the step of:

prior to performing step (a), activating global names corresponding to all global entities that are registered to one of the plurality of compartments.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein performing operations comprises performing page ranking operations.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each local name is unique to each compartment such that no two entities that are registered to a single compartment are assigned identical local names.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each global name is unique to the plurality of compartments such that no two global entities within the plurality of compartments are assigned identical global names.

8. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

for a first entity registered to a first compartment;

sending a local message from the first entity to a local box of a local entity that is also registered to the first compartment; and

sending a non-local message from the first entity to a global box of a non-local entity that is not registered to the first compartment.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

retrieving a message from the first entity'"'"'s local box; and

if the first entity has a global box, then retrieving a message from the first entity'"'"'s global box.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the step of:

repeating the steps of claims 8 and 9 for each remaining entity registered to the first compartment.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

prior to performing the steps of claims 8 through 10, activating local names corresponding to entities registered to the first compartment, each local name identifying a corresponding local box; and

after performing the steps of claims 8 through 10, de-activating the local names corresponding to entities registered to the first compartment.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the step of:

repeating the steps of claims 8 through 11 for each remaining compartment in a plurality of compartments.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the step of:

prior to performing the steps of claims 8 through 12, activating global names corresponding to the plurality of compartments, each global name identifying a corresponding global box.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

assigning a local name to each entity registered to one of the plurality of compartments, each local name being unique to each compartment such that no two entities that are registered to a single compartment are assigned identical local names; and

assigning a global name to each entity registered to one of the plurality of compartments that is referenced by at least one non-local entity, each global name being unique to the plurality of compartments such that no two entities within the plurality of compartments are assigned identical global names.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein each entity is a web page.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein sending a message comprises propagating a page ranking score from a referring entity to a referenced entity.

17. A method for assigning global names to entities, the method comprising:

(a) examining a first reference to a referenced entity, the first reference being within a first entity that is registered to a first compartment;

(b) determining whether the referenced entity is registered to the first compartment;

(c) if the referenced entity is not registered to the first compartment, then assigning a global name to the referenced entity.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

(d) repeating steps (a) and (c) for each remaining entity registered to the first compartment.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

(e) repeating steps (a) and (d) for each remaining compartment in a plurality of compartments.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein examining a first reference comprises examining a uniform resource locator.