Computer system for automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information from multiple sources

• US 7,275,063 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2003
• Issued: 09/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: eHierarchy LLC (Endpoint IP LLC)
• Original Assignee: Bruce L. Horn
• Inventors: Horn, Bruce L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Shahid
• Assistant Examiner(s): MYINT, DENNIS Y
• Application Number:
  US10/621,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20040177319A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,532 Days
• Field of Search: 707/103, 707/102, 707/205, 395/600
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04804 Transparency, e.g. transparent or translucent windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/08 Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A computer data processing system including a central processing unit configured with a novel integrated computer control software system for the management of data objects including dynamic and automatic organization, linking, finding, cross-referencing, viewing and retrieval of multiple objects regardless of nature or source. The inventive system provides underlying component architecture having an object-oriented database structure and a metadata database structure which is unique in storing only one instance of each object while linking the object to multiple collections and domains by unique metadata links for the grouping into and retrieval from any of the collections. The system employs configurable, extensible attribute/properties of data objects in metadata format, and a truly user-friendly configurable interface that facilitates faster, more unified, comprehensive, useful and meaningful information management. Additional features include a sticky path object hierarchy viewing system, key phrase linking, viewing by reference, and drag-and-drop relationship link creation.

Claims

1. A computer data processing system including a central processing unit configured with an integrated computer control software system for the management of information data objects including automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information, said data processing system comprising:

a) a computer-readable memory structured with a partitioned storage organization having at least one database for storing objects including at least one of B-Tree nodes, foundation objects, reference objects, and object metadata;

b) a computer display connected to said memory for displaying objects from said data-base in a desktop-style interface;

c) a computer-user interface device for inputting information to said data processing system, including information to specify objects or properties of objects, and for input of objects from external sources;

d) an applications program having component architecture code processed by said central processing unit so as to scan source data of objects, create or extract metadata from said scanned objects, store said metadata in said database, and store reference objects in said database with link metadata attached to said reference objects to provide automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information objects from multiple different domain sources in said desktop-style interface while storing only one instance of said reference object;

e) said component architecture code providing automatic organization, indexing and viewing of said information objects; and

f) wherein said central processing unit processes by providing, during user scrolling of an expandable outline in a single window where the contents of multiple branches and multiple levels of a hierarchy are visible at once, views of objects and their containment relationships or location paths within said hierarchy in said single window on said display, so the containment hierarchies of the objects being viewed are continuously made visible in a dynamically-updating sticky path portion at the top of said window, and, as the scrolling continues past the beginning of a new open branch of the hierarchy, thus entering the branch in descending hierarchical order, the container of that branch remains visible in said dynamically-updating sticky path portion of said window that automatically expands to show the branches of the full containment path to the first item currently visible in the expandable outline, and, when scrolling continues past the end of the open branch of the hierarchy to exit the branch in ascending hierarchical order, the container of that branch is deleted from said sticky path window portion, automatically shrinking the dynamically-updated sticky path portion of said window to show as visible in said stick path portion of said window only the containment hierarchy path branches to the then-open branch of said hierarchy.

2. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processor unit processes said code so as to generate and provide at least one of:

i) viewing by reference, including at least one of;

applying a user'"'"'s categorizations to objects in at least one container to show relationships between objects, and filtering out those that are not relevant to the current view;

gathering together the set of containers in which the currently-viewed objects exist, showing the set of containers as a cross-referenced set in lieu of the objects themselves, and permitting the user to select at least one of the cross-reference containers which results in the display of only those objects that exist in all of the selected containers simultaneously, thereby showing relationships between objects and their categorizations and filtering unwanted objects from the current view;

ii) refining of views, by automatically conjoining specifications of multiple chosen collections;

iii) maintaining persistent collections with dynamic up-dating as the object do-mains change so as to reflect the true contents of the collection;

iv) an extensible domain mechanism for adding functionality to the system;

v) an extensible mechanism for extracting, storing, displaying and managing attributes from files of many different formats;

