Systems and methods for managing information objects in dynamic data storage based upon relevance of the information objects

• US 9,367,242 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2011
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: D2L Corporation
• Original Assignee: D2L Corporation
• Inventors: Cepuran, Brian John, Lockhart, David Robert, Ghassemi, Ali, Grabka, Dariusz
• Primary Examiner(s): Peugh, Brian
• Application Number:
  US13/096,171
• Publication Number:
  US 20120110282A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,874 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/18 based on priority control G06F13/1605 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

According to one aspect, a system for managing information objects in dynamic data storage devices including a first data storage device having a plurality of information objects, a second data storage device operatively connectable to an output device for providing at least some of the information objects to at least one user, and at least one processor operatively coupled to the first data storage device and the second data storage device. The at least one processor is configured to automatically divide the plurality of information objects in the first data storage device to form at least one data subdivision based on division criteria, and repeatedly, in response to a dynamic operating condition determine a relevance value of at least one of the data subdivisions in the first data storage device and the second data storage device indicative of the relevance of those data subdivision to the user, and based on the relevance value, perform at least one of loading those data subdivision to the second data storage, or unloading those data subdivision from the second data storage.

Claims

1. A system for managing information objects in dynamic data storage devices comprising:

a) a first data storage device having a plurality of information objects;

b) a second data storage device operatively connected to an output device for providing at least some of the information objects to at least one user; and

c) at least one processor operatively coupled to the first data storage device and the second data storage device, the at least one processor configured to;

i) automatically divide the plurality of information objects in the first data storage device to form at least one data subdivision based on division criteria;

ii) determine, based on a dynamic operating condition, a relevance value of the at least one of the data subdivisions in the first data storage device and the second data storage device indicative of the relevance of those data subdivisions to the user; and

iii) repeatedly, in response to the dynamic operating condition;

(1) re-determine the relevance value of the at least one of the data subdivisions in the first data storage device and the second data storage device indicative of the updated relevance of those data subdivisions to the user;

(2) compare the relevance value of the at least one of the data subdivisions to a threshold, wherein the threshold is based at least in part on a speed of transfer between the first data storage device and the second data storage device; and

(3) based on results of comparing the relevance value to the threshold, perform at least one of loading those data subdivisions to the second data storage device, or unloading those data subdivisions from the second data storage device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to load the at least one of the data subdivisions to the second data storage device in the event that the relevance value associated with those data subdivisions is outside the threshold.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to unload the at least one of the data subdivisions from the second data storage device in the event that the relevance value associated with those data subdivisions is outside the threshold.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to re-divide the plurality of information objects in response to the dynamic operating condition.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each data subdivision comprises at least one of a subset of the plurality of information objects, and subdivision metadata associated with the data subdivision indicative of the at least one of a subset of the plurality of information objects associated with the subdivision.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein whether each data subdivision comprises the metadata associated with at least one of the plurality of information objects, or whether each data subdivision comprises the plurality of information objects is determined based on the quantity of information objects to be displayed.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein when the data subdivision comprises metadata, the at least one of the plurality information objects associated with that data subdivision is loaded to the second data storage device based on the relevance value of that data subdivision.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein when the data subdivision comprises metadata, the at least one of the plurality information objects associated with that data subdivision is unloaded from the second data storage device based on the relevance value of that data subdivision.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the division criteria includes a memory size value indicative of available memory size for the second data storage device, wherein the memory size value is dynamic.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein when the output device is a display device, the division criteria include a display size value indicative of the size of the output display.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the division criteria includes the size of the at least one data subdivision.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the division criteria include the speed of transfer between the first data storage device and the second data device.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the division criteria include preference settings, the preference settings being indicative of the user'"'"'s preference as to at least one of the data subdivisions of the information objects based on the division criteria and the determination of the relevance value.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance value of the at least one data subdivision is determined based on an interaction frequency value indicative of the frequency of user interaction with that data subdivision.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the first data storage device and the second data storage device are logical partitions of a single data storage device.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the information objects in the first data storage device are in a first format, and the data subdivisions in the second data storage device are in a second format.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the information objects in the first data storage device are compressed, and the data subdivisions in the second data storage device are not compressed.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance value of the at least one data subdivision is determined based on preference settings, the preference settings being indicative of the user'"'"'s preference as to at least one of the subdivision of the information objects based on division criteria and the determination of the relevance value.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance value of the at least one data subdivision is determined based on a temporal value indicative of the length of time that the data subdivision has been in the second data storage device.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the relevance value of the at least one data subdivision is based on the size of the data subdivision.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the first data storage device is located on a server computer and the second data storage device is located on a client computer, the server computer and client computer being operatively connected.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the first data storage device and the second data storage device are located on a client computer.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the division criteria include the processing capabilities of the processor.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the division criteria include the capabilities of software configured to run on the processor that is to interpret the data.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the division criteria includes user preference setting provided by a user.

26. A method for managing information objects in dynamic data storage devices comprising:

automatically dividing a plurality of information objects in a first data storage device using at least one processor to form at least one data subdivision based on division criteria, the processor being operatively coupled to the first data storage device and a second data storage device, the second data storage being connected to an output device for providing at least some of the information objects to at least one user;

using the at least one processor to determine, based on a dynamic operating condition, a relevance value of the at least one of the data subdivisions in the first data storage device and the second data storage device indicative of the relevance of those data subdivisions to the user

repeatedly, in response to the dynamic operating condition using the at least one processor to;

re-determine the relevance value of at least one of the data subdivisions in the first data storage device and the second data storage device indicative of the updated relevance of those data subdivisions to the user;

compare the relevance value of the at least one of the data subdivisions to a threshold, wherein the threshold is based at least in part on a speed of transfer between the first data storage device and the second data storage device; and

based on results of comparing the relevance value to the threshold, perform at least one of loading those data subdivisions to the second data storage device, or unloading those data subdivisions from the second data storage device.