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Efficiently storing indented threads in a threaded discussion application

  • US 8,341,126 B2
  • Filed: 12/01/2005
  • Issued: 12/25/2012
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2002
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method for retrieving a record in a hierarchical set of records having a plurality of hierarchical levels and a plurality of hierarchical depths, the method comprising:

  • receiving a selection of a first record of the hierarchical set of records and a command from a user, wherein the command from the user requests retrieving the parent of the identified first record;

    identifying the first record in the hierarchical set of records based on the received selection, each of the records in the hierarchical set of records having a tag that is unique within the hierarchical set of the records, the first record having a first tag, wherein each tag is a single number having a plurality of digits stored in a single field of each record in the hierarchical set of records representing the hierarchical depth and hierarchical level of the record, and wherein each record of the hierarchical set of records has one or more fields and comprises a message of an indented threaded discussion;

    selecting a second record by indicating a relational characteristic of the identified first record to the second record that comprises a depth relationship or a level relationship or both;

    modifying the first tag based on the command received from the user, the relational characteristic, and a predetermined numeric mapping of related records, thereby producing a key corresponding to the second record that is related to the identified first record by the relational characteristic, wherein the key comprises a second tag uniquely identifying the second record and wherein producing the key comprises setting a value of each digit of the first tag corresponding to a hierarchical depth below the hierarchical depth of the second record to a wildcard value to produce the key corresponding to the second record and wherein modifying the first tag comprises selecting at least one of the digits of the first tag of the identified first record according to the command from the user and corresponding to the hierarchical depth of the identified first record and changing the value of the selected digits according to the command from the user by setting the value of the selected digit to a null value;

    indexing the hierarchical set of the records only once, thereby selecting the second record within the hierarchical set of records, wherein indexing the hierarchi andretrieving the selected second record; and

    displaying a field of each of the retrieved records on a display, wherein the position of each of the fields on the display represents the hierarchical depth and hierarchical level of the corresponding one of the retrieved records.

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