vi) real-time filtering/sorting;

vii) providing a notify event of collection establishment and changes in collections;

viii) link creation between objects and collections by at least one of drag-and-drop attribution, including the use of collections to add key phrases to an object by dragging into a collection, user entry of collection names for a given object, user-defined metadata queries, user choosing collections, and automatically by the system matching metadata criteria;

ix) the setting of specific property values of objects by tagging object icons to special drop-targets; and

x) wherein said automatic generation of collection contents by criteria specified for collection membership through at least one object content attribute selected by the user includes selection by the user from among at least one of user-defined categorizations, user or system-defined metadata query specifications, said user-defined key-phase matching, and combinations thereof.

3. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to generate and store in said database, metadata selected from association metadata and link metadata, said metadata permitting storage of only one reference object and linking it to one or more collection groups.

4. A computer data processing system as in claim 3 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to include in said metadata a UID and a UUID and to alias said UID and UUID to collections selected, set or created by the user to create retrieval links from the relevant collections to the reference object so that only one instance of said reference object is stored in said database, thereby saving data storage capacity.

5. A computer data processing system as in claim 4 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to scan an incoming object'"'"'s source data, and upon recognition of individual objects as contained in said source data, create reference objects tagged with UUIDs to provide a one-to-one mapping between external data and said reference objects, and to automatically classify and place representative icons of objects into multiple collections or containers using said link metadata rather than duplication of said objects, thereby allowing users to categorize objects in ways tat most clearly reflect different approaches and ways of viewing the same information, and to apply a user'"'"'s categorizations to show relation-ships between objects and filter out those that are not relevant to the current view for user viewing by reference.

6. A computer data processing system as in claim 3 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to place link metadata in said database for ease of organization and cross-referencing of objects among a large group of collections and containers by clicking on the icon representing an object in one collection window and dragging it into another collection window to establish a new link and new link metadata entry in said database so that said reference object is viewable, accessible and retrievable from both collections.

7. A computer data processing system as in claim 3 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to query said metadata, including queries, selected from matching key phrases in an object'"'"'s text, matching dates and time ranges or exact matches, matches of sizes, ordering or type, and to create dynamic links based on matches detected, including automatic query processing of incoming external and internally created objects for dynamic updating of all relevant collections so that any changes in the user'"'"'s information space or desktop results in timely and appropriate changes to affected object views and for hypertext generation, highlighting and linking in textual properties of objects, including objects selected from e-mail text and document text.

8. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to provide to users a basic set of organization principles for users to intuitively manage their information so as to reflect the information'"'"'s relationships as they occur and change in the real world, including relationship principles based on people, projects, activities, events, time and place.

9. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to create a minored object system of text and image information, to provide object property-based information access, to provide, a comprehensive desk-top interface having collections of logical groupings of objects and to permit user viewing by reference, and said processing is structured as an extensible platform.

10. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to specifically include objects in, or exclude objects from, a collection, while simultaneously performing automatic collection of objects using metadata criteria, thereby allowing the user to specify objects for a collection via criteria and specifically exclude objects that, despite matching the criteria, should be excluded from the collection;

and to include items that, despite not matching the criteria, should be included in the collection.

11. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processing unit processes, upon an object becoming a member of a container, so that a property of the object is modified based on the inclusion of the object in the container, or, conversely, a property of the container is modified based on the inclusion of the object in the container.

12. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to create metadata representing dependent properties as a function of other object metadata, or object content data.

13. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to automatically maintain consistency of collection contents based on notification of changes in object metadata, so that the collection content is updated to reflect the object metadata changes.

14. A computer data processing system as in claim 1 wherein said central processing unit processes so as to recognize when a collection'"'"'s object set changes, and to cause a process to be run based on that event.

