Remote management of an external phonebook
First Claim
1. A method of accessing a telephone address book from a remote electronic device using an enhanced hash table to organize a local data structure on a local electronic device so as to provide alphanumeric scrolling, searching and sorted access to records in an unsorted data structure on the remote electronic device without making a physical copy of the remote data structure on the local device and in a manner which minimizes a local memory requirement and minimizes access to the remote device, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a data table of a finite length including a predetermined number of alphanumeric slots wherein each slot includes a predetermined number of cells for storage of index values corresponding to records based upon their alphanumerical properties;
providing a predetermined number of slots designated as free slots wherein each free slot includes a predetermined number of cells for storage of index values corresponding to records;
reading records stored in the remote device;
generating an index value corresponding to each record in the remote device;
alphanumerically sorting entries and storing each index value in a cell within the appropriate alphanumerical slot;
whereby the index values serve as pointers to the records stored in the remote electronic device thereby omitting the need to store the entire record; and
sorting entries and storing an index value in said free slots when all said cells within an alphanumerical slot are full.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention permits access to information stored on a remote device from a local device without requiring that a complete physical copy of the remote information be made. An enhanced and refined hash table permits access to the remote information in order or according to a search key with significant reduction in the memory requirements on the local device even though the remote information is not sorted. Scrolling through the remote data structure without accessing any unnecessary record on the remote device and hence reducing scroll response time is also achieved.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method of accessing a telephone address book from a remote electronic device using an enhanced hash table to organize a local data structure on a local electronic device so as to provide alphanumeric scrolling, searching and sorted access to records in an unsorted data structure on the remote electronic device without making a physical copy of the remote data structure on the local device and in a manner which minimizes a local memory requirement and minimizes access to the remote device, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing a data table of a finite length including a predetermined number of alphanumeric slots wherein each slot includes a predetermined number of cells for storage of index values corresponding to records based upon their alphanumerical properties;
providing a predetermined number of slots designated as free slots wherein each free slot includes a predetermined number of cells for storage of index values corresponding to records;
reading records stored in the remote device;
generating an index value corresponding to each record in the remote device;
alphanumerically sorting entries and storing each index value in a cell within the appropriate alphanumerical slot;
whereby the index values serve as pointers to the records stored in the remote electronic device thereby omitting the need to store the entire record; and
sorting entries and storing an index value in said free slots when all said cells within an alphanumerical slot are full. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. An apparatus for accessing telephone book information from a remote device comprising:
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a first device having a first storage medium and at least one record of telephone book information stored therein;
a second device having a second storage medium;
an interface through which the first device may communicate with the second device;
at least one index value stored in a local data structure of said second storage medium, said index value uniquely identifying the at least one record of telephone information stored in the first storage medium, wherein a sequence of alphanumerically ordered index values is created, so as to provide alphanumeric scrolling, searching and sorted access to records in an unsorted data structure on the first device without making a physical copy of the remote data structure on the local device and in a manner which minimizes a local memory requirement and minimizes access to the first device. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for accessing remote telephone book information, comprising:
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a remote device containing a list of telephone book records stored in a first medium;
a local device having a second storage medium;
an interface by which information is communicated between the local and the remote device;
a data structure contained in the second storage medium, the data structure comprising a sorted list of index values, the sorted list of index value corresponding to an alphanumerically sorted list of telephone book records derived from the list of telephone book records stored in the first medium; and
a software driven indexing routine for creating the sorted list of index values, wherein alphanumeric scrolling, searching and sorted access to the list of telephone book records in the first medium are performed without making a physical copy of the telephone book records in the second storage medium, so that access to the remote device and memory requirement in the local medium are minimized. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for managing telephone address book information in a plurality of devices, comprising:
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storing the telephone book information comprising phone book entries in a first memory of a first device;
setting up an interface between the first device and a second device;
reading the phone book entries into a volatile memory of the second device;
providing a data structure in the second device, the data structure including a predetermined number of alphanumeric slots wherein each alphanumeric slot includes a predetermined number of cells for storage of index values corresponding to records based upon their alphanumerical properties;
storing an index value corresponding to each phone book entry in the data structure, wherein each index value serves as a pointer to the records stored in the first memory thereby omitting the need to store the entire record in the data structure. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification