Virtual contextual file system and method

• US 20050076095A1
• Filed: 07/12/2004
• Published: 04/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Catalystweb LLC
• Original Assignee: Catalystweb LLC
• Inventors: Mathew, Boban, John, Thomas, Evans, Dagny
• Application Number:
  US10/889,708
• Publication Number:
  US 20050076095A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

A system is described for managing messages and/or documents (“documents”) comprising: a document server to store a plurality of documents and/or folders containing the documents; and a virtual contextual file system including a context mapping module to analyze a current context selected by a user at an access device to identify a subset of documents and/or folders stored on the document server associated with the context selected by the user, the context mapping module to additionally map the subset of documents and/or folders stored on the document server to the access device.

Claims

1. A system for managing messages and/or documents (hereinafter “

documents”

) comprising;

a document server to store a plurality of documents and/or folders containing the documents; and

a virtual contextual file system including a context mapping module to analyze a current context selected by a user at an access device to identify a subset of documents and/or folders stored on the document server associated with the context selected by the user, the context mapping module to additionally map the subset of documents and/or folders stored on the document server to the access device.

2. The system as in claim 1 wherein the documents associated with a particular context are distributed throughout various different folders on the document server.

3. The system as in claim 1 wherein context mapping module performs its document and/or folder mapping functions based on a set of mapping rules associated with the context, the mapping rules including user-selectable mapping rules and default mapping rules.

4. The system as in claim 1 further comprising:

a document indexing system to analyze the documents and/or folders stored on the document server and, based on the analysis, to associate the documents and/or folders with certain specified document and/or folder properties.

5. The system as in claim 4 wherein the document indexing system further comprises a property list to store the specified document and/or folder properties.

6. The system as in claim 5 wherein the document indexing system further comprises a reverse index to associate queries related to documents and/or folders with actual documents and/or folders based on the document and/or folder properties stored in the property list.

7. The system as in claim 6 wherein the document indexing system further comprises a scoring system to analyze the document indexing system and property list and to responsively assign scores to documents matching certain specified criteria.

8. The system as in claim 7 wherein the scoring system assigns scores to documents based on alphabetical ordering of document/folder names, document/folder creation times, document/folder access times and/or document/folder frequency of user access.

9. The system as in claim 7 further comprising:

a rule interpreter to generate a query related to documents/folders and to transmit the query to the document indexing system the query based on predefined or user-specified rules associated with the context.

10. The system as in claim 9 wherein the rule interpreter translates one or more user-specified or predefined rules to generate the query.

11. The system as in claim 9 wherein, in response to the query, the document indexing system generates a hierarchy of documents/folders associated with the specified context.

12. The system as in claim 9 wherein one of the rules associated with the context comprises determining the extent to which a first document has text which substantially overlaps with a second document.

13. The system as in claim 11 further comprising:

a document packaging module to generate data representing the hierarchy of documents/folders and to transmit the data to the access device, the access device to display the hierarchy of documents/folders to the end user.

14. The system as in claim 13 wherein the document packaging module generates the data representing the hierarchy of documents/folders as links for certain access devices and as actual documents/folders for other access devices.

15. A method for managing messages and/or documents (hereinafter “

documents”

) comprising;

storing a plurality of documents and/or folders containing the documents within a document server;

analyzing a current context selected by a user at an access device to identify a subset of documents and/or folders stored on the document server; and

mapping the subset of documents and/or folders to the access device, the subset of documents and/or folders associated with the context selected by the user.

16. The method as in claim 15 wherein the documents associated with a particular context are distributed throughout various different folders on the document server.

17. The method as in claim 15 wherein the analysis of the context is based on a set of mapping rules associated with the context, the mapping rules including user-selectable mapping rules and default mapping rules.

18. The method as in claim 15 further comprising:

analyzing the documents and/or folders stored on the document server and, based on the analysis, associating the documents and/or folders with certain specified document and/or folder properties.

19. The method as in claim 18 further comprising:

storing the specified document and/or folder properties within a property list.

20. The method as in claim 19 further comprising:

associating queries related to documents and/or folders with actual documents and/or folders based on the document and/or folder properties stored in the property list and storing the association within a reverse index.

21. The method as in claim 20 further comprising:

analyzing the reverse index and property list and responsively assigning scores to documents matching certain specified criteria.

22. The method as in claim 21 further comprising:

assigning scores to documents based on alphabetical ordering of document/folder names, document/folder creation times, document/folder access times and/or document/folder frequency of user access.

23. The method as in claim 22 further comprising:

analyzing predefined or user-specified rules associated with the current context;

generating a query related to documents/folders associated with the current context; and

transmitting the query to the document server, the document server utilizing the reverse index to identify documents/folders based on the query.

24. The method as in claim 23 wherein analyzing comprises translating one or more user-specified or predefined rules to generate the query.

25. The method as in claim 23 further comprising:

generating a hierarchy of documents/folders associated with the specified context in response to the query.

26. The method as in claim 23 wherein one of the rules associated with the context comprises determining the extent to which a first document has text which substantially overlaps with a second document.

27. The method as in claim 25 further comprising:

generating data representing the hierarchy of documents/folders and transmitting the data to the access device, the access device to display the hierarchy of documents/folders to the end user.

28. The method as in claim 27 wherein the data representing the hierarchy of documents/folders comprise links for certain access devices and actual documents/folders for other access devices.

30. The article of manufacture as in claim 15 wherein the documents associated with a particular context are distributed throughout various different folders on the document server.

29. An article of manufacture including program code which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the operations of:

storing a plurality of documents and/or folders containing the documents within a document server;

analyzing a current context selected by a user at an access device to identify a subset of documents and/or folders stored on the document server; and

mapping the subset of documents and/or folders to the access device, the subset of documents and/or folders associated with the context selected by the user.

31. The article of manufacture as in claim 29 wherein the analysis of the context is based on a set of mapping rules associated with the context, the mapping rules including user-selectable mapping rules and default mapping rules.

32. The article of manufacture as in claim 29 comprising additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

analyzing the documents and/or folders stored on the document server and, based on the analysis, associating the documents and/or folders with certain specified document and/or folder properties.

33. The article of manufacture as in claim 32 comprising additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

storing the specified document and/or folder properties within a property list.

34. The article of manufacture as in claim 33 comprising additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

associating queries related to documents and/or folders with actual documents and/or folders based on the document and/or folder properties stored in the property list and storing the association within a reverse index.

35. The article of manufacture as in claim 34 comprising additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

analyzing the reverse index and property list and responsively assigning scores to documents matching certain specified criteria.

36. The article of manufacture as in claim 35 comprising additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

assigning scores to documents based on alphabetical ordering of document/folder names, document/folder creation times, document/folder access times and/or document/folder frequency of user access.

37. The article of manufacture as in claim 36 comprising additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

analyzing predefined or user-specified rules associated with the current context;

generating a query related to documents/folders associated with the current context; and

transmitting the query to the document server, the document server utilizing the reverse index to identify documents/folders based on the query.

38. The article of manufacture as in claim 37 wherein analyzing comprises translating one or more user-specified or predefined rules to generate the query.

39. The article of manufacture as in claim 37 comprising additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

generating a hierarchy of documents/folders associated with the specified context in response to the query.

40. The article of manufacture as in claim 37 wherein one of the rules associated with the context comprises determining the extent to which a first document has text which substantially overlaps with a second document.

41. The article of manufacture as in claim 39 comprising additional program code to cause the machine to perform the operations of:

generating data representing the hierarchy of documents/folders and transmitting the data to the access device, the access device to display the hierarchy of documents/folders to the end user.

42. The article of manufacture as in claim 41 wherein the data representing the hierarchy of documents/folders comprise links for certain access devices and actual documents/folders for other access devices.