Query-driven sharing and syndication

• US 7,822,759 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Issued: 10/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, Lili, Turski, Andrzej, Marcjan, Cezary, MacLaurin, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Kim T
• Application Number:
  US11/301,997
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136244A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,778 Days
• Field of Search: 707/758, 707/769
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/903 Querying for retrieval from the web G06F16/953
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

A unique system, user interface, and method that facilitate sharing objects in a query-based storage environment are provided. A query can be generated using metadata and the results therefrom can be obtained and shared with one or more recipients. The query and/or query results can be represented as an icon. Sharing of the query and/or query results can be accomplished in part by dragging the icon to the desired recipient. Queries can be shared as a standing query or a snapshot of the query. For standing queries, recipients can be notified when a set of query results changes. In general, queries can be saved by the user and accessed again at a later time. The user interface provides a plurality of navigation tools to facilitate the viewing of objects based on their metadata and the generation of queries.

Claims

1. A query-based data management system that facilitates sharing data among users, the system comprising:

a memory;

a plurality of objects, each object being associated with at least one property;

a query engine that processes one or more queries based in part on metadata associated with each object and that returns a set of query results;

a sharing component that allows a user to designate the objects associated with the set of query results to be shared with at least one recipient, the sharing component notifies the at least one recipient if the objects associated with the set of query results are updated based on a modification to the objects, wherein the modification to the objects are recorded in a change record component that creates a change record that includes an initial state of the objects and each subsequent state of the objects; and

an object analysis component that compares the initial state of the objects with the subsequent state of the objects in the change record to determine if the objects should remain in the set of query results based on a type of modification made to the objects, if the type of modification takes the objects outside the scope of the query, then the objects are removed from the set of query results.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprises a tag assignment component that allows the user to annotate each object with at least one tag before queries are processed.

3. The system of claim 1, the standing query allows the recipient to access additional objects that subsequently satisfy the query whenever there is any change to the query.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprises at least one query database that stores the at least one query for later access to the respective query results.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprises a query generation component that generates one or more queries based at least in part on metadata selected by a user.

6. The system of claim 1, the plurality of objects is a plurality of local objects on a computing device.

7. One or more computer-readable storage media capable of storing computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor implement a method comprising:

associating at least one property with each of a plurality of objects;

processing one or more queries based in part on metadata associated with each object, the processing includes returning a set of query results for each object;

designating the object associated with the set of query results to be shared with at least one recipient;

notifying the at least one recipient if the objects associated with the set of query results are updated based on a modification to the objects, wherein the modification to the objects are recorded in a change record component that creates a change record that includes an initial state of the objects and each subsequent state of the objects;

comparing the initial state of the objects with the subsequent state of the objects in the change record to determine if the objects should remain in the set of query results based on the a type of modification made to the objects; and

removing the objects from the set of query results if the type of modification takes the objects outside the scope of the query.