System for locating documents a user has previously accessed

• US 8,103,653 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2009
• Issued: 01/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Newbold, David L., Oral, Tolga, Bolin, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Wilson
• Application Number:
  US12/352,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20090125490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,106 Days
• Field of Search: 707705-721, 707741-748
• US Class Current: 707/711
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system is provided for enabling a user to search for documents that the user has previously viewed on its local machine. The system may include upon three main components: the desktop integration module, the index module, and the graphical user interface module. The desktop integration module is an application which monitors documents with which the user interacts for predetermined events, and obtains content data and metadata from the monitored documents. The index module indexes the content data and metadata received from the desktop integration module. The graphical user interface module then permits a user to utilize the desktop integration module and index module by allowing a user to search for a document.

Claims

1. A system comprising one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions embodied therein, the computer-readable instructions operable when executed by a processor to enable searching for electronic documents that a user has previously accessed regardless of the location of the electronic documents, the computer readable instructions comprising:

a desktop integration module configured to monitor one or more of a plurality of electronic documents, the plurality of electronic documents having been previously accessed by the user for one or more predetermined events;

an index module configured to create an index of the monitored electronic documents, wherein creating the index includes;

(1) automatically converting individual ones of the monitored electronic documents into a common format, and (2) creating one or more index entries corresponding to individual ones of the monitored electronic documents by searching one or more browser caches and intercepting one or more commands to access one or more applications regardless of the location of the monitored electronic documents, wherein a given index entry comprises content data found within a corresponding monitored electronic document; and

a graphical user interface module configured to enable the user to enter one or more keywords to create a search query to be used to search the index, and in response to receiving and executing the search query, to present the search results including at least some content data from the index as text using one or more graphical displays.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined events comprise at least one of a group consisting of:

creating a document, opening a document, closing a document, saving a document, and printing a document, wherein the intercepting one or more calls is performed in response to a detection of one or more of the predetermined events.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more graphical displays comprise a calendar providing indicia of the search results.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the desktop integration module is configured to:

retrieve, from each of the monitored electronic documents, one or more of the following;

a document name, a document author, or one or more keywords from the one or more documents to be indexed.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the desktop integration module is configured to track one or more actions taken by the user to access the one or more documents.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the graphical user interface module is configured to receive an input from the user to restrict one or more dates which to search the index.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the common format comprises XML.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the content data comprises one or more of words found in the document or keywords stored in the document.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the index module is configured to enable the user to specify certain documents that are not be indexed.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein individual ones of the one or more index entries comprise metadata related to corresponding ones of the monitored electronic documents.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the metadata comprising one or more of the following:

a date created, a date opened, a date closed, a date modified, an amount of time spent of a document, a date printed, or a number of timed the document was accessed.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface module is configured to display a histogram showing information regarding the user'"'"'s interaction with the monitored electronic documents.