15. Method of management of informational objects by a computer system having a central processing unit, interface devices, computer-readable memory, and a display, comprising the steps of:

a) providing code structure that partitions said memory for providing storage organization having at least one database for storing objects including at least one of B-Tree nodes, foun-dation objects reference objects, and object metadata;

b) causes said computer system to process by scanning source data of objects, to create or extract metadata from said scanned objects, to store said metadata in said database, and to store reference objects in said database with metadata links attached to said reference objects, thereby to provide automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information objects from multiple different domain sources in a desktop-style interface while storing only one instance of said reference object; and

c) said processing providing automatic organization, indexing and viewing of information objects from multiple sources, and

d) wherein said central processor unit processes said code in at least one step of generating and displaying, during user scrolling of an expandable outline in a single window where the contents of multiple branches and multiple levels of a hierarchy are visible at once, views of objects and their containment relationships or location paths within said hierarchy in said single window on said display, so the containment hierarchies of the objects being viewed are continuously made visible in a dynamically-updating sticky path portion at the top of said window, and, as the scrolling continues past the beginning of a new open branch of the hierarchy, thus entering the branch in descending hierarchical order, the container of that branch remains visible in said dynamically-updating sticky path portion of said window that automatically expands to show the branches of the full containment path to the first item currently visible in the expandable outline, and, when scrolling continues past the end of the open branch of the hierarchy to exit the branch in ascending hierarchical order, the container of that branch is deleted from said sticky path window portion, automatically shrinking the dynamically-updated sticky path portion of said window to show as visible in said sticky path portion of said window only the containment hierarchy path branches to the then-open branch of said hierarchy.

16. Method of management of informational objects by a computer system as in claim 15 wherein said central processor unit processes said code in at least one step of generating and providing at least one of:

i) viewing by reference, including at least one of;

applying a user'"'"'s categorizations to objects in at least one container to show relationships between objects, and filtering out those that are not relevant to the current view;

gathering together the set of containers in which the currently-viewed objects exist, showing the set of containers as a cross-referenced set in lieu of the objects themselves, and permitting the user to select at least one of the cross-reference containers which results in the display of only those objects that exist in all of the selected containers simultaneously, thereby showing relationships between objects and their categorizations and filtering unwanted objects from the current view;

ii) refining of views, by automatically conjoining specifications of multiple chosen collections;

iii) maintaining persistent collections with dynamic up-dating as the object do-mains change so as to reflect the true contents of the collection;

iv) an extensible domain mechanism for adding functionality to the system;

v) an extensible mechanism for extracting, storing, displaying and managing attributes from files of many different formats;

vi) real-time filtering/sorting;

vii) providing a notify event of collection establishment and changes in collections;

viii) link creation between objects and collections by at least one of drag-and-drop attribution, including the use of collections to add key phrases to an object by dragging into a collection, user entry of collection names for a given object, user-defined metadata queries, user choosing collections, and automatically by the system matching metadata criteria;

ix) the setting of specific property values of objects by dragging object icons to special drop-targets; and

x) wherein said automatic generation of collection contents by criteria specified for collection membership through at least one object content attribute selected by the user includes selection by the user from among at least one of user-defined categorizations, user or system-defined metadata query specifications, said user-defined key-phrase matching, and combinations thereof.

17. Method of management of informational objects by a computer system as in claim 15 wherein said central processor unit processes said code in at least one step of generating creation of links between objects and collections by at least one of:

a) clicking on the icon representing an object in one collection window and dragging it into another collection window to establish a new link and new link metadata entry in said data-base so that said reference object is viewable, accessible and retrievable from both collections;

b) by user input of collection names;

c) user choice of collections from a display shown to the user;

d) user-defined metadata queries;

or e) automatically by the system processing to match metadata criteria.

18. Method of management of informational objects by a computer system as in claim 15 wherein said central processor unit processes said code in at least one step of providing specific inclusion of objects in, or exclusion of objects from, a collection, while simultaneously performing automatic collection of objects using metadata criteria, thereby allowing the user to specify objects for a collection via criteria and specifically exclude objects that, despite matching the criteria, should be excluded from the collection;

and to include items that, despite not matching the criteria, should be included in the collection.