Managing changes to a directory of electronic documents

• US 6,941,302 B1
• Filed: 08/14/2003
• Issued: 09/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Inktomi Corporation (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Suchter, Sean A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wassum, Luke S
• Application Number:
  US10/641,433
• Time in Patent Office: 754 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• 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

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for managing changes to a directory of electronic documents. A custom directory is created and stored based on the contents of a master directory. The master directory comprises a taxonomy of categories. A plurality of electronic documents are classified in one or more of the categories. One or more mappings defines how the documents of categories of the master directory map to categories of the custom directory. Mappings may express merges or splits of categories. One or more judgments may be created and stored in the custom directory in association with documents in the categories of the custom directory. Each judgment expresses whether a document is in or not in a category, or locked out of all categories. Modifications to the master directory are automatically propagated to the custom directory, according to the mapping, but without overriding the judgments in the custom directory.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for providing electronic documents, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

creating a second directory by mapping the second directory from at least a portion of a first directory of the electronic documents, wherein the first directory has a hierarchy of a first set of one or more categories into which one or more electronic documents are classified, and wherein the second directory has a hierarchy of a second set of one or more categories;

associating, with the second directory, one or more customizations that represent differences between the hierarchy of the first directory and the hierarchy of the second directory; and

associating, with the second directory, one or more judgments that indicate whether one or more of the electronic documents are properly classified in the second set of categories;

in response to the first directory being modified by changes to one or more of the first set of categories, automatically modifying the second directory by using at least some of the changes to the one or more categories of the first set of categories, without modifying the customizations or the judgments.

2. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein creating a second directory includes:

identifying or more master judgments that indicate whether one or more of the electronic documents are properly classified in the first set of categories;

in response to the first directory being modified by changes to one or more of the master judgments, automatically propagating the changes to the second directory, without modifying the customizations or the judgments, to create a modified second directory.

3. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, the steps further comprising:

displaying a taxonomy of the second set of categories of the second directory;

receiving a selection of one of the second set of categories;

displaying one or more judgments associated with one of the electronic documents in the selected category; and

receiving and storing a quality value that indicates how closely the one of the electronic documents matches the selected category.

4. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of creating a second directory includes the step of creating the second directory based at least partially on one or more customizations that reflect a merge of a plurality of the categories of the first set of categories of the first directory to one of the second set of categories of the second directory.

5. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of creating a second directory includes the step of creating the second directory based at least partially on one or more customizations that reflect a split of one of the first set of categories of the first directory into a plurality of categories of the second set of categories of the second directory.

6. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, the steps further comprising:

creating a new judgment for the second directory, wherein the new judgment indicates that a particular electronic document is in one of the second set of categories of the second directory.

7. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, the steps further comprising:

creating a new judgment for the second directory, wherein the new judgment indicates that a particular electronic document is not in one of the second set of categories of the second directory.

8. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, the steps further comprising:

creating a new judgment for the second directory, wherein the new judgment indicates that a particular electronic document is locked out of all categories of the second directory.

9. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 6, the steps further comprising:

marking the new judgment as un-reviewed; and

receiving an acceptance signal indicating that the new judgment is accepted, and in response thereto, persistently storing the new judgment in the second directory.

10. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 6, the steps further comprising:

marking the new judgment as un-reviewed; and

receiving a rejection signal indicating that the new judgment is rejected, and in response thereto, modifying the new judgment to indicate that the electronic document is not in the category.

11. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, the steps further comprising the step of integrating the customizations and judgments into the second directory by performing the steps of:

identifying each mapping of a source category in the first set of categories of the first directory to a destination category in the second set of categories of the second directory;

using the mapping to copy each judgment that is in the source category to the destination category; and

marking as un-reviewed, each judgment that is copied to the destination category and that originates from a split mapping of the source category.

12. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, the steps further comprising:

marking as un-reviewed, each judgment that is copied to the destination category and that originates from an un-reviewed judgment in the source category.

13. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, the steps further comprising:

creating one or more custom judgments that are associated with the second directory; and

integrating each of the custom judgments into the second directory by overriding any conflicting judgment originating from the first directory.

14. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, the steps further comprising:

creating one or more custom judgments that are associated with the second directory, wherein the custom judgments have a judgment type value selected from among “

in category,”

“

not in category,”

“

exclude from all categories”

, and “

undo exclude from all categories”

; and

integrating each of the custom judgments into the second directory by overriding any conflicting judgment originating from the first directory.

15. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, the steps further comprising:

creating one or more custom judgments that are associated with the second directory, wherein the custom judgments have a judgment type value selected from among “

in category,”

“

not in category,”

“

exclude from all categories”

, and “

undo exclude from all categories”

; and

integrating each of the custom judgments into the second directory by overriding any conflicting judgment originating from the first directory, wherein the integrating is carried out such that;

judgments of lower priority cannot affect earlier judgments of higher priority;

“

in”

judgments override previous “

in” and

“

not in”

judgments;

“

not in”

judgments override previous “

in” and

“

not in”

judgments;

“

exclude from all categories”

judgments override previous “

in”

judgments; and

“

undo exclude from all categories”

judgments override previous “

exclude from all categories”

judgments.

16. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for providing electronic documents, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

creating a customized directory by mapping at least a portion of a master directory of the electronic documents into at least a portion of the customized directory, wherein the master directory is defined by a hierarchical taxonomy of a first set of categories into which one or more of the electronic documents are classified, and wherein the customized directory has a second set of categories;

associating, with the customized directory, one or more customizations that reflect differences between the master directory and the customized directory;

associating, with the customized directory, one or more judgments that indicate whether one or more of the electronic documents are properly classified in the second set of categories;

in response to the master directory being modified by changes to one or more of the categories, automatically propagating the changes in the master directory to the customized directory, without overriding the customizations or judgments of the customized directory.

17. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 16, the steps further comprising:

identifying one or more master judgments that represent whether one or more of the electronic documents are properly classified in the first set of categories; and

in response to the master directory being modified by changes to one or more of the master judgments, automatically propagating the changes to the customized directory, without modifying the customizations or the judgments, to create a modified customized directory.

18. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 16, the steps further comprising creating and storing one or more judgments of the customized directory by performing:

displaying a taxonomy of the second set of categories of the customized directory;

receiving a selection of one of the second set of categories;

displaying one or more judgments associated with one of the electronic documents in the selected category; and

receiving and storing a quality value that indicates how closely the one of the electronic documents matches the selected category.

19. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 16, wherein the step of creating the customized directory includes the step of creating the customized directory based at least partially on one or more customizations that reflect a merge of a plurality of the first set of categories of the master directory to one of the second set of categories of the customized directory.

20. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 16, wherein the step of creating the customized directory includes the step of creating the customized directory based at least partially on one or more customizations that reflect a split of one of the first set of categories of the master directory into a plurality of categories in the second set of categories of the customized directory.

21. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 16, the steps further comprising:

creating a new judgment for the customized directory, wherein the new judgment indicates that a particular electronic document is in one of the second set of categories of the customized directory.

22. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 16, the steps further comprising:

creating a new judgment for the customized directory, wherein the new judgment indicates that a particular electronic document is not in one of the second set of categories of the customized directory.

23. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 16, the steps further comprising:

creating a new judgment for the customized directory, wherein the new judgment indicates that a particular electronic document is locked out of all categories of the customized directory.

24. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 23, the steps further comprising:

marking the new judgment as un-reviewed; and

receiving an acceptance signal indicating that the new judgment is accepted, and in response thereto, persistently storing the new judgment in the customized directory.

25. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 23, the steps further comprising:

marking the new judgment as un-reviewed; and

receiving a rejection signal indicating that the new judgment is rejected, and in response thereto, modifying the new judgment to indicate that the electronic document is not in the category.

26. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 16, further comprising the step of integrating the customizations and judgments into the customized directory by performing:

identifying each mapping of a source category in the first set of categories of the master directory to a destination category in the second set of categories of the customized directory;

using the mapping to copy each judgment that is in the source category to the destination category; and

marking as un-reviewed, each judgment that is copied to the destination category and that originates from a split mapping of the source category.

27. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 26, the steps further comprising:

marking as un-reviewed, each judgment that is copied to the destination category and that originates from an un-reviewed judgment in the source category.

28. The computer-readable medium as recited in claim 27, the steps further comprising:

creating one or more custom judgments that are associated with the customized directory; and

integrating each of the custom judgments into the customized directory by overriding any conflicting judgment originating from the master directory.

29. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for re-categorizing documents that have been categorized in a first directory based on a first hierarchy of categories, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

associating judgment data with sets of one or more of said documents;

wherein said judgment data represents whether said sets of one or more of said documents are properly classified within a second hierarchy of categories;

generating a second directory based on the first directory;

wherein the second directory categorizes said documents based on the second hierarchy of categories; and

wherein the step of generating said second directory based on said first directory is performed based on;

a mapping between the documents and the categories of the second hierarchy of categories, and

said judgment data.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, the steps further comprising the step of, after generating the second directory, automatically propagating a change to one or more of the categories in the first hierarchy to the second directory.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein propagating a change includes propagating the change without modifying said judgment data.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein associating judgment data with sets of one or more of said documents includes associating a first judgment data that indicates the one or more documents belong to a category in at least one of the first hierarchy and the second hierarchy.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein associating judgment data with sets of one or more of said documents includes associating a first judgment data that indicates the one or more documents do not belong to a category in at least one of the first hierarchy and the second hierarchy.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein associating judgment data with sets of one or more of said documents includes associating a first judgment data that indicates the one or more documents do not belong to any category in at least one of the first hierarchy and the second hierarchy.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein associating judgment data with sets of one or more of said documents includes associating a first judgment data with a first set of one or more documents in the first directory, and associating a second judgment data with a second set of one or more documents in the second directory, wherein the first judgment data is different than the second judgment data.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein the step of generating said second directory is performed at least in part by mapping one or more documents to categories in said second hierarchy based, at least in part, on said second judgment data when said second judgment data conflicts with said first judgment data for said one or more documents.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, the steps further comprising assigning a priority value to at least some of said judgment data that is assigned to different documents.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the step of associating judgment data with sets of one or more of said documents includes selecting a first judgment data over a second judgment data to be associated with one of said sets based on the priority value of the first judgment data relative to the second judgment data.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, the steps further comprising:

generating a third directory created based on the first directory;

wherein the third directory categorizes said documents based on a third hierarchy of categories;

wherein the step of generating said third directory based on the first directory is performed by mapping said documents to categories in said third hierarchy based, at least in part, on said judgment data; and

wherein the judgment data for generating said third directory is different than the judgment data for generating said second directory.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 39, wherein in response to one or more changes being made to the first directory, the method further comprises automatically propagating said changes from the first directory to the second directory and to the third directory.

41. A method for categorizing documents in a target directory of hierarchically related categories that includes a first plurality of categories, the method comprising the steps of:

storing a first plurality of user-entered judgments associated with the target directory of hierarchically related categories;

wherein each user-entered judgment of said first plurality of user-entered judgments indicates whether, for the target directory, a particular document belongs to a category of said plurality of categories;

wherein a source directory of hierarchically related categories includes the first plurality of categories;

wherein a plurality of documents are categorized by the source directory within the plurality of categories; and

for each document of said plurality of documents, determining how the target directory should categorize said each document within the plurality of categories based on;

a particular category in which said each document has been categorized by the source directory, and

how a particular user-entered judgment of said first plurality of user-entered judgments indicates said each document belongs to said particular category.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein:

each user-entered judgment of a plurality of user-entered judgments is associated with a certain value reflecting the quality of said user-entered judgment; and

determining how the target directory should categorize said each document is based on the respective certain value of said the particular user-entered judgment.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein:

the steps further include storing a second plurality of user-entered judgments associated with the source directory of hierarchically related categories;

each user-entered judgment of said second plurality of user-entered judgments indicates whether, for the source directory, a particular documents belongs to a category of said plurality of categories; and

determining how the target directory should categorize said each document within the plurality of categories is based on how a particular user-entered judgment of said second plurality of user-entered judgments indicates said each document belongs to said particular category.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein

each user-entered judgment of said first plurality of user-entered judgments and said second plurality of user-entered judgments is associated with a certain value reflecting a weight of said user-entered judgment relative to another user-entered judgment;

and

determining how the target directory should categorize said each document within the plurality of categories is based on a comparison of the respective weight of said particular user-entered judgment of said first plurality of user-entered judgments and said particular user-entered judgment of said second plurality of user-entered judgments.

45. The method of claim 41, wherein:

a mapping maps the hierarchically related categories of said source directory to the hierarchically related categories of said target directory; and

determining how the target directory should categorize said each document within the plurality of categories is based on the mapping.

46. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 41.

47. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 42.

48. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 43.

49. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 44.

50. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 45.