Index for data retrieval and data structuring

• US 7,509,306 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2004
• Issued: 03/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boettiger, Volker
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ehichioya; Fred I
• Application Number:
  US11/003,898
• Publication Number:
  US 20050125395A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,573 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707/100, 707/200, 707/104.1, 715/51, 715/540, 715/205, 715/751, 715/804
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/328 Management therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

An index for a retrieval of data provided is generated by at least one document is disclosed. Data is selected within the at least one document, assigning a category to the selected data, and assigning a timestamp to the selected data. The selected data, the category, the timestamp and a location indication of the selected data are stored as an entry of the index. The present invention therefore provides an effective and universally adaptive tool for contextual structuring and retrieval of data distributed over a plurality of electronic documents.

Claims

1. A method of generating an index for a retrieval of data provided by a document, the method comprising:

selecting data within the document;

assigning a category to the selected data, the category being used to categorize the selected data within the index;

assigning a timestamp to the selected data, the timestamp specifying a time frame after which a reminder function is to be invoked;

determining a location indication of the selected data, the location indication being a path or address of the document providing the selected data;

storing the selected data, the category, the timestamp, and the location indication of the selected data as an entry of the index;

responsive to the time frame passing, invoking the reminder function,

wherein the reminder function comprises generating and providing a reminder of the entry in the index; and

wherein the reminder function performs an action on the entry of the index, the action performed on the entry by the reminder function includes automatically highlighting the entry in the index; and

wherein the entry is hidden in the index such that the entry does not appear in the index during the time frame; and

the reminder function comprises changing a status of the entry from hidden to non-hidden, wherein the action performed on the entry by the reminder function includes making the entry appear in the index.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data is represented in graphical form.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the document is stored on a computer network or stored on a local file system of a computer system.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the selected data is further assigned with a relevance indication.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the index is sorted according to the assigned category, the assigned timestamp, the assigned relevance indication or according to a user'"'"'s specification.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving input selecting the entry of the index; and

in response to the selection of the entry of the index, providing the selected data and the document.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the assigned category is a category assigned from a provided set of categories suggested to be assigned to the selected data.