Method and system for generating and maintaining property sets with unique format identifiers
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for generating a property set in a storage device of a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
- allocating a property set stream within the storage device for storing the property set in the computer system;
storing header information in the property set stream, the header information having identifying information for identifying the property set;
storing a section locator in the property set stream, the section locator having a unique format identifier which uniquely identifies a corresponding section and having a location identifier for locating the corresponding section within the property set stream; and
storing the section within the property set stream, the section having a section header and having zero or more property definitions, each property definition including a property identifier which uniquely identifies the property definition within the section, each property definition including a property value containing data, and each property definition including a corresponding type indicator for indicating a format of the data stored in the property value.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for generating and maintaining property sets is provided. In a preferred embodiment, a property set stream is generated. The stream comprises three parts: a header, a section locator array, and one or more sections. The header contains information for uniquely identifying the property set and for identifying the number of sections within the property set. The section locator array contains a unique identifier for each section and an offset indicating where the section resides within the stream. The third part, the section definitions, contains the information necessary to maintain groups of properties for each section. Each section contains a section header, a property locator array, and an array of property type/value pairs. The section header indicates both the size of the section and the number of properties defined within the section. The property locator array contains unique property identifiers for each property defined in the section and a relative offset, from the beginning of the section, to the property definition. Each property definition appears as a type/value pair, the type indicator indicating the data format for the property and the value field containing or referencing the data. In a preferred embodiment, a property set is generated by allocating appropriate storage and by storing values in the standard structure for a property set.
63 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for generating a property set in a storage device of a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
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allocating a property set stream within the storage device for storing the property set in the computer system; storing header information in the property set stream, the header information having identifying information for identifying the property set; storing a section locator in the property set stream, the section locator having a unique format identifier which uniquely identifies a corresponding section and having a location identifier for locating the corresponding section within the property set stream; and storing the section within the property set stream, the section having a section header and having zero or more property definitions, each property definition including a property identifier which uniquely identifies the property definition within the section, each property definition including a property value containing data, and each property definition including a corresponding type indicator for indicating a format of the data stored in the property value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer-implemented method for generating a property set in a storage device of a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
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allocating a property set stream within the storage device for storing the property set in the computer system; storing header information in the property set stream, the header information having identifying information for identifying the property set; storing a section locator array in the property set stream, each element of the section locator array uniquely identifying and locating a corresponding section of property definitions within the property set stream; and storing a plurality of sections of property definitions within the property set stream, each section having at least one property definition, each property definition including a property identifier which uniquely identifies the property definition within the section, each property definition including a property value containing data, and each property definition including a corresponding type indicator for indicating a format of the data stored in the property value.
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17. A memory for storing data for access by a program being executed on a computer system, comprising:
a data structure stored in the memory, the data structure having data that represents a property set, the data structure comprising; a header portion containing identifying information for the property set; a section locator array, following the header portion, each array element containing a unique format identifier and locating information for a collection of properties; and one or more sections, following the section locator array, each section containing a section header, each section containing one or more properties and defining a collection that is identified by an element of the section locator array, each property having a type indicator and a value, and each section containing a property location information for identifying and locating information each property contained in the section. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. A data processing machine comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing a serial representation of structured data, the structured data being manipulated by the processor under control of a computer program and being stored in the memory as:
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a collection of zero or more properties contained in a section, each property having a property identifier for uniquely identifying the property within the section, each property having a data value, and each property having a type identifier which describes a format for the data value, the section having a section header that identifies a count of the properties contained in the section; a section locator having a section identifier, which uniquely identifies the section, and having locating information, which is used by the computer program to locate the section; and a header having an identifier for identifying the collection of properties contained in the section. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. A computer system with an operating system and a memory comprising:
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means for storing a collection of one or more properties in the memory, each property having a property identifier for uniquely identifying the property within the section, each property having a data value, and each property having a type identifier which describes a format for the data value; and means for storing a colelction locator in the memory, the collection locator having a format identifier generated by the operating system, the format identifier uniquely identifying the stored collection of properties, and the collection locator having locating information for locating the stored colelction of properties in the memory.
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23. A computer-implemented method for generating a property set in a storage device of a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
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allocating a property set stream within the storage device for storing the property set in the computer system; storing header information in the property set stream, the header information having identifying information for identifying the property set; storing a section locator array in the property set stream, each element of the section locator array having a unique format identifier which uniquely identifies a corresponding section of property definitions and having a location identifier for locating the corresponding section of property definitions within the property set stream; and storing a plurality of sections of property definitions within the property set stream, each section having at least one property definition, each property definition including a property identifier which uniquely identifies the property definition within the section, each property definition including a property value containing data, and each property definition including a corresponding type indicator for indicating a format of the data stored in the property value. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A computer-implemented method for generating a property set in a storage device of a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
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allocating a property set stream within the storage device for storing the property set in the computer system; storing header information in the property set stream, the header information having a byte-order indicator, a version identifier for the property set stream format, a operating system version identifier, a class identifier field with a value that indicates a class identifier of class code that can display or provide programmatic access to the property set, and a count of the plurality of sections stored in the property set stream; storing a section locator array in the property set stream, each element of the section locator array having a unique format identifier which uniquely identifies a corresponding section and having an offset for locating the corresponding section of property definitions within the property set stream; and storing a plurality of sections of properties within the property set stream, each section having a section header with a size indicator indicating the size of the section and with a count of the number of properties contained within the section, each section having a property array, each element of the property array having a property value containing data and having a corresponding type indicator for indicating a format of the data stored in the property value, and each section having a property locator array, each element of the property locator array having a property identifier which uniquely identifies a property within the section and having an offset which indicates a storage location of the property within the property array of the section.
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Specification